Still FB is at the top of addon pyramid. They have no current peer.

 

If FlyTampa and ORBX aren't FB's peers or superiors then you may need a new pyramid.

 

 

If FlyTampa and ORBX aren't FB's peers or superiors then you may need a new pyramid.

 

It's awfully hard to compare Orbx with a Fly Tampa or Flightbeam.  Don't get me wrong - I have more Orbx fields than I do from any other vendor, they're the GA gold standard and they just keep getting better and better, but it's a different kind of airport they do.  A "big" airport for Orbx is Palm Springs, Redding or Jackson.  KSFO, KDEN etc is a whole 'nother world.

 

I still marvel every time I fly into or out of KDEN at how much airport FB was able to produce (both in terms of size - KDEN is truly huge - and detail) with so minimal an impact on performance and memory.  Those things matter a lot if you're going to produce an airport in an area like SF.

 

Scott

 

 

What scenery are you using surrounding the airport scenery?

 

FTX Global.

 

If anyone is having issues with the Add-on manager, I'd recommend you visit their support forum: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php ... Umberto is very responsive.  I've had my issues also with the Add-On manager in the distant past, but they got resolved.  Lots of airports could not work as well as they do without it.

 

Cheers, Rob.

I think "peers" would be an accurate description of FBs relationship with Fly Tampa and Orbx.  FB airports for me are the best looking combined with the best performance on my machine for the highest level of addon airports.  All 3 of these developers are absolutely fantastic, but I am very impressed with what Mir at FB has done. 

 

 

It's awfully hard to compare Orbx with a Fly Tampa or Flightbeam

 

You're right, of course, that ORBX caters to a slightly different market (it is all flightsim scenery afterall... how much do we really want to keep segmenting an already-small and -niche market?) but I was mostly speaking in terms of quality. Not to say that the other ORBX developers aren't good, but I mostly seem hung up on Jarrad Marshall's work. He also seems to pick some of the best and coolest destinations that not only handle quite a bit of traffic but that also serve plenty of heavy jets.

 

Back onto the subject of thread: there are no doubts that FB is one of the best. I have a couple of their products and, while they need some fixes (sounds like they'll get them now that SFO is released), KDEN and KIAD are wonderful. I just wish they would convene with some of their "peers" and get some suggestions as to how to mitigate autogen suppression. I've never seen a FlyTampa, ORBX, etc. airport with such bad exclusion areas.

 

 

The only time I see something like this with my FSDT/Flightbeam airports is if I enable them in the scenery library and don't restart FSX after doing so.

 

Possible good catch there! That may very well be the cause in my case. So a question to put out there here. If I use SceneryConfigEditor to select scenery to load, and do that before I start FSX, would that eliminate the need to start FSX twice?

Yes there are a number of developers that produce quality sceneries. My point is that FB is the top dog.

 

The addon manager is a very small (perhaps arguably insignificant) detractor to an otherwise top quality product.

 

 

Sorry if that wasn't clear,

 

I thought it was clear and I greatly appreciate the contribution!

Possible good catch there! That may very well be the cause in my case. So a question to put out there here. If I use SceneryConfigEditor to select scenery to load, and do that before I start FSX, would that eliminate the need to start FSX twice?

No, I think you'll need to restart again even if you enable prior to starting FSX.

 

But, as Umberto mentioned, there is no need to disable either FSDT or Flightbeam airports when not being used to save VAS. See below.

 

which in fact it's a feature of the Addon Manager that, by not relying on the FSX memory handling of the objects, will ensure the scenery is loaded only when entering a specific area, and is unloaded on exit. Since is very well known that FSX is is not very capable of reclaiming VAS when exiting from a scenery area, the Addon Manager will help with VAS consumption, and will render practices like constantly changing the Scenery Library to only include the areas needed for the flight, useless for all scenery handled by the Addon Manager.

 

For that reason, they are the only sceneries that I always leave enabled and eliminates the need for multiple restarts after re-enabling them.

 

 

For that reason, they are the only sceneries that I always leave enabled and eliminates the need for multiple restarts after re-enabling them.

 

I find that encouraging, but the scenery areas I have that are managed my the Addon Manager, KORD, KLAX, and KDFW, are the areas where I experience the most serious VAS issues. KORD and KLAX perhaps because of underlying add-on hi-res scenery. But now informed, admittedly, I only have issues in those areas when I am flying in those areas, and thus I have them enabled. The only other area I have issues in is NYC, and de-selecting those areas appear to help my system performance, Those areas are not managed by the add-on manager. 

I also have problems with coualt and the addon manager. It sucks if you ask me. One flight I start and the buildings are there. I finish the flight close fsx and restart to make the return trip and the buildings are gone or gsx won't respond when I press the hot key even though coualt and the addon manager is showing in the addon menu. Sometimes I have to restart fsx 3 times just to get them to function.

 

I have a friend that bought 3 FlightBeam airports and can't use any of them because coualt keeps crashing. He is a truck driver and not computer savy. The first day he got them they worked, after that nothing but problems.

 

Paying customers are suffering from this pos coualt while the airports are still being pirated.

If FlyTampa and ORBX aren't FB's peers or superiors then you may need a new pyramid.

orbx cannot make large airports, I made the mistake of buying their major Australia airports and they are slide shows. They make great small and regional airports but in no way compare to FlyTampa, FSDreamTeam, Flightbeam, who all make high quality large airports that appeal to more people.

orbx cannot make large airports, I made the mistake of buying their major Australia airports and they are slide shows. They make great small and regional airports but in no way compare to FlyTampa, FSDreamTeam, Flightbeam, who all make high quality large airports that appeal to more people.

the problem with orbx is that they tend to go overboard with all the details, but if you turn off all the unnecessary stuff at their major Australian airports they will run fine

the problem with orbx is that they tend to go overboard with all the details, but if you turn off all the unnecessary stuff at their major Australian airports they will run fine

And that proves they are not in a group of the highest quality developers, if they cannot make fps friendly large airports. I did not spend 40 dollars for an airport to turn off features.

And that proves they are not in a group of the highest quality developers, if they cannot make fps friendly large airports. I did not spend 40 dollars for an airport to turn off features.

if that's the case then the same can be said about FlyTampa. Their latest offerings sucks unless you turn off a whole bunch of features and the vas usage is equally just as bad.