jfholer Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Sorry in advance for the noob question. So I went on a buying binge today and purchased Base Pack, openLC NA, and Trees HD. You get the drift I'm sure...First, all I can say is wow! I love what I'm seeing. What I need to know is what is the difference between Base Pack, openLC NA, and the specific NA regions like central rockies or southern california? I'm really interested in the Bozeman/Yellowstone airport but it says I need NA Central Rockies. I guess I'm wondering what is the difference between openLC NA and Central Rockies NA? Again, sorry for the noob question...loving the scenery and figure I might as well go whole hog while it's on sale Ooops, looks like I posted this in the wrong forum....I'll try to correct this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudger Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Hello jfholer, welcome to the forums. Nick has explained it very well. ORBX Product Summary Hello, In a nutshell: Global products affect the whole world. FTX Global range FTX Global Base replaces the default textures. FTX Global Open LC products arrange those textures to best reflect the actual topography. FTX Global Vector corrects coastlines, inland water, roads, rivers and power lines. Open LC and Vector are both designed as accessories to Global Base and textures will look odd if combined with default textures. Mesh Mesh can be local, regional and global. Its purpose is to best reflect the elevation of the areas that it covers. FTX does NOT market a mesh product but regions and airports are made based on the standard of FS Global 2010. This product is marketed by a separate company, Pilot's. Mesh quality can vary, regardless of whether payware or freeware. Mesh is mesh but how well it is processed determines how good it looks in a simulator. FTX Regions FTX regions affect only the region that they cover. FTX regions apply all three of the Global features but only to the region, plus bespoke mesh to best reflect the elevation of that region. All default airports within that region are upgraded and there are points of interest added to their correct locations. Thousands of hours go into the making of a region and all anomalies in the default simulator are found and removed. No other products are required if a region is purchased but the improvements will be restricted to that region. FTX Airports FTX airports affect the airports and in most cases a considerable area around the airport, sometimes hundreds of square kilometres, are photo real with hand placed trees, buildings and points of interest. FTX airports are in the main designed to work inside the FTX region that they are in. They will work without the region but may not look as the developer intended them to. They are modeled to best reflect the actual airport, as seen and researched by the developer. They will contain bespoke buildings, mesh, textures, features and indeed everything needed to reflect what was there in the real world when the research was done. There are a few FTX airports that are presently not in a region. These are grouped in the Global range. They will work without the Global products but will not blend well with default textures. Regards, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Q Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Hello, and welcome! Since you posted on the Old Coots Forum, I am assuming you may be eligible for the senior discount. Go to "Orbx Simulation systems >store>discs for info on how to apply. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfholer Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Regarding the explanation, thanks and that helped a lot. Regarding the Old Coots Forum, I'll definitely check that out for future purchases. One Final Question, is there a pecking order on the FTX scenery regarding where they each show up in the scenery file? Should I move one up over another? Definitely enjoying the scenery files including many of the freebies. Without a doubt it makes FSX-Steam look like a totally different simulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Q Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Hi, No need to worry about the order of the scenery files. FTX Central does that for us for all Orbx scenery. If you're 65 or older you can apply for the senior discount. Note that it does not apply during a sale, anyway ( which means L35 Big Bear City actually costs is "Old Coots" more during this particular sale than otherwise). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfholer Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Thanks Ken for your replies...not yet 65 so I have to wait another 10 years. Is that a good thing or a bad thing???? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Q Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 The doc says I should lose 30lbs. I think I need to lose 30 years. Enjoy your 50s. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaims Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 On 8/8/2018 at 9:25 PM, Smudger said: Hello jfholer, welcome to the forums. Nick has explained it very well. ORBX Product Summary FTX Global range In a nutshell: Global products affect the whole world. FTX Global Base replaces the default textures. FTX Global Open LC products arrange those textures to best reflect the actual topography. FTX Global Vector corrects coastlines, inland water, roads, rivers and power lines. Open LC and Vector are both designed as accessories to Global Base and textures will look odd if combined with default textures. Mesh Mesh can be local, regional and global. Its purpose is to best reflect the elevation of the areas that it covers. FTX does NOT market a mesh product but regions and airports are made based on the standard of FS Global 2010. This product is marketed by a separate company, Pilot's. Mesh quality can vary, regardless of whether payware or freeware. Mesh is mesh but how well it is processed determines how good it looks in a simulator. FTX Regions FTX regions affect only the region that they cover. FTX regions apply all three of the Global features but only to the region, plus bespoke mesh to best reflect the elevation of that region. All default airports within that region are upgraded and there are points of interest added to their correct locations. Thousands of hours go into the making of a region and all anomalies in the default simulator are found and removed. No other products are required if a region is purchased but the improvements will be restricted to that region. FTX Airports FTX airports affect the airports and in most cases a considerable area around the airport, sometimes hundreds of square kilometres, are photo real with hand placed trees, buildings and points of interest. FTX airports are in the main designed to work inside the FTX region that they are in. They will work without the region but may not look as the developer intended them to. They are modeled to best reflect the actual airport, as seen and researched by the developer. They will contain bespoke buildings, mesh, textures, features and indeed everything needed to reflect what was there in the real world when the research was done. There are a few FTX airports that are presently not in a region. These are grouped in the Global range. They will work without the Global products but will not blend well with default textures. Regards, Nick A very concise explanation. Although I remain a little befuddled by some of the attributes of each layer, Nick's explaining what is required and not required in the way of ORBX properties was really helpful. Some of us striving for a better visual experience buy a boatload of the ORBX products, and then load them all up together - sometime resulting in visual anomolies. In my case, I purchased Global Base, Vector, OpenLC, SoCal and the new Ksan (and the ORBXlibraries), and ran them all at once to great disappointment. I am in the process of uninstalling and reinstalling FSX and all products to address the poor visuals I was expereincing with KSAN, V 2.0. Evidently, I should be installing just the SoCal regional and the KSAN, being sure I configure the KSAN in the FTX control panel to select SoCal. I hope this will rid me of the blurries and autogen issues among other problems I encountered when I had Global Base/Vector/OpenLC/SoCAl/KSAN all running at once. I'm hoping this is the case anyways. (And omitting here any tweaks I might play with to the FSX config file and Nvidia profile). The one question that remains is the function of ORBX libraries. I understand that installing the ORbx libraries component last will ensure other modules are up to date (I think that's correct). But I don't quite understand what the ORBX libraries are comprised of. Is this a house cleaning, rearranging, updating program as to the other modules? To me, the term "libraries"would seem to denote a collection of stored data that is called by the other modules in generating scenery, etc. vs. the libraries module performing more of a utility role. (parenthetically speaking, more perplexing is that FTX Central has in the ORBX Libraries section, buttons labeled "Control Panel, User Guide and Uninstall, all of which are not active, leaving one to wonder why ORBX has left them there). Anyways, nice to have found Nick's post and the guidance it provides to those of use still navigating these arguably rough waters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Hello, the libraries are indeed Quote a collection of stored data that is called by the other modules in generating scenery There is no provision in FTX Central to remove the three buttons, so the convention is for them to be grey if they do not apply to a product. As the libraries are an absolute requirement for all the other products, it was decided that there was no need to uninstall them. As they are, as you deduce, passive, there is nothing to control and therefore no control panel and again, as passive files, they need no user guide as to how to use them. When a library update is released, a message box appears at the lower left of the FTX Central window, clicking on it will update the libraries, so they will always be up to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaims Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Thanks for the clarification Nick. One other related question if I may regarding the updating of the libraries. Is there an occasion where an updated library will, in fact, make an update to the files of one or more particular modules? That is, do library updates serve to address issues that may be spotted in modules (much like Windows updates?) This would seem to make sense as opposed to each module being the subject of its own update. I assume that when a module goes through an extensive revision (e.g., the new KSAN ,V 2.0), that it gets released as it own update - not via library update. So perhaps an updated library is posted when enough (minor) revisions exist in the various modules to warrant release of an updated library?? This question is not purely an academic one. I am encountering some issues with the new KSAN Ver. 2.0; and while I intend to post a support question in the appropriate forum regarding that, remain curious - being an element of my nature, if the aforementioned library updates might be where the developers address what could be considered minor bugs. Cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Hello, no, the libraries are self contained and a resource for files used in "other modules". Most library updates are to add new files that are required for new products but the library update does not amend anything else. That would be for a sevice pack or update to the product itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaims Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Helpful clarification. Also of interest,. one can back up ORBXLibraries (an an option during install), but ORBX does not allow that backup folder to reinstall Libraries - as when one wants to reinstall all of the OBRX modules, including Libraries. Although FTX Central provides the option for me to chose to reinstall from my backup Libraries folder, FTX Central ignores that and defaults to downloading the entire Library - a rather time consuming process vs. allowing the install to occur from the PC's backup folder. I can only assume this is a decision ORBX made to avoid having to integrate updated Library files into one's existing backup of Libraries files. Not a big deal. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Hello, in version 3.3.0.6, there is the option to verify files. This will not help when reinstalling but if for some reason a fault is suspected, FTX Central will check all the existing files and download only those required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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