Description
Welcome to Slovenia 2.0 – Slovenia X Photoreal! This time it is really shining with its high resolution photoreal coverage and it is still compatible with both FSX and P3D. The add-on is an obvious next step from landclass based Slovenia X covering the small but incredibly diverse country from hilly southern to mountainous northern regions and from Adriatic coasts to the eastern plains. It brings a complete LOD15 photoreal coverage of Slovenia, based on the latest national data. It is enhanced with very diverse and custom-made autogen and landmark models, accurate position of the majority of buildings and infrastructure creating an identifiable and unique region, which radiates Slovenian particularities. Special attention has been paid to create a typical landscape image of various and picturesque Slovenian geographical regions such Gorenjska, Primorska, Kraska, Osrednjeslovenska, Dolenjska, Notranjska, Stajerska, Panonska, Koroska, etc. Places such as high plains in the hills and mountains – Velika planina, Planina jezero and many more, mountain passes – Kamnisko sedlo, Vrsic, Ljubelj, lakes like Bled and Bohinj, densely populated coastal region and medieval old town centres make the scenery plausible, picturesque and unique. The product is building on our previous product Slovenia X, with all infrastructure objects repositioned or made anew to align with the new underlay. Some features, like greenery, have been completely regenerated. In due course the scenery has been made leaner and optimized for better performance.
Among the key features of Slovenia X Photoreal and Airports are:
- full high-res photoreal coverage of Slovenia at LOD15 (1.2m per pixel) in two seasonal variations: spring/summer/fall and snow covered winter
- 12m terrain mesh (LOD13), with the height precision of 1 to 3 m, that really brings to life the deep valleys and mountainous parts as well as all the intricacies of the terrain from sea level to 2864m of Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak
- based on geographical data 90% of the Slovenian building stock is represented and accurately placed
- most rivers, lakes, coasts, ponds and water features have water masks and behave like water
- highly differentiated and diverse autogen includes:
- typical houses with different textures and roof shapes according to the regions,
- various building types according to the actual data (schools, public buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, train stations, hotels, gas stations, toll stations, etc.),
- special and typical objects such as mountain huts (30% with helipads on the roofs), alpine shelters (all there but really hard to spot from the air), alpine sheds – ‘stan’, hayracks – ‘kozolec’, various churches (adapted to different regions),
- bridges, overpasses and traffic,
- static trains,
- vegetation: forests, scrub, cemeteries and parks (also dependent on the region),
- miscellaneous infrastructure objects such as powerlines, antennae, cellular towers, power plants, smoke stacks,
- viaducts, highway tunnel entrances, highway signage, port cranes, containers, wind turbines, power transformers, big storage tanks, industrial objects,
- lights – streets and roads in settlements, highway links and trunk roads are lit by custom street lights (optional),
- another Slovenian particularity are numerous churches on hills that are lighted by night,
- different custom landmarks and objects from default FSX libraries (buildings, vehicles, vegetation, etc.) were hand placed to complement the overall impression and make a lively and vibrant landscape
- the landmark buildings of Ljubljana (those significant for their appearence, height, orientation purposes, size, etc);
- 41 airfields and airstrips: 2 international airports, 1 military airport, 12 midsize VFR airfields, 26 airstrips ranging in size (you can look up the airports details and features at this link)
- highly detailed and accurate rendition of Ljubljana’s medical centre heliport LJHL and surrounding buildings, including PCL lighting
- highly detailed and accurate rendition of Izola hospital heliport LJHI and surrounding buildings, including PCL lighting
- highly detailed and accurate rendition of Jesenice hospital heliport LJHJ and surrounding buildings
- all airfields and airstrips come with their own terrain adaptations that attune them to Slovenia X mesh
- 30cm and 60 cm photo real underlays (LOD16, LOD17) for all Slovenian VFR airports that seamlessly blend-in with Slovenia X
- Based on the latest AIRAC data airfields come with correct disposition of elements and buildings
- Custom, recognizable buildings and elements at all airfields and airstrips
- Custom static airplanes Pipistrel Virus, Pipistrel Sinus, Blanik L-13, Pilatus PC-6, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (MD-80)
- Seasonal greenery and objects including 3D grass, trees, corn fields, hay bales (SODE)
- Animated windsocks (+animated hangar doors at LJDI)
- Clutter consisting of default and custom objects
- Conservative with polygon, texture and drawcalls use, LOD adapted – optimized for performance
- configuration tool for turning on/off features according to pilot preferences and performance priorities
- Compatible with FSX, FSX:SE, P3D (v1 – v5)
- developed by the locals
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Is Slovenia X Photoreal for me?
An honest answer is very straightforward: if you crave the ultimate VFR experience of Slovenia and you are in-sim GA pilot, glider pilot or helicopter pilot, Slovenia X Photoreal is definitely for you. Additionally, a typical customer would have some experience with Slovenia in real life, be it as a resident or coming from the neighborhood like Croatia, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany. Even from more afar, visiting it on the way to the summer vacation or as the destination in itself. Of course, if you have not experienced Slovenia in person, this would also be an opportunity to get to know it but more often than not photoreal sceneries come shining if you have a real reference to compare them to. It has this wow factor of ‘look, this is my street’ or ‘I have taken exactly that path on a recent hike’ or ‘I have parked my car right there and then went swimming in that lake!’
If you fly airliners from- and to- LJLJ or LJMB, land class based Slovenia X will be perfectly fine and very accurate. Now being discounted makes it probably even more tempting. Slovenia is quite small in big jet terms, you would fly over almost a third of it on the approach from the north, landing Rwy 30 at LJLJ. Slovenia X Photoreal would also do incredibly well, sort of an ultra-real experience, but missing on going low and slow over the rest of the country would be a shame.
Performance wise they are very close. Given the sheer number of autogen and custom objects, they are not too heavy on the framerates. Land class based Slovenia X is much leaner in terms of storage use: 4 GB compared to 45 GB of Slovenia X Photoreal. For some, including myself, this is a factor: I have grown up in times of floppy disks and gigabytes still sound like a perverse proposition – dozens of them, a heresy. As biased as I can possibly be, I still claim it is worth it and justified in this case.
Are airports that come with Slovenia X Photoreal Bundle any more (photo-) real?
No. They have not changed, aside from their underlays, which are colour matched with the new photoreal underlay and seasons. 3D greenery and underlays were attuned to Slovenia X Photoreal seasons and some objects re-positioned where they were slightly misaligned with the underlay. However, there are some significant improvements that come with the new overall photoreal underlay: LJCE lite and LJMB lite now have photoreal underlays and so do all the small airstrips. There is also a downside: finding them gets even harder, like in real life.
Why not wait for MS FS2020?
There has been a lot of hype around the new FS2020 recently. I am enthusiastic and wowed by the reports, preview shots and videos no less than you are. Many of you will start wondering whether to keep investing in the existing sim or wait for the newcomer and have all of it out of the box? I will not try to persuade you either way, but will offer my opinion on the matter. As an involved and enthusiastic simmer, I am not prepared to put my passion on hold and wait for a year or more for the ecosystem around the new sim to catch up and provide all the features that I am used to in my existing sim setup. There are many addons that I bought and did not utilise them fully or ever will, but those that I use, get used a lot in twelve months and, what is more important, have paid off their value in enjoyment and experience, usually in much less than a year time. To sum it up: Slovenia X Photoreal is available right now and by the time you will have a new sim, you will have utterly utilised it if you are a serious simmer who flies in this part of the world.
Important
- Since the Add-On has been made for P3D 4 and P3D 5 and is thus dated, it is available only per request – use the contact form
- the scenery is approx. 43 GB in download size and will require additional 45 GB to install! Your download experience will be strongly influenced by your internet speed connection. While we have provided a very reliable service and respectable host, timeouts due to your internet connection are still possible and some patience is asked for.
- due to the addon size we cannot assure indefinite availability of the installation files, thus we urge users to store their copy of installation files for later installations
- existing buyers of Slovenia X + Airports bundle are eligible to 4o% discount (from the original price), please contact our support per email for the code; discounts do not add up
- existing buyers of Slovenia X are eligible to 30% discount (from the original price), please contact our support per email for the code; discounts do not add up
- because you will be downloading large install files (approx 2 GB each), we encourage the use of suitable download software or plugin that can continue download after the disconnect, e.g. Free Download Manager
- should you want to buy a hard copy of the product we can deliver it on 64 GB usb key; the costs are 10 EUR for the usb key + shipping&packaging, which depends on the destination; please contact our support email for orders and additional info