Interesting, I notice a patch for the old Flightzone 02 Portland. I go to SimMarket to check out Portland and it seems to me to be a superior product that I quite frankly didn't even know about.According to the patch if you have the old Portland you can port it into FSX and the writer is saying that it works well with Orbx.So, given that, anyone who has the old Flightzone product tried this? Does it work well? Is there any economy for buying the old FlighZone product and patching to FSX with Orbx? Are there any conflicts? Does it mesh with new freeware .I wonder about the utility of buying an older product like this, even though it seems to be very high quality, given that the Orbx product would be new, supported very well and of course totally compatible with their NA product and freeware scenery.Any views?

I'll see if it works.

Can you post a link to this, Barnes: I've just done an advanced search at SimMarket on 'Portland' and nothing comes up.I have all of the old modified files, plus the ori. installation files. This was a dream airport in fs9, wasn't it? :smile:Edit:-Here it is:-http://forum.avsim.net/topic/329059-portland-apt-flightzone02-orbx/page__gopid__1940042#entry1940042

Hmmm, I own Flightzone 02 Portland for FS9 but cant remember who I purchased it from. I just went to Simmarket and logged in but its not on my product page. I can't think of any other vendors who sold that product that I could have used.POST EDIT: I think I bought it from Flight1 but there is no update listed on thier site for KPDX.

I haven't tried porting FZ02 to FSX, much less Orbx's version. However, I doubt it would conflict with the freeware Portland Cityscape - they cover different parts of the city. Although, as I recall, FZ02 had photo-terrain for most of the city, and that would have to be deleted. It's one of those things that might be worth a try if you already own the scenery, but a lot of hassle (and money) to buy it specifically for a sim it wasn't designed for. That's my take anyway.

I haven't tried porting FZ02 to FSX, much less Orbx's version. However, I doubt it would conflict with the freeware Portland Cityscape - they cover different parts of the city. Although, as I recall, FZ02 had photo-terrain for most of the city, and that would have to be deleted. It's one of those things that might be worth a try if you already own the scenery, but a lot of hassle (and money) to buy it specifically for a sim it wasn't designed for. That's my take anyway.

I'll just wait for you to finish your version of KPDX :(

I haven't tried porting FZ02 to FSX, much less Orbx's version. However, I doubt it would conflict with the freeware Portland Cityscape - they cover different parts of the city. Although, as I recall, FZ02 had photo-terrain for most of the city, and that would have to be deleted. It's one of those things that might be worth a try if you already own the scenery, but a lot of hassle (and money) to buy it specifically for a sim it wasn't designed for. That's my take anyway.

That's what I thought. I have the original install file as well as the files needed, but I have a feeling that my beautiful FTX Portland scenery could be affected.Here's the link for those who want to try it.http://www.myflightsimblog.com/MyFlightSimBlog/KPDX.html

Well - it works to some good degree.. Flying the BirdDog, I paused the flight a number of times, switching FZ02 on and off and just studying what was missing, or looked fuzzy, or was just plain wrong.. Troutdale is a paler, 'limey-er' green than the surrounding OrbX area, and so doesn't blend too well, but it's ok for me. Leaving Troutdale to the east, coming round over the river and approaching PDX from the east you will see that some of the island coastlines are out in the river - not badly, like the coastline problem used to be in FS9 when used with UT_USA. It's a small issue. There is no noticeable difference in the scenery on the south bank, and the eastern airport roads are complete in the FZ02 scenery, whereas they are missing in OrbX. There is still a good amount of ground flashing as you get about 45 deg. to the eastern perimeter at 1000 feet, and with minimal flashing on the odd building here and there. This flashing was not apparent on the ground, so I think that has been fixed here. The layered car park is still missing it's flooring/roofing, and there are two control towers. The southern border of PDX has some missing industrial autogen, and it's noticeable, while not being show stopper. Which brings me to that stopper. With an optimized BIOS, OS and FSX (my pc's normal is 25 - 30 with OrbX's Portland gift) I saw frames down into the high teens, so it is a frame hog. It will be acceptable to guys with very fast machines, or sliders reduced machines, but I'm afraid Portland and this patched FZ02 is not going to get widespread acclaim as a winning combo.

Excellent synopsis Paul. Thanks for posting your findings.

Excellent synopsis Paul. Thanks for posting your findings.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for you guys who have it testing this out. So I'm thinking that it may not be half bad but there are a few issues.I personally am thinking that I can wait until the Orbx version comes out. I would suspect that the price will line up with their other airports and be no more than what is being charged for the FlightZone version.Now if I could get the old FlightZone version for 1/2 the price then we might have a deal.

I was hoping KTTD was clear and free but I think I will wait too. I do have FZ KPDX running in FS9 and it is still one of the best scenerys ever done, including all the ORBX stuff I own. It is that good, I am sure the ORBX gang will blow my mind when they do theirs though...

I have FZ02 KPDX in FS9 and PNW with the Portland add-on in FSX. I added the patch for FSX just as the instructions described and tested it at KTTD Troutdale. It was mostly satisfactory there, with a few spots that didn't blend properly at the corners of the airport area. I could probably live with that, but there were far too many false shore lines in the Columbia River. That I found unacceptable and immediately removed the patch. I'd be happy to hear that someone else tried it and had better results than I did. If someone else makes it work, I'll try it again in a heartbeat. I live across the Columbia River from KTTD and would dearly love to have FZ02 in FSX.

but there were far too many false shore lines in the Columbia River. That I found unacceptable and immediately removed the patch. I live across the Columbia River from KTTD and would dearly love to have FZ02 in FSX.

Yeah - in further testing this morning it has many more shoreline errors in and around Seattle, and this makes it not useable for me. Also - it's not actually a patch.. It contains the FS9 framework, which allows an 'install' of your original FZ02 into it. This allows you to remove all of the incompatible files so that you can copy the rest over to your FSX folders. It removes a few more files than the info I had posted a couple of months ago....so a few more vfr sight-seeing flights between Hillsboro, Troutdale, Stark's, Pearson, and back to waiting for the big guy!

Just to add to the feedback on the port over, I have it installed in FSX and starting on the runway, well, there is no runway. Also when at the gate some equipment was floating above the ground. Frame rates weren't all that good either, so not sure I will keep it in X. I have a duo core cpu and ATi card.Cheers,Todd

I have given it a go, and it looks very nice. I only use KPDX, not the other airfields, and run AI at 100%. Therein is my problem, all AI land short of the runways by 1 mile or so, using either the east or west runways. AI takeoff correctly, but something must be amiss in either my system or the supplied patch AFCAD. Has anyone else with AI enabled at KPDX, do you have AI land normally on the runways?