When to turn FTX regions on and off?

[Guest]

Hm, when I read that, I read 'You have to use FTX Central to enable FTX Global and since the Central only allows one option to be active, you can't use regions together with Global...' If this was otherwise JV wouldn't make such a big point of solving this apparently difficult problem...

[XPX64man 130]

Basically, yes. I've been dwelling through ORBX forums but i didn't find yet a clear topic of what they are going to do with that situation. I just remember reading they are going to fix it (which will be awesome) i just don't know how.

 

 

Am I wrong? I believe you have to shut down FSX before you can open the Orbx control panel.  So how would you turn anything off or on in mid-flight?

[JSkorna 137]

All,

 

If you know how the FSX scenery.cfg file works, you can have multiple ORBX regions enabled at the same time. In fact, I have all the regions installed and they are all active everytime I use FSX.

 

The key is not to use the ORBX utilities. Once you do that, you are back to one area per session.

 

In fact, ORBX creates a backup file that has all the areas you have installed active. Again you just need to know how to modify your active scenery.cfg file.

[stevem72 10]

....and breathe folks!!

According to JV's response in the FTX forums of less than an hour ago (to ba757's question over there re Global and FTX regions)......it appears that they may have solved the issue already and have Global AND their regions running together!!

 

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

 

 

It works in the alpha build right now Martin. We can have England and Global active at the same time and it all works fine. In fact, I have all FTX regions active at once and don't need to switch. But I do it by fooling FTX Central by setting it to Default then running ORBX\Scripts\ftxconfigurator.exe

So we need to make code changes to FTX Central to allow all regions active and also create a standard lclookup.bgl which all regions can share.

Kudos if they've nailed this issue (although to be fair....it was an issue of their own making!!)

Regards

Steve

[MDF86 123]

This is excellent news if they have sorted the issues out, great stuff. Credit card at the ready!

[Q_flyer 766]

All,

 

If you know how the FSX scenery.cfg file works, you can have multiple ORBX regions enabled at the same time. In fact, I have all the regions installed and they are all active everytime I use FSX.

 

The key is not to use the ORBX utilities. Once you do that, you are back to one area per session.

 

In fact, ORBX creates a backup file that has all the areas you have installed active. Again you just need to know how to modify your active scenery.cfg file.

 

Jim, would you mind emailing the solution through to Orbx! :lol: ....... I don't use any Orbx products any more, not because there's anything wrong with them visually, but because the "FTX Central" and switching is a massive pain in the arm, and totally screws up 'inter-region' flying, (as well as causing lot's of anomolies on my system).   Orbx should have made getting rid of FTX Central a top priority years ago, instead of just adding new regions, and things getting complicated (and unreliable) beyond recognition.

 

I certainly hope they have fixed it, ready for FTX Global.

[Fatback 84]

Isn't part of the problem that each region loads a bunch of dll's? I know that when I have PNW loaded there is a 500mb VAS hit. I'm sure that other regions would share some resources but there would still be a hit of some kind I would imagine. 

[dcgator29 37]

This is troubling. So if I buy FTX Global and want to fly from Germany to England ( I own ORBX England ) I either have to have default FSX Germany textures or FTX Global England textures (therefore making my FTX England worthless) UNLESS i want to quit FSX mid-flight?

 

That's a big let down. I was of the impression that if I had FTX Global as well as FTX England, when flying over England the "better" FTX England product would be used and over regions where I have no additional FTX product, the FTX Global textures would be there.

No. While in England you will see FTX England. Anywhere else you get FTX Global textures and autogen. It works the same way as GEX (Ground Environment Extreme) GEX and FTX Global will replace the FSX default ground textures EVERYWHERE, unless you have something else locally such as FTX or photoscenery. GEX and FTX Global are not "sceneries" per se that you turn on. They replace the default FSX textures. Your previous question; flying Belgium to Germany. Neither country is England so no you can turn FTX off. Or leave it on. Some people don't see issues outside of Orbx areas. I don't with the North American sceneries.

 

J van E, on 20 May 2013 - 12:01 PM, said:

4. The upcoming FTX Global will be (at least out of the box) incompatible with FTX regions (so when you use FTX Global, you won't be able to use any FTX region at all). Obviously (one might say) this will be corrected in the future...

Where did ORBX say this? FTX Global is not a "region". I don't believe you will turn it on and off in FTX Central.

 

Nevermind I read the rest of the thread

Edited May 20, 2013 by dcgator29

[scott967 62]

AFAIK, FTX does a couple of things. 1. is to put a modified lclookup.bgl in place. This is a master control file for the landclass system. Don't know exactly how this affects other scenery. 2. is to modify the default autogen. I've read reports where this can cause strange-looking buildings outside of FTX areas.

 

scott s.

.

[Boeing or not going 578]

I have a solution....never leave Orbx areas. I don't. They are that good.

 

Sounds great as long as you don't mind never flying jets.

[Guest]

 

 

Where did ORBX say this? FTX Global is not a "region". I don't believe you will turn it on and off in FTX Central.

 

 

 

Here's what JV wrote:
 
"8. Right now when FTX Global is installed, it replaces the FSX Default and you switch to it using FTX Central.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Just to add two points I haven't seen in this thread yet:

 

- There's at least one huge FTX region where you can log some flight hours without ever leaving this region: North America, including the latest region release Southern Alaska (nearly 500.000 sqkm on its own).

 

- There are a few partial compatibility patches out, which eliminate some of the issues encountered when having a FTX region enabled and flying outside ORBX 'country', FTX England with VFR Germany in particular. (This patch does NOT work for any other country outside of Germany, though.)

[Guest]

 

 

There's at least one huge FTX region where you can log some flight hours without ever leaving this region: North America, including the latest region release Southern Alaska (nearly 500.000 sqkm on its own).

Well, officially North America isn't one region... at least not when you buy it. ^_^ And Australia isn't a small region either, of course (being about the same size as the entire USA!). Which only leaves England/Wales as a small region...  ^_^

[Boeing or not going 578]

Just to add two points I haven't seen in this thread yet:

 

- There's at least one huge FTX region where you can log some flight hours without ever leaving this region: North America, including the latest region release Southern Alaska (nearly 500.000 sqkm on its own).

 

- There are a few partial compatibility patches out, which eliminate some of the issues encountered when having a FTX region enabled and flying outside ORBX 'country', FTX England with VFR Germany in particular. (This patch does NOT work for any other country outside of Germany, though.)

 

This is true but you still can't fly jets unless you are fine with default airport scenery which I am not. Until high quality SEA and PDX are released by someone I am not flying in that area.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

My bad: I've flown too much up and down the east coast of Australia so I forgot that area completely, lol!

 

In the FTX NA regions, the covered airports usually get some kind of upgrade by ORBX. But places like SEA and PDX for sure leave something more to be desired after applying FTX, agreed.