Where exactly do you fly Simmerhead and in what sort of aircraft?

 

I like too se as much of the world as possible, and fly anything with props.

 

I usually fly in the Arctic (Northernmost parts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia, Siberia), but if the scenery was better I'd like to fly more in South America, the Balkans and Central Africa.

You are right Jean-Paul, I should have choosed better words.

 

What I mean is that they could have separated the region like GEX and sell them piece by piece, buy doing what they are doing you don't have a choice and have to buy places you will probably never fly over and pay for it, like I said before, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

It's really important that folks understand what it is that they (Orbx) are going to do. This package will be an assortment of the base global textures (most likely put into the global scenery folder - although there are other options as well but ignore this for now). These textures will show up all over the world where there are no other regional or local textures installed in higher priority. For instance, global texture "135b2fa0.bmp" is a golf course in the fall, there are a myriad golf course textures for seasons and regions. If I change this texture file to one that displays swimming pools...then everywhere in the world where a landclass file calls this particular texture #, then it would show swimming pools. So without proper landclass to match what is really on the ground it will follow whatever the default landclass is in the system.

 

If I dump all the Orbx scenery textures (along with their autogen files) into the global scenery folder and overwrite what is there by default then you will see Orbx textures all over the world, they won't be pretty but it would work. Problem would be that you might not get palm trees in Florida....lol.

 

Anyway thought that this might help.

From The OFFICIAL announcement on compatability and some other stuff for anyone who can't see it.

 

Will it affect the "regular" Orbx regions being worked on?

 

Not at all. There will be zero impact on regular regions since we're hiring new staff to make this product and we're using existing texture assets. If anything in 2013 we will release more regular FTX regions than any year of our short history; South Alaska, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Northern California as well. Our average release rate has been 1.75 regions per year; in 2013 it will be 5+

 

We also hope to move into Europe next year, with Holland confirmed and then perhaps Norway, Belgium, Germany etc. FTX Global simply does not have the depth and scale of detail of our regular FTX regions, there's no comparison and those upcoming regions are made with unique textures licensed from aerial imagery over those particular countries.

 

 

What is FTX Global Compatible with?

 

Ultimate Terrain X (UTX)

SceneryTech LC or any other LC addon

Any FSX scenery addon - but be aware Orbx textures are richer and darker than FSX default so many airports may not blend in at the edges of their photoreal coverage area

REX/AS2012/Other weather texture/WX engine addons

FSGenesis and other elevation mesh addons

FSWC

Enbseries

Shade

 

 

What is it not compatible with?

 

GEX - it does the same thing (replaces FSX default textures) so you decide if you want GEX or FTX Global

FScene4X - as above

Orbx payware airports - those are designed and matched to our dedicated full FTX regions for AU/NA/NZ/EU because of mesh elevation and other landscape mods

 

 

How big will the installer be?

 

The installer will be download-only for the first six months or so until we can bundle all the monthly Downloadable Content (DLCs) into a DVD release. This installer will weigh in at less than 5GB and will need about 8GB of disk space. We would recommend about 10GB of free space for FTX Global.

 

The idea of free upgrades is good. I think I'm still with Bryan though? I'd rather spend the cash on Higher definition areas and/or the odd airport.

 

I see that the NE States is not on next years game plan and that's a drag. Seems that it's always the Cinderella region in any simulation?! Took years for any decent Train Sim Routes for the region to be done. I've had Bill Womacks excellent Plumb Island sitting out there like a beacon of hope for months now! He was working on Martha's Vineyard but then got hooked into FTX's West Coast endeavours.

Problem would be that you might not get palm trees in Florida....lol.

 

This won't change the landclass. If palm trees are called for in the default, I would imagine Orbx palm trees will show up.

^{We shouldn't complain - ORBX is taking upon their shoulders what the MS team could of (should of ) completed. I for one am grateful. Cheers jja}

 

 

It's really important that folks understand what it is that they (Orbx) are going to do. This package will be an assortment of the base global textures (most likely put into the global scenery folder - although there are other options as well but ignore this for now). These textures will show up all over the world where there are no other regional or local textures installed in higher priority. For instance, global texture "135b2fa0.bmp" is a golf course in the fall, there are a myriad golf course textures for seasons and regions. If I change this texture file to one that displays swimming pools...then everywhere in the world where a landclass file calls this particular texture #, then it would show swimming pools. So without proper landclass to match what is really on the ground it will follow whatever the default landclass is in the system.

 

If I dump all the Orbx scenery textures (along with their autogen files) into the global scenery folder and overwrite what is there by default then you will see Orbx textures all over the world, they won't be pretty but it would work. Problem would be that you might not get palm trees in Florida....lol.

 

Anyway thought that this might help.

 

I think you did more harm than help. Now someone is going to be really confused

 

On a serious note though, that is one of the reasons why I wouldn't do this myself. Just getting to know what textures to use where in the many different FSX regions is an overwhelming task. I think it is even for ORBX, which is why this is a product to be in continual development. Most people complaining about this product seem to know little about the massive amount of textures used in FSX. Sadly some regions were left "unfinnished" by FSX and lack the variety of textures used for Europe and North America.

 

I've worked on a few landclass projects and it took quite some time to get to know all the landclass textures well enough to make something decent. You don't just have to think about seasonal variety, but what autogen is placed where and in what density, how it blends with other landclass, how it handles slopes etc. Just download Holger's Landclass Table for North America and you'll begin to see the complexity of "just textures" for just one region.

Hmm, I like sound of this package but not so much the price.

I think you did more harm than help. Now someone is going to be really confused

 

On a serious note though, that is one of the reasons why I wouldn't do this myself. Just getting to know what textures to use where in the many different FSX regions is an overwhelming task. I think it is even for ORBX, which is why this is a product to be in continual development. Most people complaining about this product seem to know little about the massive amount of textures used in FSX. Sadly some regions were left "unfinnished" by FSX and lack the variety of textures used for Europe and North America.

 

I've worked on a few landclass projects and it took quite some time to get to know all the landclass textures well enough to make something decent. You don't just have to think about seasonal variety, but what autogen is placed where and in what density, how it blends with other landclass, how it handles slopes etc. Just download Holger's Landclass Table for North America and you'll begin to see the complexity of "just textures" for just one region.

 

Well if I confused and did more harm than good that was not my intention.

 

Basically, go ahead and buy and use Orbx Global when it comes out. If they get their GUI working properly you should have an easy go of it.

 

Read their announcement, its very clear what it will do and won't do yet folks here keep asking questions trying to understand the implications. None, no, nadda of your local and regional addons will be impacted. The world will look like Orbx everywhere there are no other higher priority addons.

 

Yes your correct about landclass and the complexity. Yes I have the landclass table. Yes I know what i'm doing in this regard, others don't and if you don't then this product could be right for you.

 

Actually I think they have good idea and I support it's development, they should make some money on this one and it will help drawn in customers for regions I would think.

 

cheers.

Cool! I am only scared to see what the download size will be :mellow:

 

Antarctica X is bigger than FSX itself! lol

I don't actually think I'm very interested in this, Orbx PNW and NZ have gotten me spoiled as far as having accurate landclass and objects at the airports, so much so that I never seem to even fly Orbx AU anymore because of the barren airports...

 

So paying $190 for textures that will cover parts of the world with barren airports is not likely to make me leave the Orbx areas I've come to love with the airport objects.

It's funny how some people say flight simming is dying but here we have an announcement from OrbX saying they are going to be turning out more regions per year than ever and are building their teams up. They must be doing ok out of their products if they are building their business. If it was going the other way it would be receding surely.

 

Only thing that bothers me about all this is that no matter how pretty it looks FSX is still hampered severely by its 32 bit code and for that reason there will only ever be so much detail we can fly with before we start getting crashes. For those of us who like the highly detailed airliners and the eye candy (like me) this will be a serious issue.

 

I hope they can start looking at developing for alternative platforms in due course such as XPlane. That platform has huge potential (and currently is the only one that is 64bit capable) but it needs the support of the community and third-party developers if it is ever to reach that potential. What is disappointing is that I remember reading from JV earlier in the year that he despises the platform and won't consider developing products on it for a second. That will hopefully change.

If your FSX is crashing then there are other problems with your install or computer. The only problem that needs fixing is how FSX relies all on CPU more than GPU.

Cool! I am only scared to see what the download size will be :mellow:

 

Antarctica X is bigger than FSX itself! lol

 

I think I read 5-6GB download with a install size of 8GB.

If your FSX is crashing then there are other problems with your install or computer. The only problem that needs fixing is how FSX relies all on CPU more than GPU.

 

No. By crashing I meant Out of Memory crashes (OOMs as they are called) which is only to do with the very limited amount of virtual address space that FSX has to play with due to its 32bit code. Understand?

No. By crashing I meant Out of Memory crashes (OOMs as they are called) which is only to do with the very limited amount of virtual address space that FSX has to play with due to its 32bit code. Understand?

 

Interesting, never had one (knock on wood I guess), will have to look it up :lol: . Despite that issue some have, it really is too bad there isn't more performance headroom in FSX, especially with the quality of addons and the potential for more quality.