What's the deal with ORBX vector?

[Rocky_53 1,579]

I too have had few issues with Vector. Although, what troubles I have experienced, have been with default airports in the early years. Not flying from any default airport delivers zero issues for me, but as I say, I think there can be problems if using default airports.

[Ian S 214]

Come someone please clarify what this frozen water issue is, 

and

Makerunways?

[AnkH 2,261]

The "frozen water issue" describes a problem arising when "frozen water surfaces" in winter is ticked inside the FTX Vector control panel. This can lead to nasty black water textures in rivers and lakes.

Makerunways is a freeware tool allowing to read all scenery and runways, some addons depend on this (e.g. ProATC/X) to align themselves with the scenery in the simulator. Makerunways can only read sceneries defined in the scenery.cfg, that's why you need another tool to create a temporary scenery.cfg also including all add-on.xml based sceneries.

[Ian S 214]

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

The "frozen water issue" describes a problem arising when "frozen water surfaces" in winter is ticked inside the FTX Vector control panel. This can lead to nasty black water textures in rivers and lakes.

Makerunways is a freeware tool allowing to read all scenery and runways, some addons depend on this (e.g. ProATC/X) to align themselves with the scenery in the simulator. Makerunways can only read sceneries defined in the scenery.cfg, that's why you need another tool to create a temporary scenery.cfg also including all add-on.xml based sceneries.

Thanks Chris

[Dean_EGTC 57]

4 hours ago, Rockliffe said:

I too have had few issues with Vector. Although, what troubles I have experienced, have been with default airports in the early years. Not flying from any default airport delivers zero issues for me, but as I say, I think there can be problems if using default airports.

Same issue here.  I bought it shortly after release, tried it for a number of weeks.  Had loads of issues with default AP's in remote areas plus a big performance hit.  Removed it and haven't missed it at all.

 

[Benjamin J 751]

6 hours ago, ErichB said:

For all its niggles, Orbx Vector is not just about airport elevation points, it's also about accurately depicted coastlines, rivers and other water bodies.   Flying over any coastline, or area where there should be a water body -  without vector data installed, soon makes it apparent how essential Orbx Vector actually is.  Those angular coastlines are awful without it.  

 I can think of perhaps one example where Vector Elevation Correction has not worked for an airport which left obvious issues.   In all other cases it has worked very well.  The frozen water bodies issue is annoying,  but who really needs it.  Turning it off is a non-issue.

Turn most of the roads, bridges , tunnels and all of that nonsense off, keep the rest.  It is still an essential,  'must have' installation for me.

Completely agree. For vectors, VEctor is great. To me it's one of those addons that essentially instantly transforms the world and makes it so much more accurate. The AEC seem to be a necessary 'evil' when the vectors (which, ultimately, are the main purpose of the addon) may conflict when airport elevations. I'm guessing that's why it got included. My way of dealing with this is to always check the AEC whenever I install a new airport, just to make sure I deactivate any Vector AEC before I even load up the airport. Saves a lot of grief.

I will say this: I always assumed Orbx Vector contians data for the whole world, and it probably does, but it doesn't correct everything all over. In hindsight this was probably way too much to ask, but when I flew around Iran the other day, and then Panama at another occasion, I was somewhat disappointed to see what appeared to be the rather simplistic, default coastlines. So, unsurprisingly, it appears that Vector's coverage is most extensive in the western world. That said, Tehran did have a rather ncie road network that I'm guessing was thanks to Vector, so perhaps the data for these regions is somewhat limited.

[mtrainer 136]

Lots of varying opinions of ORBX's Vector here.  When I re-installed all my ORBX products early this year, Vector is the only one I left out due to the fact it is the single biggest performance hit of any of the add-ons I own.  Also not missing it really...with the tube liners once you get over 15,000 ft. you're not really noticing the shoreline details and river details so much, and with modern tubeliners you're at 15K in just a couple of minutes.  When I build a new rig though I do plan on adding it back.

I've had some of the elevation issues in the past but all were resolved by a visit to the manufacture's forums or a quick visit to Dr. Google.

Mark

 

[RamonB 449]

59 minutes ago, mtrainer said:

Lots of varying opinions of ORBX's Vector here.  When I re-installed all my ORBX products early this year, Vector is the only one I left out due to the fact it is the single biggest performance hit of any of the add-ons I own

Did the same thing.
Since ORBX regions, Tongass Fjords and UTX have their own vector data I have no use for vector in my current install or flying style.
For my addon airports I just make sure that there are no elevation adjustment bgl's that need to be turned off before flying onto them.

Edited October 11, 2018 by RamonB

[B777ER 2,485]

Vector was developed by Pilots and delivered via Orbx. Orbx relies (or maybe they don't anymore) on Pilots to keep it updated which they have not done. Their support for it is pathetic.

[honanhal 1,420]

Everything everyone has said about the problems with Vector is true. However, it’s probably the number one must have addon for me: I fly all over the world in the sim, and default coastlines are shockingly bad everywhere that isn’t Europe or North America.

Trust me — fly over default Thailand or Indonesia and even at 40k feet (let alone 15k!) you will see how horrible it looks. And hardly a river in sight in one of the most river-crossed areas in the world...

Given that, I can deal with the headaches Vector brings!

James

[brucewtb 249]

7 hours ago, honanhal said:

Everything everyone has said about the problems with Vector is true. However, it’s probably the number one must have addon for me: I fly all over the world in the sim, and default coastlines are shockingly bad everywhere that isn’t Europe or North America.

Trust me — fly over default Thailand or Indonesia and even at 40k feet (let alone 15k!) you will see how horrible it looks. And hardly a river in sight in one of the most river-crossed areas in the world...

Given that, I can deal with the headaches Vector brings!

James

Agree heartliy with this for anyone who flies outside of North America, Europe or Aust/NZ it is essential.  Vector has its issues but can be dealt with.

Bruceb

[SpiritFlyer 987]

8 hours ago, brucewtb said:

Agree heartliy with this for anyone who flies outside of North America, Europe or Aust/NZ it is essential.  Vector has its issues but can be dealt with.

Bruceb

I also agree. Being perfect is not on the table for any product, but Vector is the best for what it does. It is a must have for me outside of the usually flown areas.

Kind regards,

Spirit Flyer Stephen

[Nemo 1,305]

I hope that ORBX who are now working with Allen Kriesman (Ultimate Terrain) continues Vector development. Not sure if Pilot's is still working on Vector. Maybe others know more about these things.

[G-RFRY 1,710]

In the UK I don't need it the same with other regional scenery as it`s the full layers, and it`s just something else to load on startup.

[ShawnG 1,823]

On 10/10/2018 at 11:24 PM, jabloomf1230 said:

That's an excellent idea, which I'm going to try. But the fact that Vector doesn't recognize the add-on.xml method just emphasizes how out of date that Vector is.  I mean when is the "frozen water" bug going to be fixed?

It isn't going to be fixed.  I read a post by Holger a few years ago on this.  apparently (and I'm running on memory here, so forgive me) the workarounds that Holger used to circumvent the problem in older versions of FS have been removed from possibility in later versions of p3d.  it's also a problem for their regions, not just vector.  

 

And, as mentioned, Vector is a PILOT's product distributed by ORBX, rather than an in house project.  It's possible its been abandoned by pilots