I wonder if Orbx will ever wake up!

[JimmiG 244]

On 6/22/2017 at 1:57 PM, tonywob said:

Well going into the P3D forum and talking about X-Plane's merits and vice versa is never going to end well. People have a lot invested in that platform and can be incredibly defensive.

I find X-Plane users more tolerant in this regard, maybe it's because we tend to run multiple simulators?

Also keep in mind that many P3D user have thousands of $'s/€'s/Whatevers invested in addons for the platform over the years, dating back to the FSX days. With X-Plane, there's more freeware, and less and cheaper payware, meaning people aren't as invested in the platform, financially at least.

Personally I don't get the rivalry between the platforms at all. It's clear all platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, and you miss out by sticking to only one sim. Thankfully, all my computers so far have come with MultiSim™ Technology, allowing you to install any flightsim without uninstalling the others.

[JLSeagull 191]

2 hours ago, JimmiG said:

...... Thankfully, all my computers so far have come with MultiSim™ Technology, allowing you to install any flightsim without uninstalling the others.

Lol. Steady on Jimmi! Keep it quiet or else they'll all be wanting one!!

[CarlosF 1,239]

4 hours ago, JimmiG said:

you miss out by sticking to only one sim

I really don't

The problem I have with P3d is that I would have to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$ on addons to make it look descent, it still looks cartoonish and in essence, it is still FSX on steroids.

I like XP because it keeps evolving with new technology,  for eye-candy, I can download orthos along with freeware for the airports I usually fly, it's a no-brainer for me.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

"Evolving new technology"?

[CarlosF 1,239]

48 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

"Evolving new technology"?

Yes, evolving with new tech!

[GoranM 3,764]

11 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

"Evolving new technology"?

Well, FMOD was introduced for XP11.  New manipulators. PBR.  A new engine model (PT6 Turboprop).  That's just off the top of my head.

[Paraffin 2,197]

11 minutes ago, GoranM said:

Well, FMOD was introduced for XP11.  New manipulators. PBR.  A new engine model (PT6 Turboprop).  That's just off the top of my head.

Also a new lighting model, new (better) default planes, and a new cloud rendering engine, which is a BIG improvement compared to XP10's default clouds. 

And upcoming --  a new G1000 default GPS, and new native VR support. Both of those in the native sim engine are major advancements.

Those of us with vested interests might complain about what's missing. like ATC and airliners for some, or deeper weather modeling and seasons (for me), but it's not like this sim isn't evolving!

[hhbrbg 139]

12 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

Evolving new technology"

Not to forget that we are now on the way to  the advanced  rendering frameworks metal and vulkan. Another thing to mention is, that Ben started the project 60(fps). Best of all (but not visible to the enduser) LR is in a refactoring and debugging process of there software in order to be prepared for future. They know, when building a house, you cannot start at the roof. 

Tom

[GoranM 3,764]

2 hours ago, hhbrbg said:

Not to forget that we are now on the way to  the advanced  rendering frameworks metal and vulkan. Another thing to mention is, that Ben started the project 60(fps). Best of all (but not visible to the enduser) LR is in a refactoring and debugging process of there software in order to be prepar3d for future. They know, when building a house, you cannot start at the roof. 

Tom

Too much?  

[hhbrbg 139]

6 hours ago, GoranM said:

Too much?  

Lol, yes there was a time... but now I'm no longer prepar(ed)3d, because the sun  now shines more on the X-Plane side.

Tom

[Bob Tildesley 6]

Orbx could port their airports over to XP but the regional stuff? How can they top a well made ortho, when we can do it for free? Finely tuned overlays with specific autogen maybe? That would be very interesting, but I guess it ain't gonna happen :(

[MarkDH 234]

2 hours ago, Bob Tildesley said:

Orbx could port their airports over to XP but the regional stuff? How can they top a well made ortho, when we can do it for free? Finely tuned overlays with specific autogen maybe? That would be very interesting, but I guess it ain't gonna happen :(

It's still a mystery to me how come in the FSX/P3D world photo-scenery is regarded as the lowest common denominator while in XP its praises are sung to high heaven. Is this just a historical consequence of what has become available on each platform, or does XP have some magical ingredient that's missing from FSX? I have some good experiences of photo-scenery on FSX, notably MegaSceneryX Socal, although that looks terrible close to the ground. I agree with you, and I suppose the Earth Simulations stuff and Orbx's airports are the gold standard but their nature they can't possibly be applied region-wide.

[tonywob 4,769]

24 minutes ago, MarkDH said:

It's still a mystery to me how come in the FSX/P3D world photo-scenery is regarded as the lowest common denominator while in XP its praises are sung to high heaven. Is this just a historical consequence of what has become available on each platform

I think two reasons (and I use both sims):

1) You can have high resolution orthos and they don't go blurry as you fly over them, this is what really put me off the GBs of payware ortho scenery I had in FSX.

2) The coastlines and watermasking generated by Ortho4XP are much better than even the payware products seen on FSX/X-Plane. 

I really do dislike flat photoscenery though and if I can't place properly accurate autogen over it then I generally don't bother, or I try to make my own autogen like I'm now doing for California. I generally don't like the default autogen over photos as it covers everywhere with trees (including beaches)

..and perhaps the final thing is that it's easy to make your own, choose your own zoomlevels, sources. It has a small learning curve, but as many have pointed out, the results are really worth it. 

Regarding the original topic, I think ORBX would do well on this platform if they made small cities and airport regions.

[Hegedus Marton 6]

REX offically coming to X-Plane 11.

[bonchie 2,305]

7 hours ago, MarkDH said:

It's still a mystery to me how come in the FSX/P3D world photo-scenery is regarded as the lowest common denominator while in XP its praises are sung to high heaven. Is this just a historical consequence of what has become available on each platform, or does XP have some magical ingredient that's missing from FSX? I have some good experiences of photo-scenery on FSX, notably MegaSceneryX Socal, although that looks terrible close to the ground. I agree with you, and I suppose the Earth Simulations stuff and Orbx's airports are the gold standard but their nature they can't possibly be applied region-wide.

The simple answer is autogen overlays and resolution. Most people hate flat, blurry scenery when taking off and landing. With Ortho4XP you can customize very high resolutions around airports and still use ZL17 everywhere else (which even low is only as blurry as say Orbx FTX Global's resolution) while putting overlays of autogen that are semi-accurate on top. 

The big issue left to deal with is trees get put places they shouldn't be sometimes. That'll be dealt with at some point I think.