February 13, 201313 yr Author Pricing info just out from John Venema: I just want to explain how we will release FTX Global to the market. When we release it will be the Basic Pack at AU$99.95 which will be a GEX-like addon to replace the default FSX textures for the whole planet. Difference is, we'll include a lot of landclass to make things looks better out of the box. The Basic Pack will not include any DLC addon content, but will include bug fixes. The Plus Pack will cost another AU$99.95 and will be released some months later. Customers can upgrade to the Plus Pack at anytime they like. For those who don't want new content, the Plus Pack won't be essential. However if you want continually improved landclass, new upgraded airports, POI models, cityscapes and improved content, then the Plus Pack is like a subscription which gives you continual improvements to FTX Global for life (or as long as Orbx remains a company ) In this way we can stage the release of FTX Global to make it more affordable from the outset and let you grow into the Plus Pack if you want to support the ongoing development efforts by Orbx. We anticipate the Base Pack to be on sale before 30 June 2013, likely much sooner. I'll continue to preview screenshots from around the world (and I appreciate all the location requests pending) but we are working very hard right now to get the tech right and make this as close to FS 2013 as we can do without needing 10 million dollars from MS to do it instead Yours in communication our plans ... Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
February 13, 201313 yr When we release it will be the Basic Pack at AU$99.95 which will be a GEX-like addon to replace the default FSX textures for the whole planet. Difference is, we'll include a lot of landclass to make things looks better out of the box. The Basic Pack will not include any DLC addon content, but will include bug fixes. Confused I am. DLC is acronym for what? Download Content? could be the redundancy throwing me off... And the note about landclass being fixed...thank you...that adds clarity for me, and some of my earlier comments are easily deemed invalid now. This is certainly something to be excited about, but for $99 for a 1 time fix...$200 to stay on the list for an unknown future? Still a little steep IMO. Thank you! Do not judge people until you've walked a mile in their shoes. Then at least you are a mile ahead of them when you ###### them off...
February 13, 201313 yr Confused I am. DLC is acronym for what? Download Content? could be the redundancy throwing me off... And the note about landclass being fixed...thank you...that adds clarity for me, and some of my earlier comments are easily deemed invalid now. This is certainly something to be excited about, but for $99 for a 1 time fix...$200 to stay on the list for an unknown future? Still a little steep IMO. Thank you! DLC = DownLoadable Content, it's a marketing term that's been fashionable in the video-game world for a couple of years now. Basically it refers to additional content that the user of a product can download. One could argue that all FS add-ons are DLC (and long before the word was coined too), but it typically refers to new / extra content offered by the original publisher and it typically is not free. John-Alan Pascoe
February 13, 201313 yr The timing of this is all a little interesting. We know John recently said he thought the future was going to be all about Prepar3d. Based on the P3D schedule to date of an update every 6 months the next version should be coming up within the next 2 months. With the LM team fairly small you could imagine them not having time to work on the art assets and instead focus on the core tech, so maybe having Orbx working on this really does mean a "FS 2013" is on its way ... but then again I do like a good conspiracy theory as well Danny Hicks
February 14, 201313 yr Orbx has some sort if NDA with the prepare3d at the moment. John said so himself. So yes, there is something going on we don't know about. Perhaps orbx world will be marketed with prepar3d in the future. Soarbywire - Avionics Engineering
February 14, 201313 yr *sigh* Can a moderator change the title of this thread since the product is not out yet? I was digging for my credit card but it turns out it was nothing but an announcement. Thanks, OP. :(
February 14, 201313 yr This is certainly something to be excited about, but for $99 for a 1 time fix...$200 to stay on the list for an unknown future? Still a little steep IMO. I never heard anyone say GEX is expensive... The only thing that makes FTX World LOOK expensive is that you have to pay it at once. But if you want to cover the world with GEX textures (which imho aren't that good at all) you are looking at a a bill of exactly 195 dollars... and that's for a yet incomplete world so add a few dollars to it for complete coverage. So FTX World actually is HALF the price of GEX. For a 100 bucks extra you get updates of all kinds that GEX doesn't offer. I personally will probably buy the basic FTX World version: the thing is that I mainly fly in a few specific regions and of course you can never tell where the next DLC will be for. If I fly in Norway all the time and the DLC is for Africa, Asia and South America, it won't do me any good. I will hop on the DLC train as soon as I find out something REALLY interesting has been added for the regions I visit. It's an 'Orbx-lifetime' purchase too, which is also nice: it's not a price you pay for version 1 updates only...! Being able to hop on anytime is also nice. All in all those prices are VERY reasonable imho.
February 14, 201313 yr The timing of this is all a little interesting. We know John recently said he thought the future was going to be all about Prepar3d. Based on the P3D schedule to date of an update every 6 months the next version should be coming up within the next 2 months. With the LM team fairly small you could imagine them not having time to work on the art assets and instead focus on the core tech, so maybe having Orbx working on this really does mean a "FS 2013" is on its way ... but then again I do like a good conspiracy theory as well Other rumors point at P3D 2.0 not being released for quite some time (it's a much bigger update than e.g. 1.3 -> 1.4). At this point, it's all speculation (which is fun and interesting in its own right :Thinking: ). It may be that an update is coming, but it's P3D 1.5 or 1.41 (ie. small refinements rather than the "big" update everyone is waiting for). Either way, there's definitely something going on between LM and OrbX. OrbX have been one of the biggest advocates of P3D, encouraging everyone to make the switch. They must have their reasons for doing so. We know that LM is currently bound by their licensing agreement for Microsoft ESP, but P3D 2.0 will be rewritten with a new rendering engine. It's even possible this will free them from the old agreement, allowing them to release a legitimate "entertainment" consumer version of P3D. This would probably also require new art assets and global scenery, which may be where OrbX fit in :Idea: -
February 14, 201313 yr Yeah, could well be FTX World is the new default scenery for P3D 2.0. Maybe.... they initially made it for P3D but decided to also release it for FSX... making some extra cash from it. Would be 'fun' if somewhere around August P3D 2.0 is released and it has FTX World as default scenery and it is THE new sim to go for. Then what use is the lifetime support for FTX World...? :rolleyes: ^_^ Bye bye 200 bucks LOL Pure speculation, of course... B)
February 14, 201313 yr Latest JV quote -- "Orbx is only six years old. We are a minnow only beginning to find our feet in the world. Back us now, and we'll reward your loyalty in more ways you can imagine, across multiple platforms..." *Multiple platforms* Soarbywire - Avionics Engineering
February 14, 201313 yr Back us now, and we'll reward your loyalty in more ways you can imagine Hm............... that does ring a bell....... Anyone still remembers why the unofficial Orbx forum got started on AVSIM...? :wacko: JV isn't the guy who should say too much about 'loyalty' and 'reward', specially when it comes to 'fundraising' for Orbx. Really... :blink: I thought he was done with that kind of crap...!!!
February 14, 201313 yr They have some pretty good shots with France True Landscape (whatever that is) http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/54941-ftx-global-using-truelandscape-france-demo-lc/ Soarbywire - Avionics Engineering
February 14, 201313 yr France True Landscape (whatever that is) It's a landclass addon. So those screenshots are not what you will get with FTX World out of the box. Those screenshots simply show that FTX World will work with other landclass addons. Which is nice, of course, because the default FSX landclass isn't the best. Can't say I like the used ENB setup btw... Don't like that awful purple at all... Luckily that is NOT part of FTX World. ^_^
February 14, 201313 yr is there a single global landclass product instead of having to buy loads of different ones?
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