ORBX woes - is it just me?

[rooitou 119]

I have bought a ton of ORBX products before they changed to the new "centralised" buying and downloading system last year. Since then I've had nothing but problems, like being limited to one download per day and every product I want to install is preceded by a large and lengthy download, despite having older versions from the FlightSimStore, which may just need a small patch or update. As a result I have stopped using and buying ORBX products. I do check on their forums every now and then to see if there has been any change, but nothing so far. I don't see too many complaints on the ORBX forum and whenever I post something to express my displeasure, my posts disappear into thin air. So I can only assume that the moderators very quickly remove any negative comments about the new ORBX system.

So my question to this forum is: Am I the only one that is desperately unhappy with ORBX and struggling like this? How do you guys overcome what I can't, or do you just accept it and live with it?

Why would my criticism be removed from the ORBX forums? Surely ORBX management need to be made aware that at least some portion of their customer base is very unhappy with the situation. When I bought those products before, it was under very different circumstances - 3rd party vendor, standalone products downloaded to my PC and installed in a matter of seconds or minutes, patches downloaded separately and installed in seconds. ORBX changed all of that, to such an extent that it is not at all what I bought into. I have paid a lot of money and not getting the use or pleasure from that, not due to my doing. Isn't that a consumer infringement? Or am I just blowing things out of proportion?

[harrry 322]

While I am not happy with orbx they have removed the one a day limit.  It is taking two days to install in a new p3d4...a task of a couple of hours previously.

 

[FreeBird(Josh) 314]

I have never had a issue and in fact the new system is way faster and better than the old. If there was a issue there would be allot more complaints.

[dal330200 216]

I've had problems with interrupted downloads numerous times before, but I think it's my signal that flickers from time to time.  The new system seems to be better and resumes downloads instead of starting from scratch, I think.  In any case, I've never experienced the problems that you've described here.  I hope you can get it fixed, because ORBX really does transform the P3D environment. 

John

[JimmiG 244]

The downloads aren't super fast, but I like the new system better than the FSS installers because it requires a lot less manual input.

With FSS, every time you wanted to re-install, you had to run each installer manually, enter the order details, wait for it to unpack, click next a bunch of times. So even if you had all the installers downloaded on your drive, it was still a multi-day process to get everything installed and activated, and you had to babysit it to click next or enter an order # etc. every several minutes.

With the new system, you just copy+paste your OrbX folder (plus a few more files) from the old installation, run FTX Central and everything gets validated in one go. It probably takes less than 30 minutes in total, instead of 4 - 6 days with FSS.

[vp49p3 216]

I deleted the old ORBX Central and any ORBX files laying around and downloaded the new one.  Never have had a problem.  To me, the new system is way better.  One download/install step instead of two steps of downloading the program and then installing it.  Also, I can have an apparently unlimited number of download/installs in my download que and simply walk away overnight and they are all installed when I come back.  You couldn't do that previously. Uninstalls and reinstalls are also easy from the new system, whereas in the old system uninstalls were far from clean. 

I'm certain other folks have had the same  difficulties you have had with the new system, and that there are fixes for them.  Probably the best place to start would be the forums on ORBX's website.

Hope you can fix things, because you'd really like it.  Good luck !

[ESzczesniak 128]

Don't forget how much easier it is to know when updates are available and install/download them. I understand the OP's points, but personally love the new way over the old. 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

9 minutes ago, ESzczesniak said:

Don't forget how much easier it is to know when updates are available and install/download them. I understand the OP's points, but personally love the new way over the old. 

+1

Migrating from FSX to P3DV4 has been a breeze..

[rooitou 119]

Thanks for all the replies guys, looks like it's just me and perhaps a handful of other people that are still unhappy with ORBX. There are some good tips here, which I may try if I decide to give ORBX another go.

I'm still not going to buy any more ORBX products though. I have no other way to show my displeasure because I cannot communicate directly with the company and all attempts have been removed. If I give a company a whole bunch of my money, effectively helping to make them what they are today (and putting Hitlers in charge of the ORBX forums), then the least they can do is let me be heard. Fortunately I live in a remote country, and all their sceneries are in major/popular parts of the world. While they are very pretty and I like to explore, I don't have any particular attachment to them. It is a luxury, not a necessity for me and I can live without them.

I'm also a bit concerned that we don't really know how many people are unhappy with ORBX, because they either get banned or negative comments removed from the ORBX forums. Even on forums like this, I have a sneaky feeling that most people who respond are those that have stuck with the brand, hence part of the ORBX "cult" and they shall speak no evil. The unhappy ones may have left long ago or don't bother looking at ORBX-related threads any more.

[Luis_KMIA 242]

I haven't had any issues with ORBX.  If anything, now that we have a P3Dv4, the products they have made available for that platform seem smoother and faster in that platform on the same system I was using them with P3Dv3 and FSX.  

[rooitou 119]

34 minutes ago, Luis_KMIA said:

I haven't had any issues with ORBX.  If anything, now that we have a P3Dv4, the products they have made available for that platform seem smoother and faster in that platform on the same system I was using them with P3Dv3 and FSX.  

Thanks Luis, but I think that will be the case for most products, not just ORBX, right? Good to know that it runs better though, and in ORBX's defense, they are making the products available for free for P3D4, which is more than we can say for a few other developers. That is actually why I'm having another look at ORBX, but still not entirely happy with their unified system or draconian forum.

[Luis_KMIA 242]

1 hour ago, rooitou said:

Thanks Luis, but I think that will be the case for most products, not just ORBX, right? Good to know that it runs better though, and in ORBX's defense, they are making the products available for free for P3D4, which is more than we can say for a few other developers. That is actually why I'm having another look at ORBX, but still not entirely happy with their unified system or draconian forum.

My frustration with ORBX in FSX and P3D was wither OOM errors and low frames in regions like SoCal, but I really love the change and the fact that it's no cost to change to P3Dv4.  ORBX is truly made for 64-bit.  The draconian forum is another story :)

 

[Holdit 551]

27 minutes ago, Luis_KMIA said:

... but I really love [...] the fact that it's no cost to change to P3Dv4.  ORBX is truly made for 64-bit.  The draconian forum is another story :)

Agreed. I avoid the Orbx forums except when strictly necessary -  I never was a big fan of the Hallelujah Chorus , but I unreservedly and enthusiastically take my hat off to them with regard to their P3DV4 pricing policy. 

[Luis_KMIA 242]

3 minutes ago, Holdit said:

Agreed. I avoid the Orbx forums except when strictly necessary -  I never was a big fan of the Hallelujah Chorus , but I unreservedly and enthusiastically take my hat off to them with regard to their P3DV4 pricing policy. 

And don't forget to include you order number when you post ;)

[JimmiG 244]

I definitely agree that their forum can be a bit draconian at times. However to be fair it's their own official forum, running on their own servers and moderated by their own staff. So it's as much part of their store front as it is a forum for discussing their products.

Perhaps if you posted asking for help instead of "expressing your displeasure", they'd be more willing to help. There's definitely no need to re-download anything, as you can migrate your existing installation from The Flightsim Store without downloading again.