59 minutes ago, Cognita said:

Yea, I must unfortunately say that I am pretty careful about ORBX airports in MSFS. Something seemed to change as they pushed forward with ORBX Direct and becoming an online store. However, there are so many great new developers out there. Have we ever seen so much scenery developed, payware and freeware?

The big change is that the founder is no longer in charge. This is like what happened when Scully took over Apple and got rid of Steve Jobs. The prime motive now is profitability to justify the change. The passion to excellence is gone.

This isn't the first sub-par airport released for MSFS by Orbx (or one of their partners).

Their release of YBBN (Brisbane) was also met with criticism as it lacked many details and seemingly was cheaply ported over from FSX/P3D.

Some amendments were made some time after, but by and large it is still sub standard compared to the likes of what Fly Tampa, Flightbeam, FS Dreamteam, etc. are producing for MSFS.

9 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Maybe the very first product screenshot with the Atlantic FBO building isn't great but the rest look good

Funny to read this about the Atlantic FBO building at KPSP, as Jarrad never released the corrected P3D version with the missing building 😉 Never mind, I didn't re-installed P3D on my new PC.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by vbazillio

My rule of thumb; when the previews do not show close ups of the terminal buildings (hence the wear and tear is visible) I don't expect too much of it. 

Many videos and images ignore close ups. KPSP is no different. Only one close up of a mall that probably is in the vicinity. 

I too am very wary of Orbx these days. Back when they were on their game, before all the partnerships, I'd bought pretty much everything they ever produced through P3D versions 2/3/4, and didn't regret any of them. Now though I avoid buying partnership products when I can get them direct or from other sources, and I have been disappointed with more than a few of my recent Orbx products. I also definitely do not just jump in and buy whatever they put out any more - there are quite a few of their own releases I haven't bothered with lately. This KPSP looks a bit overpriced for me but I'll think on it. It's one of those airports I was hoping would get released but like everyone else I suspect, I was hoping for the original to be redone by Jarrad.

Someboy mentioned Skiathos (LGSK). That was one of the ones I was disappointed with. I thought the houses and buildings dotted about the island were too bright and more importantly too big. I posted some pix on their site to illustrate this and got a very dismissive response. Which is another thing I have come to dislike about them - the corporate attitude is becoming way less than helpfull and the forum way too nanny-like. All of which I have mentioned over there a while back, but nowadays I just don't bother going there. This place can be a bear pit on occasion but at least there's a bit of life and debate here, over there it's all teacakes and jelly with almost no dissension allowed.

Way of the world I guess. People and places change.

8 hours ago, bofhlusr said:

The big change is that the founder is no longer in charge. This is like what happened when Scully took over Apple and got rid of Steve Jobs. The prime motive now is profitability to justify the change. The passion to excellence is gone.

It's a strange coincidence you posted this thinking - yesterday in the shower (long before I found this thread) I was thinking exactly the same thought! I have my previous almost blind faith in Orbx (virtually buying every release) so much that I now buy off the Contrail platform if the same scenery from a third party developer is offered - my "brand loyalty" has shifted so greatly that I now don't consider ORBX Central to be my preferred store.

What a change from how I felt a few years ago.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by mfahey
Typo Fixed

ORBX is one of the creators or better management that I only buy in sale. To much disappoint in there products over the last time.

But to be fair, the standard is much better in MSFS as in P3D and the Freeware looks mostly very good, up to stunning.

So it is hard to beat the price with there products. For some of there is th price to high-sometimes also in sale 😉

This thread is a bit weird.
Orbx now hosts developers of varying quality, just like all other FS stores, including the MSFS marketplace. Are we holding MS to account for the low quality products they sell in their store?

Orbx also hosts some of the best developers in the business, e.g. Flightbeam, (edit: JetStream), FlyTampa, A2A, etc. If we're bashing them for hosting Axonos, why isn't there praise for selling Pyreegue's products?

Their site/Central makes it clear who has developed a product, so if you don't like that particular developer you can give it a wide berth.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by F737NG

57 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Are we holding MS to account for the low quality products they sell in their store?

A lot of people, notably on the offical MSFS forum, demand MS to take more reponsibility for what is sold on their marketplace. Unfortunately, they don't care.

57 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Orbx also hosts some of the best developers in the business, e.g. Flightbeam, FlyTampa, A2A, etc. 

I don't see any Flightbeam or A2A MSFS products distributed via ORBX Central. Certainly not the latter, as there are none at this time. Maybe, the situation is different for other sims, but not for MSFS which this thread is about.

57 minutes ago, F737NG said:

If we're bashing them for hosting Axonos, why isn't there praise for selling Pyreegue's products?

There was a lot of praise for them for selling Pyreegue's products like the recently released EGPF, including at the ORBX forum. Unfortunately, that same forum isn't that great in conveying bad messages.

If you ask for my personal opinion, I find the ORBX Central distribution mechanism itself top notch. On the other hand, I agree, quality of their products, which you once could buy unseen, varies strongly those days. And even worse, ORBX, which once was a pioneer in scenery development, lost its ability for innovation.

Kind regards, Michael

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by pmb

1 hour ago, F737NG said:

Are we holding MS to account for the low quality products they sell in their store?

This thread has morphed into holding Orbx to account for the bad ports of their own products. The Orbx store has the same range of quality as the MSFS marketplace. And both have arguably better quality than other resellers out there. But with the MSFS marketplace you don't need to install an additional piece of software to install 3rd party addons.

I see a lot of people rip on the MSFS marketplace... well, if you don't like the MSFS marketplace, don't install Orbx Central either... buy direct or from a reseller that gives you a ZIP file to stick in the Community folder. Why does Orbx deserve a cut? So they can continue to churn out mediocre ports? So they can maintain their Central software, which is just an external version of the MSFS marketplace? 10yrs from now, what is more likely to remain a constant... the MSFS store or Orbx Central?

If I sound bitter, it's because I am... Orbx is riding on the coattails of their previously stellar reputation while small dev teams (and freeware creators!) are publishing much better content. Some of that content is sold by Orbx. I'd rather buy it somewhere else.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by Funky D

Have anyone actually bought it and can post some screenshots? Thanks

9 minutes ago, pmb said:

On the other hand, I agree, quality of their products, which you once could buy unseen, varies strongly those days.

1 minute ago, Funky D said:

If I sound bitter, it's because I am... Orbx is riding on the coattails of their previously stellar reputation

The simple test I apply to Orbx products has always been, if I see a named developer in the product description, it is usually very good. If it doesn't, I can either take it or leave it.

If anyone feels Orbx is going the same way as Aerosoft, then don't worry about it. It leaves room for a freeware developer to take advantage of the gap left by Orbx and produce high quality freeware stuff for everyone to enjoy. Maybe this freeware developer can turn professional in a few years' time. It's happened before, it will happen again.

I had owned Jarrad's version for P3D and loved it.  Ironically before this thread, this weekend mulled over the current offering on Orbx, and thought the screenshots made the buildings look blocky with a lack of texturing.   Went back on the Orbx site to look at the P3D version, and figured out different developer, and backed away

from the purchase button.....   I do hope Jarrad's version finds its way to MSFS.

I may have been lucky with ORBX but on the whole everything I have bought from them I am happy with. I've been a customer since the beginning. Your mileage may vary.....

Dave

 

11 hours ago, phmcr said:

My rule of thumb; when the previews do not show close ups of the terminal buildings (hence the wear and tear is visible) I don't expect too much of it. 

Many videos and images ignore close ups. KPSP is no different. Only one close up of a mall that probably is in the vicinity. 

This is a very reasonable approach to buying sceneries!!!

Same thing with MK Studios recently released Rovaniemi EFRO scenery.

There is absolutely no reason for a skilled developer to NOT provide closeups and a ton of screenshots in good light.

If someone's gotta hide something or knows that some parts of an addon airport scenery won't meet the communities' genereal expectation, you can be sure there won't be screenshots of it either.

Some hide their night lighting, some don't show repetitive apron textures, some don't show their wrong runway markings.

Take Jetstream's recently released Toulouse scenery: you have got a couple screenshots of every corner of their airport, because they know they did an awesome job at every single m² of their scenery.

 

I've given very objective and constructive feedback to MK Studios over at FSElite.com about their Rovaniemi scenery and the way MK Studios did (or did not) advertise it and what they can do better: https://fselite.net/content/mk-studios-releases-rovaniemi-airport-for-msfs/

 

Quote

I'm really curious about getting Rovaniemi and how much effort MK Studios had put into creating this addon. Can't comment much about the scenery itself, however I do have some objective feedback regarding the product presentation and screenshots provided on the ORBX product page (hopefully respectful feedback is welcomed by both MK Studios and FSELITE 😉)

I wish MK Studios provided better airside screenshots during heavy winter, not just screenshots from spring/autumn when there's not much snow (2nd pic). I also miss a good screenshot showing night lighting of the whole apron. First screenshot on the ORBX product page shows just a small part of the terminal and apron and is not sufficient to get a good idea of how well the night lightning was implemented. The foreground is in focus and the background terminal buildings is blurry but in my opinion it should be vice versa when taking a screenshot of the terminal from that camera position and angle.

Speaking of the terminal (airside), two screenshots are provided but unfortunately both of them against the sunlight. I would have appreciated it to see the terminal in full sunlight. The glass front of the terminal buildings airside is faced north-west, so setting date in MSFS to june and daytime to afternoon should be the right setup to take convincing photos.

The runway is just shown in one picture from far away. I wish there were at least two screenshots taken at both thresholds to be able to tell how the rubber skid marks look like and wether or not the touchdown zone markings are done correctly.

The screenshots provided at the moment are undoubtfully very scenic but don't help much to decide to buy EFRO 😉

I mean, I don't have to buy every single scenery available.

Meanwhile, there are about 50 high quality sceneries available for MSFS which I am confident to buy some time in the future.

Developers need to provide proper screenshots if they want to have my money too.
I'm not the one in charge to do a 15 minute youtube and AVSIM research just to get an idea of how the terminal texturing was done 😅