20 minutes ago, hanhamreds said:

almost bought this - but yeah £5 more that ORBX Leeds Bradford - ouch!

is the old Terminal building there? - hard to tell in the screen shots

 

The Default runway undulation was very good imo, glad to hear they have the uphill Taxiway to RW09 now though. 

No it’s a building site. Also happy with paying the price.  I think it looks great and performance is superb I don’t notice any difference from a default airport.

4 hours ago, Carts85 said:

Sorry but I find that overpriced for £18.50.

Apart from the tech within MSFS that naturally boost the overall look can someone point out to me where the improvements are from say FSX/XP interms of modelling etc? I just don’t see it.

I think what you have to bear in mind, is that for anyone who had the FSX/P3D versions of UK 2000 stuff, it's less than a tenner to buy this new MSFS version, and I daresay previous customers will think that is fair since even with existing models, it is still an effort to get stuff into the new sim working properly.

UK 2000's FSX/P3D airports are pretty much an institution among UK flight simmers, by virtue of them being one of the few developers giving the UK any attention at all amidst a sea of developers who only ever look at modeling airports with a ICAO code which begins with a K. Without UK 2000's efforts, the virtual UK of FSX and P3D would have been pretty much a default wasteland north of Watford.

UK 2000 stuff is built to a performance overhead in terms of detail, which means their sceneries aren't always visual mega-stunners, but some of that is down to the fact that many UK airports are not exactly what you would call architectural things of beauty, but either way, with an eye on performance, what they always have is lots of installation options to aid in gaining FPS, along with additional service patches which aid overall functionality of all the sceneries, all of which are well organised on their server and without draconian security protection measures.

It's this, coupled with good support from a developer who is easy to get hold of, which is behind why the developer has a fan base of appreciative customers, particularly in the UK, who I daresay won't begrudge paying a tenner for that having that scenery in the new sim. 

1 hour ago, hanhamreds said:

almost bought this - but yeah £5 more that ORBX Leeds Bradford - ouch!

Not having Orbx Leeds Bradford, I don't know about its functionality personally, but I have read several reports which claimed that particular Orbx scenery is all show and no go, with people writing that it was missing functionality with several ATC and ground facilities. Can't confirm this personally, but if that is true and we couple this with the fiasco that was their London scenery, which I can confirm, and I think it's fair to say that the normally impressive Orbx have hardly got off to an auspicious start with MSFS. I suspect that might be worth a fiver extra to avoid, not that repeat customers of the UK 2000 stuff would be paying that price anyway, as noted, with the upgrade price of Bristol being under a tenner.

Gary does need a slap for not making Liverpool and Manchester top of the development priority list though. 🤣

 

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by Chock

19 minutes ago, Chock said:

 

Not having Orbx Leeds Bradford, I don't know about its functionality personally, but I have read several reports which claimed that particular Orbx scenery is all show and no go, with people writing that it was missing functionality with several ATC and ground facilities. Can't confirm this personally, but if that is true and we couple this with the fiasco that was their London scenery, which I can confirm, and I think it's fair to say that the normally impressive Orbx have hardly got off to an auspicious start with MSFS. I suspect that might be worth a fiver extra to avoid, not that repeat customers of the UK 2000 stuff would be paying that price anyway, as noted, with the upgrade price of Bristol being under a tenner.

 

 

I logged in this morning, and to my surprise it said I bought Bristol Extreme back in the day, unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a discount for owners of that product though. 

 

Looking at those screenshots it would appear the old terminal building has gone https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewestonmercury.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fnostalgia-experience-bristol-airport-through-the-decades-as-it-celebrates-60-years-of-flying-1-5003655&psig=AOvVaw1D8m7nWVvnV1dZAw8E33Be&ust=1599309800669000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIDi07bDz-sCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

 

 

13 minutes ago, Chock said:

 

I understand your point about the discounted price and rightly so it should be under a tenner. But that applies to the few and even less for Bristol airport that’s priced at nearly £20. I can’t help but feel like a lot of simmers are stuck in the past with this mentality of certain developers are doing us a favour and we should just be grateful and we should accept FSX/P3D visuals because of performance constraints sounds like just excuses for a very average product and I think UK2000 gets away with it because there is such a lack of competition for U.K. airports, that’s the real issue. If the top quality airport creators decided to work on the U.K. we would see a difference in the quality from UK2000 and am sure more competitive prices too.

28 minutes ago, Carts85 said:

If the top quality airport creators decided to work on the U.K. we would see a difference in the quality from UK2000 and am sure more competitive prices too.

True, but that's probably never going to happen, we get other developers looking at Heathrow and maybe a few others, but that's it. And sometimes when they do that it ends up as an FPS slideshow - I'm looking at you Aerosoft Manchester - so we're in a position where one guy is pretty much serving the UK scenery market on his own. In that kind of situation, there is a limit to how far he can go and still produce things at an acceptable rate and with a price which makes it worth the effort for him having done so.

Like all sceneries, it's not compulsory to buy them, but it's nice to find one you want, and unless it's ridiculously expensive, I think we're okay with paying for the privelege. It's a no brainer that some scenery for JFK is going to sell big, and so a developer can afford to go with the economy of scale and sell it for a decent price, but going to the trouble of modeling Filton or Woodvale for those who want scenery of there, is going to be a different story. I wouldn't hold your breath whilst waiting for Flightbeam to model Cardiff or Humberside, but you can put money on UK 2000 getting around to doing it.

Since the new sim has a developer mode, and Blender is free and fairly easy to learn, I would challenge people to have a stab at making an airport they want, including accurately modeling all the airside parts where you need a security pass to get to, in order to know what they look like, furnished with custom-made 3D building models textured with photos you took yourself when visiting the locations. And then see if they still think 20 quid is overpriced for their efforts. I can guarantee they will be whistling a different tune after trying it.

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by Chock

Well Alan your write about Orbx London, but Leeds/Bradford is really nice and looks stunning in MSFS, Orbx KSCA is also stunning, but KBUR is INOP as it kills FPS on approach they are looking into it, so yer Orbx is a mix bag.

My personal problem with Bristol is I bought "orbx" P3D version and OMG it was a "really!!!!" it was and is like an old UK2000 product. Now the problem is I don't want to spent £18.50 on another version and to be fair to Orbx there pricing is good, so £18.50 for Bristol, nope. I can get 2 airport for that and even KDEN is £12 or £8. Flightbeam are in another class to Gary so yer £18.50 is to much in the MSFS market imo ofc.

Orbx Wycombe Air park looks a good buy. Or ST. TROPEZ for £10.

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by Nyxx

UPDATE - Just bought and checked it out - not a fan of static's, but as there is a distant lack of Real world airliners @Briz right now I welcome the 11 placed there.

 

hang on - blow me Ryan air are taxing 

 

anyway it does look very good, frame rate seems good whilst doing touch and go's in my 152, some frame rate drops using fast drone camera pans though 

It appears Gary is not paying attention to market trends.
This is a much nicer version than the old Xtreme stuff, however, the pricing for MSFS products has shifted downwards.

I don't own all the old UK2000 airports, so buying them all would be a very expensive proposition, not to mention that there's now competition from people who are starting to port Google 3D models of airports (to varying levels of ability) into MSFS.

$18 for LatinVFR KMIA, $15 for Flightbeam KDEN, $18.20 for Orbx EGNM and $15.25 for their EGLC - all before current owner discounts.
Can anyone see the problem with UK2000 EGGD being priced at $24?
 

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by F737NG

12 minutes ago, F737NG said:

It appears Gary is not paying attention to market trends.
This is a much nicer version than the old Xtreme stuff, however, the pricing for MSFS products has shifted downwards.

I don't own all the old UK2000 airports, so buying them all would be a very expensive proposition, not to mention that there's now competition from people who are starting to port Google 3D models of airports (to varying levels of ability) into MSFS.

$18 for LatinVFR KMIA, $15 for Flightbeam KDEN, $18.20 for Orbx EGNM and $15.25 for their EGLC - all before current owner discounts.
Can anyone see the problem with UK2000 EGGD being priced at $24?
 

Just hang on. Not only the prices changed. New Developers will come to the flightsim market and offer alternatives, so we will have the oppurtunity to choose. I am pretty sure the old devs they will have to share the market with others and won't have that much monopoly position and set high prices.

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by 737_800

$25,45 on simmarket... ouch. Can't see myself buying that with FSDT, Orbx, LatinVFR and Flightbeam with half the price.

In my experience UK2000 stuff has been consistently good value for the money.   They're not always on par with the bigger name top-top tier developers, but I really appreciate what they do.  They also often (or used to, I haven't looked recently) have cumulative sales on their products where the more you buy the more you get off.   It can be a good way to stock up.

I know I probably won't see it, because it's not really where the market is right now...  but especially with the increased interest in GA flying this sim has sparked it would be amazing to have an updated version of VFR Airfields.   I had so much fun flying into and out of some of those.

Can I just say also: NICE RE-MODEL on the website, Gary! 🍻

Regarding pricing: I recently paid £24, yes 24 English Pounds Sterling for a teeny tiny airport somewhat close to Mount Everest - for FSX:SE!! Yes Aerosoft's Lukla.. 

And people are getting a but miffed at Gary's UK airport pricing even when some of those airports are huge?? I believe that Gary has stated on the forum that continued product support is available even if the airports will not be getting any future updates (FSX:SE user here).

Now, please calm your jets. I am really, really impressed with Aerosoft's VNLK. I've never been there in real life, but from looking at videos it appears that they have done it justice and I was happy to pay more than 20 quid, and that was just for the scenery. Speaking of which they do of course include photoreal.

However, I was almost beside myself when I realised it included their Twotter Extended. This does dent the idea that UK2000  and other airport products are exceptional value for money just a little bit (OK a lot LOL!) , but TL:DR I'm OK with quality airports costing about £20.

I think the price trend is going to end up heading downward for a lot of stuff. The fact that people are getting hands-on with MSFS owing to it having a developer mode which is sort of akin to the old object placer add-ons you could get for FS, albeit with not quite such a nice GUI, is making knocking out your own reasonably decent airport scenery a distinct possibility, even if it is just using the default objects.

Throw in some playing around with Blender and with a couple of youtube tutorials under the belt, I doubt most users of MSFS would struggle to knock out a fairly reasonable tart up of the average airport. Anyone who is prepared to have at it for a couple of days and then knock it out freeware could end up with something that users who aren't obsessed with super-duper accuracy would be perfectly happy with.

This is likely to drive prices down a bit, and we can expect to see a lot of this kind of thing too. One thing an influx of gamepass players will bring, is people who are used to modding FPS games and such; knocking out some scenery in dev mode with built-in assets is childsplay for people from that background.

Edited September 4, 20205 yr by Chock

5 hours ago, hanhamreds said:

almost bought this - but yeah £5 more that ORBX Leeds Bradford - ouch!

is the old Terminal building there? - hard to tell in the screen shots

 

The Default runway undulation was very good imo, glad to hear they have the uphill Taxiway to RW09 now though. 

But half price (£9:24) for owners of P3D and X-Plane versions