FTX Central 3 to Orbx Central

[spilok 1,133]

I HAVE NOT and WILL NOT install ORBX Central.  It's truly a shame that a company that I used to love and order from frequently made this transition to a new "gateway" so difficult and unpredictable to its many users. Just read all the negative responses on this forum to this change.

I have not purchased a single product from ORBX since they introduced this debacle.  I will wait for either a simple "turn key" solution to OC from ORBX or I will use other sources for my scenery. I don't want to potentially mess with a successful sim and cause problems.  Hopefully, they will NOT get involved in the new Microsoft 2020 sim when it debuts.  

Stan

[slait 169]

Wow, pretty passionate response over something it doesn't sound like you have any personal experience with. I've had no issues with it so far, but perhaps I was just lucky in avoding the "debacle".

[reecemj 146]

2 hours ago, spilok said:

I HAVE NOT and WILL NOT install ORBX Central.  It's truly a shame that a company that I used to love and order from frequently made this transition to a new "gateway" so difficult and unpredictable to its many users. Just read all the negative responses on this forum to this change.

I have not purchased a single product from ORBX since they introduced this debacle.  I will wait for either a simple "turn key" solution to OC from ORBX or I will use other sources for my scenery. I don't want to potentially mess with a successful sim and cause problems.  Hopefully, they will NOT get involved in the new Microsoft 2020 sim when it debuts.  

Stan

Stan I bought 12 scenerys to complete Europe and US with Central. Using Lorby AO to make groups there is no problem with central. I install all into p3d folder. No problems here. 

[fueliehead 5]

On ‎12‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 1:44 PM, DJJose said:

It's really not that hard.

Just back up your current p3d scenery.cfg.

Install OC. It's going to ask you to remove FTX 3. Click OK. Open ORBX Central then log into your account. Create a back up folder and an ORBX Library folder. Don't migrate anything. In the settings you can choose not to update any of your current ORBX add-ons. Choose legacy entry method and select insertion points.

Anytime you want to install anything you can choose add-on .xml or to install inside the sim (legacy method.)

The best way to learn OC is to install it and familiarize yourself with it.

Finally gave in to Orbx Central (wanted Hawaii) and followed the above process.  Thanks for providing straight forward instructions.  Didn't migrate anything, did set insertion points, and chose legacy install method.  Everything appears to be working, although I have not tested all my addons.

All of my non Orbx addons that use the Addon.xml method were at the top of my scenery library before Orbx Central.  After Orbx Central they are now all randomly placed (mixed up) among the Orbx entries below the second insertion point.  Is there an easy way to move these back to the top?  I haven't used any addon organizers, would that be the only answer now?

I am glad they are folks out there who don't have issues with Orbx.  For me, I'm done with them.

Thanks for the help. 

[xxd09 68]

I did a reinstall of P3D and decided to try installing Orbx outside the sim

Works Ok but

Ordering the Scenery is more of a fiddle as some is in the sim and some in AddOns

Installing a new Orbx scenery means some disturbance of scenery order but it is easy to rearrange via Settings and Insertion point

If I was doing it again and I may -I think I would go back to putting Orbx scenery in the sim-seems more stable and easier to rearrange Scenery order

You have to have Orbx Central to get updates and new Sceneries so there really is no way back 

xxd09

[cwburnett 1,809]

On 12/22/2019 at 1:44 PM, DJJose said:

It's really not that hard.

Just back up your current p3d scenery.cfg.

Install OC. It's going to ask you to remove FTX 3. Click OK. Open ORBX Central then log into your account. Create a back up folder and an ORBX Library folder. Don't migrate anything. In the settings you can choose not to update any of your current ORBX add-ons. Choose legacy entry method and select insertion points.

Anytime you want to install anything you can choose add-on .xml or to install inside the sim (legacy method.)

The best way to learn OC is to install it and familiarize yourself with it.

Just did this as well to add Honolulu. Worked no problem. Nothing in my library is re-ordered or otherwise messed with.  I put my insertion points exactly as I had them in FTX Central 3 and everything is as it should be.

[Rogen 1,087]

48 minutes ago, cwburnett said:

Worked no problem. Nothing in my library is re-ordered or otherwise messed with.  I put my insertion points exactly as I had them in FTX Central 3 and everything is as it should be.

Exactly the same experience here.

I think people forget the original FTX Central went through the same sort of teething issues along its way to becoming a stable application.

It's pretty much the same for all software and is always worse for new products because no matter how much TLC goes into writing and testing the software, someone, somewhere will find an issue. Then the current culture of outrage pops to the forefront and there are posts like that of Mr Spilok's.

Personally I'm not a first adopter of software if I can avoid it (I work for a software development company and have first hand experience), or I'll at least have a rollback plan in place while performing UAT. Case in point, Lockheed Martin's original 4.5 release, installed client only, performed UAT, found the issue of substantial FPS drop along with a few other items in my UAT and thusly rolled back to the previous release client, a quite painless operation overall.

I did have one issue with Orbx (I had a lot of updates applied via the new Central), being vertical shore waves. Had them happen previously and would re-install the Orbx libs to fix. No joy this time round (as in an uninstall/re-install of the libs did not resolve - must be some package that installs an older/incorrect file), did resolve by moving the Orbx libs to the xml install method and so far all has been fine.

Cheers

[CFIJose 5,485]

15 hours ago, cwburnett said:

Just did this as well to add Honolulu. Worked no problem. Nothing in my library is re-ordered or otherwise messed with.  I put my insertion points exactly as I had them in FTX Central 3 and everything is as it should be.

So are you happy? 😁

[CFIJose 5,485]

17 hours ago, fueliehead said:

Is there an easy way to move these back to the top?  I haven't used any addon organizers, would that be the only answer now?

Thanks for the help. 

There's a legacy box in OC that you need to tick, then set the insertion point. All .xml sceneries should appear at the top.

If you have too many sceneries and want to increase loading times, I recommend that you run and get SimStarter NG, It's the best tool to organize your traditional scenery.cfg entries and new .xml entries. Then load only what you want.

[pete_auau 1,158]

17 hours ago, slait said:

Wow, pretty passionate response over something it doesn't sound like you have any personal experience with. I've had no issues with it so far, but perhaps I was just lucky in avoding the "debacle".

yea what debacle 🙂 

Edited January 4, 2020 by pete_auau

[fueliehead 5]

3 hours ago, DJJose said:

There's a legacy box in OC that you need to tick, then set the insertion point. All .xml sceneries should appear at the top.

If you have too many sceneries and want to increase loading times, I recommend that you run and get SimStarter NG, It's the best tool to organize your traditional scenery.cfg entries and new .xml entries. Then load only what you want.

I did check legacy and set insertion points the first time I ran it.  I created the library but did not migrate anything.  The insertion points worked, the Orbx scenery was where I expected.  All my Addon.xml addons were scattered among the Orbx scenery instead of at the top.  I just started using SimStarter in the last month.  I used it to move my .xml sceneries back to the top (didn't realize it could do that).  It appears to be working.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.  SimStarter is a great tool.

[spilok 1,133]

Just want to know a few things:   If I switch to OC from FTX Central, will all my Orbx sceneries be there....and not needing re-installation?  Also, will they all be correctly placed in my P3d scenery library?

If the answer is YES, then I over-reacted and will apologize for my rant to Orbx about not ever buying more scenery from them.

Stan

[Reader 2,021]

Yes.

As you must have installed all your Orbx products into the P3D root folder and if you tick the legacy box on the Insertion Point page, Orbx Central will behave in exactly the same way as FTX Central does in respect of all the Orbx products.

[lownslo 592]

1 hour ago, spilok said:

Also, will they all be correctly placed in my P3d scenery library?

Stan, having done this dance twice in the past 3 months, I urge you to leave all of your ORBX products installed in the sim (where they were before ORBX Central was gifted to us).  As others have said, migrating the sceneries from the sim location to a library you create is where the trouble can begin.  Also, using LM's preferred addon.xml method of installing addons is certainly hit and miss with ORBX Central (and that's the mystery... some folks have no problem using the addon.xml method while others do).

In essence, to be safe just use ORBX Central the way they've wanted us to use their control apps for years... with all ORBX products installed in the sim.  ORBX Central's strongest attributes are that it works on multi-platforms and it allows the consumer to purchase in app.  However, the ordering of scenery in the sim tends to be hit and miss.

Good luck,

Greg

[cwburnett 1,809]

1 hour ago, spilok said:

Just want to know a few things:   If I switch to OC from FTX Central, will all my Orbx sceneries be there....and not needing re-installation?  Also, will they all be correctly placed in my P3d scenery library?

Skepticism is fair here. As with anything in technology, there are countless variables, so EXPECT there to be some hiccups and be pleasantly surprised if there are none. I followed DJJOSE's advice and backed up my config files before doing this, and I also left Central 3 installed, just in case. I waited until I had some time and was willing to tweak before I tried it.  Don't assume that because it was seamless for me that it will be for you. No two P3D setups are alike.

That said, to answer your questions, when I installed Orbx Central it recognized all my already installed ORBX scenery. It did find updates for about 10 of them, including global base and vector. It took about 15 mins for my products to update. You CAN elect in the setup to not automatically update, and then I suppose that won't happen to you, but I wanted the updates so I just let it do it's thing. Once that was done, I installed Honolulu and chose to install "legacy" in the Sim instead of the default library it creates. So the only thing in my library is, I think, objectflow.

Before I started, I took note of my insertion points in Central 3 under settings.  Then I was sure  to set those same exact insertion points for Orbx Central right away.

In my case everything stayed exactly as it was before.  A bunch of my sceneries (FSDT, DD, 29Palms, FB, etc) are at the top of my library because they installed via the XML method. Below that I have all my non-XML add-on scenery, and then right below the last of those are my FTX entries.

Make backups, be cautious and if you get stuck or unsure, don't guess or just keep clicking okay/next...that never ends well in my experience.

Good luck! YMMV.

Edited January 4, 2020 by cwburnett