OSS Shoreham - $24.95

[SQUAWKIDENT 3]

Was checking the AVSIM news earlier and saw information about the release of new scenery for a small UK GA airfield (Shoreham) by "OSS".I already have the UK2000 version of this airfield but decided to take a peek at their PR shots and see how much they are trying to charge us all for the privilege of installing this scenery.To be honest I was shocked when I visited their website. $24.95$24.95 for a v small UK GA airfield. I could get the whole of the South of England airfields from UK2000 for less than this!Do I detect another blatant attempt at ripping off FlightSim users by a payware company or do you think I am overreacting?Has anyone bought it? If so why!RegardsAdam

[ckukmale 30]

Adam.If you are in the UK then you could always wait for the JustFlight Flying club Pack to come out.This will contain the OSS Shoreham scenery plus the 4 GA Flying club aircraft which they sell at the moment for almost

[SQUAWKIDENT 3]

Hi CraigI flew into Shoreham recently and find the UK2000 rendition perfectly adequate. As with many UK simmers I also use the VFR Mesh and VFR Photographic scenery which the UK2000 product works perfectly with.From what you are saying about "3rd party" addons it sounds as though the OSS product will either clash or overwrite the products I have - another reason for me to avoid.I would agree however that if Shoreham is your "local" airfield then it may appeal to others also based in the area. But

[ckukmale 30]

>From what you are saying about "3rd>party" addons it sounds as though the OSS product will either>clash or overwrite the products I have - another reason for me>to avoid.The product works great with VFR Photographic Scenery. Everything lines up perfectly but the issues which I have noticed are as follows.With VFR Terrain installed then there are some coastline clashes further west along the coast going towards Selsey Bill. The mesh that comes with the package isnt as nice as the VFR Terrain mesh so if you disable the mesh in the scenery then you get issues like Lancing college floating in the air because the mesh that came with the scenery was designed so that those objects would fit nicely on it. This mesh problem will also occur if you are using other 3rd party mesh. You can remove lancing college quite easily by just renaming a bgl file but after talking with one of the nice guys from OSS they did say that it does mention on their site that its not been tested for compatability with VFR terrain and I have made them also aware of the issues that occur and they are looking to produce a patch at some point for people who use 3rd party mesh and other products. All products like this go through problems like this. People who have installed UT USA for example have problems with 3rd party scenery, Rhode Island clashed with it for example but over a period of a few weeks these issues get rectified and patches made. Im quite confident that OSS will look at these issues and I feel they will have to as obviously there are going to be quite a few Roads,Waters and coastlines packages coming out for the UK soon. There is already one out there by FSFreeware and that will be joined by Ultimate Terrain Europe and also Roads and rivers of Europe published by Just flight.Anyway looks like I went off on a rant, but at the moment Im quite happy with the scenery even with the small issues I have and if it wasnt for me having things like VFR terrain or 3rd party mesh which not everyone will have there wouldnt be any mesh issues for me to talk about.Craig

[oldbear 33]

You don't have to pay

[ckukmale 30]

>You don't have to pay

[Bruce 0]

cool, i've been waiting for the CD version of this and was going to get it from JF, but even with the discount the play.com is way less so i have just odeed it from them. thanks or the heads up on this :)

[michal 44]

>Was checking the AVSIM news earlier and saw information about>the release of new scenery for a small UK GA airfield>(Shoreham) by "OSS".I don't see connection between the size of the airport and the price. I rather see connection between amount of work/effort (detail) and the price.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[PaulVR 0]

The pricing strategy of these expensive 'single airport sceneries' baffles me too. I might be willing to pay that kind of money for my local airfield or for an airfield I would like to use as my home base. But as it happens, most airport sceneries I have (mostly freeware, but some payware too) I only visit a couple of times. I like to fly 'all over the place', even if it's mostly restricted to Europe.Apart from the 'locals', only those who have money to burn would pay almost 25 $ for a single scenery, no matter how good it is. So these expensive sceneries seem to be aimed at a VERY small market. For that price, I am only interested in a scenery package if it contains multiple airports. And so might be many others too. Unless the scenery would be really cheap, then I wouldn't be bothered too much if I didn't visit that airport very often. Think of it: a developer would earn twice as much by selling a thousand copies at $5,00 than by selling a hundred at $25,00.Why does no-one sell single airport sceneries for $5,00? Are the transaction costs too high in comparison? Do people only buy sceneries in which they have a special interest anyway, no matter how high or low the price is? I wonder....Paul

[michal 44]

I don't know about $5 per airport but I agree that there should be some volume discount - the more airports you buy from the same developer the less you pay per airport. On the other hand one has to recognize a fact that some airport/scenery developers (FlyTampa, OSS or FlightScenery) really produce some top looking airports using the absolute latest technology. They should be adequately compensated. But volume discount is denitely way to go since $25 per airport may indeed look expensive considering that you can get a very well developed/complicated airliner (say 767LDS) for less than twice that much.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[Guest DK8290]

"Do I detect another blatant attempt at ripping off FlightSim users by a payware company"----------------Personally I wouldn't automatically use the word "blatent" or term "ripping off". I mean only if an item was advertized as something and failed to be what was described would I use that. IF a developer makes a scenery and lists everything about it and shows accurate screenshots and has a price of $100 then it's not ripping off ......it's just probably too high to attract customersI don't really like the sound of the phrase "ripping off" as it implies a negativity towards the makers that isn't necessarily there.It looked very nice from the screenshoits so if someone wants a small detailed GA airport then to them its not 'ripping off'.

[ckukmale 30]

Well I dont think that $24.95 was too bad really for what the scenery is. You have to think that people who develop these have to have programmes like Gmax etc and theyre not cheap. They also have to source Photographs and get permission in some places to go around and take pictures of the airport buildings. You also have to remember that these kinds of sceneries wont be selling millions of copies like a game like Half Life or Doom3 would sell so they have to sell them at a price that at least will make them some money themselves. Also as mentioned earlier you could buy this scenery with the 4 GA aircraft from Justflight from one website at almost the cost of the scenery is on its own.When I think of the quality of the scenery and the time thats been spent on it, Shoreham took quite a while to do then I think that $24.95 is quite reasonable. For me $24.95 is what I would probably spend on an evening out. Seeing a movie and have a drink after would probably cost me that but at least with this I have some long term enjoyment and not just a few hours which is what you get if you just go see a movie. The thing you have to think about before buying it is how often will you be using this airport. Theres no point purchasing it really if you are only going to fly to it rarely. But if like me its a local place then yeh sure ..I shall purchase it. People are different. If you goto the OSS website and look at some of their airport previews, they are really doing some nice things and also the airports they are doing are the type that nobody else seems to do. Its nice to see them doing airports like Oakland or Kansas City and Modesto and Little Rock. Well thats my take on it all anyway. Of course nobody is forcing you to buy these sceneries Anyway just my thoughtsCraig

[michal 44]

>think that $24.95 is quite reasonable. For me $24.95 is what I>would probably spend on an evening out. This is often what folks say and I agree that it is reasonable in absolute terms. What is however less reasonable is when you start comparing $24.95 to say Level-D 767 that sells for $39.95. Clealy it is another 'niche' product that won't sell millions of copies but the man-hour effort to develop this 767 is probably like 10:1 comparing with Shoreham. So in relation to other FS add-ons sceneries are overpriced unless you buy ten airports for $45 when they are bundled together. Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[SQUAWKIDENT 3]

Just ordered the package on Play.Com thanks for the link:DHere's the (UK) link for anyone else who wants to pre-orderhttp://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=srmr&pa...PC&title=653305The combination IS good value. I still think $24.95 for a single small GA airport (however detailed) is unrealistic.RegardsAdam

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

Hey guys,Thanks for the comments. There's no easy method for coming up with these prices. Alot of things are taken into account.We have chosen to stay at the 24.95 for all of our sceneries. Even our Gatwick (EGKK) was 24.95. I guess it should have been higher since it was bigger? hehe.Anyways, we feel that all of our products should sell for 24.95 just to break out and cover costs (so to speak), otherwise it's not worth it.On that note we also feel as if we have to make our products worth 24.95. That means packing enough stuff into them to make them worth purchasing.It's always hard for people to look at a scenery that's not local to them or if they really have no interest in going there to begin with. I can see that point of view. I would say then, don't buy it. The value is still in the eye of the purchaser.We also take into account that we visit the airfields we do and we think our scenery is of a higher standard than most. We take more time in our models to smooth the poly's as well as a whole host of other techniques.Anyways, I could go on and on but we're not going to make everyone happy so there's no sense in trying. We will hover continue to produce high quality products and give good customer service.And btw, we don't "rip' anyone off. That's a really stupid comment, to whoever posted that one. A rip off is paying grossly over what one would normally pay for something of a similar product, or not getting it at all.I would like to thank everyone for their posts. Please enjoy.