Q: What is landclass, exactly?
A: "Landclass", or land classification, refers to the generic scenery tiles that are displayed when flying in the MSFS world. Each tile in the landclass represents the terrain for a 1 square kilometer spot of the earth. The type of tile can be forest, urban, desert, or farmland, to name a few. Our landclass products improve upon the experience by using superior data sources and processing techniques over the default landclass, in turn producing scenery that more closely matches the terrain found in real life.

Q: Does landclass affect other scenery elements besides terrain (water bodies, roads, etc.)?
A: No, landclass does not alter "vector" scenery elements such as coastlines, roads, or parks. Elevation data will also be unaffected.

Q: Will it make water colors more realistic?
A: The water color is controlled by a different scenery component than landclass, known as waterclass, which is currently beyond the scope of this product.

Q: What advantages does landclass offer over satellite imagery?
A: Although satellite imagery is likely to become the standard for displaying scenery in the long term, there are currently a number of shortcomings with satellite imagery that make landclass a more viable option at present.
High resolution imagery is not available for much of the planet, and adjacent satellite tiles often clash due to the pictures having been taken during different seasons, times of day, or at different resolutions. Furthermore, satellite images often contain fixed shadows reflecting the time of day the photo was taken, and a few may even be obscured by clouds.
From the perspective of a Flight Simulator user, there would be no seasonal variation, night lighting, variable shading, water effects, or autogen. Until technological advancements are made in regards to how satellite images are captured and processed, simulated landclass scenery will provide a more consistent and seamless experience.

Q: Can the landclass be used with versions of Flight Simulator earlier than Flight Simulator X?
A: Since our landclass uses tile definitions not available in earlier versions of Flight Simulator, it cannot be used in versions prior to FSX.

Q: Do SceneryTech Landclass products affect framerate or other performance aspects?
A: There is no performance difference (positive or negative) between the default landclass and our landclass upgrade.

Q: Can I use your landclass in conjunction with another landclass product?
A: For the most part, it should be possible to use this product with other parties' landclass products without noticing any adverse issues. If the landclasses provide coverage for the same part of the world then there could be a conflict with one of the landclass products taking priority over the other, in which case one of the landclasses would be redundant. If they cover different parts of the world then there should be no issue.



For specific information about the installation/uninstallation options and functionality, please see the accompanying readme.rtf that is displayed during installation.



Issue: During installation I get the message "An installation of FSX was not detected on this machine," even though I have FSX installed.

Explanation: You may experience this problem if during the installation of FSX you chose to install it for "current user only" rather than "all users." This is because the ST installer only checks the section of the registry containing programs installed for "all users."

Solution: Please use the following freeware registry repair tool and read the accompanying documentation to add the necessary information to your registry: TweakFS FSX Registry Utility

Issue: During installation I get a message about a required component being missing.

Explanation: This may be due to a missing .NET framework component on your computer. The MSI installers which we use to package our products require the .NET framework 2.0 to properly function.

Solution: The .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable package can be downloaded from Installation of the framework only needs to be performed once, after which all future installations of our products should work normally.


Issue: I've noticed an inaccuracy at a certain location in the landclass.

Explanation: An inaccuracy may be due either to imprecisions in our source data, or in the processing routine used to generate the landclass.

Solution: If you feel the inaccuracy is serious enough to warrant further investigation, please fill out the form on the Contact page by describing the location of the inaccuracy (preferably with exact coordinates), the visual appearance of the innacuracy, and any other information that you believe would be useful to us.

Quality commitment

SceneryTech products are always evolving, with errors being fixed as they are found and features being added as they are developed. These improvements are made available to our customers at no additional charge.