Anna Cicognani

Looks like Yokohama may need to go back in the roadmap ;-) Yes it would be great to get more info from you! I shall DM!

We have got some ideas about some of those airports which could be very interesting as a collection. Stay tuned as we are definitely working on these (they will not be called "Throwback Thursdays" though). Cheers!

It seems that in absence of a surrounding area or airport which justify flying there, these cities have not been especially popular. Personally, I think Dubai is one of our best, so this is puzzling indeed!

MSFS to start, but like we have done for YMEN, we would love to be able to do it for P3D and XP as well... we are trying to access airside to get imagery but with some Australian (and Victorian) COVID-related restrictions in place, it has been taking time.

Yes, OLC Asia is only P3D. And no - we have not abandoned P3D (even if a lot of other developers have! And BTW, Palm Beach is also in plan for P3D). Similar to the reply to @Abriael, we have to be careful about the product picks because the market has now spread pretty wide with MSFS, and we see a lot of pilots have moved from P3D to MSFS. Loss-making products can be lethal for future development!

This is a great set, and it'd be awesome to make them all also as a "cluster" region. Calling for developers who may be interested to do these in collaboration or as indies! :-)

It is still on our mind, but it is on ice for the moment. We made a few city packs a bit "out of context," like Cape Town, Dubai and Mumbai, and despite being great executions, with lots of research done and great POIs, they do not seem to be very popular so it is a hard decision for us to keep doing loss-makers. If we do too many of those, we won't be making anything any more soon ;-)

You are absolutely right! We make these add-ons to provide a much better quality of what is in-sim, but we don't know what Microsoft will do next, so it's hard to make a definitive statement around "ours is better than theirs" ;-) until we see it. I guess what I was trying to say is that some people do not care much about high-def and they are happy to wait for the freebie, while others want it now (the pioneers!) and are prepared to take a punt on the Orbx version being better than what is released for free. We still have quite a few people downloading our London pack (for example) even if that region got updated by Microsoft some time ago so I guess once the WUs are out, (some of) you guys still vote for us in terms of better quality.

Happy New Year - late, we know. But the Summer holidays in Australia are still a thing, even if the weather has been mostly inclement so far, but there is still time! While everyone has had some small amounts of downtime, pondering life and the universe, the Orbx team has been reflecting on 2021, what we set to do and what we actually achieved. As you all know, lately we have been mega busy working with Microsoft on the release of the Australia World Update on Microsoft Flight Simulator and the Fokker. They have been labours of love over many many months, and we are really proud of the results (stay tuned re Fokker as we will be releasing an update with fixes and new functionality). We think the Australian update is the best (and certainly most extensive) so far - if we can say so ourselves! As a bit of a summary... during 2021 we released 18 Airports (with our HQ in YMEN across 3 platforms), 10 Cities, 22 Indy airports, 3 regions, 1 traffic simulator, 3 missions (the Santa Run, the Halloween Run and the Brisbane River Run) and our first aircraft, the Edgley Optica. Of these releases, 47 were Microsoft Flight Sim products, 8 Prepar3D and 5 X-Plane. The airport list, in case you need to complete the 2021 collection: LWSK - Skopje International Airport EG41 - Fishburn Airfield EGSG - Stapleford Airfield YBBN - Brisbane International Airport V2 LFKX - Meribel Airport KEYW - Key West International Airport EGTR - Elstree Aerodrome EGKA - Shoreham (Brighton) Airport CYBD - Bella Coola Airport LDSP - Split Airport S45 - Siletz Bay State Airport EGHI - Southampton Airport EGPB - Sumburgh Airport YBBN - Brisbane International Airport 1WA6 - Fall City Airport PAKT - Ketchikan International Airport LDSP - Split Airport ...and as mentioned, YMEN Essendon Airport - for P3D, MSFS and XP11 The cities have been VERY exciting products to make and see in action in MSFS: Paris, Singapore, Brisbane (also for P3D), Adelaide, Frankfurt (then incorporated in the German update), Cape Town, Dubai, Mumbai, and Auckland. Often we get asked about compatibility and inclusion when the MSFS world updates get done. Holger in particular works on the compatibility once the WUs are out. We don't get to see the final versions of photogrammetry from Microsoft (yes - not even for the AU Update) so we have to wait until those are released and then make modifications. As an aside, a number of people wonder why bother buying add-ons when MS will then incorporate similar changes in an update. My answer here is simple: it's a bit like going to the movies vs Netflix / Prime.... if you want to watch a movie when it gets out (and talk about it at your next dinner party), you pay a ticket now, and then yes maybe it will come out on Netflix or whatever subscription you have, and you can watch it for free. Up to you if you want to be there first, or wait for later. Personal choice. I paid $35 last week to watch the new Dune (awesome BTW), now I own it, and I am sure it will be included on Prime in 3-4 months, and I do not care. Again, personal choice. Ok where were we... Let's see what is in store (for the moment) in 2022. Prague for all sims, first one out will be MSFS (imminent!) Landmarks Panama Canal is about to be finished too, with lots of exciting features Updates to both our New Zealand mesh (the promised high-resolution LiDAR data) and Landmarks Auckland More of our PC-based landmarks products to be adjusted for release on Xbox OpenLC Asia - tricky as Eugene, the developer, is in the Ukraine and there have been disruptions there, plus this is such a HUGE project and we don't have firm dates yet A swag of aircraft for MSFS - we will release the names and models as we get closer to getting them out, as it seems aircraft sometimes hit snags due to sim-based functionality A very special project: YMML aka Tullamarine / Melbourne main airport, which will be led by Ed and Marcus, plus a Melbourne city pack with a number of POIs to make this city great again ;-) For MSFS, KCRW "Chuck" Yeager, KFAT Fresno, KPBI Palm Beach (also for P3D), VTSP Phuket and KBOI Boise. For P3D and maybe a bit delayed - TrueEarth Eastern Alps. We are looking at making YBBN Brisbane for XPL too, and a special GB North Landmarks pack for MSFS. Our Indies are also all busy with these new projects. From Marcus Nyberg we have ESSA Stockholm Arlanda in heavy development. Marcus revisits his ESP classic and brining it to MSFS with all new modelling textures. You can check the progress at The (very cool) Arlanda Journal. https://www.facebook.com/The-Arlanda-Journal-109400158308529 Finn Hansen takes on another Norwegian airport and he has ENGM Oslo in his sights. We hope to see this towards the middle of this year with progress going well with this major hub. Andreas Hegi takes a visit down to the gateway of the Dolomites with LIPB Bolzano Airport and he’s been bitten by the “interior terminal” bug. Another that has decided to try out the interior modelling fad is Rasha Tucakov as he looks to wrap up LYPG Podgorica as an addition to his Balkan Peninsula destinations. After the successful LKSK Skiathos, Matteo Veneziani wasted no time in revisiting KBUR Burbank as he works on a new version for MSFS with reworked models and textures and new groundpoly. This was necessary as we look to use this as the basis for the X-Plane version of the airport and will be available at a discount for existing owners. After that, Matteo will begin work on YBCG Gold Cost as well as look to finalise LIPH Treviso. Ken Hall is busy on working YMLT Launceston which will be a great addition to his home on the Apple Isle and he is in his element with some of the older buildings and bringing them to life, warts and all. And over in New Zealand, Tim Harris is feeling rejuvenated with his work on NZNV Invercargill and really pushing the limits on where art meets reality. Our MSFS mesh wizard, Dmytro Krikunov (if the name sounds familiar, it is because he is the son of Eugene our Global lead developer) is finalising the much awaited NZ Mesh update with 1m LiDAR in selected areas and his next region will be South America! That’s right, the whole continent. Phew! OK that is what we have got for the moment. I know many of you will have suggestions of what we should do next, and we are very happy to hear them (no guarantee though ;-) ). Hope you are all keeping safe and well. COVID has spread a bit through the Orbx team but overall we have been able to keep going OK. Hope you are too! Till next time....

We are working on an announcement about what we are working on! The AU update + Fokker have taken up so much of our time lately, but we definitely have our own products coming through as well. Stay tuned for Prague releasing soon (for example!), but we have more in store coming. Thanks for being patient and sticking around while we sort our program of work out!

The plane is a difficult one to fly, we had no doubt about that when we selected her to be a Local Legend (together with Microsoft). But she is such a legendary aircraft (especially the Southern Cross) that we decided to do this anyway, for its historical significance. Real-life pilots have tested the aircraft and they said the handling is pretty accurate, so while she looks like a "simple" plane, she actually requires a high level of skill to fly. We were able to obtain the original manuals which are also published as part of the plane, knowing the Xbox users will need to go to their PCs to download it. The team is currently working on a few fixes which we will list once we have prioritised them, though we are finding some of the bugs already being hard to replicate across different configurations.

We developed all the POIs and four airports, but we were not in charge of photogrammetry so we could not see what the end product looked like until today.

We could look at this on a case by case basis though it is a very manual process and it could become quite hard to match all purchases. If you want us to look into it, do you want to email support@orbxsystems.com and mention this conversation please? Cheers!

Microsoft does not allow us to access anything Xbox, so we cannot link Orbx Central to it, unfortunately. I cannot see that changing any time soon.... Cheers.

Great work by @Holger Sandmannhere - having worked there on and off for about 5 years, I feel (almost) homesick! ;-) Share screeshots pls!

Hi all - in reading this thread, and others not in this forum, there are a few things I feel need to be clarified: 1. the Throwback Thursday series is something Ed Correia (who is an Orbx "veteran" as you know) is putting together as a series of ported airports. The quality is not expected to be exceptional or groundbreaking, and perhaps that is a mistake, but we are making them super cheap for people to bring content they loved in FSX and P3D to MSFS. There is quite an amount of work going into these, so we still sell them (even though cheaply) to recover some of the costs. Believe me, we make zero money from them - unfortunately - but at least we pay off the developers so they can feed themselves a bit longer; 2. Jarrad Marshall, much loved and respected by the whole community, is taking a long break. He has not announced yet when he will be back, but when he is ready, we will welcome him back with open arms; 3. Our team in Havant, UK (which still includes Russ White, incidentally) was set up around June 2019 and has some high quality and talented people who are getting better and better at understanding flight simming and what kind of standards are required. It is not a quick process to train someone to those levels, but that is a journey we decided to take; 4. We have now a much bigger team compared to 3 years ago (by a factor of at least 4), and many are now full time employees instead of being hobbists, so - yes - we release more content than before, except it just looks we are doing things "faster," but in reality the speed is coming from the fact we have more people in the Company; 5. Around the direction of the Company, I have spoken about it elsewhere, but in brief, we are striving to excel at making add-ons. We recently launched our first aircraft as a bit of an experiment to see if we *could* actually do it, and we love the result. We will do more of that! There are some very true things in this thread, and some myths as well. But one thing that is coming through (for me at least) is the love for the Company, what it stands for and the desire to keep Orbx at the forefront of innovation and quality. Exactly where we want to be! Yes, the entry of MSFS has created a lot of content dilution - just check how many more devs / creators have joined the ranks in the MS Marketplace! - so it is hard when one of our devs releases a product and it gets lost in the noise, or gets so criticised that discourages people to stay in the industry. This is true for everyone, I think. Constructive criticism is always very welcome as like all humans we make mistakes and think something could be great, but it misses the mark, and sometimes you just don't know why. BTW despite some slightly unsavory comments made ;-), we will keep this thread open so we can have a robust (and I hope constructive) discussion around these topics, and what it is that makes Orbx great, today and tomorrow - not what it did 2 years ago, that environment does not exist any longer. We are trying to adapt to what we can work with now, and with that, invent the future. It would be great to do this as a community as much as a Company. Cheers!

There's no buck passing here. We really are waiting for MS to release the update for us. We do love Orbx Central, for all sorts of reasons.

We did not have access to the UK update until it was released publicly. Agree it would have been good to start working on this earlier (we did ask to have early beta access). Personal thanks for supporting us as we update the pack - working as fast as we can :-)

Ha! Well, I live very close to that Aerodrome too and I thought some country flavour would be nice on video, especially in COVID times... I can buy you back that beer at the Robbo pub sometime? ;-)