How do I install HD World Scenery in FlightGear (do I need to unzip everything)?

HD World Scenery install (FlightGear) — yes, you generally unzip it

Hi kalulu,

In FlightGear, “HD World Scenery” is basically a big set of scenery tiles FlightGear reads as loose folders/files. So in practice: yes, you normally extract/unzip the download so FlightGear can see the actual scenery folder structure. FlightGear won’t “use” a zipped archive the way some games do.

Step-by-step (typical install)

1. Download the HD scenery for the area(s) you want.
2. Extract the download(s) somewhere permanent (don’t leave it in your Downloads folder if you can help it).
3. After extraction, you should have a scenery folder that contains subfolders like Terrain (and often other scenery-related folders depending on the package).
4. Point FlightGear to that scenery location:
   • If you use the Launcher: add that extracted folder path under the additional scenery folders (wording varies slightly by FlightGear version).
   • If you start via command line: add a scenery path option pointing to that extracted folder (example syntax depends on your setup/version).
5. Start FlightGear and load into an area you installed. If you picked the right region, you should see improved terrain detail vs default.

Common gotchas

• Double-nested folders: A very common mistake is ending up with something like:
  ...\Scenery\Scenery\Terrain\...
  FlightGear needs to be pointed at the folder level that actually contains Terrain (or contains the top-level scenery folders). If you point it one level too high or too low, it won’t find the tiles.

• Mixing multiple packages: If you extract multiple regions, try to keep them all under one “HDScenery” parent folder (or make sure each is added as a separate scenery path).
• Not enough coverage: If you only downloaded a small region but test at an airport outside that region, it’ll look like nothing changed.

A couple quick questions so I can be specific

• What FlightGear version are you on (and OS: Windows/macOS/Linux)?
• How did you install/run FlightGear (Launcher vs command line)?
• What does the extracted folder look like on your drive (just the top 2–3 folder levels)? If you paste the folder path + structure (no need for a screenshot), I can tell you exactly which folder to add as the scenery path.
• Which area/airport are you testing, and which scenery region did you download?