I'm Hooked...

[Jason Howell 1]

After resisting for so long, Ive decided to take the plunge and buy some ORBX scenery. Now i know you ORBX nuts will say UTX doesnt hold a candle to the ORBX US and canada sceneries, i decided to not buy those at this time, because i do have UTX USA and Canada and the FSGenesis Mesh and GEX covering that part of the planet. I did not want to "overlap" my purchases. So i bought the ORBX Australia sceneries and when I fired the sim up after install and decided to go to Port Lincoln in South Australia, I almost got teary eyed with what i was seeing. Immersion is the main goal of this sim, sometimes it fees right, sometimes youre just sitting in a chair with a joystick. I felt like i was FLYING in Australia! I was amazed at how things looked! Everything was in great detail, and FPS was still pegged at 30fps. That was a big smile maker because i have heard that these addons can eat FPS.

 

So, in my giddyness, i pulled up SkyVector on my laptop and got dialed in for a 140nm flight to Adelaide YPPF in my Bellanca Scout. Flying VFR was what this plane was made for and i found i could follow along with SkyVector easily. Another great immersion factor

 

By the time i got to Adelaide, it was marginal VFR and raining. I had to hustle the approach because there was a Qantas 737 behind me. Had fun with a crosswind landing. Since the big iron made me hurry up, i decided to park with them also, here is a screenshot me and the big iron

 

 

 

There was quite a wrestling match with the wife to get her credit card for this, but ORBX, you have hooked another one.

[Fatback 84]

It's ironic that a product like ORBX limits your flying to world. To ORBX areas lol

[Jason Howell 1]

well since i usually fly low and slow, and australia is one BIG place, i dont think ill be complaining about it too much. :good:

[Simmo W 24]

Nice post Jason. So are you from Oz? If not, I can assure you that what you are seeing is pretty well spot on accurate! Have u installed the freeware Port Lincoln? Or OZx sceneries?

[Jason Howell 1]

Thanks for the compliment. Nope, I am not from Oz, but I AM from Kansas, so thats just a few heel clicks away. And yes i installed the freeware Port Lincoln and every other freeware and payware Australia ORBX and OZX scenery along with that nice freeware mesh. I am VERY pleased with the scenery as a whole and i will find it very hard to fly anywhere else.

 

Now i need to find the Aussie version of the FAA for some more info and maybe a Aussie travel guide for interesting places to fly to.

[Luis_KMIA 242]

I visited Australia and NZ in 2003 and 2004, and flying in the ORBXX world brings back many memories. I have all available ORBX regions and its commercial aviaiton airports. I look forward to the UK product and more U.S. coverage.

[Kaly 22]

Glad that you're enjoying FTX Australia!

Add some of the Australian payware Orbx airports to the region, and "Bob's your uncle".

[Manny 1,293]

I have to concurr... I too am getting spoiled by Orbx. I used to be a heavy Photoscenery with autogen guy.. I love Megascenery city sceneries and I still like Photo textures for desert and rocky mountains. Nothing can beat that ..still

 

But for wooded areas like the PNW, Orbx is untouchable... Today I was flying in the VFR France areas and I was disspointed.. It used to be my fav areas to fly..they have good photosceneries with autogens,., But I noticed how outdated they were. Except for a new scenery that VFR France has put out recently. They call 3D. I saw their screenshots and they look very good.

 

Orbx is almost perfect... A little nitpick.. I wish they use more phototextures for mountain peaks and rocky areas.... But overall I am finding it difficult to fly anywhere else. The fact that autogens and trees don't pop into view is something that looks like real world. Nothing spoils it like those pop up autogens..

 

I bought their Blue (Sydney areas) and Green Oz package long time ago when they initially put those out.. but I don't fly in that part of the world.. Now, I am thinking of packing my bags and moving to Oz in the FSX world. LOL

 

Its too bad, Orbx is moving away from the US areas and moving to the UK I hear.. UK is geographically thoroughly boring ...FLAT FLAT FLAT! except for some hills in the north. . But I hope they continue putting out US areas as well.

 

Instead of doing a very large swaths of land (like the entire Australia) or entire US, they need to do pockets of areas around the world that is interesting... like the Himalayas and its viscinity, The Alps, The South American areas where there are amazing hard to land airports ..... etc. The Amazon... the Andes mountain ranges.. A combination of very small airports like they have for PNW and a few large airports for airline flyers to fly from one of these geographic area and land in another part of the world and land in the same Orbx region... How cool would that be.

 

Manny

[Kaly 22]

They are going to do the UK,but these North American sceneries are still in the pipeline.

 

FTX Northern California Region (NA-NCA)

FTX South Alaska Region (NA-SAK)

KVOU Pearson Field Airport

CYBD Bella Coola Airport

KWYS West Yellowstone

W28 Sequim Valley

[CharliesP51 0]

I would say ORBX is progressing with more US regions and airports..NOT..away as the last poster clearly indicates.

This thread is titled I'm Hooked..me too. I almost always fly within ORBX regions exclusively and utilize thier airports so much now I am HOOKED and would rather fly in ORBX regions and airfields. On the same type of preference I rarely FLY anything but A2A birds. From the historic CUB to the P51-D both with AccuSim..coupled to ORBX scenery IMHO that combo is the epitome of immersion and our current state-of-the-art in flight sim development. Lastly A2A has an AccuSim Cessna 172 in development now with regularly posted (weekly) update info on thier site. These are great times for FSX.

[Boeing or not going 578]

I fly big iron and only their Australia addon appeals to me, but so little attention is made to the major airports. The ones Orbx has done are beautiful but complete framerate hogs. With PNW, there is no quality rendition of YVR, SEA, PDX, etc. but the surrounding areas look beautiful.

[Kaly 22]

They stay away from the major airports (an exception was YMML and YBBN),because to give them the Orbx "touch",would make them completely unflyable.

Plus, development times would increase exponentially.

[Manny 1,293]

I have their Oz green and Oz Blue. I don't have them installed on my current PC. I remember I had to switch back and forth between regular FSX and Orbx... I had to press that Orbx menu where I had to switch back and forth while it copied some textures.. Remember that?

 

Is that still the same? If I go back and reinstall those sceneries would I have to go back and forth or is there some sort of fix so I don;t have to do that? Come to think of it,, not even sure where I have those files... Its been 3 or so long years since I used em.

 

PNW I don't have to do that.

 

Can one of you please confirm. Thanks

 

Manny

[Jason Howell 1]

well if you buy all of the AU "color" sceneries you wont have to switch back and forth...thats how i saw it when i bought all their AU sceneries, i doubt i get any of the North american stuff because i already have addons that i paid for covering that...no need to double buy

[Kaboki 437]

Lastly A2A has an AccuSim Cessna 172 in development now with regularly posted (weekly) update info on thier site.

 

Where do you find those weekly updates? Haven't seen any development updates about it since they announced it in August..