ORBX Central or Marketplace?

[MarcG 2,956]

Bit of a n00b question, as I only really fly MSF2020 (I do dip in and out of other Sims) the chances are this is the only Flight Sim I'll ever buy content for, I had already heard of ORBX and it's quite clear to me they produce some of the best looking Scenery/Airport add-ons around.

So for future reference,

1. Would it be beneficial/better to use ORBX Central over the in game Marketplace? I see some Updates for the Marketplace take weeks to get updated (although as I understand it Asobo are looking to improve upon this).
2. Also, and this follows on to #1, I'm using the brilliant Add-On Linker Tool and I'd rather have complete control over my Community Folder, does ORBX Central work nicely alongside this utility at all?
   
   Thanks

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

Not everything sold by Orbx is made by Orbx.  They resell the Iris Simulations  Jabiru for example.

The main advantages of buying direct are:

• as you say, faster updates
• and also you own the licence separate from your copy of the game

The main advantage of the marketplace is all your addons are in one place and will all get automatically updated without you having to keep track of the updates.

I would say if you are buying a lot of Orbx products go direct, if only the one or two maybe stick with marketplace.

BTW for any Aussie about Orbx seem to have an Australia Day Holiday sale going at present for some items:

https://orbxdirect.com/product/cityscapesydney-msfs

Edited January 27, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[tup61 1,552]

EDIT: My reply isn't useful anymore. 😉

Edited January 27, 2021 by tup61

[Ray Proudfoot 8,945]

Purchased software cannot be given to another user. That is written in the T&C when you purchase it. You purchase the licence to use it, nothing more. No further discussion on transferring software please.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

13 minutes ago, tup61 said:

I wouldn't post this here because afaik this is illegal. You never OWN an addon, you 'own' the right to use it and usually that right isn't transferable. Orbx is one of the companies that has made this very clear in the past. So you might want to reconsider your post. 😉

Fair enough. Typical EULA stuff which may or may not be enforceable in a court, if you take their EULA at face value it basically say even letting someone else play your game on your computer is illegal if you have any Orbx software installed.  Good point though. 

That said, at the very least it is not locked into a particular install of MSFS the way a marketplace addon is, assuming you take the EULA at face value they licence it to you to use on a single computer at a time.  If you have two copies of the game (say on a laptop and a desktop) the EULA seems to allow you to use it on both providing you uninstall it from one before installing on the other and you are the user in both cases.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[Ray Proudfoot 8,945]

4 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Fair enough. Typical EULA stuff which may or may not be enforceable in a court

Whether it's legally enforceable in court is different to here at AvSim. Anyone saying unwanted software can be given away is breaking AvSim T&C and the punishment could be severe. I'm pleased to see you have removed the offending sentence.

[Steve Dra 7,588]

4 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Fair enough. Typical EULA stuff which may or may not be enforceable in a court, if you take their EULA at face value it basically say even letting someone else play your game on your computer is illegal if you have any Orbx software installed.  Good point though. 

That said, at the very least it is not locked into a particular install of MSFS the way a marketplace addon is, assuming you take the EULA at face value they licence it to you to use on a single computer at a time.  If you have two copies of the game (say on a laptop and a desktop) the EULA seems to allow you to use it on both providing you uninstall it from one before installing on the other and you are the user in both cases.

I remember a few months ago I was at a friend's house, watching over his shoulder as he showed me some new scenery he had just leased.   He offered to let me sit at the controls and fly around it myself.   I of course accepted, forgetting the consequences.

Before I could take the sim off pause...the EULA SWAT team busted into his room, threw both of us up against the wall...and while pinned there....proceeded to wipe his hard drive, then physically remove it, then hit it with a burst of 9mm from their Uzi's.

They were actually nice and let us off with just a warning....after checking and seeing this was our 1st offense, but warned of the automatic prison time if we ever did that again. 🙂 

[FlightSimToday 59]

1 hour ago, MarcG said:

Bit of a n00b question, as I only really fly MSF2020 (I do dip in and out of other Sims) the chances are this is the only Flight Sim I'll ever buy content for, I had already heard of ORBX and it's quite clear to me they produce some of the best looking Scenery/Airport add-ons around.

So for future reference,

1. Would it be beneficial/better to use ORBX Central over the in game Marketplace? I see some Updates for the Marketplace take weeks to get updated (although as I understand it Asobo are looking to improve upon this).
2. Also, and this follows on to #1, I'm using the brilliant Add-On Linker Tool and I'd rather have complete control over my Community Folder, does ORBX Central work nicely alongside this utility at all?
   
   Thanks

I would always say use ORBX Central where possible. 

1. They make is super easy to install the addons on a different drive. You can do this yourself but they do all the work for you saving space.

2. Updates tend to be much quicker

3. In many cases its actually cheaper to buy the product from Central rather then the marketplace.

4. This one is on half fact. Microsoft charge a lot to list in the Marketplace. I have heard first hand from developers who say they actually end up making very little if not a loss against their time. Now I dont know the agreement between Orbx and other developers but it must be worth their time to start moving over.

 

Thanks

[Shack95 2,658]

2 hours ago, MarcG said:

• Would it be beneficial/better to use ORBX Central over the in game Marketplace? I see some Updates for the Marketplace take weeks to get updated (although as I understand it Asobo are looking to improve upon this).
• Also, and this follows on to #1, I'm using the brilliant Add-On Linker Tool and I'd rather have complete control over my Community Folder, does ORBX Central work nicely alongside this utility at all?

1. The benefits are that products are released earlier, it gets updated faster, and there are sales regularly.

2. I use add-on linker as well and I haven‘t come across any problems.

Initially I thought I‘d only use the marketplace, but soon impatience got the better of me and now I use three different platforms (marketplace, orbx central and fsdt live update). I hope that one day I don‘t need the others anymore. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Shack95

[hanhamreds 592]

3 hours ago, MarcG said:

So for future reference,

1. Would it be beneficial/better to use ORBX Central over the in game Marketplace? I see some Updates for the Marketplace take weeks to get updated (although as I understand it Asobo are looking to improve upon this).
2. Also, and this follows on to #1, I'm using the brilliant Add-On Linker Tool and I'd rather have complete control over my Community Folder, does ORBX Central work nicely alongside this utility at all?
   
   Thanks

I would go with ORBX central, it's so much easier to use, you can see what needs updating, have control over where you want it installed - and lastly updates appear weeks ahead of FS marketplace.

As just mentioned you have control on where you want to install, so outside of community folder is no problem for linking purposes

Edited January 27, 2021 by hanhamreds

[MarcG 2,956]

Excellent many thanks all for the replies 🙂

Edited January 27, 2021 by MarcG

[regis9 4,013]

ORBX Central for me.  Quicker updates and frankly I don’t really see the benefit of the MSFS marketplace.  I feel like I’d be giving Microsoft a sales commission for nothing.

[kaosfere 3,115]

If anyone is thinking they may want to use the XBox version when it comes out, it's highly unlikely that anything not bought via the Marketplace will be usable on the XBox version.   I personally don't care, but that may color some folks' decisions.