Present Thoughts on ORBX

[Dominique_K 10,152]

14 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

I don't know how this translates to high-res photoscenery, but you only need 5-7 MB/sec to watch streaming HD movies, so I'm guessing this will be enough.

There will likely be a buffering process as well that will download and locally store a certain amount of anticipated, i.e. not yet rendered but upcoming, scenery data as the flight progresses.

Dave

My lousy ADSL2 connection doesn’t allow it, I get movie channels thanks to a satellite feed as many people do.

Its going to be a technical challenge for MS that I hope they will be up to.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by domkle

[Midnight Music 252]

I'd rather have the scenery in my rig. Streaming can include lots of pauses and drop outs. I hope MS can find a way around that. In the meantime P3D V4.5 and up, full steam ahead, until something truly proves otherwise. Right now MS is all pretty pictures. So I will wait and see.

Lee

[Dominique_K 10,152]

The streaming issue being marginally relevant to the Orbx thread ( not entirely irrelevant though...) , I opened a new thread in the new sim forum if you care.

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by domkle

[BrettT 63]

My thoughts on the mentioned apparent recent preference of ORBX towards Xplane are as follows.  I think it is more of a function of the TE product than necessarily any real preference.  That and the TE products seems to have less issues (performance and other) within the Xplane environment as opposed to the P3D environment.  On the surface it is clear that ORBX has been pumping out TE regions for Xplane (5 in the last year I believe, 3 in GB, 2 in the US).  During that same time, there has been TE GB South for P3D (a port of the xplane version) and the FTX AU V2 which had been in the works for a good while.

It would be my guess that this would have more to do with the TE regions being less labor intensive as opposed to an FTX region as many of the tools are automated and there is no manual assignment of LC tiles which is required for a FTX region.  This doesn't necessarily make it any cheaper as the bandwidth and imagery both cost money.  Additionally, there are no seasons to deal with in Xplane and they also do not enhance any of the airports within the TE xplane regions like they do for the P3D regions.  This is just my guess and is not to infer that the TE xplane regions are any less impressive as they clearly are a very nice piece of work. 

[lownslo 592]

On 9/2/2019 at 9:23 AM, tymk said:

I've had my share of frustration with Orbx over the years, but I have to say they're getting a lot of undeserved flak these days, especially as regards Orbx Central and scenery layering.

While LM certainly needs to better define and refine the addon.xml method, this current situation is all on ORBX.  It is they who developed an app to manage their scenery products, allowing for the use of the addon.xml method, without taking into account other 3rd party scenery addons and how it all could play havoc with a sim install.  Not a whole lot of foresight shown there.  On the upside, once all the dust clears we may have a better system for installing 3rd party addons, and that wouldn't be a bad result after all.

Regards,

Greg

[fta2017 160]

Too funny. People spend years and years asking Orbx to allow installation of their scenery outside the sim folder. When they deliver it there is a chorus of complaints from all sides, and even people demanding to allow products to be installed back inside the sim folder 🙂 

I think the community is too quick to criticise a developer for delivering what they ask for and then causing a furore because weird esoteric permutations of scenery layers involving dozens if not hundreds of scenery vendors, or sorted by country (what the ...!?!)  is potentially affected by Orbx Central. 

Orbx will sort this out, they always do. Just be patient, life goes on.

Like many people here, if it wasn’t for Orbx I would have left this hobby a long time ago. They are the most prolific publisher of consistently high quality addons for multiple platforms and we can do better than try to cut the tall poppy down.

 

As for MS2020 ... really?? You’re going to stop supporting the developers who have enhanced your FS experience since MS abandoned everyone, on the basis of some screenshots and videos? Have we forgotten their track record, or the FSX “Magic Screenshot” over a decade ago? I put it to anyone who has stopped buying addons because of this that you are short-sighted to the extreme. Hang your heads in shame...

Edited September 3, 2019 by fta2017

[joby33y 152]

27 minutes ago, fta2017 said:

Have we forgotten their track record, or the FSX “Magic Screenshot” over a decade ago?

Apparently, yes - some folks seem to have short term memory.....

[xxd09 69]

I agree with your Orbyx remarks but scared stiff to install FTX Central 4 as at the moment as I have 4 functioning sims esp P3D4.5 and I do not want to mess them up

Therefore unable to buy any new Orbyx products at the moment which is sad for  everyone 

xxd09

[fta2017 160]

1 minute ago, xxd09 said:

I agree with your Orbyx remarks but scared stiff to install FTX Central 4 as at the moment as I have 4 functioning sims esp P3D4.5 and I do not want to mess them up

Therefore unable to buy any new Orbyx products at the moment which is sad for  everyone 

xxd09

You’re scared because you’re reading forums like this and are being swayed by the vocal minority who have seriously complex and questionable scenery library situations? I read on their forums that the majority of customers are on Orbx Central now. I installed it (and I have a LOT of P3D addons) and it works perfectly.

[lownslo 592]

15 minutes ago, fta2017 said:

I installed it (and I have a LOT of P3D addons) and it works perfectly.

I installed it... it hosed my scenery.cfg (and I read the Central User Guide pdf prior).  Fortunately, I made an image of the drive before testing OC, so getting my simulator back untouched was easy.

To each their own, but I've got plenty of ORBX addons to enjoy... so I've hit the "Pause" button on purchases from them for a while until all this is well sorted.

Regards,

Greg

[Patco Lch 1,479]

fta2017 said it so well. Mother Stingy (MS) left her stuttering child FSX abandoned to foster care. LM found her, clothed her well and gave her a 64 bit house and raised her  into lady  whose followers grew. Mother Stingy saw and decided to have another sim child. While this kid is still in infancy MS showed pictures of what she hoped her kid would look like when grown and large numbers of Ester Silva Pygmalion's (ESP) fickle fans where quickly drawn to MS forgetting her poor maternal past.

What's this ramble has to do with ORBX? Heck, I don't know. Just the product of insomnia.😑

I guess you could say ORBX deserves credit for being one of the clothers and jewellers that helped make Pygmalion such a gracious lady.

[MikeT707 1,181]

16 hours ago, domkle said:

MS has not yet addressed publicly the central issue of the necessary bandwidth and how they will channel sceneries to poorly connected users without dumbing down their sim experience.  I would  say "wait and see".

Yup, we shall all have to wait and see, but for those who have sufficient systems and enough bandwidth, then the three points mentioned above should be resolved for the most part. Those who do not meet minimum or recommended specs, which will include a bandwidth element, will have likely, quite a different experience, which I am sure is not yet knows by MS at this time.

[spilok 1,139]

2 hours ago, lownslo said:

I installed it... it hosed my scenery.cfg (and I read the Central User Guide pdf prior).  Fortunately, I made an image of the drive before testing OC, so getting my simulator back untouched was easy.

To each their own, but I've got plenty of ORBX addons to enjoy... so I've hit the "Pause" button on purchases from them for a while until all this is well sorted.

Regards,

Greg

My sentiments exactly.  I absolutely love my ORBX products, and I have many of them.  But until it's all sorted out and version 4 can be installed without messing up my status quo, I will NOT but another ORBX product.  I'm sure they have heard this and hopefully will address it.

Stan

[Afterburner 374]

I can't wait for ORBX to release OpenLC Africa and Asia, and ORBX announced that they would release both continents by the end of the year, but does anyone actually believe that?  It's already September, and we have hardly seen any screenshots from Africa, let alone Asia. The latter continent is very huge, and I have a hard time buying into their announcement that it would be ready by the end of this year...  "Next year" sounds more realistic to me.

[B777ER 2,492]

If the initial in-sim pictures of MS2020 are any indication, their global products line, TE and Cityscene software will no longer be needed. There is no way JV saw all of the MS2020 marketing material and information released to date and thought to himself, this is a good thing. MS2020 cuts out a large portion of their product line. Only airports will be of any value it appears. Don't blame them for focusing on XP for this reason alone. I don't think XP will come anywhere close to matching current day P3D revenue, especially when. MS2020 is released (as long as 3rd party support is in place). In fact, if all the major aircraft and airport developers start releasing stuff for MS2020, P3D and XP will both die on a vine (save for the LM military contracts). If Orbx does not evolve, they will be nothing like they are now.