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Orbx and X-Plane releases in 2018

John Venema

By John Venema
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John Venema Orbx VIP

John Venema

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

 

All you all know we released KCGX Meigs Field for X-Plane 11 yesterday, and it's proving to be a HOT seller, certainly on par or if not better than small to medium airports for our other platforms. So please allow me to say a big THANK YOU to the X-Plane user community for embracing "the new Orbx kid on the block" and I hope it has met your expectations! We don't have delusions of world domination but we hope to see many other FS developers embracing XP moving forward as well.

 

You may be wondering about the choice of Meigs Field as our debut. The reason is fairly simple - we hired a contractor to port this over a year ago as part of our evaluation of XP11 and to see what was involved. We then sat on the 80% completed work for various reasons as well as working on enhancements to the existing FSX/P3D/AFS2 versions to vastly expand the cityscape well into the suburban areas and add a larger photoreal terrain coverage. So basically, we've added the last 20% to make it on par with the other platforms and released it.

 

However, we have 2-3 more Orbx airport ports coming in a short while and also a new first-for-XPlane release; EGCB Barton Manchester Airport by Tony Wroblewski, which looks just ridiculously stunning I have to say!

 

Cessna_172SP_1.jpeg

 

Cessna_172SP_9.jpeg

 

Cessna_172SP_13.jpeg

 

Cessna_172SP_17.jpeg

 

(There are many more shots but I don't want to steal Tony's thunder - needless to say it looks gobsmackling good :) )

 

 

2018 X-Plane (sort of) Roadmap

 

We don't yet have a formal roadmap to announce yet but here is the rough plan:

 

  • Hire more XP experienced developers to add to those already recently joined
  • Port our most popular small to medium airports to XP11
  • Potentially port some of our larger more complex airports and their attached 'micro-regions'
  • Develop a photoreal Pacific Northwest region
  • Port the PNW airports across to establish a bush-flyer's paradise
  • Work with Ben Supnik and the guys at Laminar to try and add bone animations to the sim so we can add some Flow technologies
  • Release more 'first-for-XPlane' titles (yes, we may end up porting XP airports back to FSX/P3D/AFS2, how about that eh? :) )
  • Port across our Netherlands photoreal region
  • Investigate further US regions
  • Investigate a UK photoreal region with ported and brand new airports

 

Some pre-alpha shots of a UK region exploratory work:

1.thumb.jpeg.f0f4f3f88020cf95d59fb5b03fdbbf58.jpeg

 

2.thumb.jpeg.11cc7ed330e6bdf39b4abf940ca39c3c.jpeg

 

4.thumb.jpeg.9a53c8646c691c3aa3df629a786d270d.jpeg

3.thumb.jpeg.8fae3f4565d4cb0e2a44c3bd6d8280d0.jpeg

 

 

 

What we don't plan to do:

 

  • Create an Orbx Global, openLC or Vector product; for now this is too ambitious in scope for the platform
  • Create land class based regions; XP doesn't have seasons and we are not yet up to speed with the XP internals just yet

 

Hopefully this post will be welcomed by the XP community as a sign of our commitment to the platform. Orbx is morphing into a multi-platform FS developer and whilst we remain focused on our core sims (FSX/P3D) we also recognise that there are new sims emerging as choices for the FS community (XP/AFS2/FSW) and it makes good business sense to expand the scope of our offerings to them.

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Speedstreaker Newbie

Speedstreaker

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Thank you very much. Long time simmer and have flown FSX and P3D for a very long time. Tried XP 9 and 10, it was simply not my cup of tea. XP11 came out last year and that was what broke the ice for me. 

XP11 is going to be my sim moving forward and although I mainly fly EU area I will buy Meigs Field, it is FS 98 all over again! If you ever get around to make a seasons package for Xplane-11 then that will be the must have for XP users. 

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john548 Senior Member

john548

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I have only one word to say...FANTASTIC..excuse the upcase but I had to shout it !!

Thx for all the hard work put into our 'other' flightsims. Now we have more choices of platforms with Orbx products involved!!:D

Cheers.

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Kilstorm Life Member

Kilstorm

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Congrats on the XP users base embracing Orbx with its first release for sure and thank you for a look ahead. What we only need now is to see some of the great airplane makers of FSX/P3D to start to make their way over as well. So hopefully with leaders like Orbx and other scenery developers leading the way with positive praise in the sells department, we will also start to see other industry leaders take a harder look as offering cross platform support in both XP as well as AFS2.

As a PilotEdge user I find Xplane 11 to offer more for my flights, so please keep in mind those airports that are covered by PilotEdge as full staffed ATC in the SoCal, NorCal and surrounding Western coverage areas.

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Orbx Flyer Life Member

Orbx Flyer

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Wow, count me and my 'intent to purchase and support Orbx within XP' as in...

 

XP11 has morphed to becoming an unbelievable graphic capable, rendering engine.  Those paving stones, look real....wow. I can't wait to see what you guys can come up with for photo-real as regions. PNW will be a 'without thinking sale'....That's high on my expectation list...

 

Cheers,

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Gregory C Newbie

Gregory C

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As a brand new user here, a new user to X-Plane 11, new Orbx customer, and to home-simulator software in general, I feel compelled to comment on the new Meigs for X-Plane 11.

 

I literally installed X-plane 3 days ago and found the Orbx Meigs add on today. I just flew the sim from Gary (Indiana) to Meigs. My gosh, the memories.

 

I flew into Meigs semi-regularly from the mid-70's to 2003. Such wonderful memories of Meigs, including meeting Robert Conrad on the ramp once. I'm biting my tongue regarding the closing, but I want to say thanks for the memories. From short final over Navy Pier to the right turn in front of the familiar fuel tanks to parking at the terminal. It is difficult to describe the emotions. Your graphics and detail are amazing. As I pulled up to the terminal, a flood of emotion.

 

Thanks for a wonderful bit of software, and I eagerly await your further ventures to supporting X-Plane.

 

Cheers,

Greg

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DesertPilot Life Member

DesertPilot

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The release of Meigs Field for X-Plane 11 convinced me to finally purchase X-Plane 11 itself!  Along with, of course, Orbx Meigs Field (that I also have for P3Dv4 and Aerofly FS2). And I must say, I am impressed with X-Plane's graphics, I enjoyed flying from Meigs Field over to O'Hare, with the beautiful, crisp buildings, vegetation, roads, traffic, etc.

 

Each of those three flight simulators has its own unique attributes that I like, and I look forward to Orbx's upcoming products for all three simulators! :)

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GCBraun Advanced Member

GCBraun

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Very good! I have always been a MSFS/P3D user but today I am using XP11 about 50% of  the time. Even though I have no real use case for Meigs, I have bought it regardless to support further development for the XP platform. 

 

Looking forward for the new releases!

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DocBird Life Member

DocBird

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Great news!

 

I never took the step to P3D V4 but shifted over to XP and now fly exclusively on XP11 in VR!

 

So I am looking forward to see all my Orbx stuff again over time. Can't wait for PAKT and PAJN!

 

I am currently working on populating the XP Scenery Gateway with default sea plane basis and strips in the remote areas of Alaska. 33 done and only some hundreds to go...

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FILOU Life Member

FILOU

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I had two great emotions in my simmer life! ORBX and XP11 and for the last I'm in love...and to go backwards with P3D is impossible for me! I take your ad as a very good news.I will invest in Meigs Field Airport.Take it as a contribution...I do not have any advice to give only my vision of what I like to see and if I can afford, I would say Photoreal + Autogen is really the only way to go.For be honest i use XP11 with Ortho4xp with the advantages and small defects.My feeling and my way of flying have changed dramatically.I do not fly anymore I travel in reality.In short .... I can not wait to send you some shots in the future if the products meet my expectations.But I am confident about my investment.Good luck.
 

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Darren Howie Advanced Member

Darren Howie

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Great news for those of us who prefer xplane!

i own all your USA products in P3D plus a big colection of non USA stuff and am very pleased to see you supporting the best simulator of flight on the market xplane.

 

For your consideration unlike P3D many existing xplaners have extensive photo scenery libraries and an option to NOT use the one in the ORBX one i think will be a big consideration.

I am using ZL 17 to 18 for most of the Pac NW for instance so unless your packages will be in the terrabytes anythng released as a photo scenery will be lower quality than I and many users already have.

Another serious consideration maybe matching with google probably the biggest server of choice for downloads.

 

I seriously think an option for a purchaser to not use your photo scenery must be seriously considered.

Unlike P3D users like me who love seeing photo scenery in P3D making the world look real the fact many xplaners have used ortho4xp to fill there world with beautiful  photoscenery of very high detail shoukd be considered.

I am very much looking forward to seeing those little airports from PNW region in xplane along with hopefully all your payware Alaskan stuff..in fact all your North American stuff!

Great to see you jump into the future of flight simulation...

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Aceone Member

Aceone

Posted
Posted

I am glad that you have jumped onto the X-Plane train and are rewarded with success.
Photorealistic scenes are definitely the right way for the future. Of course you can do it yourself, but the results are very mixed due to the free material available, but probably better than landclasses.
Ideally, there should also be a higher-resolution mesh for a more coherent image in the scenarios. (Of course not really necessary for the Netherlands :D)
The strength of X-Plane is currently VFR and I am looking forward to some nice exploration tours in your future products.

If you've made progress in X-Plane, maybe we'll get seasonal textures sometime.

Keep up the good work.

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UKPilot Member

UKPilot

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That UK project looks very familiar! In fact that second picture is my home town of Wirral looking across the Mersey to the Liverpool bay! What are the chances!! Some ORBX scenery of where I live! fantastic and where I fly around all the time :) You have my money when that is released that’s a certain. Can’t wait!! :D

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John Hargreaves Senior Member

John Hargreaves

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On ‎08‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 9:56 PM, UKPilot said:

That UK project looks very familiar! In fact that second picture is my home town of Wirral looking across the Mersey to the Liverpool bay! What are the chances!! Some ORBX scenery of where I live! fantastic and where I fly around all the time :) You have my money when that is released that’s a certain. Can’t wait!! :D

XP11 is certainly my current favourite general flight sim for a number of reasons. The helicopter flight model is among the best out there, and the combination of Ortho4XP scenery and all the little community made add ons mean you can make a great looking environment for next to nothing. My main area to fly in XP is along the M62 corridor from Hull to Liverpool, so the new Barton airport will add nicely to that. There is Manchester and Leeds city centre available for free, and with the payware Manchester airport as well, it's a really realistic flight over the pennines and beyond. Very pleased to see OrbX getting involved, I did think that ProjectX had been put aside, but it's nice to see things moving now.

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purduekev Life Member

purduekev

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As a user of all of the various sim platforms, I also want to add my thanks John for the decision of Orbx to get involved with X-Plane.  I am a huge fan of the flight modelling and smoothness (as John Hargreaves said, particularly for helicopters which far surpasses anything possible in P3D right now), but what has kept me from using it as much as I would like is the relative paucity of quality payware scenery development.  There is so much potential with the XP11 platform, and the Orbx content would be a massive addition!  Also, perhaps Orbx involvement will drive further development of the platform in other areas (like proper seasonal modelling, for example).

 

Thank you!

 

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UKPilot Member

UKPilot

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6 hours ago, John Hargreaves said:

XP11 is certainly my current favourite general flight sim for a number of reasons. The helicopter flight model is among the best out there, and the combination of Ortho4XP scenery and all the little community made add ons mean you can make a great looking environment for next to nothing. My main area to fly in XP is along the M62 corridor from Hull to Liverpool, so the new Barton airport will add nicely to that. There is Manchester and Leeds city centre available for free, and with the payware Manchester airport as well, it's a really realistic flight over the pennines and beyond. Very pleased to see OrbX getting involved, I did think that ProjectX had been put aside, but it's nice to see things moving now.

Completely agree, in fact I’ve completely removed my other sims bar X Plane 11 and Aerofly FS2. I use Otho4XP also and like you the addition of the new ORBX Barton airport will greatly enhance the scenery in this area. I fly mainly VR using Ortho tiles Liverpool to Leeds area with X - Europe 2.0 and I can’t express how real this feels, sitting in that cockpit in the evening with X Plane’s fantastic lighting and flicking switches with my hands. It’s as real as it gets! And now with ORBX on board with some UK scenery in the works, it’s going to get even more emersive. I can’t wait! :D

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andy1252 Life Member

andy1252

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I've just come back and re-read this and realised I managed to miss the bit about the UK before. This is such good news! I've got everything Orbx has produced, but always thought the UK regions were a bit of a let down and not up to the standard of the others. The recent release of Meigs for XP has also finally got me serious about XP itself - I've had it on my machine since day 1 but never really got to grips with it, and so now I've got two sims to get excited about. Or more likely, three, once I get stuck in to AFS2. Or I suppose, just about conceivably four, as I've also got FSW - but that really does feel like an outsider at the moment.

 

So huge thanks to JV and all the Orbx crew. You've made at least one retired old f*rt very happy!

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