Hello all,

I note that 11,50 is now official and I am very interested in, as the title suggests, Ortho4XP scenery for OZ.  I have seen somewhere a full Australian scenery link but cannot find it again. Before I go into that though, I just wanted to know if anybody has it and is using it. If so, what is it like, particularly, vs MSFS standard scenery.  Whilst MSFS is very different to default scenery, I find that Australian scenery that I am familiar with is not all that great. It looks good but many of the airport buildings look generic and Magnetic Island (straight of the end of RWY 01 in YBTL) for instance, is not at all realistic. 

If I could have some information on how ortho performs, SSD space taken for whole of Australia, a link to the download, information on difficulties downloading and installing, and any impressions people may wish to offer.  

I am pursuing this path mainly because I cannot find any Australian Payware, other than YBRM, and I am really looking for something to compete with MSFS at least until they get some 3PD aircraft., and I have no intention of giving up xplane in the future either so it is a natural progression for me.

Thanks in advance

Tony

For many (i.e. Nvidia) users the performance is now worse than OpenGL, and for no better visual improvement we have the original visual bugs (cloud flickering, jagged shadows, sudden cloud redraws etc) plus new additional Vulkan bugs (floating mountains, blurry textures, brightness changes, freezing, crashes to desktop etc). and that Vulkan breaks certain art controls, scripts, addons, planes and airports.

9 minutes ago, Greazer said:

For many (i.e. Nvidia) users the performance is now worse than OpenGL, and for no better visual improvement we have the original visual bugs (cloud flickering, jagged shadows, sudden cloud redraws etc) plus new additional Vulkan bugs (floating mountains, blurry textures, brightness changes, freezing, crashes to desktop etc). and that Vulkan breaks certain art controls, scripts, addons, planes and airports.

Did you mean to answer to another post? 

Yes I replied in the wrong thread, but whatever, I cannot delete it.

Greazer.

To correct another post in here, performance in Vulkan/Metal is noticeably better on most systems.  There is an AMD issue with the latest RC, but Laminar have issued a temporary workaround until this gets fixed.  Any performance decrease is due to 3rd party plugins not being compatible with 11.50, in which case, it is up to the authors to issue updates.  If we want to move forward, sacrifices have to be made, and some plugins, simply, are not compatible with newer tech.  When it comes to performance with ortho-scenery, you will generally find better performance over default autogen, but you'll need the VRAM to take advantage of it.  When it comes to storage, it all depends on your zoom level.  Higher zoom levels will generate more accurate ortho, at the expense of storage.  It's not uncommon for some people to use external drives, exceeding 8TB to store their ortho on.  Scenery quality can be better than MSFS2020, due to control over zoom levels, but you won't get AI generated objects.  

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by GoranM

On 9/10/2020 at 8:47 PM, Greazer said:

For many (i.e. Nvidia) users the performance is now worse than OpenGL, and for no better visual improvement we have the original visual bugs (cloud flickering, jagged shadows, sudden cloud redraws etc) plus new additional Vulkan bugs (floating mountains, blurry textures, brightness changes, freezing, crashes to desktop etc). and that Vulkan breaks certain art controls, scripts, addons, planes and airports.

BS

You just repeat what bugs other people reported during the long beta phase (5-6 months), some of those I had too.

All of those were repoprted and fixed long ago, just as a beta should be, yet you proceed.

In every comment, the same false claims, you speak about "many people" yet fail to have your own data, your own reports, and even when somebody offers to help you, you tend to fade away.

 A type of behavior, just throw a grenade (AKA false info) and run away.

 

 

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by mtaxp

8 hours ago, mtaxp said:

You just repeat what bugs other people reported during the long beta phase (5-6 months), some of those I had too.

Those issues were never fixed those are current bugs. They did not get fixed.   

 

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

Those issues were never fixed those are current bugs. They did not get fixed.   

 

I had ctd, blurries, freezes, stutters during the beta, and not it's rock solid, the most stable platform, I tried all.

I Also dont have any flashing, and no floating mountains.

Other stuff like jagged shadows and weather sudden redraws are current limitations that Im sure will be better in x-plane 12 as those are legacy problems that they'll change obviously, hence the 11.50 that meant to be an engine rewrite for fast performance so it can host future graphical improvements.

Then again, cope paste the same claims won't change the fact that for the most current x-plane Vulkan is rock solid in performance, does what it promises to do, for free too.

For next generation weather and scenery we will wait for next major version (looks like kinda soon), can't be for free..

And btw, all sceneries work under Vulkan, and most payware aircrafts, care to say what does not work?

9 hours ago, Greazer said:

Those issues were never fixed those are current bugs. They did not get fixed.   

 

Apparently, you're the only one getting them.  I'm getting 140+ fps in the default Cessna, and I couldn't be happier with the current version.  

Hello all.

This is very interesting stuff, none of which is affecting my XPlane11. Mine is performing excellently but only at about 45FPS in most parts of Australia. 

It also does not help me in any way with the original post, which was "If I could have some information on how ortho performs, SSD space taken for whole of Australia, a link to the download, information on difficulties downloading and installing, and any impressions people may wish to offer." I seem to have been lost in the ensuing argument LOL

I simply want to improve the default scenery. Can someone please help me?

Regards

Tony 

8 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Can someone please help me?

Did you search? what did you find?

Did you contact anyone who has already put effort into Aus? (there are a lot of Aus pilots)

8 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

any impressions people may wish to offer

Quality scenery is a function of how much effort and hard disk space you are wiling to put into a particular area.

For everything else (above FL200) I find lvl14 Ortho just fine.

6 hours ago, mSparks said:

Did you search? what did you find?

mSparks,

No, to be honest, I have been struggling to keep up with and assimilate the extraordinary responses to this post.

6 hours ago, mSparks said:

For everything else (above FL200) I find lvl14 Ortho just fine.

Thank you for the incredibly detailed input on just how you achieved this level of appreciation. It has been extremely helpful.

Tony

4 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

I have been struggling to keep up with and assimilate the extraordinary responses to this post.

Thank you for the incredibly detailed input on just how you achieved this level of appreciation. It has been extremely helpful.

Tony

I don't know how familiar you are with XP scenery, I replied to Greazer in the topic he should have replied to.

4 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

No, to be honest

OK, well, you can ortho the entire world with Ortho4XP by oscar pilote

https://github.com/oscarpilote/Ortho4XP

windows installer is

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PWgp33gDUQbY3uZmYbTi3ccMPLIJMQAQ/view

Ortho comes in varying levels, the higher the number the higher the resolution (and the larger amount of space it takes up - bigger hard disk you need) lvl17/18 is probably greater detail than you get with microsoft latest effort, I find lvl14 to be a good balance between looking OK and not using tons of hard disk space. you'll want to youtube a tutorial on how to download use it. afternoon learning curve at least - start with one tile before kicking off a batch.

But chances are if you search a little there will be a lot of Aus specific scenery, hand crafted or bundled from data.

 

Edited September 14, 20205 yr by mSparks

mSparks,

I have not yet looked at those links, but I do wish to genuinely (this time) thank you for those links.  I most certainly will also pursue the youtube route, as I find most of them very helpful.

I am looking at buying (already ordered) a 1TB SSD to deal exclusively with XPlane11 but I also have a 2TB HDD as a back up.  I will have to find out if putting the Ortho on the HDD will significantly impact performance for XPlane or to keep it all on the SSD. That is why I asked if anyone knew how much space the entire Australian continent would fit on a 1TB drive.  

Further research is required obviously, but I am hoping your links will be a great starting point.

I also would like to apologise for the sarcasm in my previous post.  I am suffering somewhat from the lasting effects of a flu and that has led to a secondary disease, "foot in mouth" which was not good.

Regards

Tony

1 hour ago, himmelhorse said:

Further research is required obviously, but I am hoping your links will be a great starting point.

well. xplane scenery is really really really really really flexable.

The editor for 3D stuff that has had by far the most loving for scenery is called WED

https://developer.x-plane.com/tools/worldeditor/

that lets you quickly get a localised area very accurate. (warning - highly addictive)

Orbx make/sell generally phenomenal assets and custom airports, there is also some great small shops that make some very high quality stuff.

quick search on them turns up.

https://orbxdirect.com/product/ybrm/xp11

a nice place for decent freeware is simheaven

https://simheaven.com/

not sure what if anything they have for AUS.

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/24755/x-plane-11-australia-complete-photoreal-scenery/

probably do it.

I would expect if you search for aus you will find a nice group of locals who have been making things you will want and sharing. 

There is also a lot (and I mean a lot) of absolute garbage around (particularly old payware).

Edited September 15, 20205 yr by mSparks