Wonder how the Caribbean looks...

Does ORBX combine features of GEX and UTX?

Wonder how the Caribbean looks...

 

Going by the India sample, very likely 'surprisingly green and european looking' *shrug*

 

(Yes, I know india is green, and that MAY be an accurate representation of the particular area, but without any reference as to where they're supposed to be we can't be sure, and if they have non-green areas of india in FTX global it'd have made far more sense to show them and demonstrate the variation of textures)

Going by the India sample, very likely 'surprisingly green and european looking' *shrug*

 

(Yes, I know india is green, and that MAY be an accurate representation of the particular area, but without any reference as to where they're supposed to be we can't be sure, and if they have non-green areas of india in FTX global it'd have made far more sense to show them and demonstrate the variation of textures)

 

That's just the point though, FTX Global isn't expanding on the range/number/variation of default textures its just changing the exact same number of textures for different ones that may or may not look better or worse than default or GEX in any given location. And we are back to the beginning of the same loop again, they should have "appended" to not replaced files.....

Does ORBX combine features of GEX and UTX?

FTX Global will replace GEX but will not include updated coastlines, roads, and landclass (yet) like UTX. Cheers jja

 

 

I sincerely hope that in 5 years time ... we all would have adopted the next Flight Sim platform. Can I get an Amen :rolleyes:

 

Sure can get an Amen to that! Happy New Year!

200 for whole world the same price buying gex regions it's cheaper actually.

I sincerely hope that in 5 years time ... we all would have adopted the next Flight Sim platform. Can I get an Amen

 

I am not sure about that. Starting all over again with respect to airport and scenery packages is (IMO) a pain in the &@($*. Yes, it has to be done eventually, but I am still waiting for various UK scenery packages to be released for FSX, so a new flightsim platform is the last thing that I want at the moment! In fact, all I really need is an upgrade to FSX that allows it to use more than 4GB RAM....

Quote

I sincerely hope that in 5 years time ... we all would have adopted the next Flight Sim platform. Can I get an Amen

 

I am not sure about that. Starting all over again with respect to airport and scenery packages is (IMO) a pain in the &@($*. Yes, it has to be done eventually, but I am still waiting for various UK scenery packages to be released for FSX, so a new flightsim platform is the last thing that I want at the moment! In fact, all I really need is an upgrade to FSX that allows it to use more than 4GB RAM....

 

Christopher Low

 

I quite agree Christopher. At least P3D looks like it might bring improvements AND compatability with existing packages. Jury's out until Ver2.0 ?

 

I was a keen Train Sim fan since 2001. When the second MSTS2 was in development the subject of autogen scenery came up. I bought FS9 and then FSX to look at that. Having binned FS98 as rubbish I was delighted to see how FS had developed and was hooked.

 

In the meantime Ace's bit the dust and with it any chance of MSTS2 being released. That meant the new kid on the block was Rail Simulator. Neither MSTS2 nor RS had any backward compatability with original MSTS models so RS became a "Cash Cow" for the developers as you only got anywhere near the diversity that already existed in MSTS by spend ....spend .....spend!

 

I looked at RS when it became Railworks and bought a few add-ons. Then I realised that FSX was much more interesting to me so my money went there. MSTS still survives. It's a grouchy, cranky, old fashioned Sim but it works, has some brilliant models and routes and there's more content than I could ever find time to look at.

 

Any future FS development will have to have backward compatability with existing add-ons for me. Money is tight for most folk nowadays and there's another aspect too. With Train Simming the amount of freeware built up to incredible standards over 11 years of MSTS is nowhere near matched for RS/RW because the programmes used are very expensive and therefore nearly everything is payware. Get too clever with FS and you could have the same... and simming as a hobby flourishes best where both work alongside each other.

 

People are obsessed with THE NEW, when half the time they haven't even touched the potential of the present. When no new Rail Simulator came along the community improved MSTS and achieved some fantastic improvements.

 

Plan for the future but LIVE for the present?

 

Geoff

Any future FS development will have to have backward compatability with existing add-ons for me.

 

By sticking with backward compatibility with addons built for older versions you seriously limit the improvements that could be built into a new sim.

 

FSX was a very good illustration of this. When it was released everyone complained at the poor framerates so Aces ultimately released SP2 which improved framerates but at the cost of breaking compatibility with stuff built for older versions. At the same time I believe there was a lot of angst among addon developers because there were four versions of FSX in circulation: RTM, SP1, SP2 and Acceleration, each with their own compatibility issues.

 

Bottom line:

 

Release a totally new sim with no backwards compatibility - people complain that their existing addons won't work with it.

 

Release a sim with backwards compatibility - people complain that the new sim doesn't have enough improvements or advancements over the older one.

 

With FSX we got the worst of both worlds - a sim that was built with backwards compatibility in mind but then had to be patched in such a way that it broke that backwards compatibility.

By sticking with backward compatibility with addons built for older versions you seriously limit the improvements that could be built into a new sim.

 

FSX was a very good illustration of this. When it was released everyone complained at the poor framerates so Aces ultimately released SP2 which improved framerates but at the cost of breaking compatibility with stuff built for older versions. At the same time I believe there was a lot of angst among addon developers because there were four versions of FSX in circulation: RTM, SP1, SP2 and Acceleration, each with their own compatibility issues.

 

Bottom line:

 

Release a totally new sim with no backwards compatibility - people complain that their existing addons won't work with it.

 

Release a sim with backwards compatibility - people complain that the new sim doesn't have enough improvements or advancements over the older one.

 

With FSX we got the worst of both worlds - a sim that was built with backwards compatibility in mind but then had to be patched in such a way that it broke that backwards compatibility.

Yes BUT.... That completely ignores the fact that in an already small niche market in hard economic times the last thing you want to be doing is hacking off your fan base and asking them to buy a new version of what they've already got? You seem to ignore the fact that many folk are still happy with their FS9 set ups?

 

The more Sims out there the thinner the fan base for each, the smaller the market for developers? With P3D carrying on the M$ code and X Plane already gathering fans another development would fragment things further.

 

History shows that the strongest things are created by evolution rather than revolution? What we have might be wanting in many aspects but "don't throw the baby out with the bath water"? I'm sure I'm not alone in saying it would have to be REALLY outstanding to make me toss aside hundreds of pounds worth of add-ons. I'm sure that's why many stick with FS9 today.

 

Geoff

Just as people today still fly FS9, everyone can fly FSX in five years time. I still have FS95 installed on my PC. But if there was a new sim made today that was better I'd switch in an instant, no regerts.

 

Yes, flight simming is a smal niche, but it sure doesn't help that it is retro as well.

Yes BUT.... That completely ignores the fact that in an already small niche market in hard economic times the last thing you want to be doing is hacking off your fan base and asking them to buy a new version of what they've already got? You seem to ignore the fact that many folk are still happy with their FS9 set ups?

 

I'm not ignoring anything. Why would you have to uninstall or remove FSX and all your addons if a totally new FSXI arrived tommorrow? The answer is of course you wouldn't. You could simply enjoy both.

 

As for hacking off a fan base by asking them to buy new versions of what they've already got... that's a double edged sword - why would they buy a new version of the sim if it offered no real or significant improvements over the last, which would almost certainly be the case if backwards compatibility were to be maintained.

As for hacking off a fan base by asking them to buy new versions of what they've already got... that's a double edged sword - why would they buy a new version of the sim if it offered no real or significant improvements over the last, which would almost certainly be the case if backwards compatibility were to be maintained.

 

This makes me think of FS9 and FSX. Seems like a lot of people forget about FS9, and how much of the Avsim community still plays it exclusively.

 

Hook

If we remain in the past, we may lose the opportunity to influence the future.