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Cygnus_X1

GEX vs ORBX for high altitude North American flying

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Hello,

 

With Christmas coming around the corner I'm looking into purchasing some more ad-ons :P

 

I'm particularly interested in replacement ground scenery. My home base is CYYC and I usually fly from there to Ontario (CYYZ, CYOW, etc.) sometimes KLAX/KLAS, and Vancouver/Victoria.

 

The only ad-dons I've really been focusing on since I started using them were Aircraft and Airport ad-ons. I have the NGX and REXE+ as well. But now I'm looking into replacing the mediocre desert-like ground textures that FSX provides.

 

I understand that GEX covers all of North America (or at least Canada and the U.S. which is where I fly 99% of the time.) However is it much of an improvement over default FSX? ORBX looks incredible but it is pricey and only covers certain areas. Does ORBX scenery hit FPS hard? I run FSX on a fair laptop which is bottlenecked by a weak gfx card and I can struggle in the FPS department. I've heard GEX can increase fps slightly which would be quite attractive. My question is which is better for 737 flying in the areas that I use?

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Comparing GEX and ORBX is apples and oranges.

 

GEX is just replacing the default landclass textures, but does nothing to improve accuracy of roads, coastlines, mountains etc.

 

ORBX does make its covered area a lot better, but is limited to the Northwestern part of the US.

 

If you add UTX USA (Ultimate Terrain) to GEX you will have coverage of the entire USA. Not as accurate as in real life, but good enough to VFR the country.

 

If you love to fly just above the treetops, ORBX is the best scenery out there. If you fly big jets however I'd get UTX+GEX.


Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987! 

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If you love to fly just above the treetops, ORBX is the best scenery out there. If you fly big jets however I'd get UTX+GEX.

What he said, and if you'd prefer coverage over all of the U.S. and all of Alaska, I'd go with UTX+GEX. And, you can also buy Ultimate Alaska X, does the same thing, except it covers Alaska. Personally, I like GA flying around my home turf in and between SE AK and PNW, so I yse ORBX. I'm thinking of getting UTX+GEX for any adventures outside it's coverage area.

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Thanks for the input everyone. I think I'll start at least with GEX. Maybe I'll add UTX Canada later. I'm going to try ORBX's demo and if it doesn't hurt my FPS too much I may buy the Northern Rockies edition. How is GEX and UTX on FPS? I've heard GEX can increase frames while UTX can decrease.

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My question is which is better for 737 flying

 

In my opinion high altitude flying would benefit more from a high resolution mesh product combined with photo real scenery. Of course high res mesh has it's own problems including but not limited to plateaus and photo real scenery generally includes limited seasons and usually no night textures. Nothing however compares to the colors and look of professional quality photo real scenery at high altitude.

 

As far as frame rates are concerned, swapping ground textures would be the least frame hit as nothing is really changing other then the paint, adding enhanced roadways and shore lines does require more processing power as more vectors are being generated per scene. Enhanced mesh also requires more processing power since the mesh resolution slider would need to be increased to enjoy the data and lastly, photo real textures may require more processing power but that is countered by less vectors being rendered.

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

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I fly high altitude almost exclusively and am very pleased with FS-Altitude.

 

Billly Bluestar


I Earned My Spurs in Vietnam

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pleased with FS-Altitude.

 

Which includes a clever and unique technology which allows rendering of autogen, roads, cars lamp posts locally at low altitude when it is most desirable.

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

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I've checked into FS-Altitude and it looks great however it's unfortunate that the regions are split up and there is currently no edition for Canada.

 

Will GEX still offer an overall noticeable improvement of the ground from high up?

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ORBX is really geared toward low-and-slow flying. It looks very realistic but of course it's limited to specfic areas. It'd be a waste of money unless you do GA flying. GEX is a wise move if you're just doing airliner stuff like you said. It doesn't hurt frames at all as it just replaces the textures and aligns the autogen a bit better. It's a great improvement over the default.

 

UTX will tend to decrease frames because you're adding night lighting, accurate roads, coastlines, urban landclass and such. It's an FS staple for many though, and a worthwhile investment IMO. Though with all that activated running on a laptop, it may create some problems. I dunno, I've never tried to run FSX on a laptop, but I imagine that limits your options quite a bit.

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GEX & UTX for up high and Orbx for down low!


Howard
MSI Mag B650 Tomahawk MB, Ryzen7-7800X3D CPU@5ghz, Arctic AIO II 360 cooler, Nvidia RTX3090 GPU, 32gb DDR5@6000Mhz, SSD/2Tb+SSD/500Gb+OS, Corsair 1000W PSU, Philips BDM4350UC 43" 4K IPS, MFG Crosswinds, TQ6 Throttle, Fulcrum One Yoke
My FlightSim YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@skyhigh776

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Yeah although no Canada yet (According FSAltitude developer they are planning to create Canada within next year though) I would still recommend FSAltitude, they have bundle option which includes both Western and Eastern USA with reduced price. I don't even bother flying much outside FSAltitude regions anymore, it's just so awesome to see life like non-generic world around when flying.

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Yeah although no Canada yet (According FSAltitude developer they are planning to create Canada within next year though) I would still recommend FSAltitude, they have bundle option which includes both Western and Eastern USA with reduced price. I don't even bother flying much outside FSAltitude regions anymore, it's just so awesome to see life like non-generic world around when flying.

 

I fly high and UTX\GEX changed the whole experience and made it amazing. It got rid of the patchwork quilt default world forever. I've only heard recently of FSAltitude and don't know what it offers that UTX\GEX currently affords?

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FSAltitude is photoscenety, thus more real/accurate.


Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987! 

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Yeah, indeed with FSAltitude anything you see below when around cruise altitude should be about what you would see in real life too. Although UTX\GEX are both great products which I own for low altitude experience still even with them from high altitude world looks so repetitive compared to photoscenery like FSAltitude.

 

According its developer by 2014 we might have whole world covered with FSAltitude products, now that would be awesome!

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FSAltitude is photoscenety, thus more real/accurate.

 

Does it include night lighting, and different seasons?

 

Personally I would go with FSGenesis Mesh, Ground Environment X US/Canada, and UTX US/Canada

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