There you go, some comparisons between GEX and FTX Global in Africa, Middle East & Caribbean and Central America (I didn't have GEX installed for other areas at the moment).

 

As it's soon 7AM here I was too sleepy to start merging these images so I decided to upload them separately...

 

(Note I forgot my Autogen slider to "Normal" when taking these pics, I think full Autogen with FTX Global looks quite a better than same with GEX...)

 

Mogadishu with GEX (actually it fits better in this case I think):

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/2j5cr3r.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/vngj9h.png

 

 

Over some random river in DR Congo with GEX:

 

http://i42.tinypic.com/33zb6ex.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/207ls0m.png

 

 

Over Namibia with GEX:

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/ngu62p.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/2nvxeh5.png

 

 

Over Lesotho with GEX:

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/2j27xqs.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/2hnu8he.png

 

 

 

Somewhere in Iran with GEX:

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/dh8hm9.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i42.tinypic.com/148hyyg.png

 

 

Over Iraq with GEX:

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/ad0s9c.png

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/29p2ic9.png

 

 

Cuban forest with GEX:

 

http://i42.tinypic.com/311nluw.png

 

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/24fa4o5.png

 

 

Over some central American country with GEX, forgot which:

 

http://i42.tinypic.com/14vlh6b.png

 

 

Same with FTX Global:

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/2irme14.png

 

 

A couple of extras, with FTX Global:

Himalayas: 

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/2j31pn7.png

 

Sahara Desert:

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/30t3qco.png

 

Somewhere in Thailand, I just love the new look of those forests:

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/2ufsokh.png

 

 

Hawaii big island:

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/2v32bzt.jpg

Thank you! 

Well... IMO it won't be an easy choice between GEX and FTX Global... that's how I feel.

Hmmmm...  Interesting.  Not sure I'm sold on it, which is a bummer.

Thanks for taking the time to post these.  I think in quite a few, Global is the winner.  A few are pretty neck and neck with GEX though..  What very clearly shows here though is that it's really just a texture addon - if the particular stretch of landscape is featureless and lacking before, it's still going to be the same stretch of featureless landscape - just with some deeper colors.

 

I do dig the tones though in Global over GEX in the majority of these shots.

 

However, what's key for me is that I don't have much of the world covered in GEX  - so this becomes a no-brainer purchase for me, I think.

Thanks for this effort...many of those posted by Orbx are somewhat biased towards areas where they can really shine...some of these other areas are not so special.

Thank you for the screenshots!

 

Looking at the pictures from Namibia, I would say that FTX Global seems a bit too "green/lush". On wooded areas, the color scheme works better.

Looks like you have autogen on the lowest setting.

I'd like to see some more full featured shots to get an idea of how good of a job they've done with the autogen placement/retexturing.

Most of those shots are...less than impressive.

You have to remember that Global can't do anything about the default layout of landclass, so the really poor landclass areas in default FSX like Africa are still going to look pretty bad.

 

That being said I do think GEX has some great middle eastern textures.

These shot's are a great example of how it is just textures to dress up the landscape. It's basically just putting make up on default. When the OpenLC is released it will really change the look of the terrain and will be much more like giving it plastic surgery. 

These shot's are a great example of how it is just textures to dress up the landscape. It's basically just putting make up on default. When the OpenLC is released it will really change the look of the terrain and will be much more like giving it plastic surgery. 

 

This is true, but he's also not really showing everything Global can do because he barely has autogen on.

 

A big part of the look of Global is the denser, re-textured, re-positioned autogen.

 

Check out this comparison (default + UTX shots a little ways down after the intial post).

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/414465-ftx-global-around-milwaukee-including-night-shots/#entry2725720

Wow, I have to be honest and say that some of the FTX Global shots are really underwhelming.     It seems a minority of areas blow GEX away, a few aren't actually as good as GEX, and the majority are about neck and neck.

 

From the screenies seen so far, they look absolutely nothing like Orb's FTX Global promo shots.

 

Got up on Sat morning at 8am to buy, but I'm holding off until I see more.

I was about 5 minutes away from finishing my download when I made my last post. Now 3 hours and some later, I've started to form my own opinion.

 

I flipped around through about 30 airports taking short flights around various areas tonight, and my opinions on global have ranged from 'mild improvement' to 'wow'.  It's so dependent on landclass and vector data of course, there's no denying that. But that said, some of the places I flew around tonight (Japan, Russia, China) I have no landclass improvements nor vector data for, and the new textures with their associated autogen still made the area(s)look wonderful. 

 

In the areas where I did have GEX, I still thought it was an overall improvement.  Some areas more so than others. Most of my flying tonight was scattered around NA, mainly Canada. I was extremely pleased with the far north (NWT, etc) - they surpassed my expectations there. Northern bush flying in Alberta / Saskatchewan / Manitoba will be great from what I can tell as well. The open plains in the southern portion of those provinces are done well too.

 

My only quibble so far is with farmland textures in NA - it doesn't seem like any crops ever get ripe and turn yellow, which was a bit disappointing!  Would of liked the odd yellow wheat field in summer / fall!  But to be fair, the other seasons more than make up for it.

 

And then... you change the time of day to dusk or dark... wow!  Beats the pants off of anything I've ever seen. The method that they are using for lights, that's a game changer -  I didn't see a single bit of a performance hit on the autogen lights. Not a bit.  Even with autogen set to full right flying around somewhere like L.A.  The vector road lights, I do see a bit of a performance hit from that, but not much, 5 - 6 fps.  They look good though too.  I think if there was an addon that only gave me the night lighting that Global has, nothing else, I'd probably have bought it.

 

Anyway, it's late for me and I'm wiped - I can tell when the stuff I type stops making sense to me as I type it. :lol:

 

Long story short - I'm very happy with my purchase.  I find it to be quite an improvement for the areas I fly, and will be a massive improvement in the areas where I didn't have GEX.

Well on a technical level, the FTX textures are the same resolution as GEX. So it's not an evolution so much as an alternative with a different artistic style.

 

The thing that sets OrbX regions apart from default or even something like GEX+UTX is the careful placement of those texture tiles. The tiles are manually checked against Google Earth, and they put in enough variation to eliminate the "checkerboard" effect seen in some of the above shots when the same tile repeats over and over. I think some people were expecting too much from just a texture replacement.

 

The main advantages with FTX Global as I see are:

 

-Price - the entire world for $90. With GEX each region is $35 - $45 which adds up to more

 

-Prepar3D compatibility - while Flight1 is openly hostile to Prepar3D, OrbX fully support the new sim

 

-Should blend perfectly with FTX regions

 

-OrbX have promised future (payware) landclass additions which will require this base pack

 

Edited to replace UTX with GEX where applicable. Remind me to not write anything until I've had my morning coffee   :lol:

 

 

Price - the entire world for $90. With UTX each region is $35 - $45 which adds up to more

 

I think you meant to compare the pricing to GEX.  You still need UTX!

 

 

Should blend perfectly with FTX regions

 

This is actually a big thing for me.  I hadn't tested it out yet with any flights, but I'm hoping they did a good job here - I like to fly where I live, and I live right near the edge of NRM. :lol: