To be clear, this is not a question about the relative merits of FTX Global/Vector vs. GEX and the like.  That ground has already been plowed many times.  I recently upgraded my FSX system, and now have a computer that is quite capable of running FSX, nice aircraft addons, and decent scenery without being brought to its knees.  I am now digging deeper into the skills required to fly the great add-ons that are now available, including the A2A 182, the Real Air Duke V.2, and the Dash-8 Q400.  These are amazing add-ons, and it is nice not to have to worry about FPS, tweaks, and all the eye candy that used to divert my attention from actually flying the aircraft.  It will be a while before I am ready for the 737 NGX, but I may yet get there.

 

I have both UTX v. 2 and GEX v.2 installed in my system, and these are looking great for my general purpose flying in North America.  Since I am content with these for my textures and landclass, my question comes down to whether I would find any signfiicant enhancements in my scenery experience in FSX by adding the ORBX Regions, such as PNW and Northern California?  Given the strides made by both UTX and GEX, will these regional packages add more pleasing scenery effects and detail than I am already enjoying, or is the difference more fluff than substance?  The ORBX developers have offered many airport add-ons which are enticing, but I would like to know before I invest in more eye candy whether these ORBX Regions and their accessory addons are worth the plunge, or is it not that remarkable to have more trucks and buildings on the runway permimeter, and dandelions growing near the airfields? 

 

Would appreciate your options!

 

Rich

Hi Rich.  I had a similar to you UTX and GEX.  Then when the Orbx regions came out I started buying them.

 

I recently dropped GEX and added Global.

 

So I have UTX for Vector, Orbx (all Regions) and Global for non region areas.  Just bought UTX V2 Europe.

 

My read on this is that there is no scenery that can compare to hand crafted polygons and specific texture mapping of the Orbx Regions.  If money is not an issue...then buy them, buy as many as you can or care to.  Each region has 100s of upgraded airports and additional freeware Global airports that also show up and work in the Regions.

 

So yes buy Orbx regions, they are exceptional.  Issues of Vector lines (like roads) cutting through default GEX or Global textures will be gone in the region area.  There are many custom hand mapped polygons for specific areas including photobased ground textures in certain area for instance the lava fields around the Bend Oregon area.

 

And in addition, while you don't really need to I personally I have almost every FTX airport many are stellar and make for great short hops.  They add a great ambiance.

 

Start with one region to see if you like it, I would recommend the Pacific Northwest Region which is the gold star of all the regions. You will find that the transition from the Orbx region to GEX is not that great compared to FTX Global.  Again personally I dumped GEX once I had the money and I love the Global look.

 

Also if you want to try an airport...I would recommend buying Concrete in Washington State.  It will give you a great feel for what to expect with the other strips.

 

cheers.

Why not download the free Orbx Pacific Northwest Demo (Version 2) which includes a full payware-quality airport, KHQM Bowerman. Then you can find out for yourself what an Orbx region and an Orbx airport can do for you.

Thanks Mike and Bryan.  I will purchase PNW and try out a few of the airport upgrades and see if they excite!

 

Rich

So of us have a hard time flying in anything other than Orbx Regions they are so good, which is why in the end I bought FTX Global and that with UTX is exception in its own right.

Well, personally I've moved in the other direction! I run FTX Global and all the UTX software. The only Orbx region I have left is the UK, but I uninstalled PNW, NC and both Rocky Mountains. And I uninstalled my Orbx airfields for the UK in favour of UK2000s airfields, instead.

 

My reasons were initially OOM warnings on long flights, despite have quite a beefy system. DX10 seemed to sort that problem out, but I was still not happy with fps, switching between PNW with a saved situation near Portland, and UTX/FTX Global, the difference was an fps of +10. I am not anal about fps, but was finding certain places, with certain planes started to slow. The airports, in particular were getting a bit crazy for me, with butterflies and dandelions....

 

So Im sort of region free now, except for the UK, and I can fly anywhere. I was finding my flights were always in PNW or NC, when I wanted to try Istanbul or Rome to Naples or the Florida Cays. Not having an Orbx region means I now go anywhere ... Which is liberating, and the fps counter is never, ever on.

If you grabbed PNW, don't forget to grab the free airports that are available, you will see them on the Orbx site..

 

7wa3  West Wind

2s1   Vachon North Island

wa69  Vachon South Island

khqm  Bowerman Far South

Well, personally I've moved in the other direction! I run FTX Global and all the UTX software. The only Orbx region I have left is the UK, but I uninstalled PNW, NC and both Rocky Mountains. And I uninstalled my Orbx airfields for the UK in favour of UK2000s airfields, instead.

 

My reasons were initially OOM warnings on long flights, despite have quite a beefy system. DX10 seemed to sort that problem out, but I was still not happy with fps, switching between PNW with a saved situation near Portland, and UTX/FTX Global, the difference was an fps of +10. I am not anal about fps, but was finding certain places, with certain planes started to slow. The airports, in particular were getting a bit crazy for me, with butterflies and dandelions....

 

So Im sort of region free now, except for the UK, and I can fly anywhere. I was finding my flights were always in PNW or NC, when I wanted to try Istanbul or Rome to Naples or the Florida Cays. Not having an Orbx region means I now go anywhere ... Which is liberating, and the fps counter is never, ever on.

 

Hi Paul, with the OOM error issue I can see you want to avoid that problem.

 

One comment, while I am not an OOM error expert I thought that I read that by managing your scenery.cfg file you could shut of needless or not wanted scenery layers and that would work toward avoiding OOM especially photo scenery that you fly over at very high altitude.  Then when you want to fly low and slow if that is something of interest to you, then you can turn those layers needed back on later.  I use SceneryConfigEditor to manage blocks (groups) of scenery, makes the task very easy.

 

Here is where I was reading about turning scenery on and off as required.

https://#####.wordpress.com/fsx-oom-and-addon-vas-usage/