Reassurance requested re FTX Global

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[TrafficPilot 121]

Thanks for your help guys. I see the patch on their support page.

 

I'll download it once home tonight and as you suggest have already backed up my texture folder. Unfortunately I've read that FTX makes changes to other files within FSX which I'm concerned about but I'll give it a go anyway!

 

Adam

[StormVR6 30]

With all due respect, people should not have to go to those lengths to get support.

 

Go to what lengths? Sending an email? Unless you've mastered telepathy, then sending the management an email is the quickest form of contact I know. The reason I suggested contacting Mr Venema directly, is for one reason only, you're more likely to get results with any company when you go straight to the top. It generally works for me. 

 

Well, to make it clear, I posted on the forum, got ignored for 1 week, my post went to page 10, then I bumped it, went to page 2, then someone else posted an identical question, got ignored, I bumped that.  Eventually Orbx replied and asked us to "pipe down" as they have lifes outside of the forum.   So after explaining that we were not "piping down" after 2 weeks of waiting, were told the Global lights are always visible in fog and there is no way to fix it.   

 

So imo, they chose to ignore it and hope I would go away, instead of manning up and admitting there was a fault. Infact, thats not my opinion, it was pretty obvious that was their tactic. Poor show regarding the lights, not sure how that slips past Beta into a release candidate, and poor show with support.    

 

Hence my suggestion above. At least Orbx (and I'm no fan of it's forums either) aren't quite in the same league as EA yet, it takes your money and not only does it give you zero support but also a rehash of a rehashed bad game! lol. 

[dtmicro 1]

I think the issue is more about how a company responds to peoples' posts in forums, rather than whether or not they immediately address it. Business is always tough and a competetive thing, and they have to allocate their resources wisely, so they will not please everyone. They will make mistakes as they are only human.

 

I'm not specifically speaking about Orbx, but I've seen this "forum politics" issue pop-up a lot between companies in software and other tech fields.

 

That is why I do not believe the CEO of a company should generally be responding directly to people in forums, unless that CEO has a VERY VERY thick skin and can let even the most harsh comments roll off them.  Even if a CEO and a company is attacked, in most cases he simply should not respond.

 

I know this sounds harsh, and I'm sure most people (95%+) have enough etiquette to have a good discussion directly with the company members/founders/management, but it is always that 5% that ruins it. It ends up becoming a nasty emotional thing and both sides end up distracted.

 

I have not visited OrbX forum enough to know how they respond, but they should only let very "soft spoken" easy tempered employees handle the forums.

 

It is their right to respond in whatever manner they choose, but I am just saying it is NOT smart business, either don't respond at all and moderate the post out, but do not make snarky comments at customers, it hurts sales. Not that they really did, I'm just saying IF they ever did and as a general policy.

[wlix261 79]

 

 

I was one of those on the fence regarding FTXG and decided to get it after getting the A2A 172.
 
I have no regrets at all, FTXG looks great day and night. I also haven't noticed any loss in frame rates.

 

+10 Exactly the same in my case

[bjratchf 80]

Global messes up the lights in low vis, something I am really annoyed about but not sure how to approach Orbx about this. The lights are always visible at night, no matter what the visibility is, bye bye cat III approaches at night.

 

Was this ever fixed (for all the instrument pilots out there)? 

[Ponk 51]

It was never fixed, they said it can´t be fixed!  So now we can just hope that their "superb" Global lighting is fixed in P3DV2

[bjratchf 80]

naja, man konnte es von denen so erwarten

[chixter 0]

I did a clean install of FTX Global this weekend.  Was using GEX, thought I could do better.  I uninstalled GEX before installing the FTX Global.  VERY little difference in my opinion from the default terrains.  Things still look a tad 'cartoonish'.  Certainly no better than the GEX which was only a small improvement over the default.  No problem with frame rates but the roads still suck, as do the bridges.  I do most of my flying on the east coast, a lot of lowlands and barrier islands and all.  Sometimes I like to fly low and slow, other times I will Lear from Marthas Vinyard to Myrtle Beach on VATSIM.  I don't know, it's not terrible, but not worth $100 either.  One GEX region (North America) does the same for much less.  Maybe I'll look into the photo stuff that is shipped with the hard drive or I'll do my scenic flying in Europe, where it seems to be better.

[Kilo60 660]

I did a clean install of FTX Global this weekend.  Was using GEX, thought I could do better.  I uninstalled GEX before installing the FTX Global.  VERY little difference in my opinion from the default terrains.  Things still look a tad 'cartoonish'.  Certainly no better than the GEX which was only a small improvement over the default.  No problem with frame rates but the roads still suck, as do the bridges.  I do most of my flying on the east coast, a lot of lowlands and barrier islands and all.  Sometimes I like to fly low and slow, other times I will Lear from Marthas Vinyard to Myrtle Beach on VATSIM.  I don't know, it's not terrible, but not worth $100 either.  One GEX region (North America) does the same for much less.  Maybe I'll look into the photo stuff that is shipped with the hard drive or I'll do my scenic flying in Europe, where it seems to be better.

 

 

Are you saying GEX looked better than FTX Global?

 

I have most of the GEX regions and am on the fence with FTX Global for worldwide coverage?

[chixter 0]

@Kilo 60

GEX was a slight improvement over the default.  I only had North America region.  I got hyped up on people saying how much better FTXG was...so I uninstalled GEX and bought FTXG for $90.00 U.S.  In my opinion, it is no difference between the two.  One was $35 one was $90.  That's the only difference to me.  This is because I fly VATSIM almost exclusively in the states.  Now, from what I am reading (and should have discerned before parting with $90) most of the raves about FTXG are from pilots who fly in Europe, South America, Asia, etc.  So perhaps if you are a globe trotter, FTXG is the way to go...you buy one package vs GEX modules @$35 per.  I can only attest to what I see, in the U.S. there is no difference between GEX and FTXG.  While I don't have a super hopped water cooled gaming system, its not really a slouch either.  Quadcore intel processor upgraded hardware, etc.  I have a 2 monitor setup a 42" main and a 22" side monitor.  I see vids of very realistic looking terrain but that is not going to be accomplished with JUST FTXG.  They usually have UTX or something else compatible running with it.  Hope this explains things.

[chixter 0]

OK Stop the presses.  Get that crow over here and give me a fork.  After spending a snow day here at the Jersey Shore fiddling with my settings.  I must say I have a very big improvement seen on my new FTX Global installation.  The problem it seems, was that their recommended settings are for off the shelf type systems  and if your a little hopped up as I am, or a lot hopped up as some simmers are, these settings will not yield maximum effect.  So I retract my disappointment from the prior 2 posts.  I am seeing better scenery and visuals then I had with GEX, running at higher settings with no loss of smoothness or frame hits.  I'm even able to accelerate long flights considerably with no quirks, stutters, or crashes.  (something I couldn't do with GEX).  Lesson learned:  All of this stuff is system specific, one size does not fit all.

[Kilo60 660]

OK Stop the presses.  Get that crow over here and give me a fork.  After spending a snow day here at the Jersey Shore fiddling with my settings.  I must say I have a very big improvement seen on my new FTX Global installation.  The problem it seems, was that their recommended settings are for off the shelf type systems  and if your a little hopped up as I am, or a lot hopped up as some simmers are, these settings will not yield maximum effect.  So I retract my disappointment from the prior 2 posts.  I am seeing better scenery and visuals then I had with GEX, running at higher settings with no loss of smoothness or frame hits.  I'm even able to accelerate long flights considerably with no quirks, stutters, or crashes.  (something I couldn't do with GEX).  Lesson learned:  All of this stuff is system specific, one size does not fit all.

 

Nice!

 

What changes did you make to the settings to get such an improvement in your results?

[chixter 0]

increases in autogen and mesh texture mainly. Was able to increase AI traffic. Tweaked my graphics card a bit.  Also dl orbx freeware, dozens of airports several of which I fly regularly.  They also have a lot of aircraft repaints as freeware, some of them quite nice.  A very big improvement.  For the hell of it I checked out a few Europe areas as well.  The only thing I believe I can do better is the road textures...from what I've read on forums UTX plays very nicely with FTXG and is tops on road textures.  So it seems that if you want global coverage, the FTXG is the way to go....rather than purchase multiple regions of the other stuff.