Orbx will be a great addon, although not necessarily a must have. XP has been doing fine with out them. 

 

I think that instead of praising Orbx, we should encourage other developers by purchasing/donating for their amazing work.

 

 

I only hope the statement of "orbx quality" holds true

 

Mister X and others (can't remembers their names right now) have already set the bar. Orbx is going to have to produce something of amazingly higher quality in order to get a piece of my wallet.

Following this thread avidly (and just throwing in my ten pen'orth), but who could have forseen the immeasurable transformation that XEnviro has already brought to the party?

 

That's the weather sorted out then.

 

The next historical XP problem is ...

 

11b is already ahead of the game (scenery and lighting-wise) and JV has obviously recognised the business opportunity. Who are we to question his motives?  Does it really matter a jot that he once had an 'arrogant moment' so many years ago and was on the losing side?

 

I don't know the Man, am not married to his daughter and would Lurv to be his Mother-in-Law but .... if ORBX can perform the sort of miracles that XE has already provided then why not. Win-Win-Win.

Orbx will be a great addon, although not necessarily a must have. XP has been doing fine with out them.

 

I think that instead of praising Orbx, we should encourage other developers by purchasing/donating for their amazing work.

 

 

Mister X and others (can't remembers their names right now) have already set the bar. Orbx is going to have to produce something of amazingly higher quality in order to get a piece of my wallet.

Indeed. I have no need to spend money on airports when I can get tons of awesome airports for free. I am more interested in better trees and better and specially local ground textures (as long as they are real XP textures) and autogen.

 

 

Does it really matter a jot that he once had an 'arrogant moment' so many years ago and was on the losing side?

 

Now that's arrogance right there, Losing side ?

Have you any idea of the size of the FSX/P3D payware market relative to Xplane10/11, a clue it's massive in comparison.

 

Orbx probably generate more cash right now in FSX/P3D than all of the Xplane scenery designers put together, John Venema is hardly losing and he still has the P3D 64bit market opening up for him in the new year, lets see how that pans out first before any winners are declared.

My prediction is that this thread should be locked soon. :smile:

Hope not Jose, I am actually enjoying the demo so far and can see the potential for sure, but I just cannot get over why some users are so negative towards Orbx coming to Xplane, if orbx can come in and smooth a few of the rough edges (shorelines, road widths, trees ect) then that's got to be a good thing.

Got my Goflight stuff working in 11B3 today which turned out easier than I imagined and I am now hunting around for some decent ATC software.

Funny thing is of all the aspects that XP is lacking scenery is probably the least of those. I think it would be a very different reaction if HiFi announced ActiveSkyXP or something like that.

 

 

hunting around for some decent ATC software

Have a look at pilot2atc. Works with most flightsims I believe.

 

 

Have a look at pilot2atc. Works with most flightsims I believe.

 

Thanks, I have been following it's progress and the developer seems very responsive, I will give it a try.

if HiFi announced ActiveSkyXP or something like that.

 

Could be, that the window of opportunity has already closed for HiFi?

 

Tom

Hope not Jose, I am actually enjoying the demo so far and can see the potential for sure, but I just cannot get over why some users are so negative towards Orbx coming to Xplane, if orbx can come in and smooth a few of the rough edges (shorelines, road widths, trees ect) then that's got to be a good thing.

 

Leaving aside past trash talking from Orbx, I think one reason so many are having a "meh" reaction is that, as someone else posted above, scenery is just no longer a major gap that needs filling in X-Plane.

 

I can see a market for their little jewel box GA airports, but frankly I don't see much need for them to do anything major on an area-wide basis. It was something FSX/P3D badly needed, but X-Plane is already actively moving forward in general terrain representation without outside help. Like the new European (German) road and building autogen, which may be expanded to other areas at some point. There was only a market for area-wide 3rd party scenery improvements for FSX because development of the base sim came to a halt when Microsoft left the building.

 

Even if Orbx could do something about improving coastlines, trees, and roads on an area-wide basis with an overlay, what happens when a new XP patch is released that re-cuts the mesh and uses updated OSM roads and buildings? How does Orbx stay in sync with a product that's continually being updated like this? It's something they've never had to do with FSX as a static development platform. Their individual small GA airports can probably survive that kind of regular update, but not something more ambitious over a wide area.

 

So I don't think a degree of skepticism is unwarranted. Let's see what they plan on doing, and what they plan to charge for it. I might buy a small GA airport model or two, but I'll need a lot of convincing for anything on a larger scale.

 

 

Like the new European (German) road and building autogen, which may be expanded to other areas at some point.

 

Maybe they will work on the regional  autogen, that seems to be something that they are good at, it would be nice if all of Europe didn't look like Bavaria, and you are wrong if you don't think the scenery could do with some help, coastlines are really poor at the moment and could do with a bit of a tidy up, tree sizes are all over the place, landmarks are in short supply.

There is plenty for a development team the size of Orbx to be getting on with, it will be a boost to Xplane's ecosystem that's for sure.

Leaving aside past trash talking from Orbx, I think one reason so many are having a "meh" reaction is that, as someone else posted above, scenery is just no longer a major gap that needs filling in X-Plane.

 

I can see a market for their little jewel box GA airports, but frankly I don't see much need for them to do anything major on an area-wide basis. It was something FSX/P3D badly needed, but X-Plane is already actively moving forward in general terrain representation without outside help. Like the new European (German) road and building autogen, which may be expanded to other areas at some point. There was only a market for area-wide 3rd party scenery improvements for FSX because development of the base sim came to a halt when Microsoft left the building.

 

Even if Orbx could do something about improving coastlines, trees, and roads on an area-wide basis with an overlay, what happens when a new XP patch is released that re-cuts the mesh and uses updated OSM roads and buildings? How does Orbx stay in sync with a product that's continually being updated like this? It's something they've never had to do with FSX as a static development platform. Their individual small GA airports can probably survive that kind of regular update, but not something more ambitious over a wide area.

 

So I don't think a degree of skepticism is unwarranted. Let's see what they plan on doing, and what they plan to charge for it. I might buy a small GA airport model or two, but I'll need a lot of convincing for anything on a larger scale.

Let us not forget or discount the vast amount of budding talent that lurks in the freeware/donationware.  I will be hard pressed to buy payware when I can just as easily support donationware.  I have found more and more donationware that rivals payware quality and for that, I am sold on using XP over any other sim right now.

Could be, that the window of opportunity has already closed for HiFi?

 

Tom

 

Maybe but I don't think so. Depending on their implementation and price point they might be able to dominate the market. Of course the longer they wait the worse it's going to be for them.

Even if Orbx could do something about improving coastlines, trees, and roads on an area-wide basis with an overlay, what happens when a new XP patch is released that re-cuts the mesh and uses updated OSM roads and buildings? How does Orbx stay in sync with a product that's continually being updated like this? It's something they've never had to do with FSX as a static development platform

Orbx dealt with P3D continuous updates. I see several opportunities for ORBX in xp as it is a "virgin land" from a payware developer point of view, they have room to improve lot of things on a global,regional,local scale...Orbx does not model airports alone, but cities also and as they developed LOWI for P3D (which was already developed by Just sim and Aerosoft) they could develop Dubai city plus airport! Or Kaitak! Or TNCM! Who knows. Though Fly Tampa is the natural candidate for these areas but did not hear from them! Customers will buy products which adds value to their platform. And a 64bit platform has more room for scenery creativity because no RAM limitations. It is true xplane 11 is looking great out of the box compared to the other sims but lot of simmers enjoy accuracy in 3d modeling/texturing/animations and eye candy. ORBX has the tools and the know how for this! And after all, as usual, the community will judge, review and criticize when necessary any add on launched...luckily seems everyone is good at this 😉