It's worth mentioning that the "water hills" are present in the default London scenery and that Orbx have stated in the update release that they will be working with Asobo to remedy this.

 

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by Reader

All approved for the MS marketplace so it must be good ?? 

Was that sarcasm @G-RFRY? They're just a marketplace, they don't really vet the quality of what is offered, although no doubt they would pull something on a reactionary basis if it got very bad feedback or press.

2 hours ago, ckyliu said:

Was that sarcasm @G-RFRY? They're just a marketplace, they don't really vet the quality of what is offered, although no doubt they would pull something on a reactionary basis if it got very bad feedback or press.

No just the pre-launch threads in this forum about no more addons with issues they will be controlled.

Let me just quickly say that I’ve spent thousands of dollars in add-ons over the years, and about half of them were garbage. The sim community keeps getting ripped off by these “cut-and-paste” developers. 
 

This issue with Orbix raises an interesting question - can Orbix and other developers match MSFS craftsmanship? What Asobo has done is simply remarkable. Based on reporting, a lot of labor went into making the sim look so realistic. Then you  Orbx releasing these mediocre add-ons in a matter of weeks with little regards for quality control. 

Conversely,  why is the sim community rushing to purchase these add-ons when Microsoft has already given them the most extraordinary sceneries in the history of flight simulation?  London already looks remarkable - why cover it with a third-rate scenery? It’s never enough, I guess.

Yikes!

1 hour ago, Huascar said:

Let me just quickly say that I’ve spent thousands of dollars in add-ons over the years, and about half of them were garbage. The sim community keeps getting ripped off by these “cut-and-paste” developers. 
 

This issue with Orbix raises an interesting question - can Orbix and other developers match MSFS craftsmanship? What Asobo has done is simply remarkable. Based on reporting, a lot of labor went into making the sim look so realistic. Then you  Orbx releasing these mediocre add-ons in a matter of weeks with little regards for quality control. 

Conversely,  why is the sim community rushing to purchase these add-ons when Microsoft has already given them the most extraordinary sceneries in the history of flight simulation?  London already looks remarkable - why cover it with a third-rate scenery? It’s never enough, I guess.

It seems that there is a patch or new product out...that also gives you two extra stadiums...if I read that correctly on the Orbx site...

1 hour ago, Huascar said:

Let me just quickly say that I’ve spent thousands of dollars in add-ons over the years, and about half of them were garbage. The sim community keeps getting ripped off by these “cut-and-paste” developers. 
 

This issue with Orbix raises an interesting question - can Orbix and other developers match MSFS craftsmanship? What Asobo has done is simply remarkable. Based on reporting, a lot of labor went into making the sim look so realistic. Then you  Orbx releasing these mediocre add-ons in a matter of weeks with little regards for quality control. 

Conversely,  why is the sim community rushing to purchase these add-ons when Microsoft has already given them the most extraordinary sceneries in the history of flight simulation?  London already looks remarkable - why cover it with a third-rate scenery? It’s never enough, I guess.

Got to agree with you on this at this point in time. The small gain if any with these addons is negligible in the sim. Not like you are walking and have time to examine the face of every building. You are flying overhead!

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by Doering

With MSFS2020, personally I don't see the point of third party scenery, other than airports.

2 hours ago, Huascar said:

Then you  Orbx releasing these mediocre add-ons in a matter of weeks with little regards for quality control.

That sounds like typical ORBX was f recent years to me, though. Almost all their releases in 2020 and 2019 had issues and bugs. Especially the stuff they just publish like Gaya’s sceneries that are always lacking and buggy at release (like EGPH where they couldn’t even get the ILS right and the lighting was a mess or Courchevel). 

Orbx must have been burning the midnight oil. Their update is now ready to download.

2 hours ago, Huascar said:

Conversely,  why is the sim community rushing to purchase these add-ons when Microsoft has already given them the most extraordinary sceneries in the history of flight simulation? 

I think it has a lot to do with brand loyalty and the overall reputation of OrbX from previous sims. Some people just bought the Innsbruck airport addon from them without even having a look at the default version first, which is also handcrafted. Everyone just assumed that stock scenery must be inferior because it was like that in FSX, P3D and Xplane.

2 hours ago, Huascar said:

Conversely,  why is the sim community rushing to purchase these add-ons when Microsoft has already given them the most extraordinary sceneries in the history of flight simulation?  London already looks remarkable - why cover it with a third-rate scenery? It’s never enough, I guess.

Taking off from or landing at runway 27 at London City airport, and not seeing the towers at Canary Wharf in the middle distance just doesn't feel right. Orbx adding them in to the sim just adds that extra layer of immersion.

 

On 8/19/2020 at 12:16 PM, captain420 said:

That's what happens when the default scenery is so good that 3rd parties are so used to designing in mind for last gen flight sims such as X-Plane, P3D, FSX. Asobo/MS has raised the bar really high. It's time that the 3rd party developers raise theirs as well.

Quite possibly the best answer on the situation with 3rd party devs at this early point in the history of MSFS (is 5 days into the release long enough for it to even have a history? LOL).

I know for a fact when ORBX saw the level of detail we're getting out of the box, brown matter flowed freely from their hindquarters when contemplating the idea of just "porting over" their existing work we've been enamored with since the beginning of the industry (3rd party scenery design).

I wholeheartedly agree that some areas of the world need work, and I'm glad we have ORBXs out there that have the capability to enhance areas of the world.....the big issue is if they are going to "re-tool" and do it right...or try to feed the FS community re-hashed code that is clearly sub-par with the bar MSFS just set. 

Seems like for this release, they chose the latter, and we can only hope they were doing it for the obvious cash-grab of the new-to-simming crowd who truly don't know better.  I say "we can only hope" in regards to the fact that there is not an experienced simmer here, with 5 or more OBRX titles to their name, that knows this is not the ORBX we're expecting...we can only hope that they seriously are not so obtuse that they actually thought they'd not get called out by us.   If so...then we'd all drop them like a hot potato and move on.   But I have to believe they'll learn from this...go re-tool...and come back in few months with new scenery that WILL fit the bill.  Of course it's gonna cost more to cover the cost of re-tooling.

As much as it would have been easier for Boeing to build the Dreamliner from aluminium...they knew it'd never meet the performance goals of new, carbon fiber technology.   They spent billions to "re-tool" for CF manufacturing...and it will surely pay-off in the future.  That is where we're at in flightsim....all the 3rd party devs are gonna' have to "re-tool" to build stuff we're gonna want to pay for in MSFS.  And while not in the "billions" realm of cost...there will be a cost...and we'll have it passed to us (as it should be).

MSFS Scenery out of the box....

  My house

Hollywood sign:

Stone Mountain, Georgia USA

 

ORBX, Your turn....make THIS better...Impress me.  I dare you. 🙂

 

1 hour ago, masaki said:

With MSFS2020, personally I don't see the point of third party scenery, other than airports.

Not true. There are a lot of regions that don't have highly accurate satellite imagery or data that can lend a helping hand when it comes to enhancements. I would definitely purchase city or scenery packs that make a city and it's surrounding closer to real life. There's more to fly in the world than just North America and Europe. Other areas that need much needed attention is Asia. Would love to have scenery and POI landmarks for cities like Bangkok, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Tokyo, Manila, Cebu, Maldives, and the list goes on and on. POI and City/Landmark add-ons will be a huge thing in MFS.

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by captain420