The truth about FTX Global vs GEX World

[Spartan0536 49]

Hello everyone, this is a highly debated and opinionated subject with lots of ###### on both sides. I personally prefer GEX World and I will get into why later,  for now I will make this short and to the point about the 2 competing products.

 

GEX World and FTX Global do the SAME EXACT THING (as of 9/5/2013), right now there are TEXTURES ONLY. Both use customized autogen with custom placement, and have a different set of textures at the SAME EXACT RESOLUTION. Here is where they differ....

 

 

GEX World:

 

With US 1.099 the textures are more brownish and thus I think a more realistic feel to them, makes the ground look like its not a perfect world, the autogen is custom placed and works very well across a wide range of areas, in Hawaii with Raimondo Taburet's Freeware Hawaii 10m Mesh there are a few stretching issues in some locations but nothing terrible.

 

GEX World is sold not as 1 package but broken into different coverage areas all around the price of $39.99 - $49.99 in USD, one thing to note is that to get the biggest benefit IMHO you need to purchase at least 2 regions especially if you want to fly in the US to get the 1.099 update, its a bit annoying, but I now have a vast portion of the world that I fly in covered in very solid detail.

 

GEX World is designed to work hand in hand with UTX (Ultimate Terrain) which is also sold separately for an additional $39.95 in USD per coverage area, with GEX and UTX working together and tweaked properly in the program settings you can get some extremely impressive results. UTX Provides GEX with custom landclass and as stated before both products work hand in hand and even have settings that intertwine them.

 

Future updates to GEX World are including 3D Bump-mapped textures to enhance the realism feeling without hitting framerates, overall localized textures and colors for coverage areas, & I have a strong feeling these updates were kicked in thanks to the competition from FTX Global.

 

 

 

 

FTX Global:

 

FTX Global is sold as 1 package covering the ENTIRE WORLD for about $100 USD, its a steep initial price tag but the coverage area is complete. Screenshots I have seen with people using FSGlobal or FSGenesis are impressive, there is some texture stretching again however this is not inherently the fault of either FTX Global or GEX World, they simply supply the textures at this time.

 

UTX from what I have read works decently with FTX Global however it was never designed to work hand in hand with it like GEX was, that being said some very impressive screenshots have been made using FTX Global and UTX, again UTX is a separate program available for purchase to enhance your realism feeling. However with FTX Global I would not suggest using UTX's night lighting as FTX Global has that built in and its realism and frame rates seem to be better.

 

One thing FTX Global inherently does well is blend in well with ORBX FTX areas like PNW, while FTX Global does NOT provide landclass at this time and officially the FTX Global team stated that Mesh will not be provided in the product I have seen from screenshots that FTX Global meshes really well with Full FTX coverage areas, its meshes better than GEX with UTX, this should come as no surprise however.

 

Future updates to FTX Global have been discussed as custom landclass built into FTX Global, general localization of textures based on continents, and different texture coloring for enhanced realism, also apparently an uninstaller program has now been included with V1.1 (something I think should come standard with all programs, just in case).

 

 

 

 

My Recommendations:

 

If you own and prefer to use Full ORBX areas I highly suggest you use FTX Global, this will provide you with the best blending possible, and for the hefty initial price tag you do get global coverage.

 

However if you do not own ORBX areas like I do not (not for lack of quality, just price as I like to buy other things in FSX more often) GEX + UTX is a great combo and I have been very satisfied with quality and performance. The biggest downside to the GEX + UTX combo is that you inherently end up paying 2-3 times more than you would for the coverage in FTX Global.

 

 

 

 

Closing remarks:

 

Both products are top notch and its great to see that FTX Global is really being competitive with GEX and UTX, this in theory should drive the GEX and UTX teams to improve their products other wise they risk losing their customers to their competitors. Both programs have their positives and negatives and there really is no definitive choice at this time, some people prefer the look of FTX Global and some GEX World, in the end it all comes down to personal preference.

[Dagger 1]

I don't have either product ATM. When I got back into FSX a couple of years ago I ended up getting FsScene 4X (at the time I didn't research much so it was more of an impulse buy).  I had considered getting GEX/UTX, but kept putting it off.

 

But once I get a much better system I will be upgrading to FTX Global. 

 

 

 FTX in the long run is a much better deal for me and not putting GEX down, but the price and ease of world wide coverage (using Air hauler with bases around the world) makes FTX the no-brainer at this point.

 

 I can't wait to get back in the air once my new system comes in.

[Simmer2050 28]

Thanks for this info, i am using UTX-GEX-FsGlobal Ultimate, and no matter how good FTX global is, the obveriding thing for me is, barely have time to fly, never mind messing around with new scnenry addon every couple of months.

 

So staying with GEX-UTX, besides my top end PC cant be maxed out due to FPS so i am still not getting the best of my current scenery due to hardware limitations, never mind changing to new scenery.

 

If i did not have addon scenery before FTX global, it would be a no brainer choice for me to pick FTX, cause its global all in one.

 

A tip for addon developers, its not just the quality of your products, but also needs no hassle to install or manage, many devs miss this massive point, cause most simmers are busy folks with day jobs to hold down, no time to start messing around with complex software when i just wana fly an go to bed early enough for the next days slaving at work.

 

If its not simple, am not buying it, FTX global wins here for those without addon scenery.

 

What we really need is a product to do FsGlobal-UTX_GEX etc all in one, end of story. Scnerey management is currently still too complex for my liking

 

thanks for sharing

[JesC 88]

Thank you for an informative, and unbiased review.

 

Very refreshing!!

[Fox-Bat 31]

GEX World is sold not as 1 package but broken into different coverage areas all around the price of $39.99 - $49.99 in USD

 

 

Hi I was wondering - How many regions\total price would I have to get for GEX world coverage?

 

 

 

FTX Global is sold as 1 package covering the ENTIRE WORLD for about $100 USD, its a steep initial price tag

[Kaboki 437]

Very nice objective review and many good points made. Enjoyed Reading it B) (Im useally very Orbx biased, but I had to eat my own words yesterday when it comes to GEX, still prefer Global though)

[pilot83 387]

FTXG:

 

1- the more you lower altitude the more you see details => like the real flying

2- Cities have autogen and nice night lights with (vector lights for roads) no major fps hits => no more empty spaces in major cities on approach 

3- all the globe is covered example australia/asia

4- the blending of colours with other add ons  is smooth 

4- the new textures refresh FSX

[Kaboki 437]

Hi I was wondering - How many regions\total price would I have to get for GEX world coverage?

 

8 regions, 34,95$ for each one, total price 279,60$ versus FTX Global for 100$

 

When it comes to price the choice is easy :rolleyes:

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

The OP did a GREAT job, thank you brother.  Would have been nice if you owned both and had compared them on your system, but that aside it was the most objective review to date.

 

Personally, I'm inclined to believe that ORBX went too far in their motive to lock people into FTX, but I admit that this isn't an informed opinion as I too don't own and have not tested FTX. I base my comment on comments made by those i know or have known by reputation for many years,

 

With all that in mind, the OP is on target. Only time will tell, and the GEX lads will now take things up a notch. I love that this sort of thing results in better and better products!

 

 

Thanks again.

 

Dave

[Lawyer+Pilot 126]

Oh and FTX Global textures look much better and the performance is vastly improved (especially with respect to autogen) over GEX. Small points.

 

By the way, Orbx patched FTXG today and included a new landclass to address the greenish hue people were complaining about.

[rsperge 182]

What a nice review, excellent feedback, giving both sides of the plate!!!!  For me I am staying with GEX, and of course it all depends on where you fly, and I do most of my simming in North America.

 

If you are new on the corner FTXG might be the way to go.

[CFIJose 5,485]

GEX was great.

 

FTXG is great!

[ShawnG 1,823]

I am a former GEX user and Current FTXG user.  the review is generally spot on.  

 

other points about FTXG:

 

Autogen placement is generally a great deal denser than you will find in GEX.  (in fact GEX's tree fix limits the number of trees drawn) ORBX includes their own autogen descriptions file, which allows them to use more optimized texture sheets for the trees,  resulting in a lot denser forests without losing frame rate (many, many users have reported fairly large frame rate gains with this product)

 

If you own ORBX regions,  FTXG not only blends better with them graphically, but also includes a "hybrid mode"  where you no longer have to constantly switch FTX central when flying between regions.  this is somewhat of a tradeoff, and there are some advantages to continuing to switch, but it's a potential "fire and forget" solution now.

 

ORBX changes default files for landclass definitions and autogen descriptions.  The advantage to this is they can release landclass packages that can get the textures much closer to where they exist in the real world while maintaining compatibility with default landclass products and their own regions.  Best example is included with the base package, they have used that to fix areas in Asia where American and European agricultural textures were being called, they included a better texture set to portray Asian rice paddies and fields.  this is the basis for the upcoming open LC where there will be more changes of this type.   the downside lies in compatibility with some other scenery providers that use custom landclasses and autogen descriptors.  orbx has included compatibility files from some developers to try to overcome this, but not all developers have come on board.  I haven't had any problems myself,  I've seen noted that a Finland freeware project has some issues, and France VFR regions.

 

GEX is a fine product, and I used it for many years reasonably happily.  colors in FTXG are more vibrant, darker, and to my view more realistic,  but reasonable people can disagree on that point.  I thought that GEX's Africa/Middle east product was fantastic,  GEX looks really good in desert areas, like the american southwest where FTXG didn't show as well (that's been patched but I haven't tested it yet)  

 

If you only fly in one area of the globe, and don't own orbx regions, and like the more subdued color palette, save yourself some money and buy a GEX region.

 

if you have orbx regions, like the more vibrant colors, or fly everywhere, save yourself some money and get FTXG

[Kaboki 437]

but it's a potential "fire and forget" solution now.

Yes it is indeed, haven't switched regions since FTX Global was released. I can't see any difference either with hybrid versus regions.

Love that feature B)

 

 

Personally, I'm inclined to believe that ORBX went too far in their motive to lock people into FTX, but I admit that this isn't an informed opinion as I too don't own and have not tested FTX. I base my comment on comments made by those i know or have known by reputation for many years,

 

Orbx isn't exactly putting a gun to your head threatening to pull the trigger if you don't use their products ^_^ . You have a choice you know...

 

I use alot of other sceneries in combination with FTX Global(UTC, Aerosoft etc etc), the only product I can't use with it is GEX obviously. Flight 1 has actually made some money on me because of FTX Global, UTX enhances FTX Global and the 2 products work nicely together. Would never had bought UTX if it wasn't for FTX Global.

[Spartan0536 49]

As a GEX user I would be more inclined to use FTX Global if I had more ORBX areas where I fly in the US (Mainland and Hawaii), the problem there will end up being over all price as ORBX territories in the US are quite expensive and only cover about 1/10th of the USA. Believe me I am very well aware of the revolutionary detail that ORBX is known for, its just coverage of their main areas and then going to FTX Global, if more areas become available (likely will) and FTX Global gets its landclass systems put it, there is a very good chance I will switch over. The Tasmania coverage of ORBX impressed me, so did the PNW demo.