John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 DOVETAIL GAMES CONTINUES ORBX PARTNERSHIP Flight sim scenery specialist to work on new flight titles Chatham, Kent – 16th March 2016 Dovetail Games, the multi award-winning developer and publisher of a range of simulation games, is pleased to announce it will be partnering with Orbx Simulation Systems to bring key aspects of its technology to Dovetail Games Flight School and Dovetail Games Flight Simulator, both scheduled for release this year. Dovetail Games previously worked with the flight simulation scenery specialist during the ongoing content development for Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition. “We are incredibly excited about working with Orbx again on Flight School and Flight Simulator,” said Stephen Hood, Creative Director at Dovetail Games. “Orbx represents the pinnacle of what can be achieved in terms of in-game scenery, so collaborating on these titles was the obvious choice for us. We are deeply committed to partnering with both new and existing content creators to create the best possible combination of technologies to power our simulators. This is only the beginning.” Orbx Simulation Systems has dominated the flight simulation scenery space since CEO John Venema founded the company in 2006. "We are thrilled to partner with Dovetail Games as they usher in a new era of 64-bit simulators built on robust technology that we have a decade of experience in developing for," added John Venema, CEO of Orbx Simulation Systems. "We've developed a solid working relationship with the Dovetail team and we're confident that our terrain will look absolutely stunning in their enhanced 3D engine and provide a level of immersion unlike anything experienced before. We look forward to a long and productive partnership." Dovetail Games Flight School is currently scheduled for release in April 2016, with Dovetail Games Flight Simulator following later in 2016. Both titles will be available for PC. For further information, please visit http://dtgflightschool.com/ For press enquiries please contact: Lidia Rumley Light Switch PR E: lidia@lightswitchpr.co.uk T: 07803 359805 About Dovetail Games Dovetail Games was launched in 2013. Previously trading as RailSimulator.com Ltd, the business launched in 2009 initially producing and marketing PC game Train Simulator. Today Dovetail Games is responsible for train, flight and fishing simulation games and is developing for both PC and leading consoles. http://www.dovetailgames.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bermuda425 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 This connects Dovetail's new project to the community. Otherwise it would have been a foreign software that we couldn't really make use of. Great news in this article! Greetings, Bermuda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmb Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Congratulations! This is more than excellent news and will buy ORBX and DT quite a bunch of users alike. For sure a magnificant step into the future of flight simming. Kind regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimshot Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Congratulations guys! I was hoping for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Museumkeeper Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Only to be expected. 'When you look at the rest, you go for the best.' Best wishes for the future and Kind regards Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonchie Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Looking at the pictures, that looks like FTX Global, Vector, and OpenLC. Can you confirm it's all three? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TymK Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Great news John! I was hoping this would be the big scenery-related announcement Martin had been hinting at for some time on Avsim, and here it is. Cheers, Tym Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 Looking at the pictures, that looks like FTX Global, Vector, and OpenLC. Can you confirm it's all three? No this is FTX Global Base only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonchie Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 4 minutes ago, John Venema said: No this is FTX Global Base only. That's a bit disappointing. I know you probably can't say too much, but is this partnership just for FTX Global or are there other plans in the works? The reason I ask is that DTG has said they want to upgrade the landclass and vector data (in the Q&A thread at avsim) and it would seem to make sense for them to do it via your products instead of from the ground up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Hamilton Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 15 minutes ago, John Venema said: No this is FTX Global Base only. 10 minutes ago, bonchie said: That's a bit disappointing. If these are pictures from Flight School, how much more than Global base do you really need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmb Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 9 minutes ago, bonchie said: That's a bit disappointing. I wouldn't say so. It's the beginning of a great parnership and ensures ORBX and DT will team up in the future simulators. Besides, I found Global Base to be the most important single worldwide scenery improvement. OpenLC is not even ready worldwide and will not be complete for the whole world til the end of this year. Vector involves Pilot's so this is another story. In my mind, even more important is the fact that present high-quality sceneries obviously can be adapted to the new 64 bits technology. I am sure, more will follow and I am quite convinced the other modules will make it into DFS as addons. Kind regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonchie Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 33 minutes ago, Bruce Hamilton said: If these are pictures from Flight School, how much more than Global base do you really need? I'm not sure what your question entails. Do you not need more then FTX Global in FSX/P3D? DTG says they want to update the LC and vector. I'm curious if that will be part of the partnership. 29 minutes ago, pmb said: I wouldn't say so. It's the beginning of a great parnership and ensures ORBX and DT will team up in the future simulators. Besides, I found Global Base to be the most important single worldwide scenery improvement. OpenLC is not even ready worldwide and will not be complete for the whole world til the end of this year. Vector involves Pilot's so this is another story. In my mind, even more important is the fact that present high-quality sceneries obviously can be adapted to the new 64 bits technology. I am sure, more will follow and I am quite convinced the other modules will make it into DFS as addons. Kind regards, Michael That's my question. I wouldn't expect OpenLC to be in Flight School as it's coming out next month. But DTG's main sim isn't coming out until late in the year and they said they are updating the LC (or want to). I'm just wondering if this partnership expands beyond just FTX Global for Flight School and if DTG will outsource other component updates to Orbx for the main Flight Simulator release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike707 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 44 minutes ago, John Venema said: No this is FTX Global Base only. John, Is there going to be anything new or is it the same content as we find in FSX/P3D? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmb Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 20 minutes ago, bonchie said: That's my question. I wouldn't expect OpenLC to be in Flight School as it's coming out next month. OpenLC US will (hopefully) come out next month. No word yet on Asia (including Japan, which I am much looking forward), Africa, etc. So certainly not yet ready to cover the whole world. Kind regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daladna Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 cool, but dovetail link with the dot after "com" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilstorm Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Having been a user since FS98 and having to do all the many sim installs for reasons of a new sim platform, patches, new computer system and as of late new version...I have long believed in a two part system for streamlining the experience for the end user. The first part is already being done by LM where they have departmentalized different parts of the sim allowing for updates without the need to have to do a complete reinstall just to update parts of the sim and allowing control to update some parts but not all parts. I've felt since FS2002 that there was little "new" being introduced after we had weather, ATC, AI and AutoGen engines in the sim and it was all just "improvements". So why not just create a core sim and allow the other parts become up-gradable which is what LM is doing. The other part is addons and this is where DTG could shine and what might be happening with Orbx and DTG in this announcement. How nice would it be if DTG would work to partner with the industry leading developers to allow them to do the content of aircraft, scenery and weather and they focused on the engine part. Combined when you go to buy the sim as a package, the installer bundles everything as you click to add content to the sim. Then when its time to reinstall your sim as you move to a new computer, its a one click install as every addon you buy as time goes on gets bundled into your custom flight sim. Auto updates keep all addons that are partnered with DTG current. By being partnered with DTG in this system, as DTG creates updates, patches or improvements, all partnered addons are kept current and not broken before the updates are released so we never again have to wait for addons to work as we move forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Museumkeeper Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Hi Sorry if I have misread or misinterpreted Kilstorm's comment but is that not what is already being done with DTG and FSX-SE. I have a copy of FSX-SE and to that I purchased via DTG copies of two aircraft. I have just wiped my computer and started from scratch by first installing the O/S and then FSX-SE and when I ran the sim to check that it had loaded correctly, copies of the two aircraft I purchased had been reloaded automatically. The only drawback that I can see with this system is that individual distributors will be left out if they do not join DTG and sell their wares through them thus halting the development of the talent that has kept this hobby of ours alive over the past few years. Kind regards I*an Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 1 hour ago, Mike707 said: 2 hours ago, John Venema said: 44 minutes ago, John Venema said: No this is FTX Global Base only. John, Is there going to be anything new or is it the same content as we find in FSX/P3D? Yes there are improvements to FTX Global Base in what DTG have in their sims, including consolidation of our original LC mods into worldlc.bgl, some new texture sets, airport underplays to match arid areas and further LC corrections in parts of the world. These enhancements will be rolled out to existing FTX Global Base customers in the form of a v1.25 patch in the next month or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunk Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 This is really exciting news. Congrats to John and the entire ORBX team. The future looks bright for flight simming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike707 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 2 hours ago, John Venema said: Yes there are improvements to FTX Global Base in what DTG have in their sims, including consolidation of our original LC mods into worldlc.bgl, some new texture sets, airport underplays to match arid areas and further LC corrections in parts of the world. These enhancements will be rolled out to existing FTX Global Base customers in the form of a v1.25 patch in the next month or so. Thanks for the answer John. Do you foresee that when Dovetail Flight Simulator releases in late 2016 that any improvements to ORBX content for that platform will make it into the existing product set for FSX/P3D? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 More like the other way around; any improvements we make to FTX Global for FSX/P3D will be offered to DTG for their new sims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike707 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 2 minutes ago, John Venema said: More like the other way around; any improvements we make to FTX Global for FSX/P3D will be offered to DTG for their new sims. That is great to hear. So there should be a good amount of content parity among DTFS, P3D, and FSX. Will the Dovetail platform offer any new tech or capabilities that will allow for more features or richer content than FSX/P3D? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertPilot Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 I'm convinced, I'll be purchasing the Dovetail products when they come out and explore how FTX Global appears in them with enhanced 3D technology, while I continue to use my P3Dv3 setup (where I have all Orbx sceneries installed currently). Going into 2017, assuming future Orbx sceneries for DGFS would have to be purchased separately, at full price, from Orbx products for FSX/P3D, then I would reach a point where I'd need to decide between DGFS and Prepar3D going forward. As of course, I would not routinely be paying the full price twice for a given future Orbx scenery product, one for DGFS and one for P3D. All that said, I think this is absolutely great news for the future of flight simulation. In the meantime, I'll still continue to pick up this year's new Orbx sceneries for P3Dv3! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 1 hour ago, Mike707 said: Will the Dovetail platform offer any new tech or capabilities that will allow for more features or richer content than FSX/P3D? Today's announcement is about DTG using FTX Global as the basis for the terrain in Flight School and Dovetail Flight Simulator. I can't discuss any other aspects of the tech they are working on since I am not at liberty to. Needless to say they have quite a lot of ideas and plans for Dovetail Flight Simulator due at the end of this year. I am sure Stephen Hood will be briefing the community on new tech when he's able to share it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilstorm Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 7 minutes ago, DesertPilot said: All that said, I think this is absolutely great news for the future of flight simulation. In the meantime, I'll still continue to pick up this year's new Orbx sceneries for P3Dv3! I too am all in on P3D and have no SDD space nor desire to move to DTG for the foreseeable future. However, with this partnership announcement, I would hope that DTG is giving Orbx a lot of room (inside access of the beta builds) to start creating the addons being actively developed right now for the current sims an avenue to also allow them to be designed for this new one so that upon the release of this Flight Sim the addons will shortly follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neucoas Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Sorry if i don't get it right... But when DGT launchs both FS, they will come with ORBX textures included on the package? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 Yes both Flight School (due in April) and Dovetail Flight Simulator (due end of 2016) will come with Orbx FTX Global Base as the default terrain and autogen textures installed as part of the core simulator. There will be no addon or DLC required at all. Note that there won't be any additional scenery folders for LC mods, FTX Central or anything else you're used to. It will be part of the core sims without needing any configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike707 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 41 minutes ago, John Venema said: Today's announcement is about DTG using FTX Global as the basis for the terrain in Flight School and Dovetail Flight Simulator. I can't discuss any other aspects of the tech they are working on since I am not at liberty to. Needless to say they have quite a lot of ideas and plans for Dovetail Flight Simulator due at the end of this year. I am sure Stephen Hood will be briefing the community on new tech when he's able to share it. Fair enough. Thanks for the information and I will look forward to future Dovetail statements. My hope is that there will be enough new features over what P3d has that will compell many simmers to adopt DTFS as a primary platform. I just really want to flight sim genre to advance to current and leading tech, visuals, and fidelity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banjoman1960 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 look´s good,but i am not interested in a sim wat is closed to freeware devlopers................. and if i buy it,than i stay on the sim only,and do not invest more money in it.......... i like the way fsx and p3d do handle the way for developer..... but i will wait and see wat happen,and i am happy with p3d the planes and orbx i have. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy1252 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 3 hours ago, John Venema said: Yes both Flight School (due in April) and Dovetail Flight Simulator (due end of 2016) will come with Orbx FTX Global Base as the default terrain and autogen textures installed as part of the core simulator. There will be no addon or DLC required at all. Note that there won't be any additional scenery folders for LC mods, FTX Central or anything else you're used to. It will be part of the core sims without needing any configuration. Well, that sounds pretty damn fine to me. I guess I'll be getting DTFS when it arrives and then running it alongside P3D while I see how it all develops. It is certainly great news that ORBX is involved and I now look forward to seeing the new beast. Plenty of other issues to consider but it is now pretty much a definite buy as far as I'm concerned. Whether it becomes my main pride and joy or becomes an occasional thing (as X-Plane is for me now) will depend on things like the degree of online hassling for more DLC and the availability of third party and freeware goodies. But knowing ORBX is involved gets it off to a flying start for me (sorry about that) Cheers, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabnz Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 This all all very exciting news! I'm really looking forward to the future of flight simming. Congratulations John on the partnership. I for one will be buying every piece of addon from you for the new flight simulator as I have with the existing products. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anfield ace Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Great news, 2 new 64 bit flight sims, with orbx base (at least)...all sounds good! Cheers JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcliff Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 John, earlier you said: Quote - Backward compatibility is neither assured or announced by DTG nor desired by Orbx; we WANT it to be broken so we can start to exploit new technology, finally. It's been too long since we began hacking an old 2006 engine. Great. But above you said: Quote More like the other way around; any improvements we make to FTX Global for FSX/P3D will be offered to DTG for their new sims. That means Dovetail Games Flight Simulator will ship with old FSX "terrain-technology", and not with - "new technology, finally."? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 It sounds very promising, and perhaps now the new flightsim will be able to co-exist with MS FSX. Can I assume that it will be DX12, which means Windows 10? By the way its nice to be able to post again, thanks admin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypercide Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 It's funny...I was wandering over here to ORBX this evening after a lovely SoCal flight from Salinas to Napa Valley, thinking about buying a little something or other, and I read this. A DTG partnership with ORBX will reset the bar for flightsim, and really do what DTG wants to do, refresh the hobby. I'm probably not the only one who's grown tired of the tremendous amount of time it takes trying to balance all my complex add-on--enviro, terrain, and aircraft--on the ever-thinning razor's edge of FSX's old code (my last re-install put the final nail in that old coffin). I'm really looking forward to an "out-of-the box" flightsim experience that doesn't lead to weeks of trawling forums for the latest fix for the latest add-on. All I want anymore is something that looks like ORBX-world, and works without my needing a PhD in FSX-ology. Considering ORBX has made me a low-and-slow GA junkie, I can't wait to press the "Pay" button sometime in April. Good on you, ORBX!! (Am I still gonna buy that little something-or-other this evening? Only ORBX will know!) Tim Order Number: FSS0329658 Order Date: 2014-11-30 [ORB-727] Orbx - FTX: Global BASE (oh, and just oodles more) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Great news indeed! Count me in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spacey Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Hi JV This is probably a difficult question to answer and so I hope the question is not taken in the wrong way. So far I have over 100+ Orbx airports as well as other software. With FSX being around for so long, the investment in software for many is great, and for me personally is around $7000. With Orbx being in partnership as such (or however it is) with the Dovetail 64bit program, it makes the desire to move over much greater than had Orbx not being involved. So the dilemma is ... Do l or we just I continue to invest in 32 bit Orbx products, or save money and wait for the 64 bit release. I hope you can understand this dilemma. I have always supported Orbx and purchased many airports l am yet to use, as l wanted to ensure Orbx survived, and buying product was the only way I could do this. And l wish to continue do so during the transition, but there is only so much moneys round in these times. So please take this question in the nicest possible way and with the great respect I have for Orbx products, and visa versa with Orbx's support to FSX and P3D, but is it possible to give us some type of answer to this dilemma if it was you as the customer, without breaching confidential info. Or if not now, could you give some idea of when you maybe able to assist us with an outline of Orbx's plans (again without breach any confidentiality that may affect Orbx), but can assist us in our decision making. It would be sad to see a drying up of purchases ( even a small reduction in purchases) as we wait for the 64 bit release, but for me personally, I am going to need to hold off for now, if I want to consider the expense of transferring over. Thanks for your understanding. Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McDonald Woods Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Re Tim's posting.... I fully understand the wish to make maintaining flight simulators as easy as possible. I sometimes think of myself as in aircraft maintenance rather than piloting! However, the large number of different technologies involved in getting us 'real' simulation experiences will always mean that many talented developers will have to be involved. Trying to package these many pieces into fewer parts for simplicity will inevitably result in additional architectural complexities and development delays from which we will all suffer. Much better to me is the free market approach where each of the pieces is fought over by vendors wishing to be the more successful. That way, I believe, lies the best solutions for our hobby, but at the inevitable additional maintenance costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
addman Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 This sounds great to me, although I will probably skip Flight School and go straight for the Mac-Daddy at the end of the year. Good news indeed! I bet there are other third-parties out there with similar announcements coming up. I bet A2A Simulations have something, if not exclusive, special for the upcoming DT releases. Good times ahead, for the first time in quite a few years it feels like the flightsim community is on a serious rebound from the stagnation after the release of FSX. DT has recognized the vast amount of flightsim add-on developers out there and of course they want some of that money-cake. Create the vessel, lure in the developers, cash in the dough. Only thing slightly disappointing is the fact that these aren't ENTIRELY new sims or sim-engines. It's still that old creaky Aces code underneath all the fancy make-up and I bet we will discover some legacy issues/quirks once they release them. I was under the impression that these would be entirely new sims with built from the ground up engines. Here's hoping it's just not lipstick on the old FS pig. Cheers!/Andreas Forgot to say one thing, I'm all for the centralized approach when it comes to buying add-ons. I cant describe with words how sick I am to keep up with updates and downloads from 10-20 different developers, online vendors and such. Also, limited downloads, last night I wanted to download a 10 m mesh package that I bought from fspilotshop a while back. Turns out I can't! because the link has expired and I have to pay another 5$ to download what I already paid for. Give me the Steam add-on approach any day of the week please! Auto-updates, easy to find support forums within the client software etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 10 hours ago, alcliff said: John, earlier you said: Great. But above you said: That means Dovetail Games Flight Simulator will ship with old FSX "terrain-technology", and not with - "new technology, finally."? If you want to cover the entire planet with a realistic facsimile of what is there in real life, the only viable system to use that would not require 750GB+ of data is one based on the Olsen landclass (LC) approach. This allows a whole-earth sim to be shipped in about 10-15GB worth of files. In FSX/P3D this Olsen LC system is limited to about 128 classes - far too restrictive to depict the vast terrain variety on earth. There has been lots of banner waving and espousing of supposed current-tech engines like Outterra, Unigen, Unreal (insert name here), but those engines simply cannot scale to whole round earth models and push the insane level of geometry to the horizon as the 'old' FSX engine can. Despite 10 years of progress in gaming engines nothing can touch the FSX engine for far-horizon geometry rendering; the other engines are all mostly designed for limited area arenas. Even the excellent DCS engine is limited in its scope and relies on vast amounts of data per area. What Orbx has been doing over the past decade is making our own 'FSX 11' by expanding past the 128-class barrier with hundreds of new classes. However this required us to hack FSX/P3D and that's why FTX Central exists. What we have now with DTG's new sims is virtually unlimited land classes defined and engineered by Orbx so that a decade's worth of R&D is now boiled into a new sim as part of its core. That gives us a fantastic foundation to build upon without the previous restrictions we always had to code around. Additionally there will be a lot of new tech in the visualization engine including new HDR, light scattering and other lighting enhancements. Does that explain what I mean by new technology? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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