The default scenery in FSX is extremely basic and ruined my enjoyment of FS. It was that which drove me to start quickly buying Photoscenery wherever possible to give me(personal preference) a more realistic look of what I was flying over. Unfortunately good quality FSX photoscenery was not too available in the early days and so I was restricted to the areas of "enjoyable" scenic flying. Then GEX came out and really enhanced the US continent which opened up a whole continent for me. GEX was much better than the default textures and gave a more realistc view although not as good as the "real" thing (photoscenery), more "generic" realism than necessarily factual.Now we have relatively recently had the FTX factor entering the scene and in all honesty in my opinion sets a new benchmark. Based I think on photoreal, it portrays scenery that both looks realistic but adds atmosphere as well. plus vast 3D agn.I am beginning to think that I am using GEX (excellent product by the way. I have USA & the new Europe) as a standin until a region is covered by FTX. I am in no way affiliated to FTX just purely a fan of quality and as much FSX realism as possible. I would love planet FSX to be draped in 7cm photoscenery globally !I was wondering, for discussion sake, what your views are regarding these 2 products considering that currently GEX covers more of the planet than FTX does, but FTX seem to produce large coverage areas when they do produce and I believe are looking to eventually cover much of the earth. Will your preference at that hypthetical point be for GEX in it's current format or FTX in it's current format?Your views appreciated...

I was wondering, for discussion sake, what your views are regarding these 2 products considering that currently GEX covers more of the planet than FTX does, but FTX seem to produce large coverage areas when they do produce and I believe are looking to eventually cover much of the earth. Will your preference at that hypthetical point be for GEX in it's current format or FTX in it's current format?

The great advantage of GEX is that they cover very large areas - the cost of covering the same area with FTX (assuming that they eventually develop the same coverage) would be much greater. I would probably use a combination, with FTX for the areas where I do most of my flying and GEX for the rest.

There is an issue of time, by the time FTX covers the entire earth or even more than one continent, it will be 2+ years from now. I mean Pac NW has been in production for at least 8 months, and their next region has not even been revealed yet. Who knows what simming products will be around then...Also, I think FTX will probably concentrate on high impact sceneries as opposed to covering the entire Earth, I am hoping their next coverage area is Florida.I am hoping for a GEX for Asia as I think Japan will be a really wonderful place to fly once Overland starts converting their airports to FSX.

I prefer flying in known areas thus the FTX approach works well.Holger, now involved with FTX , has been perfecting smaller areas for a long timeand I've never been disappointed with his offerings, free or paid.I like his specific area, detailed approach over the 1 size fits all method.Too many general addon's combined seem to add up to headaches and endless tweaking.Instead now when I reinstall I just add packages like Vancouver+, Victoria+, Tongass Fjords X and local photoreal and fly.I also enjoy taking screenshots while flying. Screenshots from the new GEX Europe approach to textures just look off to me compared to FTX or even the original GEX US/Canada approach.Just personal preference I guess.So I'm eagerly waiting on FTX PNW and will stick flying close to home :)

I mean Pac NW has been in production for at least 8 months, and their next region has not even been revealed yet.

Surely you mean "development".. No??

i agree with what Pingpong stated about the time it would take for FTX to cover the entire US at the rate they are proceeding. i currently use GEX and look forward to FTX PNW scenery as well. the GEX team will probably have world coverage before FTX finished half of the USA but i do like the look of FTX better myself. so there is the quandary. i guess like most i will let GEX cover the areas that FTX doesn't until they get there.

The other issue to consider is the cost. I'm not sure what worldwide FTX coverage would add up to, but Australia alone is $150. PNW pricing hasn't been announced yet.I love FTX. I only sim in Australia right now because it's not as satisfying flying anywhere without FTX. However, I am definitely going to cherry-pick any further FTX releases. I'll buy PNW if the pricing is reasonable. I might consider New Zealand. And that'll be it.On the same note, I love FTX airports, and I wish I could own them all, but I had to stop after buying one.I suspect that part of the issue with pricing is the Weak US dollar. This might become more of an issue as FTX attracts more US simmers with the PNW release.I don't own GEX or UTX right now. I did use, and enjoy, the FS9 versions. But, like I said, FTX just pushes my buttons and I'm not really interested in flying elsewhere.

What I am interested in is comparing FTX scenery to the MegaSceneryEarth product. I already own some MegaSceneryEarth coverage for the state of WA. Should I be interested in replacing it with FTX PNW scenery? Is it as good? Perhaps it is to early to answer this question.jim

What I am interested in is comparing FTX scenery to the MegaSceneryEarth product. I already own some MegaSceneryEarth coverage for the state of WA. Should I be interested in replacing it with FTX PNW scenery? Is it as good? Perhaps it is to early to answer this question.jim

Depends. Some people just prefer pure photo scenery, and everything else is unsatisfactory.For me, FTX just strikes a balance. The detailed textures are beautiful and appropriate to the environment. The roads and lighting looks great. The autogen is fantastic. It is immersive from ground level to upper altitudes. There are no issues with texture loading or blurring at high speed. If I were you, I'd give their free Australia/Tasmania demo a try. It'll give you a bit of a preview of how their scenery looks, though I imagine they have advanced the "state of the art" with the upcoming PNW.There's also a bunch of screnshots and videos of PNW on their site.

I have never tried FTX. I have absolutely no desire to fly Australia and always wondered why they weren't interested in making products of the USA. I guess some day if/when PNW ever gets released then maybe I'll know what all the hubbub was about.

I have never tried FTX.

You're missing out on what many, myself included, consider to be the best scenery ever seen in MSFS.

I have absolutely no desire to fly Australia

Believe it or not, but not everyone is interested in flying in the USA! Considering the USA already has UTX, GEX and numerous photo-sceneries available in FSX I would rather Orbx did New Zealand first before doing PNW. I suppose Orbx have come to the conclusion that PNW will appeal to the large US market and will probably sell better than New Zealand.

and always wondered why they weren't interested in making products of the USA

Well the developers are Australian, so it follows that they will do their homeland first. The FTX series has its roots in the immensely popular "Vista Australis" freeware sceneries for FS9, so it was a natural progression to do FTX Australia.

They have recently revealed that they are looking to release New Zealand in 2010 (2 parts - North Island & South Island) with further sections/blocks of the USA (possibly Alaska).It appears to be dependant on where, and at what price, they can source good/higher quality imagery/data - they have the needed info on NZ and they say the US is also reasonably easy/cheap to obtain. Regarding Europe, as we are such a mish mash of smaller countries, it complicates matters when trying to source the imagery in comparison to larger countries (such as US,Australia,NZ).To answer the OP, I will be cherry picking what products I purchase but yes I suppose to me GEX is a stand in until they produce the UK/parts of Western Europe - which may well be years away yet :( Regards

I have never tried FTX.... I guess some day if/when PNW ever gets released then maybe I'll know what all the hubbub was about.

Maybe you'll know what all the hubbub is about? The difference between non-FTX and FTX is like the difference between black and white TV and wide screen blu-ray. Don't think of FTX as an "improved" FSX, think of it as FS12 or so. Friend you don't even know what you don't know! :( Stephen

First time I saw FTX, I was totally stunned....Could NOT believe it.... Lou

its not so much where you fly as how highFTX is a VFR flyer's dream, but may be hard to appreciate if you prefer FL330 in a tube. So products like GEX definitely have their market, even if FTX were available for every region already.