First of all, I'm fully aware that the title of this thread reads as an incredibly cringe-worthy opening question for some kind of alternate AVNerd episode of "Blind Date" and for that, I apologize!

 

On to the real question. We all know ORBX has a sale on at the moment. I'm the proud owner of Global/Vector/OpenLC EU but I don't own a single payware airport. I currently have some cash burning a digital hole in my PayPal account and I think I should take advantage of the sale.

 

So, if you had to choose a region/airport, what would you recommend?

I mainly fly the Big Tin, but I occasionally tear around in the A2A 182 and (very recently!) the Cherokee. I've tried freeware airports and ultimately deleted them as they played merry hell with my FPS. If possible, I'd like something that looks nice but doesn't affect performance *too* much.

 

Lastly, I love the Orbx freeware airports but if I was to buy a full on Orbx airport would I *also* need the region or would global/vector be enough?

 

Thanks in advance for reading (assuming you got this far ) and thanks for any advice!

FTX Norway without question. Why? The region + the frantastic Norwegian freeware AoN (Airports of Norway by Andrew Thomson) and Norway GA (by Jan Norberg) makes that region the most accurate in the world. As you allready have Global/Vector/OpenLC EU you would have the perfect combination. You will be breathless flying in Norway with that combination.

 

 

Jack

then Swede in Spain

It depends on where you like to fly..... :rolleyes:

 

Personally, I live in the Pacific North West, so Orbx PNW and NCA is a total non-brainer.

 

As far as nice airports go, have a look at Palm Springs, no region required.

the most scenic for me is NZSI which is my third last region buy actually. Then PNW is a must have as well in my opinion.

 

Michael Moe

Yeah usually the airports by Jarred Marshall (sp?) are the most Fps friendly Orbx ones

 

KRDD (triple installer)

KSFF (fsx)

KMRY (triple)

KPSP (triple)

KJAC (fsx)

KSEZ (triple)

 

All except SEZ would allow for airliners

 

I think excluding SEZ and PSP you need the Orbx region pack for that area.

I like MRY because it's close to SFO but also reasonably close to SoCal

I'm partial to PNW myself, but Queenstown NZ was voted the world's most scenic landing ^_^

http://www.queenstownairport.co.nz/news/media-releases/queenstown-airport-rated-worlds-most-scenic-landing

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

 

It depends on where you like to fly.....

 

Bert, I did consider this but I didn't want to skew people's recommendations. If I'd have said 'oh btw, I like to fly Pacific North West area'. then I wouldn't get many suggestions!

Right now, I'd consider flying anywhere if it looks great and doesn't bash performance too much. 

 

Keep em coming, it's really narrowing it down for me...

Australia region. I would recommend Cairns or Canberra airports they have low frame hits.

 

 

FTX Norway without question

 

Agreed.

 

Can't go wrong with FTX Norway, especially as a first region.  

Neil,

To answer your question I would say Norway put I dont even own it. CAL was very good.

 

 

But.

As I know and you just said you don't own any addon airports, that's where imo you would gain the most if flying high if low and slow then a region. Some airports are just stunning and add so much to a flight.

KIAD is breath taking but I could name so many, UK2000 are great for the UK.

 

I will not fly to or from a normal airport if its not a top of the range addon airport I don't fly there...end of for me. 

 

Enjoy what ever way you go but don't buy a ORBX med-large airport its not there strong point imo ofc. 

 

Watch some youtube vid's of the NG's flying into Toronto or Dubai just to get a taste.

 

For Ryanair short hops EIDW and EGBB is a good start.

 

Enjoy!

 

PS if you go for Norway you could get OSLO and Bergen even add Torp, then you really will see what your missing but regions are not like running Global be warned.

 

I don't have any installed as I don't fly low and slow anymore..

Not all Airports are tune into 2.5 yet so before pressing the PayPal button Check down at Orbx site for compatibility.

Bob

When faced with this decision myself a couple years ago, I chose Australia based on the following rationale:

 

1) Sheer size -- I could spend months bouncing from airport to airport and it would be a long time before I'd see everything there is to see.

2) Variety of Terrain - Vast expanses of nothing (no heavy-duty terrain or scenery to bog down memory) great for long tubeliner flights, and plenty "hundred dollar hamburger" runs along the coasts.  I might add, however, that even those vast expanses of nothing make for some pretty good low-and-slow flying.

4) Bargain -- Four regions for the price of one and Tasmania is a free download.

 

The PNW and Northern California regions are great too (really, you can't go wrong with any of them) but I still think the best bang-for-the-buck is to be found in Australia. 

The difficulty with this sort of question is similar to asking folks, if you had to pick on favourite sport what would that one be, if you had to pick one favourite TV show what would that one be?  Only you can answer that question!  You might as well just throw a dart at a map of the world and see where it lands.

 

To deal with this problem, go to the Orbx main webpage listing all their products.  There are 100s.  What area do you want to fly in the most?  What is your home base, if you have one?  Write down the region where this might be and start buying until your money runs out.  I am assuming that you have downloaded and install everyone of their freeware airports including the global packs?

 

Me I have all the regions and most airports so I don't see how I could tell you which one to buy. 

 

I live in the PNW and that is my home base and that is where I would start.

 

cheers and good luck.

 

 

You might as well just throw a dart at a map of the world and see where it lands.

 

Bryan, this thread is the equivalent of that!

I had a couple of regions in mind before I posted this, but like I said I didn't want to skew any decisions. I've installed all the freeware packs and I think they're great but Orbx sales are few and far between so I thought I'd better make the most of it this time and pick up a region...or two. But that's it..ok maybe an airport BUT THAT'S REALLY IT!

 

At the end of the day, it might just give someone the opportunity to gush about *their* favourite region and that's ok too

If you're interested in a nice concentration of payware GA airports, I would say PNW is a great choice. I've bought up a bunch of airports in the sale, and performance is good on my middling system with all but Squamish (pretty demanding, even after turning down settings). If you avoid airports in the main Seattle-Tacoma corridor (and don't push building autogen too high), you'll find decent performance and beautiful scenery for knocking about in something like the Cherokee.

 

Just during this sale, I've purchased Sekiu, Orcas, Squamish, Cle Elum, Walter Sutton's, and Siletz Bay. I already owned Concrete and Israel's Farm. I think I might also pick up Diamond Point and perhaps one other. With all of that, I've got a ton of variety with everything in range for a nice, quick flight.

 

I wasn't really thinking about Norway, but I'll have to check it out after hearing about the freeware airports.

 

Australia is also great, but I don't fly there much anymore because the basic airports are all stock. It was my first region way back in the 4-different-regions days. Still holds up if you aren't too worried about the (mildly) upgraded airports.