GEX died when FTXG was born. I can understand why Nick is SO depressed.

Sometimes flight simmers can be quite ruthless - and somewhat fickle. On a Tuesday addon X is the best thing ever invented, but by Friday morning X is dead and Z is borne, etc etc. This has been going on for years on this and many other forums. But the truth is that any addon of high quality doesn't suddenly become "nothing" overnight. The quality is still there. It is the nature of FSX addons that there is constant leap-frogging going on, but very rarely is anything so revolutionary that it obliterates everything preceding it.

 

I wish folks would take a step back and let a little time pass before piling in with statements that such and such product is dead, sometimes only weeks after claiming it was the best addon of its type. No new product is perfect, but many go through a "honeymoon" period where often excessive enthusiasm and then tribalism kick in, followed by a certain nitpicking as a result of small disappointments that things are not as perfect as first thought, followed by exaggerated criticism and before we know it what was "brilliant" last month becomes "deeply flawed" the next.This black and white thinking is getting a habit here. Most hardworking developers are constantly trying to find ways of improving, innovating and keeping up with available technology. That's fair competition. But this is not Ancient Rome (or perhaps it is!).

 

I've had a run in or two with JV but kudos to him for his achievements with FTX. Kudos is also due to Nick who has worked quite hard and been generous with his time in helping many simmers to get their systems in a better state. Both of these people have contributed vastly to the pleasure that many have experienced as a result of their respective contributions.

 

Both products are excellent, and will still be excellent when the next innovation appears from elsewhere.

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Best post ever in this debate!!

 

Should be on the frontpage. It is amazing how fast people abandon a product when only 6 months ago it was the bomb.

This thread was not a debate about which product is better, it was about Nick's statements which has been proved wrong, again and again. I don't have anything with Nick's products, but i don't like his attitude

There goes that Robert Young again, talking sense as usual. C'mon Rob, that's no fun. :lol:

There goes that Robert Young again, talking sense as usual. C'mon Rob, that's no fun. :lol:

 

 

Well, someone had to spoil it all

The central issue in all of this has in no way been resolved yet. FTX Global, when installed, makes changes to certain core FSX files which are not 'owned' by any developer. They are part of the original shared core of FSX. Updating these files has been done by many developers in the past to extend the scenery capabilities of FSX - I can name Orbx, Scenery Solutions (UTX etc.), FSAddon (Tongass Fjords), Aerosoft and Earth Simulations just in my own experience.

 

All of the products from these developers have had the means to either automatically uninstall the changes or instructions of what is changed and how to reverse those changes. In some cases the changes are additive and do not affect anything else so wouldn't cause problems. However, in the case of FTXG, some of the changes make modifications to existing autogen and landclass lookups which will directly affect any other product that expects these to be as defined by the FSX SDK. So these products will be broken in that they won't display properly or may suffer performance issues. As FTXG targets global landclass textures the changes directly affect any other global landclass texture product the main one of which is GEX at present.

 

So of course the developer of GEX is right to point this out! I note that Nick also makes a point of saying this isn't just about GEX as any other similar product will potentially have the same problem.

 

As I've said before this would be ok if a simple and obvious way to reverse the changes was available. All I can say is that the necessary files have been backed up and anyone who knows what they are doing can restore these to allow other products like GEX to work properly again. I've done this myself so I have no problem living with FTXG. But what does a user do if they don't have the knowledge or confidence?

 

It's been three weeks now since FTXG was released without the uninstaller that was supposed to be part of it. We've been promised an uninstaller a few times now within a matter of days but it hasn't yet appeared and as far as I can see isn't part of the forthcoming patch.

 

If anyone wonders why I'm making a fuss about this it's simply because I don't like the misinformation that seems to be common currency about this issue. In my 10+ years of experience with FSX I've never seen a payware product make these kind of changes without a means to go back.

 

Rob W

 

 

In my 10+ years of experience with FSX I've never seen a payware product make these kind of changes without a means to go back.

 

A worst-case scenario would be for other scenery developers to take this same flippant attitude towards each others products.

When I brought FTXEU and had some major issues (I lost ALL the buildings in London) the first thing I did was look to uninstall the programme and try again. Instead I found that it didn't have an uninstall function. It seems a common feature of ORBX software. I was then left with having to do a full reinstall of FSX which was the last thing I expected or had the time to do.

 

Suddenly, when a programme doesn't meet expectations, and people find that they can't uninstall an ORBX product they are surprised! Really?

There goes that Robert Young again, talking sense as usual. C'mon Rob, that's no fun. :lol:

 

Ron,

 

How many dig a trench, lie in the mud, wait for the red flare from "their team", shoot in the dark as they crawl over the top, and hope they live long enough to write home to mother FSX battles have we seen? 

 

Seems to me many of us have been collateral damaged in the head and heart by dozens of previous uncivil wars that ultimately die out as participants and products die off.

 

Too nice a day here to care. Kind regards from warm, beautiful, sunny eastern Canada.

 

 

I was then left with having to do a full reinstall of FSX which was the last thing I expected or had the time to do.

 

Um...I would have went to their support area. They actually have a very detailed, and broke down step by step to uninstall their regions. I have done it many times, in under 2 minutes before without having to do a re-install. Uninstalling FSX is not needed for any of their products, including this one (FTXG). Again, not a blind support of Orbx, just someone who reads up on their products and actually uses support forums.

After a couple of years of your advise Nick which I have benefitted from greatly, here is my humble advise to you; No good deed goes unpunished!

 

In my experience a lot of people are complete ingrate's and a big chuck of those ingrate's are Fight Simmers. As for the rest of the people I don't know what there hobby is.

I cannot get my head around why so many people want to bash nick!

 

nick has helped me many a time, and has been quite patient, and remains to be despite asking repeated questions (to which I am partialed to).

 

What has nick done to deserve such rants and bad reviews?

+1

 

Whether Nick is right or wrong about this issue members of the community ought to show him the respect he deserves. Can anyone of the people who are bashing him now honestly say that they have not benefitted from Nick Needhams help directly or indirectly. I know I couldn't. When I have had problems with FSX and posted over at Simforum I often get a response from Nick within a few hours of posting, often within a few minutes and nearly always he knows the issue and the solution and when the solution is applied its works!

And that is in general not just with Flight1 products.

 

I know there are guides here at AVSIM and I am sure they are good but I found Nick's first and I am familiar with his style of presentation so that is my goto for general FSX support.

 

If there was a Nobel Prize for FSX Nick Needham would get it!

 

everyone is fallible and perhaps it will turn out that he is wrong (I doubt it though). By all means argue with what he say's but have some respect for the man's stature in the FSX world.

Whoever reaches the level of stature of either of these two giants in this "industry" may (or may not) be qualified to pass judgment on Nick or John and their work.

 

Anyone here who thinks they have attained such lofty standards, go for it, and we will take a vote on whether you qualify.