Orbx kills OpenLC Asia

[ZLA Steve 370]

So much salt in this thread. Many of you could benefit from taking a look at this guide.

Jokes aside, JV and Orbx owe all of us nothing. They are going to do what best for the business, and it's helpful to understand that it's not always what may feel is best for you.

I've purchased quite a few Orbx titles over the years and I get great use out of them. Will I continue to be a customer?? Yes - if they release something that piques my interest. Does that mean I will rant and take my business elsewhere if they decide not to do something they announced a while ago? Probably not, but that would be my right as well.

Despite that, I continue to giggle at all the comments reacting to MFS as tho it's going to blow up every other sim the day it goes gold. It's a new platform, with new and exciting technology that many of us have dreamed about for years (and certainly spent hundreds if not thousands while trying to get our sims to looks and feel like what these videos and interviews suggest) Let's all take a collective exhale and just look forward to the future while taking a moment to reflect on how far we've come.

 

[AndrejS 25]

5 hours ago, Daedalus said:

I find this decision disrespectful to their customers. We had been paying for the LC products with the thinking that they will cover the globe one day. Where is loyalty for the customers who paid all these years ORBX ?

Very disappointed ORBX forgot their customers.

I kind of feel the same, but there's no loyalty beyond $ they're getting from us. If that's what they feel is the best for them, ok, we'll survive and find another supplier. It's that simple. 

4 hours ago, Avidean said:

One other thing. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones!

And there's plenty of "stones" left, so we've got quite some time to spend. 

3 hours ago, domkle said:

Bottom line ? He is the boss, he does what he thinks fit for his company. On my side, the consumer side, I feel he let me down. I will survive though  !

Thank god i'm still very new/fresh to the simflying, so i've only experienced the good. None of the troubles, forum members went through, didn't touch me,since i started with ver 4.3 and an old computer that serves me well. 

If P3d will cease to exist, i've got it on my pc and there's so much left to be discovered, i'll fly it even when i'm gone. Hat off to Orbx, they've given me so much, one decision i don't like won't change this and for Xmas i'll spend some more for their products. I guess my view is very different from most of you, i won't switch to FS2020 just because it's prettier, i'm quite happy to fly my current "assets". And i've invested too much into P3d to throw that away and go with the flow, i'll remain on the P3d island instead. 

[Skywolf 992]

Oh man - I was really hoping for entire world global.  Just change developers lol but lets see what happens.

I really wanted to fly over Singapore, India, and most definitely Nepal (the openLC would have sure helped).....

sigh.  Oh well, I got Europe, SA and NA - so I will fly in those areas and then teleport to Australia V2 areas - as that is massive area to fly and explore.

Africa will be great, and may be by then they will create openLC - JV did say "may" make it

Edited November 20, 2019 by Skywolf

[G-RFRY 1,708]

The main reason for going to P3DV4 was to keep seasons in my sim something MSFS will not have next year when released, and I have avoided the TE ORBX for that reason now it looks like ORBX are dumping P3Dv4 scenery development.

[dave2013 1,123]

Well, this is certainly disappointing news.  I do believe that openLC Africa will end up being released as so much work has already been done that it would be a monumental waste of effort not to go ahead and finish the final bit and at least make some money on it.  As for openLC Asia, well, it doesn't look promising from what JV said.  Too bad.

I will now proceed to roundly criticize JV for once again creating excitement and teasing everyone about a future product only to see it either take years to finally come to fruition or just fade away.  He should have remained silent about openLC Asia until he was certain of its development.  Oh, and just like some folks suspected all along, JV finally admitted that openLC was indeed put on the back burner in order to work on the TrueEarth stuff.  It's ironic that TrueEarth scenery will be totally obsolete in about a year once MSFS is released, as will a lot of other scenery.  Of course, ORBX could not have known this before June 2019.

ORBX should have finished the openLC series like they've been promising for a number of years now.

So disappointing.

Dave

Edited November 21, 2019 by dave2013

[Afterburner 374]

I remember that when the first LC package (Europe) came out five years ago, the amount of sales surprised even ORBX (JV wrote in one of his threads "Holy Cow!"), and the vision was that two continents would be released per year. The company should have taken advantage of the momentum and focused most of its resources on the OLC packages. Now we learn that OLC Asia will most likely be scrapped (unless there will be a need for it in the next MSFS), so we can continue enjoy flying over barebone landscapes in Asia...

While no customer is entitled to the release of an announced product by a company, ORBX should stop announcing their "roadmaps" as a consequence and tell us directly that no one knows what lies ahead.

I for one am also sad that the LC project was given so little attention lately. In my opinion, LCs provide quite an efficient way to improve the fidelity of landscapes especially for high-altitude flyers in terms of FPS and file size (and you get four seasons), so that you don't need to waste dozens or hundreds of GBs for only one season, like with the TE products.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

3 hours ago, Afterburner said:

I remember that when the first LC package (Europe) came out five years ago, the amount of sales surprised even ORBX (JV wrote in one of his threads "Holy Cow!"), and the vision was that two continents would be released per year. The company should have taken advantage of the momentum and focused most of its resources on the OLC packages. Now we learn that OLC Asia will most likely be scrapped (unless there will be a need for it in the next MSFS), so we can continue enjoy flying over barebone landscapes in Asia...

While no customer is entitled to the release of an announced product by a company, ORBX should stop announcing their "roadmaps" as a consequence and tell us directly that no one knows what lies ahead.

I for one am also sad that the LC project was given so little attention lately. In my opinion, LCs provide quite an efficient way to improve the fidelity of landscapes especially for high-altitude flyers in terms of FPS and file size (and you get four seasons), so that you don't need to waste dozens or hundreds of GBs for only one season, like with the TE products.

I would agree with all of that. Allow me to add a comment. Roadmaps are by nature indicative. I do not blame Orbx for cancelling any product, for good or bad reasons. Their bottom line. With two important nuances though :

- The purchase of Global and Vector, expensive addons, were justified for many users by the announced OLC cover of the world. And we got only half of it. The Global Suite : Global base+Vector+OLC is a whole and gets amputated on the finishing line.  No Asia, maybe no  Africa and I don't want to even think of North Asia (ie Russia East of the Ural in OLCspeak)

- John Venema doesn't do any good service  to himself and to the great community of developers he chaperons by telling now that there was never a green light and the work was never started for Asia when he said mid-July that the work has begun and end of August that another product (the Maritimes) would start when OLC Asia was finished which confirmed that work was being done.

Again, I am not too worried because we have FS20  on the radar screen now which hopefully will allow us great flights over Asia.  

Edited November 21, 2019 by domkle

[Rocky_53 1,566]

20 hours ago, fakeflyer737 said:

He's right.  When 2020 comes out tye days of Vector data, open landclass based scenery are done. Theyre going to have to focus on airports and airplanes I would imagine. 

Spot on Ron!

[pmb 5,137]

My personal expectation is ORBX will make a complete reset of their roadmap pretty soon.

Yes, it's questionable if it makes sense to continue the OpenLC product line now. It should have been completed when it was announced, years ago, instead and would have been well-receiced and profitable. This way we would have a nice coherent ORBX-ified world for some time now. Base/Vector/OpenLC worldwide, Regions for prominent areas and the airports as the icing on the cake.

Instead ORBX choose to make a U-turn (actually it was a triple U-turn, if you recall) into X-Plane. Not to mention their AeroflyFS2 flash in the pan. 

ORBX is certainly free to do what they want and don't owe us anything. However, they may loose an important asset this way: their credibility. I already stopped buying their XP-offers as I am not in the mood to spend twice for the same airports I bought years ago. Charleston may end up to become the first ORBX Prepard3d offer I am not going to buy either. 

Kind regards, Michael

[Avance 12]

As far as I'm concerned, OpenLC Africa, if it ever comes out, will certainly be the last product I'll buy from ORBX. 

[Dominique_K 10,133]

32 minutes ago, pmb said:

 .

  ORBX choose to make a U-turn (actually it was a triple U-turn, if you recall) into X-Plane. Not to mention their AeroflyFS2 flash in the pan. 

 

John  Venema has said several times that customer requests have no bearing on what OrbX intents to make and release  because he has a "strategy". Besides to be a strange way to endear his customers, his  strategy makes them dizzy all right. 

Edited November 21, 2019 by domkle

[Kilo60 660]

Any word if F1’s UTX is going to release an Asia/Africa Landclass for P3D now?

[Dominique_K 10,133]

1 minute ago, Kilo60 said:

Any word if F1’s UTX is going to release an Asia/Africa Landclass for P3D now?

The developer for UTX, Allen Kriesman, works for Orbx now. He made Charleston and Orlando for instance. A great developer throughout and it is a pity that we don't have any competitor to Orbx anymore in this niche.

 

[Kilo60 660]

1 hour ago, domkle said:

The developer for UTX, Allen Kriesman, works for Orbx now. He made Charleston and Orlando for instance. A great developer throughout and it is a pity that we don't have any competitor to Orbx anymore in this niche.

 

word not allowed....!!!

[B777ER 2,484]

On 11/20/2019 at 6:20 AM, domkle said:

On July 10th John Venema announced the work would very soon begin  on the long awaited P3D/FSX opus.

  Holger Sandmann is now leading a parallel team to work on OLC Asia and work will commence in earnest in the next week or so and we're aiming for a release well before years' end. 

Today he announced 

openLC Asia has not been started on yet and at this stage the project has not been given the green light.

We've been waiting for 3+ years since the first announcement of OpenLC Asia. We know now that we'll most certainly never see it. It wouldn't make sense to put on the market around the time  FS20 is released.

Having been among those requesting OLC Asia again and again, I won't comment anymore  except to say that Orbx decision makes FS20 even more desirable ! 

Good thing you posted this here. That muppet, Nick Cooper on the Orbx forum hands out the most ridiculous warnings for anything negative against Orbx requiring all your posts to be reviewed prior to showing. Their orwellian way of running their forum has soured any more purchases from them. I am personally happy MS2020 is making majority of their products redundant. Good riddance to them.