Full fat Regions.

[Dadtom65]

What with the new TrueEarth Regions that will be coming out, does that mean that there will be no more as we call them Full fat Regions being developed or are some developers still working on this type of region and if so what might that be. Just curious. Derek.

[Flo]

I think JV wrote at some point, that LC based regions are developed alongeside TrueEarth regions. So I assume we will hear about new LC based regions hopefully soon  :-)

 

Cheers,

Flo

[Dadtom65]

Well I know The next LC will be Africa and that a redone Australia is immanent but i'm on about a region that all ready has the LC like Europe or North America and whether the next region might be France or Spain or even the mid west or east coast of America. Derek.

[BrettT]

The FTX regions (LC based) that I have seen discussed by the staff have been New England, Alaska (the rest), and Austrailia V2.  I believe there also have been some discussions about Italy but don't hold me to that one

[JOM4021]

I am also a little bit afraid with the direction ORBX seems to be going to with True Earth and City Scene. Sure, they look wonderful, but for the ones like me who fly mainly IFR, they Don't  really bring any pluses.

On the other hand, when I fly to a destination in Eastern Europe, it more than once happens to me that the airport I am going to has completely changed from what is still the (old) default scenery and I end up at my minimas for a runway that is not even physically there !!!

The continent LC do not, unfortunately, correct airport physical features. The LC regions do, and they are Indeed very nice, but we will probably never get a whole continent, let alone the world. And if it starts going all True Earth, I am not even thinking about the size of the HD I will need .

What I REALLY would like ORBX to do, is to also think of us IFR flyers and provide us the option of choosing less detailed sceneries, but with more coverage and the airport corrections as in regions LC.

[FreeBird]

I think they will take care of all our needs in the future on all fronts. We have the wallets and if no one wants the TE stuff and instead the LC stuff then I am sure they will drop it or cater to both. I personally have gotten off the train of buying everything and only buy what I know ill will use. For me that is USA stuff and not so much Europe. Josh

[Mikelab6]

On my side, what is holding me buying True Earth scenery, it's the P3D late loading Photo Scenery problem. As long as I fly in LC regions, everything is great and nice, but as soon as I am flying over Photo Scenery, the late loading problem is showing up, and the textures are not as sharp as the LC are. I also see this behavior in airports using a lot of PS. I hope LM will fix this soon, so I will be able to enjoy my PS airports. For now, I prefer LC regions.

 

Mike

[Jon Clarke]

If you fly IFR at +30000ft then is the scenery below you that important? I understand that good major airports play an important role in IFR but not scenery which will only be viewed relatively briefly during the course of take-offs and landings. FS Global + OLC is sufficient detail for my IFR flights. For my majority of flying which is VFR then scenery detail is imperative at low and slow, so True Earth and "representative" addons like Orbx Regions (PNW etc) are a great addition and add to the immersion. I cannot say the same detail is required from the interior of a tubeliner or military jet's cockpit where I am flying at sub mach or above rather than up to 100 knots in a Cessna and using the land below as a navigational aid.

  Then again I don't have an endless wallet full of money to splash out addons that may not actually enhance my immersion experience. To those that do, then kudos to you.

Happy flying in whatever niche is your preference

[Dadtom65]

I think what I am saying is I would be happy just with a Fullfat Region of say the Netherlands and anywhere else. Yes the True Earth Netherlands looks fantastic but takes a lot of disc space and I’ve heard that some people have had problems of some sort especially in dense area’s. Is it not possible for Orbx to do both for people that would like it and I’m pretty sure it would sell. All so they must have all the data they need. Maybe it’s not possible or feasible, I’m not a developer. Derek.

[JOM4021]

Agree with you. For IFR flyers like me, even the LC regions are a little over the top.I buy them because, as I said, they update the airports.

I was afraid that continental LC would be abandoned after Europe and America was released, but apparently Africa is in the pipeline. Can’t wait for the rest ! (Asia, Oceania...) 

One thing is sure however, I won’t buy Netherland as is, something I would probably have done if it had been  released as an LC Benelux.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello JOM4021,

 

The default simulator scenery is known as Landclass scenery.

This is entirely made of a selection of textures arranged to try and reflect the real world:

Land, arranged by class.

 

TrueEarth regional products, of which there is at present only one, use photo scenery.

This is entirely made of images taken of the real world and upgraded airports are included.

There is generally no difference in simulator performance between landclass and photo scenery.

There is and has always been a difference in performance between areas of dense and complex

scenery and areas where the scenery is sparse.

Disk space is becoming cheaper by the day. In the UK a known brand 3 TB, 7200 rpm HDD can today be

bought from a reputable supplier for £66.22 ($US 87.50, 74.95 euros).

This will hold 39 copies of TrueEarth Netherlands or if it is assumed that on average, they may be

twice the size, 20 future TrueEarth products.

 

FTX Region products are made up of Landclass scenery, often using bespoke textures and

in areas of particular interest, photo scenery inserts with bespoke autogen and scenery objects.

FTX regions, except Australia, include airports upgraded to the regional standard.

This is much better than default but not to the standard set by FTX airport payware products.

 

Open LC products arrange the landclass textures in the most accurate way possible and also introduce

thousands of bespoke textures for each continent that they cover.

They do not include any airports.

 

It is worth mentioning that none of the Global range include airports.

FTX Global Base replaces the simulator textures and FTX Global Vector replaces the coastlines, shorelines,

roads, rivers and powerlines to best reflect the real world.

 

FTX airport products use a photo scenery base and hand placed autogen and scenery objects.

 

FTX freeware airport packs are upgraded to the regional standard but generally outside the regions and of

course free of charge.

There is also a selection of freeware airports made to FTX payware airports standard but free of charge.

 

There is therefore something for everyone, whether they wish to fly at 1000 feet or 47,000 feet and whether they

wish to look at the scenery, the airports or just the aircraft instruments.

 

There is no value in posting "I won't buy this or that", or that "I would have bought it if", everyone has different requirements

and no customer is truly interested in anything but their personal preference.

As a company, Orbx does its best to satisfy the broadest range of customer requirements but it has to be and is recognised that

it will never encompass everyone with every product.

[JOM4021]

Hello Nick,

 

Thanks for your reply. 

 

I agree with you that every product may not suit everybody’s needs. This is what is great with Flight Simulation as a hobby: there are many different ways to enjoy it.

 

The way I use it, I fly IFR going to as many places worldwide as I can, meaning that I go mainly to secondary airports. I don’t need those airports to be as detailed as they would be with a complete scenery, but I would like them at least to have a correct layout in terms of runways and taxiways configuration.

 

With a service like Navigraph, we get a corrected navigation and airspace environment, but because of the obsolete default airport database, I sometimes find myself in a strange situation. Example, flying into Cluj, Romania where, after a perfect ILS on 25, I see just a field in front of me because the new runway is not there and the one in the sim is now taxiway D !

 

So, for someone flying the way I do, what I dearly miss is an update of the world airports, not detailed, but so that they are at least in line with what I get from my updated Navigraph. And if it requires to pay an annual fee for it because it does require a lot of update work, so be it, I would agree to it.

 

Maybe this would not be considered as an interesting thing to do for ORBX, I don’t know. I must say that I am VERY happy with all the products I bought from you. It’s just that there is now such a huge gap between some areas which are hyper detailed and others which are completely left out, and for someone who likes to fly the world, it is a drawback.

 

One last remark about what you said on the price of HD: yes, of course, we know that this hobby requires continuous investment in hardware as well. But don’t forget that, for everyone of us who have to pay for it with our hard earned money, there is a limit to it. And the higher you ask in those terms, the less software you will sell...

 

Michel

Air Trafic Controller

Brussels

[Doug Sawatzky]

13 hours ago, JOM4021 said:

But don’t forget that, for everyone of us who have to pay for it with our hard earned money, there is a limit to it. And the higher you ask in those terms, the less software you will sell...

 

Hi Michel

 

Also, don't forget....the flight sim software developers are not asking it's customers to upgrade their hardware....the customers are continuously asking the developers for bigger, better, and more of. So I think that for those who do not wish to invest in more HD space and/or upgraded other hardware, they would be just doing without by their own choice....there would be no affect on software sales, and not just in regards to the flight simulator hobby but any software related products....I think its getting very difficult to purchase a non SSD drive under 1TB these days, and I remember the days when I could purchase an SSD under 100GB. There must be a reason why we no longer can. 

 

Cheers

 

Doug