Congratulations to Koorby and the entire team at Orbx! Some of the shots on their website are truly eye-opening. Gonna make me jealous since I haven't made the move to FSX. Looks like you guys up here are in for quite a treat.

Can anyone compare and contrast this product with UTX+GEX combo that some of us now are exploring?Bob

While the product looks good, I also don't see this "revolution", with the exception of the detailed lighting on buildings. Which is good, but doesn't lend itself to be really useful in a flightsim. This would be really good scenery for the upcoming MS Train Sim, which is being built on the FSX platform. Most everything else I see are features other products already have, for example 3D Lighting. Ultimate Terrain has had that feature since FS2004. 3D lighting by the way has a big performance penalty, so unless this product has figured a way to do ut that doesn't cost too many FPS, I assume there is a way to turn it off. So overall it looks like a really good high quality product, but I don't see the claim of being "revolutionary"!

>Hi Paul,>I wish FTX a lot of success. >But to be honnest I am a bit dubious about this product when I>see the screeenshots you qualify as outstanding.>Is FTX not supposed to be a TERRAIN enhancer?>Most of the screenshots and videos (beautiful ones BTW) show>nice skies, beautiful sunsets, view of an airliner cockpit,>calm sea and very dark night pics ... and almost nothing about>terrain textures.>I don't understand where exactly is the "Revolution" they>speak about.>But I may be wrong and I look forward to reading user's>feedback.>To say the least I wish their product is as good as their>marketing strategy.>Hi David,I flew the beta of this scenery back in November, and even the beta was breathtaking. No offense my friend, but you might want to try it first. I would say "revolution" might apply to it.Regards,http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpg

>Can anyone compare and contrast this product with UTX+GEX>combo that some of us now are exploring?>>BobThat I think would be difficult, since both are based on regional land class and terrain characteristics, so things like type of autogen would be different making such comparisons to be like comparing Apples to Oranges. For example, most of their screenshots of residential housing seem redundant to me. For example they all seem to have the same roof color. That though may just be the way it is in Australia. I don't think you're going to be able to make a good comparison, until either does the same area the other has done.

>Hi David,>>I flew the beta of this scenery back in November, and even the>beta was breathtaking. No offense my friend, but you might>want to try it first. I would say "revolution" might apply to>it.>>>Regards,>http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpgHello Lou,Yes, Mango(Heiko)'s screenshots give a better idea of the terrain and autogen textures than what I saw on FTX website. They really look nice.I am really curious to know the impact on fps so I'll wait for the first feedback before making the quantum leap :--)BTW, I'm waiting for an email from you, do you remember?? :-cool

>Folks,>>Just letting all interested people know that Full Terrain>Experience or FTX is being released at around 10Pm AEST (in>Australia) or around 7:00 Am for the USA East Coast 05 March.>Their forum indicates that the relevant file/s are being>uploaded to the mirror servers right now>(http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1166.0;topicseen)!>>They refer to this program as a revolution and their>screenshots are outstanding (go to>http://fullterrain.com/gallery.html). >>Viva La Revolution. Cannot wait to download this one for FSX!>>Paul>>Guys just run don't walk this is by all means a revolution in terms of performance quality and sharp textures :-) + traffic + 3d lights :9 and great FPS far better as default stuff...Just a amazing product for a amazing price....I'm down under for at least some time to come lolhttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/awf1/sign.jpg

Thanks Tom...logical response. Partly I was just checking to see if the products were essentially modifying the same parts of the sim. It appears on the surface that improving landclass, autogen placement, perhaps the textures themselves..is the primary contribution of both ftx and utx+gex.....agreed?Bob

I begin to think that the days of "nothing's been released for FSX" had certain advantages! I am now thoroughly perplexed about what addons to get. Still, better to have too much choice, than too little.I was about to go with UTX, and possibly Genx for textures etc - there are a couple of really enthusiastic threads about that combo here - but FTX seems to be a ready made combination of both, albeit limited to Oz at present.So difficult to choose, without a comparisonAnyone who has both care to comment?

I am downloading it now and may be able to comment later.It seems though their server is swamped-I got 3 error messages and 3 lost downloads before getting it to go..http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>I begin to think that the days of "nothing's been released>for FSX" had certain advantages! I am now thoroughly>perplexed about what addons to get. Still, better to have too>much choice, than too little.>>I was about to go with UTX, and possibly Genx for textures etc>- there are a couple of really enthusiastic threads about that>combo here - but FTX seems to be a ready made combination of>both, albeit limited to Oz at present.>>So difficult to choose, without a comparison>>Anyone who has both care to comment?Not difficult at all UTX isn't in that part of the world yet and FTX is released just for the southern part of Australia... Ok back to the skies...http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/awf1/sign.jpg

Limited to a small portion of Oz.If you fly elsewhere, I believe that the current best texture addon to be had is Ground Environment X nHanced.

>>Folks,>>>>Just letting all interested people know that Full Terrain>>Experience or FTX is being released at around 10Pm AEST (in>>Australia) or around 7:00 Am for the USA East Coast 05>March.>>Their forum indicates that the relevant file/s are being>>uploaded to the mirror servers right now>>(http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1166.0;topicseen)!>>>>They refer to this program as a revolution and their>>screenshots are outstanding (go to>>http://fullterrain.com/gallery.html). >>>>Viva La Revolution. Cannot wait to download this one for>FSX!>>>>Paul>>>>>>Guys just run don't walk this is by all means a revolution in>terms of performance quality and sharp textures :-) + traffic>+ 3d lights :9 and great FPS far better as default stuff...>>Just a amazing product for a amazing price....>I'll take your word for it, about it being an amazing product, since I don't fly down under to much, so I'm holding off until the US version to see how it is. I do question the amazing price statement, since the product only covers what appears to be a relatively small portion of southern OZ. (At least in Longitude.) In comparison GEX for the same price covers all of the US and Canada, and very well I may add!!

--->"In comparison GEX for the same price covers all of the US and Canada, and very well I may add!!"With all due respect, and in no way intending to degrade GEX, but FTX blows GEX, enhanced or not, out of the sky. True, the area covered by FTX is a lot smaller (although the first released region is still large enough to enjoy hours and hours of flying time. Depends on your definition of "small") but it is covered with the most realistic textures I have ever seen. It has been a while that scenery made me go 'wow'. FTX just did that tonight after flying my first miles over the FTX-ed south of Australia. FTX is a lot more than just textures.I purchased GEX when it came out. After a while I applied for a refund because it didn't do it for me, allthough the textures are way beter than the default ones. Part of this has to do with FSX's landclass problem hence the desert like look everywhere in the world and I'm not the kind of guy to test all the available landclass products to remedy that. Besides, what I've seen showcased here wasn't very convincing to me either...So long live FTX. You get matching landclass for every released region. You get all your seasons, better aligned and resized autogen. Heck even birds and livestock including kangoroos :) And that's not all. As far as scenery is concerned this is by far the best package in a long time.

>price statement, since the product only covers what appears to>be a relatively small portion of southern OZ. (At least in>Longitude.) In comparison GEX for the same price covers all>of the US and Canada, and very well I may add!! >True but this one is in it's on league I know now which one to choose ;-)http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/awf1/sign.jpg