Build your own VFR Scenery with FSEarthTiles

One thing many people have issues with when it comes to flight simulators is the realism of the ground scenery below them. In default FSX and P3D, the ground scenery is created through a system called ‘Ground Class’ where a grid is used to determine the ground in the real world and a texture is placed on top of it. Some companies have been able to create VFR Scenery which places real-world satellite images on top of the FSX World to create a realistic representation of the ground.

There are two FREE methods of getting VFR Ground Scenery within FSX. The main method people know is through a program called ‘Tile Proxy’ which downloads the data as you fly through a server. The second method which I will be going through in this tutorial is through FSEarthTiles.

Build your own VFR Scenery with FSEarthTiles

One thing many people have issues with when it comes to flight simulators is the realism of the ground scenery below them. In default FSX and P3D, the ground scenery is created through a system called ‘Ground Class’ where a grid is used to determine the ground in the real world and a texture is placed on top of it. Some companies have been able to create VFR Scenery which places real-world satellite images on top of the FSX World to create a realistic representation of the ground.

There are two FREE methods of getting VFR Ground Scenery within FSX. The main method people know is through a program called ‘Tile Proxy’ which downloads the data as you fly through a server. The second method which I will be going through in this tutorial is through FSEarthTiles.
DO NOTE – VFR Scenery created in this manner CANNOT be sold for commercial purpose or gain. Since the data is collected through third-party sources, you will need to obtain licensing from the respective third-party company.

It may also be worth checking out my video explaining how to set this up, giving you a visual explanation through the process.

Setting up the Program

FSEarthTiles has not been updated for a few years now, meaning setting up the program takes a little extra work, but still really easy to do nevertheless.

First of all, you need to go to the official website and download the main program from there. The website is in French, but not hard to navigate
http://www.f-bmpl.com/index.php/faites-le-vous-meme/209-2-installation-de-fsearthtiles-1-3

The only requirement to install the program is to have Microsoft.NET Framework installed on your computer. Once you are ready to download, click on the “LIEN OFFICIEL” or “LIEN DE SECOURS” hyperlinks by step 3 on the page.

Once downloaded, extract the folder entitled FSET into a safe location (I stuck it on my desktop). Do not open the program just yet!

The next thing you need to do is replace the ‘FSEarthTiles.ini’ file with one I have prepared. You can download it at this link here. Replace the file and you are good to go!
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Av7euqX9-qNYiJZV6FifunXaO4EBYQ

It is also good practice to create a new Work Folder in your documents. The Work Folder will essentially be the cache as the maps are made, meaning it will fill up very quickly taking up a large portion of your hard drive. This can be changed within the ‘FSEarthTiles.ini’ file under the “WorkingFolder” tag. Likewise, you can change the Scenery Folder to suit your simulator, whether it be FSX or P3D.

Creating the VFR Scenery

Once you have replaced the old .ini file with the new one, you are ready to open the program. Double-click ‘FSEarthTiles.exe’ and wait for it to load. By default, the program will take you to Genoa. The program may look complicated, but it’s really easy to use.
For this example, I will create VFR ground scenery over Paris, France. The first thing you want to do is to navigate to your chosen location. There are two ways of doing this – Manually locating it yourself by changing the Map Zoom Level and dragging the map, or inputting the Latitude and Longitude of your location and placing the values in the blue box on the top of the screen.
The easiest way to find the Latitude and Longitude of your chosen location is by using the website below. Once you are over your chosen location, click on the ‘Draw’ button and highlight where you would like the scenery to be created. There is no size limit, but be warned that for large maps you will need a fast processor and multiple cores, otherwise it will take forever to compile the scenery.
http://www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com/
With your location selected, you are ready to start compiling your scenery. On the top of the program where the file locations are, it is good to change the “FSEarthTiles” folder in the ‘Scenery Folder’ tag to the name of the map you are creating. This will make it easier to add to your Scenery List later.
On the options box on the left, there is an option to adjust the quality of the ground map. For older and weaker PCs, it is worth raising the ‘Download Resolution’ to a higher number for better performance, at the cost of slightly lower resolution Ground Scenery. The table below gives you the Resolution sizes.
0 0.5m/px
1 1m/px
2 2m/px
3 3m/px
4 4m/px
5 4m/px
6 8m/px
7 16m/px
8 32m/px
9 64m/px

You can use the Map Zoom Level to determine the quality of the ground images since they will be taken from the same source. I personally recommend that you keep the Download Resolution around 2 or 3 since they give you high-quality images without killing your hard drive and processor. Once you have decided on the best resolution to create the map with, click on the green ‘Start’ button and the program will start to capture each frame.
Once the program has collected all of the images and data it needs, it will open a command prompt which will compile the scenery to be FSX Compatible. Do not touch anything; the program will now deal with the rest of the compilation. If you do accidently click on the prompt (not recommended) and it stops, just press [Enter] on your keyboard and it will continue. Once this is complete, the prompt will close and the program will reset to its original state.
The last step is for you to activate this newly created scenery within your flight simulator. The process is exactly the same as if it were with any scenery packages. You go to the ‘Settings’ page, open the ‘Scenery Library’ and add it to your list.
And that’s it! You have successfully created your own VFR Scenery within FSX and P3D. It’s a very simple process to learn and the end result can create you some stunning dynamic VFR Scenery without having to spend a single penny! With the .ini file you installed earlier, the ground scenery should also change to match the season, be it snowing in winter or green in the summer.
As mentioned previously, it is also worth deleting the contents of the Work Folder once this is complete, otherwise, it will quickly fill your hard drive.

Water Masks

So you want to define a river or coastline using FSEarthTiles? The process is very similar to before, but with one more added step.

First of all, set the ‘Compile Scenery’ option on the left toolbox to off. This is because we are going to have to edit the Mask files that are created once the program collects the data. In this example, I’ll be creating the scenery for an island off the south coast of England.

As before, select where you want to map to be created and click on the green ‘Start’ button at the top of the options box. It will collect the data, but this time where will be no command prompt.
The next step is to go to your Work folder. Inside will be multiple images and a few .inf files. You will need to open the mask file (the generally pink image) in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop and Gimp.
Once opened, set the colour to Green (Hex Code “00FF00”). This is the colour that the compiler uses to determine whether the ground is water or not. Fill where water is located in green and save the image.
Once you have edited the mask image, you can now close the image editing program as you will not need it anymore. Open up the Work Folder and FSET Folder side-by-side. Inside the Work Folder, look for the .ini entitled “AreaFSXMasksInfo_Lp2_SnapOff_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX.inf” and drag this on top of the “resampleFSXSP2.exe” program. This will launch the command prompt which will compile the scenery making it FSX/P3D Compatible.
Once it is completed, you can add it to your Scenery Library as before. You have successfully created VFR Scenery which now allows default FSX Water onto certain parts of it.
Making VFR Scenery using this method may not always be perfect, but it’s a good start to creating a very realistic simulator without having to spend loads on VFR Scenery. Likewise, you are free to adjust the masks and images to suit your simulator needs.

VFR Extras

There are a number of different things you can do to improve your freeware VFR Scenery. The main method is by installing a new ground mesh. I highly recommend FreeMeshX by Nine Two Productions who make high-quality FSX Ground Mesh and release them for free on their website. By having a more accurate ground shape, the VFR Scenery will match, giving you a nicer flying experience.

There are also multiple ways of getting Autogen onto your ground scenery. Payware such as Horizon Generation X, Just Flight Real Scenery or OpenVFR will use map data from OpenMaps to create accurate positioning of houses in the real world onto your simulator, populating cities and making them feel more realistic. There are also other places which do similar jobs for free, such as the now-dead Shep’s Shed which created Autogen for trees and buildings in different parts of the UK. His downloads can still be accessed through the Wayback Machine.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140301071043/http://www.shepsshed.com/autogentrees.htm

Closing Remarks

Once I discovered how to make realistic FSX Ground Scenery without having to spend loads, I definitely got excited and started to create scenery in multiple parts of the world. Just seeing how realistic I could make my simulator after flying over default scenery for 8 years really made me push towards modifying the FSX Configs and Add-ons.

I do highly recommend trying out FSEarthTiles to anybody really! Fly over your own house within the simulator, do an approach over a realistic looking city, flying through canyons and mountain formations, it really does bring the simulator to life.

It takes about 10 minutes to learn, but once you’ve done it you’ll keep coming back for more! In my simulator, I’ve covered the entire United Kingdom with VFR Scenery and numerous airports around the world which I commonly fly into.

[DarkSoul]

Thanks a Lot :D

[Wraith03]

I will have to look into this because it sounds really cool

[zs_sz]

My FsEarthTiles Sceneries are half-transparently visible, with the defaults showing through. How could I fix this? I have FSGlobal Mash and the Orbx Vectors installed, but currently disabled.

[Drawyah]

Download from the SECOND link, the first one is missing the compiler.

Do watch the video, I talk about how to edit mask images and set water.

[vouxcroux]

Another question, because I got around the first issue by downloading Lockheed's Prepar3D SDK v 1.4 product and getting the appropriate file. So the next question, since we have 'create masks' and 'compile scenery' both on, can we just use the mask, change the color of the water as instructed, and then take the .ini and move it ontop of the compiler? Or do we HAVE TO do the process without compiling before that step?

[vouxcroux]

When I tried this, I got a message at the bottom of my FS Earth Tiles window that said: "SceneryCompiler resampleFSXSP2.exe in FSEarthTiles is missing!" i did some digging, and I guess Steam works differently than standard FS SP2, and the SDK compiler is resample.exe; know anything about this? Thanks for posting this, I'm excited to try it and get it to work.

[Borat Sagdiyev]

GR8 Gonna do this