No major Orbx projects for FSW in 2018?

[FlyBaby 659]

Orbx just posted their road map for 2018 and FSW does not seem to be a big part of their future development. Disclaimer...I may have missed something on the long thread.

Could this mean that DTG has something really big on the way for the ground environment as a core feature? I hope so. Considering what DTG is doing for the sky environment, hopefully they will add something innovative for the ground environment.

https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/147038-orbx-2018-roadmap-115-screenshots/

[G-RFRY 1,710]

With so much in the future road map I don`t see ORBX having time to take on another platform, will be lucky if there`s anything for FSW in 2018.   

John does say that some may be ported to AF2,XP, FSW ,in the FSX,P3D Scenery shots . 

[AOB 78]

I think DTG is going to die without Orbx. I have bought a heap of Orbx in the last month or two nearly all for FSX with one for AFS2. Next year I am planning on buying a lot for AFS2. I cannot see myself playing FSW much at all unfortunately.The truly frustrating thing is that FSX Orbx is so nearly compatible. Textures are great but houses without walls etc. 

[fs4fun 366]

1 hour ago, FlyBaby said:

Could this mean that DTG has something really big on the way for the ground environment as a core feature? I hope so. Considering what DTG is doing for the sky environment, hopefully they will add something innovative for the ground environment.

I started to wonder this too when I noticed that all the traditional scenery/terrain development tools were stripped out of the SDK they released. They included the necessary tools for creating models with the new PBR materials and for placing them in the sim, but that's about it.

[carbonbasedlifeform 179]

1 hour ago, rjfry said:

With so much in the future road map I don`t see ORBX having time to take on another platform, will be lucky if there`s anything for FSW in 2018.   

Except that FSW is so similar to FSX and P3D that it’s really hard to believe that’s the problem. Maybe they want to wait for the platform to stabilize but it’s really to bad they couldn’t offer ports of their old products or something like that. After all, that provided Orbx global.

36 minutes ago, AOB said:

I think DTG is going to die without Orbx. I have bought a heap of Orbx in the last month or two nearly all for FSX with one for AFS2. Next year I am planning on buying a lot for AFS2. I cannot see myself playing FSW much at all unfortunately.The truly frustrating thing is that FSX Orbx is so nearly compatible. Textures are great but houses without walls etc. 

It is concerning for FSW if there’s not more to this. Very strange too. I still think they could compete by being a presence on Steam, but they or other scenery designers will have to step up.

[carbonbasedlifeform 179]

4 minutes ago, fshobby said:

I started to wonder this too when I noticed that all the traditional scenery/terrain development tools were stripped out of the SDK they released. They included the necessary tools for creating models with the new PBR materials and for placing them in the sim, but that's about it.

That’s interesting. Is it a matter of them not having a fully developed SDK or that something bigger is planned?

Good scenery is labor intensive so who else could do what Orbx does on a large scale? 

[flyforever 267]

For weather, they decided to break from the past. Perhaps for the ground......

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

I agree with those who anticipate something big for the ground. Who would have ever expected TrueSky to be possible and PBR would work so well with the lighting and environment of TrueSKY? If it's not a complete overhaul, it would certainly be a major upgrade to the ground environment as we have known it to be in legacy FSX/P3D. I have heard hints of this before, but I would be surprised if DTG saw any of their partnerships diminish when it seems that A2A, Carenado, Turbulent, and others are expanding support for the core sim, as I am sure Orbx will eventually do for their ground. One can assume Orbx was paid a pretty penny for FTX Global being integrated, I doubt they would squander the opportunity to make more. 

[fs4fun 366]

4 hours ago, carbonbasedlifeform said:

That’s interesting. Is it a matter of them not having a fully developed SDK or that something bigger is planned?

There is already DLC for Big Bear airport from Turbulent Designs, which could not have been produced without the full SDK scenery toolset. I would say they have a number of tools that they chose to not release, perhaps because they will be making some changes that make the traditional tools obsolete.

4 hours ago, carbonbasedlifeform said:

Good scenery is labor intensive so who else could do what Orbx does on a large scale? 

Yup, Orbx is a scenery powerhouse and hopefully DTG keeps working with them. 

[A32xx 129]

6 hours ago, fshobby said:

I would say they have a number of tools that they chose to not release, perhaps because they will be making some changes that make the traditional tools obsolete.

I would say so too, fshobby. John Venema's announcement begins with a section titled "2018 - The Year Of Photoreal Regions". Orbx have now developed new tooling to add autogen, buildings, ANO's and POI's to photoscenery on a regional scale, with seasons where available. This is a MASSIVE breakthrough and comes at the perfect time for FSW, because there's only one existing FSW scenery add-on to update to the new photoscenery format. Once that has been achieved, the FSW Scenery SDK could be released. This means that FSW could have photoscenery as default in certain regions just like Aerofly FS2. If Dovetail can adapt FSW to achieve the same FPS as AFS2 with photoscenery, watch this space! 

[tonywob 4,769]

Please bear in mind that the SDK has only just come out and it doesn't yet include the ability to create regional autogen etc. Once the SDK matures, I would expect to see more devs embracing the platform as well

[torium 207]

14 hours ago, FlyBaby said:

Could this mean that DTG has something really big on the way for the ground environment as a core feature? I hope so. Considering what DTG is doing for the sky environment, hopefully they will add something innovative for the ground environment.

Yes, I both hope and believe that we can finally get an inovative upgrade. It is highly desirable. Because John Venema's presentation shows limited innovation (FSX / P3D).

For me the keywords are:

Quote

JV: - What I've shown you above is by no means everyone that is happening at Orbx next year, but it's a peek under the hood of some of the cool projects that are underway.

This is a very exciting time for the team at Orbx as we explore new sims and the intricacies of developing for them, whilst also remaining committed to our core FSX/P3D customers with constant releases of new content.

I therefore assume that Orbx does not want to promote FSW too strongly at this stage. So far (without real competition), it will be natural to produce and sell as many products as possible to an old FSX (because it is likely that FSW will be the successor to FSX).

[SamYeager 244]

Hmm... Orbx is a business and therefore in it for the dosh. FSX/P3D are the cash cows. From what I understand AF2 is pretty much photoreal scenery which perhaps means less man power is needed to work on it and can be produced faster?

XP is getting more popular and is already released, JV has talked about XP before and back tracked. FSW is still in early access, unlikely to be released for at least another six months at a guess, SDK still in flux and likely shares a lot of customers with the cash cows. I can understand Orbx putting FSW on the back burner until they get a better feel for whether or not FSW will be a money maker for them.

[A32xx 129]

Orbx are making Photoreal scenery with autogen, which is just as labor intensive to produce as any other kind of scenery, if not more so since objects have to be placed with even greater accuracy.

I doubt that they're having doubts about FSW. Surely they'll be waiting for the finalised FSW Scenery SDK to be released before they can produce any regional photoscenery for FSW?

[torium 207]

1 hour ago, A32xx said:

I doubt that they're having doubts about FSW. Surely they'll be waiting for the finalised FSW Scenery SDK to be released before they can produce any regional photoscenery for FSW?

I am convinced that FSW will be an important platform for Orbx. But as Ken Hall (a developer who works with Orbx) earlier said on the Dovetail forum:

Quote

FSW uses very different engine to FSX. It will take a significant amount of work porting airports, just to fit in with PBR all our models will need to be retextured then there’s animations object flow, the list goes on.