Jump to content

[UPDATE] Orbx FTX USA/Canada Pacific Northwest status

John Venema

By John Venema
in General Discussion

Recommended Posts

John Venema Orbx VIP

John Venema

Posted
Posted

Hello all,

We are on the PNW HOME RUN!

Although I am officially not back from vacation, I thought I would tap out an update regarding PNW from my iPhone. Forgive any typos, it can be murder pretending this phone is a real PC, LOL!

Last night saw the release of BETA5017 - this is the last beta build before our first full-installer, single pre-RTM build 5018, which will be pretty close to the final RTM product, particularly in terms of knowing the size of the installer.

So what is done? - pretty much everything except for spring and mild winter ground colouring, Oregon roads, traffic and bridges, and the last of the airport updates to add our final 3D objects to them all.

BETA5018 will include the final texture assets, roads, traffic and airport enhancements which are still to be done in the coming week or so. We also need to add hard winter to some photoreal areas, plus some minor vegetation autogen annotation for photoreal areas also. I'm expecting 5018 to be ready for testing in the last week of January, perhaps even sooner than that.

The testing team will be giving 5018 a major workout to ensure all kinks are removed. There may be one or two tiny incremental patches after 5018 and then we will have our gold master to upload to FSS.

Once PNW is live and on sale at FSS I will arrange for the DVDs to be manufactured. There will be about six weeks delay between the download version being on sale and the DVD's being in stock at resellers worldwide.

Meantime, Tim has updated his KMZ for Google Earth which now includes all the goodies you can find in PNW - grab it here: http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=15897.0

To say this is our most significant and exciting launch in our short history is somewhat of an understatement :)  We're pretty pumped about what you guys will think of this milestone product, that's for sure!

Yours in updates!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ricky76 Life Member

ricky76

Posted
Posted

Well John, I can't say enough how exciting this and all the orbx products are! I am sure I speak for every one when I say Thank you all for the hard work and making the flight sim experience a pure joy to all us aviation nuts! Keep up the good work! credit card is loaded and ready ;D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iain Emms Orbx VIP

Iain Emms

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the update john i like others look forward to the release of this one, Im sure this will impress more people and hopefully generate more sales from people who have not yet purchased any of the great products you guys produce.

cheers

Iain

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Blitzer Life Member

Blitzer

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the update, really looking forward to PNW. I think given the file size I might have to wait for the DVD to be released, but wonder if it will be possible to purchase this inside the EU, I got stung by UK customs when I got the Oz DVD from the US last time.  :( Either that or perhaps the download version will be available from a UK source, only again I tend to struggle with download speed when purchasing from FSS, I think mainly because of location. Better since the recent upgrades in this respect though.  ;)

Now John. Thanks very much for this update it really is appreciated, but please enjoy the rest of your break, we'll all still be here when you get back - honest! Hope you enjoy the rest of your time off with family, friends and/or doing whatever to chill out.  ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest J van E

Guest J van E

Posted
Posted

Not familiar with "CDN", what does it mean?

I think it's a new super duper too fast too furious server! Which means we all will be able to download PNW quicker than previous things we purchased in teh FSS. Nooooooooooo, not sooner... quicker!  ;)

EDIT:

CDN on Wikipedia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John Venema Orbx VIP

John Venema

Posted
  • Author
Posted

What's the latest regarding Vancouver+ coverage? Will there be a big hole in the FTX scenery around this area? and will the update for Vancouver+ be coordinated with the commercial launch of PNW?

There's no big 'hole' in PNW where Vancouver is - in fact it looks spectacular just by itself as FTX PNW. You just won't get Jon Patch's extra modeled buildings that are part of V+

As to when a patch for V+ to make it 100% compatible with FTX will be released? I will defer to Holger on that, since it's not an Orbx project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bandsma Advanced Member

bandsma

Posted
Posted

Thanks. I guess I had erroneously understood it to be that somehow the two products would be integrated and coordinated. It makes me wonder then if we will have to choose between two completely different renderings of the region's 20+ airports and surrounding area besides just adding some buildings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Holger Sandmann Orbx VIP

Holger Sandmann

Posted
Posted

Hi guys,

I guess I had erroneously understood it to be that somehow the two products would be integrated and coordinated

Nothing erroneous about that assumption. FTX PNW does not include custom CYNJ and CYPK airports, bridges or landmark buildings in the Vancouver area and that's what Vancouver+ users will gain, along with floatplane bases, helipads, AI floatplanes and helicopters and other enhancements provided by Van+. Also, Jon and I have purchased high-res ground imagery for the downtown core, which will replace the current 5-m res imagery of Van+. Jon is also working on a few new structures that will be included in the planned Van+ upgrade.

It's unlikely that the new Van+ features will be ready at the time FTX-PNW is released. For the interim we'll provide a patch that will deactivate all unneeded/incompatible Van+ features and thus provide decent compatibilty until the full patch/upgrade is ready. And we're planning the same for our Victoria+ freeware.

And even if there's a few weeks until we got all issues sorted out keep in mind that you have 200,000 new sq km to explore of the Pacific Northwest outside of the Van+ overlap area  ;)

Cheers, Holger

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nyxx Life Member

Nyxx

Posted
Posted

I just hope and prey you have a better valadation or what ever you want to use, I like you don't want to see all your hard work on pimp bay.

Thanks for the update and very much looking forward to your FTX PNW  ;D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iain_Mc Senior Member

Iain_Mc

Posted
Posted

Now this may be a stretch, but I am going to have to ask you to delay the release until I get my new computer built, A few months wont hurt, right? :P

No! I have a baby due end of March and would like at least a month of uninterrupted PNW beforehand! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ricky76 Life Member

ricky76

Posted
Posted

Now this may be a stretch, but I am going to have to ask you to delay the release until I get my new computer built, A few months wont hurt, right? :P

ddddddddelay? I have a stack of depends adult diapers at the ready for when it is realesed!! :P As I live smack dab in the middle of this scenery, I have been giddy for months!!! ;)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iain Emms Orbx VIP

Iain Emms

Posted
Posted

Just a quickie chaps, I know you said a while ago you would not be offering prepay any more on the products but Adrian has done so since then on a few products so this is a question for Adrian as well will there be pre pay availabe for this one as it cant be far away from launching now.

cheers

Iain

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Adrian Lehmann (FSS) Life Member

Adrian Lehmann (FSS)

Posted
Posted

Hi Iain

I personally couldn't say at this stage. I need to be confident that the product will be released within around 4 weeks before I'll place it up for pre-pay. At this stage I'm not ready to make that assumption, and I don't want to get a proverbial slap on the wrist from John V if I've gone and let the cat loose a little too early. Orbx has had its fair share of "where's my product" complaints from past pre-pay customers so it's important that I don't bring that load into these support forums. The last couple of pre-pay initiatives went off nicely with release well within my comfortable time frame. But PNW is a mammoth project and for me personally it's been difficult to judge when it will be released. It is very exciting to see all the previews coming out from the beta team and there are many people here that can't wait for this awesome product to be installed on their computers but for now all I can say is sit tight. It will be here soon enough, pre-pay or otherwise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest J van E

Guest J van E

Posted
Posted

Maybe I missed it, but is there already some news about the size of the PNW downloadable package? Will it be something like FTX Blue or much bigger (or smaller...)? Not that size is a problem (I can download 4 Gb in a few minutes at my work), but I am just curious! Also because in my simple mind 'bigger' means 'better' when it comes to things like this... ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John Venema Orbx VIP

John Venema

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Maybe I missed it, but is there already some news about the size of the PNW downloadable package? Will it be something like FTX Blue or much bigger (or smaller...)? Not that size is a problem (I can download 4 Gb in a few minutes at my work), but I am just curious! Also because in my simple mind 'bigger' means 'better' when it comes to things like this... ;)

I wrote in in OP - "... pre-RTM build 5018, which will be pretty close to the final RTM product, particularly in terms of knowing the size of the installer."

In other words, we don't know the size of the final product yet, but we'll know it pretty soon as we make the pre-RTM full build. It will be bigger than any AU region and our biggest product yet, at least 3GB-ish or more.  The DVD product won't have size restrictions since we can choose either DVD5 (4.7GB) or DVD9 (8.5GB) sizes for our master.

As far as pre-pay is concerned, this has already been asked and answered previously - the PNW development team don't want to offer pre-pay to our resellers so that how we're playing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest J van E

Guest J van E

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the quick answer! I did read that in the OP, but I thought (and hoped ;) ) things would have progressed far enough already for the size to be known right now. But at least I know now you are all still testing the BETA5017.  ;)

I suppose not, but the remark about the dvd not having size restrictions, does that mean the dvd might have more on it than the downloadble version? Or does it mean you won't have to compress and zip stuff as much? Or does it mean nothing at all?  ;D (I guess it can be pretty tiresome that people (who are eager for the tiniest bit of news) read things in your posts that you didnt mean to say at all...  ;) ).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JimNZ Life Member

JimNZ

Posted
Posted

Hello JJA.

Welcome to our forum.  Loads of fun, news and other goodies on here.  Why don't you venture out of your square and have a look at Australia, it's awesome.  Also OZx have about 380+ airfields for free too.

Regards,

Jim.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...