I currently have the current versions of UTX Canada, UTX USA and GEX North America on my system.

I am considering investing in ORBX Global Base and ORBX Global Vector. Having these, can I get rid of UTX and GEX?

 

Will I need any additional applications, like ORBX Global open LC? Do these products address mesh for FSX, or do I need an additional product specific to mesh, like PILOT's FS Global 2010?

You would need the various flavours of FTX OpenLC to get the benefit of landclass.  I've found that Orbx Global works well with my US and Europe UTX, though, and looks a lot better than GEX, which I never really liked. Vector made my system crawl. but I do have a pretty low-end system. I was very unimpressed with EuropeLC. For the moment, for me UTX + Orbx Global represents the best value for money, with selected Orbx regions when they're on special offer.

For Mesh I use FreeMeshX.  It's good and you can't beat free.  I have Base with OpenLC and UTX USA.  I disabled the landclass in UTX as I like OpenLC much better.  But I prefer the vector data of UTX over Global Vector.  If you get Base and Vector then you could disable GEX and UTX, although my preference (and a lot of others agree) is that UTX has the edge.  It's all a matter of preference though.

I currently have the current versions of UTX Canada, UTX USA and GEX North America on my system.

I am considering investing in ORBX Global Base and ORBX Global Vector. Having these, can I get rid of UTX and GEX?

 

Will I need any additional applications, like ORBX Global open LC? Do these products address mesh for FSX, or do I need an additional product specific to mesh, like PILOT's FS Global 2010?

You basically have 3 options:

1. Continue with your current UTX, GEX setup.

2. Uninstall all UTX and GEX products and go down the Orbx pathway, with Global Base and Vector, as a minimum, adding the various Open LC and Terrain Region products as desired for greater levels of detail.

3. Uninstall GEX and use a combination of Orbx Global Base and Open LC and the vector features of UTX (with UTX landclass disabled).

 

Like the others who have responded, I use the third option, a combination of UTX and Orbx Open LC (+ various Orbx Terrain regions) and I am quite pleased with that. I initially considered adding Orbx Vector when it was first released, but as there seemed to be quite a few problems associated with Orbx Vector initially, I decided to wait. I expect that Orbx will have addressed most of these Vector problems by now, but as I am very happy with the appearance of the UTX / Orbx combination I have stuck with that.

 

Bill

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and knowledge about these products. I am overwhelmed by the complexity how everything works to create a seamless and satisfying simulation experience.

 

I have opted to keep using my UTX Canada and USA along with a newly installed FTX Global. With those, I am also using FreeMesh X, as well as a small handful of Orbx Regions and some miscellaneous payware and freeware. GEX served me well, but I am retiring it.

 

What kind of layering should I consider? I'm thinking from top to bottom ....

 

1. Pay and freeware airports (incl. Orbx ones)

2. Orbx Regions

3. UTX Canada & USA

4. FTX Global

5. FreeMesh X

 

Anyone using both UTX and Orbx Global, any takers on helping me understand the complexities of UTX's configuration tools to get the best performance and experience complimenting FTX Global. As I said, I am overwhelmed with terminology and how everything works together, so I fear leaving everything in it's default state will prevent me from optimizing the two product's potential.

With regard to your query about layering, my arrangement in the scenery library is as follows:

 

1. Payware and freeware airports

2. All Orbx/FTX scenery

3. UTX

 

The FTX Central utility allows you to change the scenery library insertion point for all of your Orbx/FTX scenery as a block. It also arranges the the Orbx/FTX products in the correct order within that block in the scenery library as you install them with the FTX products above the OpenLC products, so you don't have to worry about that. I have positioned the UTX products to lie below them. As far as the UTX areas are concerned I have disabled the UT landclass, ground polygons and lighting entries in the scenery library and everything seems to work pretty well with that setup. With regard to mesh files, my understanding is that it doesn't matter where these are positioned in the scenery library, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

 

Bill

Hi Bill, thanks for you spin on things. I will check out FTX Central and see what kind of damage I can do with that. I have noticed that in FSX scenery library there is no indication of FTX Global, so clearly this is something that has no order. UTX lights disabled in favour of FTX lights?

Hi Bill, thanks for you spin on things. I will check out FTX Central and see what kind of damage I can do with that. I have noticed that in FSX scenery library there is no indication of FTX Global, so clearly this is something that has no order. UTX lights disabled in favour of FTX lights?

Sorry for my delay in replying! You are correct, there is no entry in the scenery library for FTX Global Base, because what it essentially does is replace the default FSX textures with better FTX textures. With regard to UTX lights, yes I have also disabled them. Hope this helps.

 

Bill