Excellent news, thanks!I guess in order for that "progressive savings" scheme to work (where I buy one "region" now, then another region belonging to the same country / continent "bundle" later and get a discount) you're going to have to keep track of who has bought what. Which probably means that if I buy one region from, say, SimMarket and another one from Flight1 (just as an example, I don't know who you'll be working with), I won't be able to get the discount. I'd have to buy them all from the same website, right?And I suppose if I pick'n choose "regions" from different bundles (say one from US, one from Europe), I get no price cut because they don't belong to the same bundle you'd be selling eventually when all parts have been completed? :)

The big question is how much will these region packs cost? If a region will cost for example $25 or more, and if a country like Canada or the US has 10 or more regions, it could end up being extremely expensive.The appeal of GE Pro for FS9, was that it was a very cost effective solution. Quality textures of the whole world, all seasons for one reasonable price.Bill

$250 for just one "area" (country or continent depending on its size) would be way too much - I doubt they'll price themselves out of the market like that. You're talking about $1000+ for the whole world there.Something like $200 - $300 for the whole world would be my guesstimate...

Meh,another much UNneeded addonAccording to the shots on their website this addon doesnt provide any groundbreaking technologiesTo be candid this so called addon is just a publicity stunt to pump their FEX addon.

People,There is a great Q&A that has just been added to the FTX Website by John Venema that explains about FTX, Voz/Voz Pro, Ground Environment X etc. Go to:http://www.flightterrain.com/q&a.htmlIf you also go to their 'Downloads Page' link, you will get an idea on what regions are coming first in FTX etc. Go to:http://www.flightterrain.com/download.htmlPaul

>Well, I hope this co-operation will mean that the resulting>ground texture products will no longer require "texture set>switching" outside of FSX when moving from one part of the>country / world to another.>This is not going to be necessary, see Koorby's post above...Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaCheck out my 5th Around the World flight with MS FSX at http://members.iinet.com.au/~portercbp/fly...W_05/index.html

John,The Q&A was great. Thanks for clearing things up.Joshua

I have a feeling this is a troll..

Yes-there is a history here.Cordless-plug in! http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Hi John,thanks for adding that Q&A; that does help indeed. Good initiative!Cheers, Holger

Paul,Thanks for the links. Living in Sweden, I would have to wait about 10 months for the release of the European region. I'm afraid at this point we will be pretty close to the release of FS11. Close enough to hesitate before investing in additional FSX add-ons. I really hope that GEX is released much sooner. Just my thoughts from the north of the northern hemisphere.Ulf B

> I'm>afraid at this point we will be pretty close to the release of>FS11. That may be true however I don't see a big problem. First FS11 out of the box will never deliver the same quality of scenery. Second I think what FT does is very smart and future-proof: they are working with very high resolution data and resample at the required resolution for FSX (now at 1m) so if FS11 increases the resolution to say 0.5m they may be already ready for it - they will only have to resample at different resolution. But I personally doubt we see another jump in scenery resolution until at least 2010.I have to say I am very impressed by the gallery of FT screenshots. I have never seen such high quality ground textures in any flight simulation. And their approach of having region-specific textures is simply phenomenal, I am tired of flying above western US and looking down and feeling like I am above corn fields of Kansas. It may take them time but the end result may be a true revolution in synthetic scenery.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

Michael, I hope you're right! But I wouldn't be surprised if FS11 introduces some changes to the way textures and graphics are handled, and turns out to be a problem with FSX add-ons. Especially the advanced ones.Ulf B :-)

>handled, and turns out to be a problem with FSX add-ons.>Especially the advanced ones.I don't think it will ever be a problem, not in the next say 10 years when scenery will continue to be texture based loadable from the HD. The 98% of the work in scenery department is cutting/selecting/designing textures - highly manual and time consuming effort. This will never change since humans are needed here. Resampling data can be automated and if MS decides to use different folders, groupings, etc . - it should not be an issue beyond writing a new install. Only when we get into some futuristic google-earth like real time scenery loading over the internet that the current sceneries will become obsolete. And if MS decides to replace its graphics engine - this has really nothing to do with how scenery how is stored in memory.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

hahah...if the release schedule is how it was for FSX....it won't be close at all....We'll have AT LEAST another year if not MORE for FS11 ;)