Denver, Colorado - any good sceneries?

Greetings,

In one of my previous flights I was really disappointed about the default Colorado and Aspen scenery.
After some Googling I found out that there are almost none airports or sceneries for the Colorado and mountains area available. Especially landing on the default Aspen airport was very disappointing, but Aerosoft had such a cool Aspen back in the FSX days:

So is anyone like OrbX currently working on a great photorealistic Colorado and Rocky Mountains terrain/scenery?
Some interesting photorealistic airports like Aspen, Denver Int. and more available?

Have a good flight :slight_smile:

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You could try this freeware.
It’s not bad.

Flightbeam KDEN:

KLXV:

Ans Aspen is included in MSFS in pretty good quality as handcraftet airport. Same with Telluride.

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This might be off topic but I’ve had some success using MS2020 default scenery. Color enhancement of terrain depends greatly on how weather and sunlight are adjusted with time of day. Others may disagree but here I’ve used planes against certain landscapes which to me don’t look too bad. Grand Canyon, Sedona Arizona, New York City, Monument Valley, Wind Turbine fields, etc.

Sim settings seem to help with painting a more photorealistic appearance both in flight and on the ground images.

Live weather disabled
Bing Data World Graphics ON
Photogrammetry ON
FS2020 v1.21.13.0
nVidia driver 496.49
V Sync ON
G Sync ON
Terrain Level of Detail 125
Objects Level of Detail 100
GeForce Photo Mode

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Flightbeam’s KDEN is the best KDEN that I’ve found. You have to remember to delete the default KDEN via the in-game Content Manager, though, otherwise very bizarre things happen. There are freeware improvements to KAPA and KBJC available at Flightsim.to. And the KXLV payware is worthwhile. The one add-on that, imo, has done the most for increasing realism in CO - and really in all mountain areas - is a freeware add-on called “Project Lifts + Skyway Mont Blanc” by user mamu82 on Flightsim.to. Link: Project Litfts + Skyway Mont Blanc » Microsoft Flight Simulator

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What exactly is better about the Flighbeam DIA? The bespoke sim version seems good to me… I like their PDX, and would get this if I knew what the value added is.

For one, you can’t taxi anywhere at Asobo’s KDEN as the ground is so uneven, it feels like you are off-roading. Flightbeam fixes their mistakes. Flightbeam’s KDEN also just feels more complete and the textures look substantially better.

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The Asobo version of KDEN isn’t terrible. But AZFlyGuy1’s note of the uneven taxi surface is true. And Flightbeam’s textures and small details really elevate the immersion. Asobo relies on some meh-quality photogrammetry for some of the peripheral operations areas (e.g., the light rail terminal/hotel entrance, cargo ramps and terminals, parking, rental car, accuracy of traffic flows, etc.) which is fine but Flightbeam has cleaned these things up substantially. Everything just looks a lot better and is more accurate relative to the real KDEN.

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Would also love to see Colorado get some love, in both MSFS and X-Plane. I’ve made some adjustments to my home airport (KFLY) to make it better but the sat images around the Colorado Springs area isn’t the best in this sim.

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That sounds interesting! Thanks for the answers :slight_smile:

The review is not really good, I will see if there are comparison videos with the freeware version.

Now we would need a good OrbX mesh and satellite scenery too to spice up the surrounding area a little bit.

For one, you can’t taxi anywhere at Asobo’s KDEN as the ground is so uneven, it feels like you are off-roading. Flightbeam fixes their mistakes. Flightbeam’s KDEN also just feels more complete and the textures look substantially better.

So, I just recently bought Flightbeam’s KDIA and the elevation changes on the taxiways are terrible!
Is this due to me also having Asobo’s version from the deluxe/premium version of the game? I never had a problem with taxiways before installing the Flightbeam version.

Yes it is. You need to be sure to delete the Asobo/microsoft version of any premium deluxe or handcrafted airport you replace as payware.

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Thanks! I wasn’t even aware I could delete individual Asobo airports. :innocent:

Some add-ons will actually do it for you – e.g. the LVFR Madrid scenery. (Technically I think it deactivates it, it doesn’t physically uninstall the file.)

Maybe it is possible to delete the Asobo Denver airport in the content manager and try installing your Flightbeam version again.

Hey I fly out of KFLY! Much I flew over to Black Canyon, and noticed Colorado needs help. I’m on Xbox though so my Options are even more limited.

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Did a quick flight form DEN to LAX. When Flightbeam put it out in 2020 I wasn’t impressed, but they made vast improvements to it… still needs some work, but it is MUCH better than it was.

But, I am wondering if anybody would have any idea why most of the aircraft are pretty generic…

Those are aircraft models populated by the sim. Change the settings so it does not use generic models for AI traffic.

Make sure USE GENERIC AIRCRAFT MODELS (AI TRAFFIC) is set to OFF. This setting is found in General Options under the Traffic tab.

Hmmmmm… that is exactly the settings I have…

Also the jetways do not function now.

Everything worked fine and the aircraft were fine prior to my installing the Flightbeam KDEN.

What I did do prior to the installation was remove the default KDEN from MSFS so there wouldn’t be any conflicts.

Certainly not going to keep me from flying… but the asthetics would be be nice to get working as they should. :wink:

Are you flying with MP and/or real-world traffic enabled? If so, it could be that you’re seeing traffic in aircraft models you don’t have installed, so there’s no model to match.

Also, SU11 seemed to cause some regressions even with stock aircraft - in crowded MP areas, I often see people in stock planes and the new helicopters where the sim initially renders them as Cessnas or Beech Barons or whatever. Usually it (eventually) shows the correct stock model but not always. So that underlying sim issue may be a cause or contributor to what you’re seeing.

I can’t help you with the non-working jetways. I don’t own that particular scenery though I have been considering it.