ORBX XP11: What are your predictions?

[Fi5kuS 57]

I am not new around here ! There is not a ton of stuff, maybe a ton of ok airports. I am looking for regions, like PNW, etc... I have no interest in tools, nor do I have time or patience, and I'm not really interested in GB of photo scenery. Most of the free airports around me suck. I rather pay somebody for some regional terrain textures, trees and maybe airports !

 

 

+1

[Guest]

 

 

there is undeniably a certain je ne sais quoi about this version that conveys a very real sense of flying above and through a living, breathing World below that other Sims just fail to impart to me, the end-user.

+1

 

For me it is due to no textures being loaded in sight, no popup, objects as far as the eye can see (and everything being high res even when you zoom in to the extreme), the extreme amount of traffic on the ground, the extreme amount of detail (even when you fly very close to the ground everything is sharp and real: none of the lights are floating bulbs but real 3D objects that really give light etc.), the awesome colors (nights are utterly awesome but you have to get used to the soft daytime colors: once you do though they are sooooo realistic), well... the list goes on and on.

 

In P3D (and FSX) you clearly see textures and things being loaded and things in the distance being low res and lights being fake bulbs with the light burned into the ground textures and all that makes it very obvious you are looking at textures being pasted on some cardboard scenery... It is all fake. Even the light in the VC is fake. It's all textures being loaded and replacing other textures. In XP things look and feel real. It worked fine for years if not decades but after flying in XP11 it just doesn't work for me anymore.

[strider1 575]

I don't disagree, we would all like better regional scenery on both the micro and macro level.

 

However, there is one important difference in the X-Plane market. It's under constant development as a platform, always adding new things. Some of those things are scenery related, like the new European OSM-based autogen (well, Germany anyway) for buildings and roads. That's being done directly by Laminar, not an add-on developer.

 

That will be a new challenge for Orbx and any other scenery developer. They've had a free ride on FSX and P3D with a static underlying platform that hasn't changed in 10 years. There is no direct competition from the actual producers of the underlying simulation, who left the building years ago.

 

X-Plane is different. I gripe about the weather, but I'm very enthusiastic about what I'm seeing with development of landclass (with free HD and UHD mesh), autogen, and constantly updated OSM data to reflect the real world. 

 

So yes, I think Orbx probably has a market here with the jewel box airfields (depending on DRM concerns I mentioned above). But for anything involving larger coverage of the world, they're in direct competition with Laminar's vision for modeling the world. They haven't had to cope with that, over on the FSX/P3D side of the fence.

The landclass is nice but its the textures of the landclass that needs more variety from region to region, along with trees and autogen. Yes the OSM is constantly being updated, a lot of it is really sloppy, Ive fixed a ton of stuff in OSM. And it's very rare that Laminar updates the OSM in the sim, maybe a couple times a version. So if you start to edit OSM rivers, buildings, etc,  you probably wont see in the sim for years. Larger coverage, what are talking about ? Laminar has been moving at a Snells pace for years. Don't expect a bunch of regions anytime soon. The regional autogen is a long term project for them. They are encouraging 3rd party devs to do regional autogen. https://youtu.be/HtJ1qdoCcds     

[GoranM 3,765]

Seeing how Austin reacts I get the idea he and JV didn't yet talk about Orbx creating things for XP...? You would expect they have. I also wonder how much Austin have to say before JV backs out again. Other than that: will Austin allow DRM in his sim...? I have the impression he is in the position to stop certain things from happening?

 

Austin has been in business for decades.  He started X Plane in the 80's.  JV could tell Austin he wants nothing to do with X Plane and Austin would shrug his shoulders and wish him good luck.  The add on market for X Plane is huge.  JV and OrbX would be another drop in the ocean.  

DRM has been in X Plane for at least the last 7-10 years.  Austin has no problem with it.  X-Plane itself has DRM.  He's stated he won't stop anyone making add ons for X Plane.  

[strider1 575]

Regions are fine with me as long as they work as XP works now, so NO city textures with baked in houses and that kind of crap and none of those ugly forest textures. And also none of those floating lightbulbs with the 'light' underneath it being baked into the textures. And all that fake stuff. If they give the current default XP textures an upgrade and add regional autogen (houses and trees) plus landmarks and upgrade all airports, I am in. But do NOT mess with how XP works, please.

 

I think this means they would have to create all regions they have now from scratch so I doubt if this will happen. If they convert their current regions to XP somehow I am totally not interested.

+ 1, I have no interest regions with baked in Houses and lights. I won't buy that garbage...

[ErichB 3,643]

Many people don't seem to be overly interested in ways to make their XP install look amazing for practically free, but as soon as ORBX make a vague statement, people go crazy! ;-)

 

That's because freeware projects are usually one man bands with no assurance of continuity or further development. Big developers jumping on board provide a reasonably good indication of long term commitment and exciting projects

 

I think it's exciting news for Xplane.

[Humpty 751]

Freeware will always remain , there are many who want to design for the joy of it.

 

Orbx is most welcome to XPlane gonna see some nice screenshots

[ErichB 3,643]

strider1, on 16 Dec 2016 - 09:29 AM, said:

+ 1, I have no interest regions with baked in Houses and lights. I won't buy that garbage...

Using the same textures in Xplane wouldn't differentiate the product from P3D - why would people invest in a completely new platform for the same thing? That would make three completely independant platforms all using the same Orbx textures which is ridiculous. Logic dictates that they would take a new approach for this platform - probably integrating with OSM

[Guest]

Using the same textures in Xplane wouldn't differentiate the product from P3D - why would people invest in a completely new platform for the same thing? That would make three completely independant platforms all using the same Orbx textures which is ridiculous. Logic dictates that they would take a new approach for this platform - probably integrating with OSM

FTX Vector already is an OSM bases product so that won't be a new approach. Obviously FTX Vector isn't needed at all for XP since XP already is OSM based so it has to be something else. And it indeed won't be their P3D textures. I guess airports, regional autogen packages and perhaps regional ground textures but they have to be XP-like textures.

[CaptCWGAllen 49]

JV on X Plane in Angle of Attack Aviatorcast No. 15 interview sometime ago. He took a different tone. But I am pretty certain it was after the negative remarks but can't see a date.

 

Chris: Right, exactly.

John: At the end of the day, Orbx is business. We do things that make sense financially.

Chris: Yes, that’s what I tell everybody. Why aren’t we all coming over to X-plane? X-plane has its advantages. It has some good stuff as far as the aerodynamics are concerned and there are some promising things from X-plane. The problem is that X-plane is not where the money is, and a lot of the times, people don’t understand that. At the end of the day, you or any other developer, isn’t going to put their blood, sweat and tears, let alone, let alone their financial success or lack thereof into a platform that doesn’t have the dollars behind it, so that’s totally understandable.

John: Yes, so enough said on that. I don’t want to disparage X-plane. I think what Austin’s done is remarkable for effectively what is a one plus two–man operation. I think he’s had enormous success over it. I think he’s made a lot of money of iOS apps from what I hear, and I think it looks beautiful. I think it’s a beautiful-looking simulator. He’s got some nice engine people working for him and the lining system’s good.

 

Cheers

Peter

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Austin has been in business for decades. in the ocean.  

 

 

" The add on market for X Plane is huge"

 

I'm having a hard time finding one aircraft close to the Aerosoft airbus - PMDG Boeing except for maybe IXEG 737 - so not sure thats entirely true - off scenery topic so take with a grain of salt

 

That said sticking with XP11 period also hope Orbx does not change the look and feel of XP product as I dont want another FSX - P3D  based looking sim - it should maintain the XP feel look and functionality 

[Pugilist2 878]

Well said Rich!  I also do not want another FSX-P3D based looking sim, but am looking forward to the large variety of airports from ORBX.

[bonchie 2,305]

I think there's zero chance they attempt to just port over P3D textures.

What you are already seeing (from their XP11 Meigs field screen shot), is that they are using photo scenery with custom designed 3D objects (no doubt ported, but that's fine) to fill out the areas around their custom airports.

 

While you can make your own photo scenery now, you won't have the properly modelled landmarks, the care given to hand placed alignment, etc.

My guess is that they initially focus on airports with adjoining city-scapes and photo scenery coverage. Orbx's pattern in P3D now is to have large photo-real regions around the airport (say 10 square miles) with hand placed objects. That will work well in XP11.

 

Yeah, MisterX does that for free, but he's the only one producing freeware scenery/city-scapes at that level of quality that I've found and he's only one man (multiple sceneries at least).

 

I think where regions could come in would be underlying ground textures (not baked houses, but better colors and variety, coastlines, and photoscenery for certain areas) + adding landmarks that XP11 really needs. Update the OSM data on top if it and let XP11 draw the autogen as it already does so well. Then update and add buildings at all the airports in the region (something they already do in P3D so it's viable).

 

That could be a "region" while still upholding the integrity of XP11's scenery presentation.

[Paraffin 2,197]

" The add on market for X Plane is huge"

 

I'm having a hard time finding one aircraft close to the Aerosoft airbus - PMDG Boeing except for maybe IXEG 737 - so not sure thats entirely true - off scenery topic so take with a grain of salt

 

It's a question of personal interest. Compared to what's available in FSX or P3D in terms of quality and accuracy, the add-on market for helicopters is huge in X-Plane.

 

Not everyone is interested in airliners.  :smile:

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

It's a question of personal interest. Compared to what's available in FSX or P3D in terms of quality and accuracy, the add-on market for helicopters is huge in X-Plane.

 

Not everyone is interested in airliners.  :smile:

 

Cant fly a whirly bird to save my life    :wink: