UTX USA out for P3D

[dukeav 46]

The product has changed, the documentation has not. The wording of the dialogs is the same. The help files are mostly the same. A totally non relevant issue IMHO.

 

The product consists of map data not documentation. Nothing to explain. If you like what you see it's a great deal. If you don't, the PDF won't matter.

 

Vic

 

For folks like me, who are considering upgrade, it would have been nice if they had more details and comparison pics between v1 and v2. The pdf on the product page is the old one, one would wonder if anything has changed at all. The term "new" is used loosely, "new" from what v1 or without UTX?

 

I hope the upgrade option allows v1 FSX to v2 P3D??

[peppy197 165]

For folks like me, who are considering upgrade, it would have been nice if they had more details and comparison pics between v1 and v2. The pdf on the product page is the old one, one would wonder if anything has changed at all. The term "new" is used loosely, "new" from what v1 or without UTX?

 

I hope the upgrade option allows v1 FSX to v2 P3D??

why be so fussy

It is not as if they are asking 100 $ for an upgrade/

[dukeav 46]

why be so fussy

It is not as if they are asking 100 $ for an upgrade/

 

So just throw our money at it then?

[zmak 331]

why be so fussy

It is not as if they are asking 100 $ for an upgrade/

Flight simmers come from all walks of life inc , students, unemployed , pensioners

[Gridley 257]

For folks like me, who are considering upgrade, it would have been nice if they had more details and comparison pics between v1 and v2. The pdf on the product page is the old one, one would wonder if anything has changed at all. The term "new" is used loosely, "new" from what v1 or without UTX?

 

I hope the upgrade option allows v1 FSX to v2 P3D??

 

There's two informative posts on what the key features of this upgrade are over at the Flight1 boards.

 

To summarize:

 

The major changes in V2.0 are:

 

• Complete replacement of roads and autogen bridges.
• Completely new autogen night lighting.
• User Interface changes.
• Added Prepar3D version.

In addition, there were some outstanding V1.6 issues that are addressed in V2.0.

 

Road data is very hard to update.   Over the years we have continued update the UTX landclass, water and other features in all the UTX patches that have been released.   However, the roads had remained the same over the years and are based off of 7 year old commercial data.   Why have we not updated the roads sooner ?    Well, you really cannot splice in new roads efficiently.  You really need to replace them all at once.    Doing this creates a lot of work.  We have to go in and make sure that none of the roads sit on water.  If they do, the water has to be modified.   We also have to convert the new roads to extrusion bridges.   There are tens of thousands of extrusion bridges that are created, QC'd and hand-edited if necessary.

 

With UTX USA 2.0, we have replaced this 7 year old road data with the recent commercial road data from TomTom.  This is a 100% complete road replacement, not a patch.   The same is true for the bridges so they match the roads.

 

UTX USA 2.0 also provides the new autogen lighting.

 

With, UTX USA 2.0, we also corrected outstanding anomalies that were reported.

 

The coastlines have not changed with UTX USA 2.0.    UTX is already based on the best coastline data available.  Plus, over the years we have continue to improve the water data by hand with all the patches.   The last thing we would want to do is replace the water data, because better data is not available and also it would introduce problems again that 7 years of patches eventually resolved (based on user reports).

 

Facts about UTX:

 

• It is the only product that is based on commercial data used in GPS units.   So, it is going to have the highest accuracy when it comes to roadways.
• Converting water data for use in flight simulators normally causes a developer problems galore.   You have to edit the roads to make sure they are not in the water.   You have to deal with lots of water spikes and sunken parts that take years of feedback and correction to sort out.   UTX Water is both accurate and stable.

 

The big value for me is native support for P3D (the prior FSX versions for some reason drained performance in P3D for me.  The new version does not.)

 

Also yes, upgrade path is FSX v1 to *BOTH* FSX and P3D v2.

[dukeav 46]

 

 

The big value for me is native support for P3D (the prior FSX versions for some reason drained performance in P3D for me.  The new version does not.)

 

Thanks for the links. Have you seen the performance improvement in P3D?

[Gridley 257]

Have you seen the performance improvement in P3D?

 

Yes, for me, the new version of UTXv2 performs much better (little to no FPS change compared to stock P3D v2.4) than the FSX version of UTX v1 ported to P3D.  As always, your mileage may vary !

[dukeav 46]

Yes, for me, the new version of UTXv2 performs much better (little to no FPS change compared to stock P3D v2.4) than the FSX version of UTX v1 ported to P3D.  As always, your mileage may vary !

 

Well, good to know that at least its not degraded and is officially supported now.

[vgbaron 3,483]

Duke - I see others have answered your question. Additionally, a lot of what has been done is "under the hood" - more efficient coding etc. UTX isn't just about sticking in some map cords, finding the best way to display without a major performance hit was the big aim - and achieved very well, IMHO, especially in P3D.

 

I can say that the FIRST version I tested in P3D dropped my fps to low single digits with the most horrendous stuttering I have every seen. A lot f work that no one sees went into making it so that there is negligible hit with maximum visuals.

 

As others have said - if you own the FSX version, your upgrade license covers BOTH FSX and P3D.

 

Upgrade and enjoy!

 

Vic

[hesynergy 67]

It's supposed to be a slideshow...as in, look here..... of the current product. I would like to see that....End of story.

 

C

[hesynergy 67]

Scenery Solutions has acquiesced to my statements, and are working on making it more obvious that UXUSAdemo.pdf, is in fact the old one and in no way represents the improvements in The V2 product.

 

They are also working on putting together a new demo.pdf. I have offered to help with screenshots… I would suggest that those of you who already have the product provide some screenshots to help with the production.

 

I won't be be responding to any comments to my original post, as I said everything that I needed to.

 

With regards and respect,

 

Chas

[JASPRUDENTE 0]

Depends on your knowledge of how to make the products. Scenery Solutions have craked that code a while ago: http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-photoscenery-megascenery-sample_topic50067.html

 

That's aerial imagery with autogen on top, a very time and storage expensive task. Especially if you want to recolor it for multiple seasons. The time it takes to hand place a city of autogen is enormous, very few automated tools will produce a similar result even with great source data. What Scenery Solutions is doing is using data that has information on building placement and vegetation to generate autogen and then touching it up by hand so it doesn't look as sparse as most automated building/veg autogen placement does.

 

Anyway it is entirely different than landclass tiles + vector roads/rivers/etc. like what covers most of the world. Still no way to do that without having roads and houses interfere.

[rjack1282 315]

I took the plunge and installed the updated UTX over FTX Global and Vector and I have to say it looks pretty good imo.  It adds quite a bit of detail that the global products don't have.  I'm not quite sold on the lights yet since I have not messed around with it too much but the supplied configuration tools are pretty in depth and some tweaking is in order.  Performance seemed pretty solid as well.  If anyone is interested in seeing a specific location before they purchase I will be streaming quite a bit 11/27 through 11/30 since I'm off work...send me a PM if your interested.

 

Ryan

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

I have found it to be an excellent product

[simmerhead 885]

I am happy with the product so far. The beaches included in UTX are worth the product alone for anyone flying in Florida and similar places.

 

Since I don't live in the US I won't bother comparing it with real maps and aerial/satellite images. It is surely a lot better than stock scenery.