Anyone use or try the ORBX FTX scenery?

[Guest TPN_Turnip]

I was thinking about getting the FTX scenery. Does it work and does it toast your frame rates?TurnipSPECS:VISTA Home Basic 580 WATT Sunbeam PowerCrucial Ballistix 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAMASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6550MSI nVidia NX8800GT 512 PCI-E 2.0SB LIVE 24250 GB WD SATA HD 120 GB WD IDE HD

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

It does work. It does not toast your frame rates. It covers about 1/4 of southern Austrailia. Outside of that area, you won't notice it.

[Virtualwombat 4]

Agreed. Using the recommended settings, I can run FTX scenery at 30 fps. If is a remarkable package of custom textures and autogen that simulates southern Australia very well. It is not photo realistic, so don't expect to see every landmark. On the other hand, FTX has somehow managed to avoid the strange interactions between autogen and textures sometimes seen in other packages, where for example autogen trees are unaccountably growing in the middle of wheat fields. This brings a level of realism to FSX that has not been seen before. Cheers,Noel.

[Guest TPN_Turnip]

OK Thanks Gents. I was going to get the UT series but think I will try the Aussie FTX. They are supposed to start coming out with a western USA one this summer I think. If I like the down under version, I'll get the USA one also.TurnipSPECS:VISTA Home Basic 580 WATT Sunbeam PowerCrucial Ballistix 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAMASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6550MSI nVidia NX8800GT 512 PCI-E 2.0SB LIVE 24250 GB WD SATA HD 120 GB WD IDE HD

[Guest]

FTX rocks big time. It isn't photorealistic but it sure does look photorealistic. If you know what I mean. Textures are awesome and so is the (placement of!) autogen. No matter which way you fly, it all looks awesome (unlike default textures of photorealistic textures). Check out their forum: there are some screenies that look just like photographs imho. Like (with FEX though):http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1498.0Or a few of mine with default FSX and FTX only:http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1401.0http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1430.0It's the best and most realistic texture/autogen/roads etc addon ever. (I bought UTX two weeks before I got FTX. I like UTX a lot but even though it allows me to fly real VFR in my own country, I am solely flying down under now, something I've never done before but certainly will do for weeks to come. If not more.)

[Guest TPN_Turnip]

WOW Nice shots. I would love to see some with the FPS and your system specs. Is that possible?

[moggel 0]

I haven't tried it alot myself yet. I got it mainly to try it out but wasn't counting on being able to actuall enjoy teh eye candy because my machine is becoming ancient. I was surprised however, as the FPS was decent when I followed ORBX's advice on configuring FSX. Seems the scenery doesn't harm my framerate much at all and it's still ALOT more realistic and better looking than the standard FSX one.It's worth the money, no doubt about that! My only possible gripe is it will take YEARS before ORBX get Europe done considering the amount of work needed to achieve this result.Cheers/Jonas

[Guest]

System is E6600, 8800GTX, 2 Gb RAM, Vista 32 bit, res of 1650x1080x32. I use nHancer and Nick N's settings for that one. FSX settings are a mixed bag, some high (scenery tab) ,some low (traffic tab)) autogen is at Very dense but I have max trees at 2500 in the fsx.cfg (my system has problems with huge forests, also with default FSX trees btw). Fps (averages) is between 30 up to (sometimes) 55 (I have it set to unlimited) above the fields and farms, but drops to 20 or so above dense forests.

[Guest]

Ah, well, here are some screenies made specially for the occasion: not made for their beauty but for showing fps. I resized them but the fps info is at 100% so you can still read it. At the left you see the average fps, with left the lowest 'spike' and right the highest (these spikes change every few seconds or so). Taking of from Melbourne in the RealAir Scout (in which you sit in the middle, which is great for sightseeing: the plane is really awesome!). Fps above cities is also quite low (of course), but above forests my computer has to struggle the hardest.http://i30.tinypic.com/f2fdt.jpghttp://i25.tinypic.com/dwub8y.jpghttp://i26.tinypic.com/16gygll.jpghttp://i31.tinypic.com/1z5mc6o.jpghttp://i29.tinypic.com/3094k86.jpghttp://i26.tinypic.com/2u5ry41.jpghttp://i26.tinypic.com/20zyc9k.jpghttp://i31.tinypic.com/2q84shy.jpgI like flying above the fields the most, so I am happy with these results. ;) But even above cities and forests the flight is smooth: fps isn't everything...!!!

[Guest dpc]

I just love it. Haven't flown outside of the coverage area since I bought it. I am now a virtual resident at one of the farms near Albana. Great flying the cub in and out of there. Been having a blast. Even with my system I get great performance with the recommended settings. Around 30FPS. It has also given me a great excuse to explore and area of the world I might not otherwise have done.Highly recommend.

[Guest sillyeagle]

Vancouver+ used to be my favorite scenery add on, but now its FTX. The only thing missing from FTX is the type of water class you get from UTX. Other than that its the most stunning and beautiful scenery you can get. There's no need for me to get any more GEX packages, as I'll be waiting for FTX coverage.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

The coverage area of FTX is too minute to rule out purchasing Ground Environment X and other than the lighting enhancements, both packages have comparable textures.For the price, you'd be better off with GEX if you fly anywhere outside a limited area in southern Austrailia.

[victorwest2 0]

>The coverage area of FTX is too minute to rule out purchasing>Ground Environment X and other than the lighting enhancements,>both packages have comparable textures.>>For the price, you'd be better off with GEX if you fly>anywhere outside a limited area in southern Austrailia.Minute? Limited area? The FTX coverage area is larger than western Europe I believe.

[Guest]

And even is it IS small (which is it not), for the time being I wouldn't want to fly anywhere else than above FTX. It's too good to pass, not only the textures but also the (placement of) the autogen. It's the most realistic flight environment I've ever flown above. I don't think I will fly anywhere else until the next FTX region is released. ;) But I can be very happy with a small but perfect region. I never ever fly all over the world anyway. In fact, even with default FSX I've always flown above the same small regions for weeks and weeks or even months (Norway specifically, but also California for a while and above the Netherlands since I got UTX Europe). The area FTX offers me is MORE than enough for me. Again, it's so awesome that I can't be bothered with other non-FTX regions anymore.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Here is a coverage map showing both the Ground Environment X coverage area and the FTX coverage area (with Western Europe shown for comparison purposes).http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/186501.jpgBoth products are priced at $29.95 USD and are comparable ... however for the money, you get a much larger coverage area with Ground Environment X (although with FTX, you get enhanced night lighting.)Again, for those flying primarily over the southern part of Austrailia, there's not really any other choice, as these two companies are not yet competing in the areas they cover. For those flying over the North American continent, GEX provides excellent coverage with comparable textures to FTX.Adding: What would be truly awesome is if Flight Terrain X covers all of North America for $29.95.