read JV's update here:

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/58801-ftx-global-update-may-2013/

 

This and the A2A C172, which I have a hunch will come out at about the same time due to a possible hint in their last announcement...that will definitely be a busy weekend

Great news!

It's a fairly mega idea. They're fast becoming the Rupurt Murdoch of FSX! A one stop shop for everything ! In truth it's almost like they're just designing their own FSX over the current one, and you just insert content or airports etc as you want them. Pretty ingenious. And then when a new area is being done in detail ie PNW England, it just seamlessly goes over the base pack all fitting together. One could just stick solely with Orbx and expand your sim world as they expand theirs.

It's a fairly mega idea. They're fast becoming the Rupurt Murdoch of FSX! A one stop shop for everything ! In truth it's almost like they're just designing their own FSX over the current one, and you just insert content or airports etc as you want them. Pretty ingenious. And then when a new area is being done in detail ie PNW England, it just seamlessly goes over the base pack all fitting together. One could just stick solely with Orbx and expand your sim world as they expand theirs.

Very true. They've worked hard on building their brand and we'll probably see more 'global' products after this. Airports, mesh, ai traffic. As long as it's all up to scratch (and they have the strength of their brand behind them to support this) then it'll all sell.

 

I have mixed feelings though in some ways. If there effectively ends up being a single developer who does a good job on virtually everything you'd need to get the sim looking good then it'll probably force the others (Flight 1's GEX and UT namely) to quit developing altogether and then they have a monopoly. That's not great either.

X-plane is catching up....I have to take a gamble -- will P3D live up to its name? Should I be putting more money into FSX/P3D? Or will X-plane be the way to go? 

Hm, some big changes to the initial plans, I see! No subscription to a plus pack anymore but instead seperate addons with seperate prices...! Obviously this is FAR more interesting for Orbx. I was quite amazed about that subscription plan which would only cost some AUD 100,- and give you almost everything that would be added to FTXGlobal in the future. Now you have to pay something between 5 to 30 AUD for every addon so you will pay more then 100 AUD within no time. Logical decision for Orbx, of course.

 

And an announcement of a totally new product: OpenLC, which covers the entire world with OSM based custom landclass and vector data!

 

FTXGlobal will cost AUD 99.95 and OpenLC will cost AUD 19.95 (which seems quite cheap btw).

 

I will get it for certain.

 

Another amazing thing is that when FTXGlobal will be released it may probably be not yet compatible with the FTX regions...!!! They are working hard on getting that solved but it's not easy. Now I was planning on ditching the regions altogether so it's perfectly fine with me but I am sure a lot of people won't be getting FTXGlobal before this problem is solved!

 

EDIT

This really made me LOL though:

 

JV says: "We've moved away from asking $99 for a subscription type product because it places too much risk on the customer; it's not fair to ask for money for content which has not yet been developed. Better to buy it in smaller affordable chunks when it is 'real' and available."

 

LOL LOL LOL LOL Seriously, John... be a MAN and simply say Orbx will have a LOT more money coming in when you sell seperate addons for FTXGlobal. Really. Everyone will understand that. It's simple and obvious. But don't give is that crap about doing it for the customer.

Sounds great, maybe this will finally make areas that aren't covered with FSAltitude worth flying in. 

So with ORBX and OpenLC i will not need to get GEX and UTX?

It does look fantastic.....I just hope with the insanely dense autogen it clearly adds that it performs acceptably!!!

 

I also wouldn't mind betting that when P3D v2 appears that its "default" textures will be FTX Global either!!!

 

Regards

 

Steve

So with ORBX and OpenLC i will not need to get GEX and UTX?

 

With FTX regions you don't need GEX or UTX. With FTXGlobal I am not sure. Well, you certainly won't need to get GEX! But I am not to sure about not needing UTX anymore. I'm not sure if for instance OpenLC will have coastlines and waterborders too: JV said the FTX regions offer coastlines, implying FTXGlobal and OpenLC won't. UTX also gives you traffic on all roads: I doubt if OpenLC will do that. But I do think that for me FTXGlobal and OpenLC will be good enough and that I will forget about all other similar addons (including Orbx addons). The less installed addons, the better imho. ^_^

it says in the announcement:

 

The base product will include a FREE demo of FTX Global OpenLC, which is our new product being released in July/August that covers the *entire world* with OSM based custom landclass and vector data

Vector data would mean roads, rivers, coastlines etc. which basically makes it the equivalent of UTX (where as FTX Global is the equivalent of GEX).

With FTX Global alone, you're just getting replacement textures, no improvement in the accuracy of the scenery. So the farmland you see where there's supposed to be a town of 100,000 will look prettier, but the town will still be missing.

Personally I think there's still room for FTX regions. There's a reason they cover a small area where as OpenLC+FTX Global covers the entire world. A lot of hand-sculpting of the scenery goes into the FTX regions that you just don't get a with a global product. Of course it depends on what type of flying you do - If you mainly fly jets between large airprots, FTX Global will certainly be enough, where as those flying the Piper Cub at 2500 ft will still want the FTX regions.

I think you meant FTX Global, FSGlobal is a well known mesh product, just to make sure nobody buys it by accident thinking it adds replacement textures. 

I think you meant FTX Global, FSGlobal is a well known mesh product, just to make sure nobody buys it by accident thinking it adds replacement textures. 

 

Edited  :lol:

 

One great thing about FTX Global is that it will consolidate all the different products a bit -_-  So many different ones the simmer needs to keep track of these days - UTX, REX, FTX, GEX...

Im glad i stuck with ORBX scenery from day one, now everything falls into place like a jigsaw