I guess "drop in quality" depends on what and where. The most recent region I purchased, Southern Alaska, is Orbx' best NA region yet.

 

Agree, I was slightly dissapointed with FTX ENG, but Scotland tottally made up for it. FTX ENG isn't bad quality either..

I agree with the OP.
 
The overall quality level of the EU releases has definitely not been to the same standard as with the 'in-house' Orbx releases.   Anyone who suggests it's because the UK isn't as pretty, is talking nonsense. There are stunning areas all over the UK, but the fact remains that the Orbx representation of them is not at as high a quality level as with their NA releases.
 
Regarding 'beauty' ; you could simulate an old grey, soviet, run down city and still make it a beautiful rendition in the sim! . (look at Aerosoft's Norilsk for example).
 
Of course it is hard to define, describe and measure quality;  but it is nevertheless still valid to observe somethings and conclude that the overall quality is not as high as with something similar.
 
I notice it with the airports too. I stopped buying the English airfields after Shoreham for this reason.
 
What I would say to the OP is that Scotland and N.Ireland are better than England and Wales in my opinion; there have been improvements.

 

 

I was actually considering to buy NZQN, now I'm ... still considering what to do.

It is quite well done Olli, if you use it in the Summer. NZQN is very much like LOWI, and if that had summer textures in the winter, we would probably not fly there.

Examples would be nice...

What on Earth are you talking about? ..... he wrote 3 paragraphs describing his point articulately and clearly. The 'example' is that the Orbx EU sceneries are not at the same standard of quality as the other regions.

It is quite well done Olli, if you use it in the Summer. NZQN is very much like LOWI, and if that had summer textures in the winter, we would probably not fly there.

 

 

Thanks, Julian. It seems that NZQN adds more to its respective region than, for example, Bozeman and Juneau do (the Juneau environment is just too good already with 'just' the region - sorry, ORBX, you goofed there! :lol:).

 

I was in Queenstown in November, so winter was over anyway, nearly ...   B)

 

 

was in Queenstown in November, so winter was over anyway, nearly ...

Ahhh you should have told me, I am only a couple of hours away from QT. Hopefully next time.

Couple of points:

 

1) orbx was never about large international airports - it was / is about an immersive (generally GA) experience.

2) all the airports in the region packs get some sort of an update. Take PDX for example, yes it uses default buildings but the layout and the library additions make it much better than default fsx version.

3) yes, the sim720 stuff has not been upto the same standard. I have eng, sco and wls and they are good but not as polished as the NA stuff.

What on Earth are you talking about? ..... he wrote 3 paragraphs describing his point articulately and clearly. The 'example' is that the Orbx EU sceneries are not at the same standard of quality as the other regions.

 

No, thats not an example, but just an opinion.

 

Among other things I was interested in what precisely made StormVR6 write a sentence like this:

 

"it does look a bit messy down there".

 

Its kind of like saying "autumn sure feels warmer this year". Without more data to clarify, such a statement is just small talk.

Most people still seem to have little knowledge of the FSX terrain and scenery system, and any comparison to the geographic accuracy of photoscenery is pointless. A landclass product can at best be accurate within squares of 1,2 x 1,2 km. That square can be assigned just 122 different land classifications (ground textures + autogen). As a result, both resolution and variety of textures is too small to really depict a country in detail. It will always be an abstraction. When done good it can be like a Picasso, when done bad like an average child's drawing.

 

This is true, however landclass data can also be polygon-based, which removes the 1.2 x 1.2km limit and allows the developers to control the position and shape of towns and other features more accurately. This is often used in the North American scenery products and is very evident when the shape of a town follows the edge of a road or stream/river.

 

Also I'm not sure about the 122 classifications limit, since OrbX modify many core FSX/P3D files.

 

The FTX EU products don't seem to use this technique as much, which makes them look more haphazard. For example, a town that is supposed to be next to a road me be located 1km from the road, and the shape will not be accurate.

I was actually considering to buy NZQN, now I'm ... still considering what to do.

 

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Have a look at the video I made recently.

 

Eventhough there are some issues with the scenery, I'm still glad that I got it. It's such a unique location and it serves well as a base for a diverse type of flying. I agree that the quality isn't top of the line but it has already been indicated that a patch is coming up. I hope most of the issues will be addressed in that.

 

I think what we are seeing is that Orbx is growing as a company which means that they do not only employ the guys who started it and worked day and night because it was their passion, but also contract developers that like most of us just expect a paycheck for every hour they put in. NZQN was perhaps rushed out of the door a bit too soon which is unfortunately all too common these days in the game industry. But so far I think OrbX has a pretty good reputation for supporting their products after release.

Funny you ask that, and it's a fair request. I did actually have some examples to post, but there was no point. The difference in overall quality and polish between the NA and EU regions (airports included) is so significant I didn't feel a visual example was necessary. If you don't see the clear drop in quality then there is nothing more to say.   

 

Well, hanging above FL200 it can be hard to judge that on my part, thats why I wanted a spot to go to :smile:  

 

On my departures and approaches I have not really seen anything 'unexpected', but I would guess that if you live in England and even have flown above the country it would probably stand out.

The nature of the NA and EU landscapes are very different though.

 

 

If for instance the Ultimate Alaska tech had been used by ORBX in FTX EU Scotland for the Northern coastal areas and isles they would have made the towns look more realistic. Now they use generic landclass that has too many trees between the houses, making the villages ruin an otherwise faitful landscape

 

If the ORBX team had used the UTX Alaska tech you would have gotten a brisk 2 fps anywhere near any of the even medium sized cities in England.  The vector buildings tech is extremely frame rate hungry and looks great, but is only really useful in places like Alaska where the population is sparse.  Even in alaska framerates using UTX Anchorage are well below framerates using ORBX Anchorage

I've noticed that ORBX are releasing new regions very frequently lately. Maybe they're being rushed?

Maybe we are waking up, and want better quality for our money, and there is nothing wrong with that, as Orbx products are not cheap.

Holger, come back, we need you.

 

Holger is still around.  He's working on Northern Cali,  he just was not as involved in EU as he was in the other areas.

 

I think we need a reality check though.  EU is NOT abjectly horrible, and other than other ORBX products, I can't think of any other landclass based sceneries that are better.  let's see what is done with the rest of Ireland and Norway before we write off Sim720 completely m'kay?

Ahhh you should have told me, I am only a couple of hours away from QT. Hopefully next time.

 

 

That was my honeymoon years ago (yes, in November, but years ago ...).

 

Now I'm hoping to see better times again ( :lol:  :rolleyes:   ).

 

When conditions get brighter, I'll let you know.   :ph34r:

Have a look at the video I made recently.

 

Thanks. Looks like I end up buying NZQN after participating in this discussion about 'quality not what it was' ...

 

I've noticed that ORBX are releasing new regions very frequently lately. Maybe they're being rushed?

 

They are (being) small: WLS and NIR. One region for the price of two (three).

 

(...) before we write off Sim720 completely m'kay?

 

 

I love SCO and even ENG was convenient for my rather new FSX installation without any English photoscenery or London cityscape.

 

Those devs have proven their potential already, IMO.