announcement UK / Ireland photoreal regions coming to XP, AFS2 and FSX/P3D!

[Guest]

Thanks for your explanation John.

 

I spent most of my working life in Basingstoke and found Hampshire a nice County to live in.

 

Are you settled  there for good now, or will you one day return to Australia? 

 

All the best

 

John

[david broome]

4 hours ago, John Venema said:

We don’t have source imagery available yet for Ireland and Northern Ireland, thus the name of the series bring TrueEarth Great Britain.

 

XP11 version is first, followed by P3D and AFS2.

 

XP11 version of TE Netherlands is about 60-70% done but the team is finishing up TE GB South at the moment.

 

Please finish up TE GB North before Netherlands 

[John Hargreaves]

Didn't know there was a GB 'south', what do they mean, like Sheffield?

[Longranger241]

4 hours ago, John Hargreaves said:

Didn't know there was a GB 'south', what do they mean, like Sheffield?

well, we will have to wait where they will exactly put the borders. The main reason for the new structure:

X-Plane always demands whole tiles for its photosceneries and terrain profiles. every of these tiles is a 1° by 1° area of the surface of the earth. It has to contain an area between 48° and 60° north. This would mean 4*  per area, but since the areas of each tile gets smaller the more toward the pole we go, I could also imagine 3° for the south, 4° for the middle and 5° north.

[John Hargreaves]

Sorry mate it was just a rubbish 'Yorkshire' joke inspired by the comment before. I'm really looking forward to this one and keep checking the forum, but I couldn't resist a bit of northern bias

 

My bad, I should have added a smiley, but it's too late to edit now.

[Trustdesa]

On 9/23/2018 at 1:21 PM, John Venema said:

Very soon, video and screenshots being made from the Beta2 build as we speak. Aiming for a release first week of October.

 

I would imagine at / after the Flight Sim Show as I can see you will be showing some videos  

 

[Dadtom65]

Great news and think I did say that I thought it would get maybe shown at the Cosford show. Looking forward to the Scenery and the show. Derek.

[RhysHarries]

Should I get EU England and EU Wales for P3D when in a few weeks, True Earth will be available? :S

[Dadtom65]

1 hour ago, RhysHarries said:

Should I get EU England and EU Wales for P3D when in a few weeks, True Earth will be available? :S

Hi and welcome to the forums. Depends entirely on what you want. As not sure how far behind the True Earth will be for P3D as it is coming out first for Xplane. Derek.

[John Hargreaves]

4 hours ago, RhysHarries said:

Should I get EU England and EU Wales for P3D when in a few weeks, True Earth will be available? :S

EU England is a great piece of scenery, very atmospheric and really captures the look of the English countryside. It does have a slightly 'generic' feeling if you are trying to find your own house, street or home town though, which it looks like has been rectified with the true earth series. If you aren't from the UK, it won't make a difference to you if the scenery is not totally accurate, and as it may still be some time before the P3D version is out in the wild, the EU England/Wales series will probably put you on very well.

I'd suggest a lot depends on how well you know the country, as I always thought the bits I didn't know were fantastic (I have the FSX version) and looked exactly like England from the air.

Why not wait until the XP11 version is out in the next few weeks and you can see reviews etc, and then decide if it's going to be worth the wait.

[NoLonger]

On 9/24/2018 at 12:47 PM, John Venema said:

XP11 version is first, followed by P3D and AFS2.

 

 

Great news! In that order too (P3D > AFS2)...? I am dying for more AFS2 TrueEarth scenery!

 

Slightly OT, hope you don't mind, but (assuming TE PNW is still being worked on) will TE PNW be released for AFS2 sooner than TE GB for AFS2 or is this still unknown? Not that it really matters, I will buy every TE scenery for AFS2 you will release, but I'm just curious.  

[NoLonger]

20 hours ago, John Hargreaves said:

It does have a slightly 'generic' feeling if you are trying to find your own house, street or home town though, which it looks like has been rectified with the true earth series.

 

Don't want to knock the landclass regions but they aren't slightly generic: they are almost completely generic. This hasn't been rectified with TrueEarth, as if the landclass regions were somehow improved, but the TE regions have been build from scratch and look exactly like the real thing (at a specific moment in time), unlike the landclass scenery. And even if you don't know the region the TE scenery will look far more diverse because you will never ever see the same centimeter of ground somewhere else too, unlike with landclass scenery where you start to recognize repeating textures pretty soon. Every texture you see with TE is 100% unique. Of course quite a few fields may look similar but knowing they are all different and 'real' makes a world of difference. Again, the landclass regions are great, I fly in FTX Norway all the time (in P3D, and have done so since the release) but TE really is something else! (I fly TE in AFS2.)

 

Take note though that TE is a lot heavier on performance than LC scenery in P3D. They all have their cons and pros.  

[John Hargreaves]

I stand corrected

[RhysHarries]

On 9/26/2018 at 3:50 PM, Dadtom65 said:

Hi and welcome to the forums. Depends entirely on what you want. As not sure how far behind the True Earth will be for P3D as it is coming out first for Xplane. Derek.

 

Hi Derek, thank you very much! - I literally wanted to be able to see the parts of my local area as if they were real, as I fly from quite a local airport anyway, I always see my area from any aircraft I go on! - Just wanted the feel and realism at VFR altitude also that I experience when I go in light aircraft! 

 

On 9/26/2018 at 6:29 PM, John Hargreaves said:

EU England is a great piece of scenery, very atmospheric and really captures the look of the English countryside. It does have a slightly 'generic' feeling if you are trying to find your own house, street or home town though, which it looks like has been rectified with the true earth series. If you aren't from the UK, it won't make a difference to you if the scenery is not totally accurate, and as it may still be some time before the P3D version is out in the wild, the EU England/Wales series will probably put you on very well.

I'd suggest a lot depends on how well you know the country, as I always thought the bits I didn't know were fantastic (I have the FSX version) and looked exactly like England from the air.

Why not wait until the XP11 version is out in the next few weeks and you can see reviews etc, and then decide if it's going to be worth the wait.

 

Hi John, as said above, I'd really like them so that I can see my local areas and to track roads that I know well. A few of my flights will be from and to areas that I regularly travel to. Anyhow, I bought EU England and Wales because I just couldn't wait any longer - and don't regret it! They're beautiful sceneries, but I totally understand the generic feeling. In my city, a few of the bridges and landmarks are modelled really well actually, and hills and housing estates seem to be in good approximate locations, however there's no picking out my road or neighbourhood and saying 'hey, that's my house!' - I hope True Earth will give this extra layer. But EU Eng/ EU Wal give me all the detail I want for flying in areas I 'kind of' know. Which is incredible for me. I'm probably gonna buy True Earth anyway when it's here for P3Dv4... haha

[Tony Wroblewski]

32 minutes ago, RhysHarries said:

however there's no picking out my road or neighbourhood and saying 'hey, that's my house!' - I hope True Earth will give this extra layer

 

It certainly will. What's great about sceneries of this type is that you can fly over your home town or other areas and recognise everything (Your workplace, school, local supermarket, home, etc). 

[RhysHarries]

2 hours ago, tonywob said:

 

It certainly will. What's great about sceneries of this type is that you can fly over your home town or other areas and recognise everything (Your workplace, school, local supermarket, home, etc). 

 

Wow, that sounds incredible! Can't wait to get it! Do you know an ETA on the P3D version of TrueEarth GB? 

Will it be all of GB in one package - or separated like the FTX regions?

 

Rhys

[Lichfield]

Hi John

I'm unsure if this topic is still open, but having just bought X Plane 11 plus your UK south, I'm staggered. After 26 years of simming, today is truly the first where I've been able to say I've flown over England with everything as it ought to be.

 

The scenery is stunning as I fly from Birmingham to East Midlands via my home in Lichfield. There is so much to see and it is enhanced and made real by a sim I swore I would never use, XPlane. 

 

Thanks to XPlane for their latest iteration and to Orbx for some wonderful, utterly brilliant scenery. No one could make a single complaint against this scenery. 

 

Thank you you for making my simming  life so fantastic!

 

Phil

[Guest]

Hi fellas'

 

Many thanks for your comments.

 

I've thought about this quite a bit  and have decided that for the immediate future at any rate I'll be sticking with P3D.  The reason being the imminent availability of True Earth scenery which will take up my time and resources for the immediate future.

 

John

 

 

[HansRoaming]

Just wanted to say that as a long term customer of Orbx products I'm really glad that you have released a product that for the first time ever has produced a look that is as it should be.

With FPS improvements in 11.30 and eventually Vulcan for the first time I feel there will be a simulator that offers study sim aircraft with high performance and a terrain that one can match up to what one sees in real life.

Thanks very much and hope you're really liking XP11.

[Byron Farrow]

I just wanted to chime in on this one - to echo what Mr Lichfield said above. It was mindblowing to fly over places I've know and X-Plane, installed for the first time, was a revelation. A bit to gt used to, but so much to love.  I flew an almost random flight from Bournemouth to Netheravon earlier today, just a 20 min hop in the late afternoon, landing at dusk. I shut down the aeroplane at the end of the runway and just looking at the woods on the low hills it was almost as if I was there. Not spectacular, it's not the Pacifc Northwest or the Serengeti ... but still beautiful in its own way.

 

--

Byron

[G-Maniac]

Hi, really enjoying flying around the south coast of England in x-plane vr using the vive pro. So realistic. As an Ulsterman I'm just wondering when we can expect the Northern Ireland true earth release?

[Gabe777]

On 9/25/2018 at 11:16 AM, John Hargreaves said:

Sorry mate it was just a rubbish 'Yorkshire' joke inspired by the comment before. I'm really looking forward to this one and keep checking the forum, but I couldn't resist a bit of northern bias

 

My bad, I should have added a smiley, but it's too late to edit now.

Aye lad, t'was rubbish an' all.

 

Try telling Sean Bean he's a "Southerner"...... !

[steve31000]

On 10/23/2018 at 7:37 AM, G-Maniac said:

Hi, really enjoying flying around the south coast of England in x-plane vr using the vive pro. So realistic. As an Ulsterman I'm just wondering when we can expect the Northern Ireland true earth release?

And as a Leinster man, any chance of an estimate for when the Republic of Ireland might be released 

[F737MAX]

On 3/14/2018 at 2:14 PM, John Venema said:

That is actually a good idea! We could possibly release Summer only for FSX?P3D then offer season packs later.

This week in the UK has shown Autumn (Fall) in its true colours, which leads me to ask if there are plans to create season packs for TE GB?
(I missed it if it was commented upon elsewhere)

Having seasons is something I enjoy in TE Netherlands and has been desperately missing from UK photo scenery with it's varied seasons.
It might not seem that we get much of a winter compared to our continental neighbours, but we often get a light dusting of snow on high ground.

I really hope that seasons are on the development roadmap and that we will have them in all sims not too long after the 3 TE GB areas have been released. Then us Ortho fans will truly have reached nirvana!

[Fizzelle]

1 hour ago, F737NG said:

This week in the UK has shown Autumn (Fall) in its true colours, which leads me to ask if there are plans to create season packs for TE GB?
(I missed it if it was commented upon elsewhere)

Having seasons is something I enjoy in TE Netherlands and has been desperately missing from UK photo scenery with it's varied seasons.
It might not seem that we get much of a winter compared to our continental neighbours, but we often get a light dusting of snow on high ground.

I really hope that seasons are on the development roadmap and that we will have them in all sims not too long after the 3 TE GB areas have been released. Then us Ortho fans will truly have reached nirvana!

 

The people behind the plugin "Xenviro" have released some pictures showing snow etc based on altitude so it may be possible. I believe ORBX has already stated they won't be doing seasonal textures. See this link at post #1

 

 

[Gabe777]

Any chance of an estimate of disk size required for each UK section ?

 

Reason I ask - and I imagine others may be interested - is I need to work out an SSD strategy for the next 12 months.

 

I have a few already, and am trying to decide whether to get maybe a new 500 for TrueEarth, or maybe consolidate everything onto a 1 or even 2TB SSD, and sell of my smaller ones.

 

Cheers.

[F737MAX]

2 hours ago, Fizzelle said:

 

The people behind the plugin "Xenviro" have released some pictures showing snow etc based on altitude so it may be possible. I believe ORBX has already stated they won't be doing seasonal textures. See this link at post #1

I'm asking as a P3D user, though it would be good for all sims to have seasonality.

 

1 hour ago, Gabe777 said:

Any chance of an estimate of disk size required for each UK section ?

 

Reason I ask - and I imagine others may be interested - is I need to work out an SSD strategy for the next 12 months.

 

I have a few already, and am trying to decide whether to get maybe a new 500 for TrueEarth, or maybe consolidate everything onto a 1 or even 2TB SSD, and sell of my smaller ones.

I'm debating whether to get a large, fast HDD or bite the bullet during the Black Friday sales and get a 2TB SSD.
I've already filled 1.3TB on my current SSDs, mainly with Flight Sim stuff and sold a 500GB SSD to get another 1TB one last year.

With ORBX pumping out TrueEarth regions every few months, that might not be enough!! 

 

[HiFlyer99]

I dunno about the TrueEarth regions, but for normal regions from ORBX (and airports from other DEVs) you can use NTFS compression for the texture folders that contains all these BMP files which are uncompressed. You dont use it on the scenery folders tho, because BGL files are already compressed and NTFS compression can even slow down loading times here.

The opposite happens for texture folders with BMP files. It wont slow down loading and reloading those textures. In theory it even could speed up loading since SSD work internal alot faster than the normal SATA Controller can handle. Means less MB/s through the SATA Controller = more BMP files per second. However this is probably not noticable.

 

With that you can save tremendous amounts of storage. For example through NTFS compression of the texture folders Ive shrinked my P3Dv4 folder down from 311 GB to 248 GB. So 63 GB storage saved with that.

 

BTW dont do it with weather files or the main Texture folder under Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Texture that will cause problems with ActiveSky / CloudArt.

 

Greets

HiFlyer

[Alex Norton]

For it to look like that video we'd need an Orbx EGKK Gatwick 

[Miesek]

Will these sceneries be MAC compatible?

[flsm (Frank)]

16 hours ago, Miesek said:

Will these sceneries be MAC compatible?

 

YES.  Eventually FTX Central is to be changed to include Mac, but in the meantime a cross-platform download is provided as mentioned in the product information in OrbxDirect.  Cheers.