There is an answer from Nick

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

What the hell have I just watched?

"I'm Glad Because I'm Finally Going Home" by Eduard Khil.

 

RIP. 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

You're missing nothing! ^_^

 

I have asked a question over at Orbx forums about the issue of modified lclookup table.  I unfortunately don't exactly know how this works to know if other landclass products will display as intended.  I saw someone mention FinlandX not fitting right and I saw some comparisons using SceneryTech and they did not match very well.

 

So, my question was posed to the source over at Orbx, I want to know what I'm getting into when it comes to the landclass stuff.

 

I would be happy to stay entirely with Orbx openLC if that is the case so I won't go buying other commercial landclass products which just happen to be on sale right now.

I think this post by OrbX explains what they did, why they had to do it and how they tried to minimize the damage done:

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/59802-ftx-global-update-june-2013/

 

The "scrambled LC calls" Nick refers to sounds like the lclookup.bgl file.

 

One can only hope P3D 2.0 is able to reach a larger audience. Friendly competition among developers is good, but when flawed decisions made by the Aces team in 2004-2005 force developers to fight for control over core FSX files, it's not good for anyone.

 

 

OK right this is what i'm talking about.

[Parping Couplet 117]

Seems to me this is all quite simple really.

 

Was native FSX landclass and texturing perfect? - no

 

Was GEX and UTX a perfect solution? - close but no cigar, and never worldwide.

 

Do we welcome FTX-G as a major step forward for our hobby - Oh yes!

 

Developers throwing dummies out of prams when they've been royally trumped by a competitor are simply an entertaining sideshow.

 

Could we really care less about what Flight 1 thinks of Orbx?

 

It's all so baffling as I'd wager that sales of UTX are going through the roof right now, plus their other landclass options - I see FSDT is doing a promotion on X Class - now that's how to embrace competition with class, quite literally!

[JaiDiaz80 4]

Wow talk about delusional.  It's a no brainer that FTX Global will over-write GEX, they're both doing the same thing - TEXTURES!

 

It seems to me like he's being extremely defensive in light of this product actually looking a lot better than GEX.  GEX works well and I've used it since its release, but flying with FTX Global has added a totally new depth to FSX, flying in the Caribbean and South America feels real now with depth of color not found in GEX.  Perhaps instead of talking negatively about the competition they should try to make their next iteration even better, is that not what competition is all about?  

 

I happily removed GEX and am not looking back and I suspect many others simmers are doing the same or else he wouldn't have felt compelled to RANT to such a childish degree.

 

My 25 cents.

 

-Jaison

[mr340 56]

Go to NickN's forums and read his so called "fsx bible" , more like "fsx diatribe". Calls out devs for not doing things his way, calls out users for modifying fsx.cfg. He does throw in some useful info, but it is clearly a document written by someone who feels threatened. This is even more clear after his Ftxg/Gex post. For all the shortcomings we point out about JV's behavior, NickN has crossed the line. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Agree!! The man is feeling lonely now . It was just a matter time until he said something like that calling developers all kinds of stuff . How will developers work with him in a future development , i know by his attitude they won't. Imagine if am new to the sim don't even know nothing an if i make any mistake nick from what i have seen on several post he makes new simmers look bad instead of getting down to it an just help with out calling out crap this crap that... In his recent post  he tried to clear his name , but we are not fools we know it won't surprise us if you were behind all this. But JV is right life is to short to be on this battlefield that doesn't solve anything .

[jjjallen 37]

LOL - it's why they call it competition!  

 

Regards

jja

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Here is an answer I received from Cloud9 folks.

 

Quote

Does the modified FTSX lclookup table mean that the texture calls by Cloud9 land class products would end up calling upon unintended textures.

That depends by the changes to the lc codes OrbX made, how many of the changed codes are used by X-Class (and where), and how different the new textures are in relationship to the old code.

Note that, the same issue will of course happening with any other 3rd party landclass, as long as someone touches the lclookup table, any landclass made to conform to the SDK standard will be affected in some way.

However, landclass codes by default go from 1 to 147, and there are several of them not used so, if OrbX has changed one of the unused codes or those from 148 to 255, it's possible their changes can coexist with any 3rd party landclass. Which seems to be the case, since they say any landclass can be used together with FTX Global.

[alainneedle1 97]

Agree!! The man is feeling lonely now . It was just a matter time until he said something like that calling developers all kinds of stuff . How will developers work with him in a future development , i know by his attitude they won't. Imagine if am new to the sim don't even know nothing an if i make any mistake nick from what i have seen on several post he makes new simmers look bad instead of getting down to it an just help with out calling out crap this crap that... In his recent post  he tried to clear his name , but we are not fools we know it won't surprise us if you were behind all this. But JV is right life is to short to be on this battlefield that doesn't solve anything .

 

You fooled me with your post.....

[mr340 56]

You fooled me with your post.....

Oh yea how?? Your the one who work with NickN  no offense right but sometime i think your NickN Lawyer. LOL

 

Forgive me is just you always seem to be the one to clear his name .

[Dr Vesuvius 22]

 

 

Well, for one thing it breaks FinlandX which has landclass, mesh and a couple custom textures. Work just fine with GEX, but not with global..
 

 

Funny thing is, I just installed FinlandX *after* installing FTX Global, and everything appears to be fine.  But then I don't know the country that well so I could be missing subtleties.

 

While I'm gut-feeling certain that FTXG itself won't have made any changes that render other packs using landclass incompatible, I'm not 100% certain that OpenLC won't either.

 

No JvE, I'm not confused or upset.  Heck that's the second time today someone has wrongly called me that... I must have my confused and upset face on today!  :-)  No let's just say that I'm mildly concerned about an ambiguous data point that I'd like resolved.   NickN has suggested that OrbX have changed landclass calls in some fundamental way that will cause unspecified compatibility problems.  The only rebuttal I've seen so far has basically been "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"  While that may indeed be true, it doesn't give me any further hard facts to help clarify the issue in my own mind.  There may indeed be fundamental changes, but designed to maintain backwards compatibility.  There might not be any such changes.  Or there might be something installed as part of OpenLC that will impair compatibility to some degree, from a minor glitch to a dealbreaker.  

 

It's not a world shattering issue that has me on the edge of my seat.  I don't feel entitled to storm onto the OrbX forums and demand that Jon Venema explain himself this very instant! No, but it's still an empty tick box that I think I'd like to see filled before I start down the OpenLC route.  I'd be disappointed if installing OpenLC  Europe meant that I couldn't run FinlandX or the excellent freeware Norway bundle over the top of it.  Even then it might not be a dealbreaker, but I'd certainly like to make the decision with my eyes open.  If that simply means buying OpenLC on day 30 or 60 instead of on day 1, then so be it.

 

I have to say though that the person or persons responsible for the anti-OrbX sockpuppetry have done a lot to strengthen Jon Venema's side of the dispute.  When one side is caught resorting to that sort of activity, it makes me naturally lean towards placing more trust in the other.

 

Respectfully to all concerned.

 

Dr V

[Guest]

 

 

I'd be disappointed if installing OpenLC Europe meant that I couldn't run FinlandX or the excellent freeware Norway bundle over the top of it.

 

Well, I can't imagine how this could be the case. OpenLC works with FTXG, yes, and it comes with extra textures, yes, but those extra textures will only be called by OpenLC itself. When you put the freeware Norway landclass above the OpenLC landclass you will see the Norway landclass calling FTXG textures: I can tell you that right now it does a wonderful job doing so! Norway has never looked so good!

 

Again, I have said it before, I fail to see how OpenLC can ruin other addons as long as you can change the order to your liking in the Scenery Library.

[alainneedle1 97]

Oh yea how?? Your the one who work with NickN  no offense right but sometime i think your NickN Lawyer. LOL

 

Forgive me is just you always seem to be the one to clear his name .

 

"life is to short to be on this battlefield" and you keep posting how you feel......that's how you fooled me.

 

Forgive me but for the rest of your post, as Nick said...Quote" Some people really need a life instead of getting off on silly gossip stories posted in forums." end of quote....

[mr340 56]

"life is to short to be on this battlefield" and you keep posting how you feel......that's how you fooled me.

 

For the rest of your post, as Nick said...Quote" Some people really need a life instead of getting off on silly gossip stories posted in forums." end of quote....forgive me.

Everyone has right to post how they feel right . An thats how i feel i respect yours respect mines . It all ends happy

 

Are you NickN Lawyer? :smile:

 

I will continue to post how i feel on this thread but to open up a thread to talk about NickN that is not me that is where "life is to short to be on this battlefield" comes into play. I will not open up a thread talking about Flight 1 respond because i am well sure it will not end up good.

[gheeD 62]

Has this already been reported on the FTX support forum? FinlandX is one of the things I wouldn't want to fly without. It's up there with weather engines (on my list).

 

I ment to buy FTXG so I could do cross Atlantic flights between FTX regions (and for the beatifull night lighting), but I have to see how this turns out.

Not to my knowledge, I saw reports about it breaking FinlandX on a finnish FS forum and I don't have Global myself, so I didn't really feel the need to go asking there what's wrong and/or demanding a fix when i don't own the product.

 

 

 

Funny thing is, I just installed FinlandX *after* installing FTX Global, and everything appears to be fine.  But then I don't know the country that well so I could be missing subtleties.

 

There's some pretty distinctive problems from what i hear, fields going totally wrong and autogen misplaced. http://www.fsnordic.net/discussion/index.php/topic,106644.msg1442872.html#msg1442872 The product does use some creative stuff to improve finland, but thing is, I don't personally have any of the stuff that's been reported with GEX. 

 

Maybe installing FinlandX after global fixes it, don't know. 

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

 

Is that Kermit the frog on your profile picture?