SamScene3D Vancouver City Times

??? Is this what you were looking for?

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Yes that is awesome, sorry Iā€™m not sure how my previous post got deleted.

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I picked this up today on Series X and am overall very impressed.
I have noticed a couple of issues however, but Iā€™m unsure if these are happening across xbox as a whole or just on my install.

The included Victoria seaplane base doesnā€™t show up as selectable in the world view, but if you enter the ICAO code CYWH, it does.


Also, there seems to be a lot of foliage still showing through the new scenery like here at the Cruise Ship Dock
In any videos Iā€™ve seen it doesnā€™t look like this - also I think the developer mentions a reduction in overgrown foliage as a bullet point.


Finally there is still flashing photogrammetry docks appearing sporadically under the new scenery.
This though seems to happen globally and not just to this scenery. Also, I am on SU12 beta, so I donā€™t know how much that plays into things.


Sorry for the long post but has anyone had any similar experience?

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I actually like the MSFS default Vancouver scenery style better ā€¦ I have added some Flightsim.to freeware bridges to this which are quite good ā€¦ I also feel that the SamScene 3D Hong Kong is a bit of the ā€œmodel-lyā€ type stuff, though otherwise quite good ā€¦ :nerd_face:

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Suggest you add the Mamudesigns Marinas, and the Samscene Vancouver package to fix Victoria and Vancouver harbour.

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I like it, too. Plus, I added the Payware Vancouver Area Bridges by RKBridger and flying in the region is a dream.

SamScene3D made it into my favorite CityScape developers. He was good for Prepar3d already but his MSFS sceneries like Hong Kong, Vancouver, and several Chinese Megacities are a real step up.

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I have really mixed feelings about this add on and canā€™t bring myself to buy it. I have to say I was looking forward to a developer like FSimStudio to do metro Vancouver with the skill, detail and realism they brought to CYVR. SamScene3D does some good modeling and they seem to have added a pretty large number of hand crafted buildings. But the materials and textures look like auto gen in style and quality. It looks jarringly different than photogrammetry and just feels odd to me. It looks like a big improvement over default scenery in many ways, but the materials, colors and textures just look primitive and low quality. I canā€™t bring myself to pay for this. Itā€™s almost surprising ORBX sells this, it doesnā€™t match their standard quality for realism.

And I assume this getting to market first will discourage a developer with more meticulous standards from making an alternative metro Vancouver.

Iā€™m so incredibly disappointed Asobo left Vancouver in such a messy state after the Canadian WU. What they did model looks so good, it really is jarring how bad the photogrammetry looks downtown. And community representatives have said they understood the update left huge disappointment particularly with Toronto and Vancouver photogrammetry and were passing on notes to Asobo. Asobo put improvements and fixes to Canada WU on the official todo list not long after the Canadian WU, but that was also 6 months ago now and no telling what improvement will be made or any timeline for getting those done. So. Iā€™m left in limbo. This paid add on is lackluster, Asobo seems to give some hope the default scenery from the WU will get improved so spending money on something that may seem even less appealing once Asobo improves things now is even less tempting.

Itā€™s all a sad situation. Vancouver is such an amazing city and should be a showcase for waterfronts and seaplane operations. It should be one of the most amazing cities in the sim if you ask me. And now were left with people layering various free ad ons and this paid add on to try to mitigate the lousy state of things. Iā€™d be willing to pay a lot more than the SamScene3D price for a really impressive fix for this sad situation, but I canā€™t bring myself to pay anything for this add on.

Anyone have any counterpoint? Am I being too picky? Iā€™d like to actually try the SamScene3D add on, but only with an easy money back guarantee, Iā€™ve never tried to get a refund on a disappointing ORBX purchase because their quality is usually so good. Could I get a refund without a big hassle if I donā€™t find this add on worthwhile?

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I for one really like what SamScene has done, not only for Vancouver, but for Victoria as well.

What more can I say? I live in the area and am over the moon happy that they did what they did.

Sad situation? Not as far as I am concernedā€¦ :grinning:

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I truly believe that things like this embodies the ā€œbeauty is in the eye of the beholderā€ concept. I completely understand what you are saying here. I have looked at the promotional video again and I feel they have added so much crisp detail that the buildings end up looking ā€œtoy-likeā€. Make no mistake: the level of detail is exceptional. But the way in which is was done makes it look overall like a highly detailed model to me. Essentially it was done so meticulously that it ends up looking too good to be true.

I have the free CLi4D add on and for a comparison I just flew over Vancouver again with that loaded. On balance my preference is for the ā€œlookā€ this gives. While nowhere near the building detail of the SamScene offering, for me the whole just ends up looking more plausible. It really is very good from 1.500 feet, and while I cannot speak for others, that is what I am looking for. It looks so good in fact that I really cannot see me paying for anything ā€œbetterā€.

Some CLi4D image examples to compare to the promotional video posted early in the thread

The scenery does have a frame impact but it is not major. I run at 4K, almost all Ultra, 300TLOD, 200 OLOD. Some shots showing frame rates. For perspective: I get 30-ish on the ground at a highly detailed airport like FSimStudios CYVR (which was also loaded) and 40+ flying at 1,500ft over non-PG highly detailed areas

As always: to each his own. Hopefully this bit of a perspective might help others to decide

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And here the SamScene version as a comparisonā€¦ Imgur: The magic of the Internet

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I agree the freeware Google scenery is goodā€¦ I used to fly over it tooā€¦ but you really cannot tell from a videoā€¦ :wink:

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Understood and agreed. But it does normally give you at least a ā€œflavourā€ of it.

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Picked this up at the end of the holiday sale and itā€™s really nice! Iā€™m glad I took the plunge.

Does this spruce up any areas around CYVR? I tend to only buy cities if they either donā€™t exist in PG, or significantly improve the immersion while on approach to a nearby airport.

Reviews seem mixed (including in this thread). Perhaps the wrong thread but howā€™s Toronto?

It has been a while since I picked up Toronto and explored. What I recall is that it is all about the city center and waterfront. With Pearson so far from, Iā€™m sure none of this is going to brighten up a final approach for me. Now that little airport on the waterfront was much more interesting!

But you asked about Vancouver, right? Sorry I donā€™t recall if adding the city is helpful on approach to YVR. It is very nice though, as they all are!

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The airport is on the coast, surrounded by rivers, so if you take off on 26 or land on 08 then thereā€™s only islands to see. The city is north so itā€™s not on the flight path the other way either.

I have the city pack and am happy with it. In terms of flying it does add the city seaplane base and maybe a couple of other seaplane bases. If youā€™re going to fly around Vancouver and enjoy the spectacular scenery youā€™ll be needing a seaplane really.

Given the amount of cloud and rain that Vancouver gets, youā€™ll probably need to be flying low to see anything anyway. :grin:

One downside is awful performance in the Vancouver area, as bad as London or maybe even worse. Itā€™s pretty bad even without addons IIRC so something for asobo to look at.

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I typically check out the approaches to any airports before I buy them. Likewise, before I add a city pack, I work an approach to see if it will take me anywhere close to my prospective purchase. In the case of CVYR, no runway offers a direct approach anywhere near the city, but some packs do add satellite areas (Orbxā€™s are good for that, with the exception of Singapore).

Iā€™ve a couple of Samscene packs and I really rate them, but both Vancouver and Toronto look a little lacklustre to me. I downloaded Roman Designs Toronto and Mississauga, which seem to have improved the approach to CYYZā€™s northerly and easterly-facing runways.

Iā€™ve spent so much in this sale that Iā€™m really trying to avoid buying anything else! :rofl:

Ok, your use case for add on cities is very specific. When I bought Vancouver last on sale and went sightseeing, I found it to be beautiful and worth buying. That said, maybe of more utility to a GA sim pilot than airliner sim? Am doing both kinds of flying so enjoy Vancouver and Toronto for what they add to my GA flights. Only visited each city once IRL and a long time ago, so fun to ā€œget back thereā€™ a little in sim.

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I think youā€™ve hit the nail on the head. I do actually do lots of GA flying but my playground is the UK exclusively (likely because thatā€™s where Iā€™m from). Also, there are very few areas of the world that are covered for GA by quality akin to that of Burning Blue Design. Perhaps Northern Sky but Iā€™ve no desire to fly GA in Alaska or Hawaii.

I think Oz/NZ could eventually tempt me but, for now, Iā€™m mainly an airliner flyer.

I tend to find add-on cities really make most of their impact at night, from an airline pilotā€™s perspective. From the left-hand seat, default PG can do just as good a job as a third-party pack (if youā€™re at a couple of thousand feet), but PG cities look really poor after dark.

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