Last week, I came across an addon called Swiss TLM3D Forest MSFS by Taburet.  The company claims that the addon is based on the swissTLM3D datatset, which is the most extensive 3D vector dataset covering the whole of Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein from Federal Office of Topography swisstopo.  Since Switzerland is one of the places I frequently flightsimming most, I purchased it without much hesitation.

Followings are three sets of pictures I captured on the runway 26 of Saanen Gstaad Airport (LSGK), showing the surrounding trees with and without the addon (click images to enlarge).

You probably know which is which, right?

Correct, they are the ones in general having shorter and less clustered trees everywhere.  They are more accurate.  I did compared them with some real life photos around the airport.

Taburet says that the addon has done a complete reconstruction to reshape the whole Switzerland forests areas based on the swissTLM3D Forest dataset, rather than simply modifying existing default textures in the form of adjustments or exclusions.

Performance-wise, I don’t see any drop in FPS while running with the addon.  But there might be some moments of pauses in the simulator when it is loaded the first time during the start of a flight session.  Seems like the new textures are loading into memory.  Besides that, everything runs as usual.

Yet, I must warn anyone who are interested in this addon that I am not completely fond of the result that it brings despite the increase in genuineness.

Because you may end up like me needing some time to get used to (or compromise to) the change from a bit rich and dramatic picture to a less lackluster state in the overall scenery.

Anyway, the Swiss TLM3D Forest MSFS is still a relatively nice addon.