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Can True Earth GB South installation location be customised yet?

Elocutioner

By Elocutioner
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Elocutioner Newbie

Elocutioner

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I'd like to purchase this but I've read that it doesn't give an option to choose installation path and I don't have enough space on my X-plane SSD drive or care to mess around sym-linking my entire Custom Scenery folder. If it's not available now, are there any plans to introduce this functionality to the installation? With more regions becoming available, it seems to me that this is going to be a necessity. 

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Elocutioner Newbie

Elocutioner

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Hi Nick,

Yes I did but I find it fairly ridiculous that Orbx would suggest this clunky workaround rather than just updating the installer to allow selection of the installation folder. It would be much easier for the user to then create a shortcut in their Custom Scenery folder.

 

What I'm looking for in deciding to purchase is whether Orbx are thinking ahead about the issues of storage size that these sceneries will create and whether the company is reactive enough to provide easy fixes. Between your response and John Venema just saying 'buy a bigger hard drive', the answer to my question seems to be 'no'. I see this product as a marginal upgrade from my custom built Ortho and free community POI's so if it's made this difficult to incorporate into my current setup, it's not worth it to me. 

 

Please take this in the constructive manner it's intended. I'd like to see Orbx make the product into something I can support and I provide this feedback by way of helping Orbx arrive at that point. 

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Ben McClintock Life Member

Ben McClintock

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HI Elocutioner,

 

We are working on allowing installation outside the simulator for Prepar3D v3, Prepar3D v4, X-Plane 11 and Aerofly FS 2.

 

These will come with with FTX Central 4, which is a few months away. We're committed to creating the best installation experience in flight simulation, I think you'll like the changes we have planned.

 

In the meantime, Nick's suggestion is probably the best way to achieve this.

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Jon Clarke Life Member

Jon Clarke

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@Elocutioner Hi and welcome to the Orbx forums. There was a passage in your post which i found interesting and it is"

"I see this product as a marginal upgrade from my custom built Ortho and free community POI's so if it's made this difficult to incorporate into my current setup, it's not worth it to me. "

 

I assure you it is much more and no Ortho plus freeware POI replicates what you actually see in True Earth. There are no white cloud masks anywhere, there are no shotgun scattered trees, these are hand placed in areas of woodland and forest and not just planted randomly into buildings like Ortho Overlay does, the housing is UK typical like terraced rows in towns, the cars drive on the left, there is no colour mismatch like one area darker one side than the other, and all the POIs are accurately placed. You are buying a much more accurate and detailed version. None of those aspects are reproducible in  home made Ortho4XP without a great deal of Ortho knowledge, time and development tools. Orbx has done all that. You may well get/use XL18/19 Ortho but I have tried that in areas of the UK and it looks rubbish when an Overlay is created because of all the faults I listed above that don't occur in True Earth. If you fly high and fast the Ortho without Overlay is fine but NOT for low and slow. So you need to decide if True Earth is for you. 

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Elocutioner Newbie

Elocutioner

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Thanks Ben. I look forward to FTX Central 4 and will likely purchase these then. With the amount of storage future True Earth products are likely to take for X-Plane, this control over installation locations is badly needed. 

 

Thanks for your perspective jjaycee1. It's not easy to see a review of the two approaches side by side so good to see you think it's a significant upgrade. 

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Jon Clarke Life Member

Jon Clarke

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1 hour ago, Elocutioner said:

Thanks Ben. I look forward to FTX Central 4 and will likely purchase these then. With the amount of storage future True Earth products are likely to take for X-Plane, this control over installation locations is badly needed. 

 

Thanks for your perspective jjaycee1. It's not easy to see a review of the two approaches side by side so good to see you think it's a significant upgrade. 

 

 Just to assist in seeing the difference i am talking about take a look at this post/pics I made a while back.

The pic of the island of Jersey is ZL19, but look at the placement of trees etc. The correct areas of woodland/forested areas are the dark green areas and many of those have no trees placed by the Overlay.

The second pic shows an example of true earth and again note the placement of trees being 100% accurate and NO other trees just scattered anyhow over the scenery.

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Trustdesa Senior Member

Trustdesa

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On 12/10/2018 at 8:09 AM, Elocutioner said:

Thanks Ben. I look forward to FTX Central 4 and will likely purchase these then. With the amount of storage future True Earth products are likely to take for X-Plane, this control over installation locations is badly needed. 

 

Thanks for your perspective jjaycee1. It's not easy to see a review of the two approaches side by side so good to see you think it's a significant upgrade. 

 

I mean....with P3D you are fine with 500gb sorry but if with Xplane you have less than 1tb SSD that is your problem mostly... I wasn't happy to spend those money when changed sim (as I still have P3D installed in my 500gb) however it is really a requirement.

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John Venema Orbx VIP

John Venema

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I use the Steam version of XP11 and I run it off an external SSD simply by creating another Steam location and keeping XP11 there. This also allows me to move my XP11 installation from PC to PC without any fuss. The base XP11 footprint is only 60GB, so that's the least of the storage problems.

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Admiralty013 Member

Admiralty013

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In reading this I had a light bulb moment.  One of the Nice things about XP, the non steam version at least... you can have two, separate installs. I'm flat out of room for TE North when it arrives, Could I theoretically, install it into my beta install ( on a separate much larger drive) then move it as needed to show up in the non beta?  FTX central already asks me which XP verison i'm after when I start it. If that wil work for others, thought I'd throw it out there.

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flying_fish Senior Member

flying_fish

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On 12/9/2018 at 11:35 PM, Ben McClintock said:

These will come with with FTX Central 4, which is a few months away. We're committed to creating the best installation experience in flight simulation, I think you'll like the changes we have planned.

This development is clearly significant - speaking from a P3D perspective, (apologies for the sharp elbows) can we assume that this will signal the ability to install outside of P3D as the new SDK allows?

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joseantunes Member

joseantunes

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2 hours ago, John Venema said:

You can move folders inside Custom Scenery from one installation to another at will, yes. That would work fine. It also saves you downloading it twice for each version of XP11.


I believe my solution is working fine!

Only yesterday I was trying to find a way to deal with two installations of XP11 - one is the beta - and True Earth GB South. My 1TB SSD for simulation was small, suddenly - it also  has P3D, DCS twice and some other sim related stuff. XP11 was acquired a couple of weeks ago, and I am still discovering it, coming from FSX, Prepar3D and DCS.

I read all the information shared here but ended using Nick Cooper tips on symbolic links, because although he mentions they may slow down the sim, this way I can have the Custom Scenery in a fast HDD, and free space on my SSD. It is apparently working fine now. What I tried, once I had moved the folder, was to create duplicate symbolic links to my two XP11 installations, and as far as I can see, it works. What this means is that I don't need to duplicate the Custom Scenery folder (that would be a LOT og GBs) and can run both versions XP11 and XP11 beta and still enjoy True Earth GB South.

One more thing: having tried TEGBS there is no return back to my scenery of GB for Prepar3D. I know they are different things, but I am having a lot of fun sightseeing the south using an helicopter and flying low and slow. And I was not going to buy GB, because what I am really waiting for PNW and other regions in the area, and also Norway (on this side of the pond), if we ever get that too. Now I just need to buy a 2070 or the next AMD, steal my son's Oculus Rift he just acquired and I will be a happy camper.

Before I go for another stretch of my - virtual journey - I wish to say thanks to Orbx for TEGBS - and please put me on the list to PNW TE pack - and to Nick Cooper (who has helped me before to get the most of the now retired FSX) and to the whole community for the shared knowledge on this forum.

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Airwolf Life Member

Airwolf

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On 12/9/2018 at 6:35 PM, Ben McClintock said:

HI Elocutioner,

 

We are working on allowing installation outside the simulator for Prepar3D v3, Prepar3D v4, X-Plane 11 and Aerofly FS 2.

 

These will come with with FTX Central 4, which is a few months away. We're committed to creating the best installation experience in flight simulation, I think you'll like the changes we have planned.

 

In the meantime, Nick's suggestion is probably the best way to achieve this.

 

Thank you - I can not wait for all Orbx products to be installed outside Prepar3d V4 sim directory.  Everything in sim directory creates so much mess....omg.  Been requesting this at LM, AVsim and your forums non-stop.  

 

It will solves tons of headaches

 

Looking forward to it - may I nominate myself to beta test FTX Central 4

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Jon Clarke Life Member

Jon Clarke

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15 hours ago, Admiralty013 said:

In reading this I had a light bulb moment.  One of the Nice things about XP, the non steam version at least... you can have two, separate installs. I'm flat out of room for TE North when it arrives, Could I theoretically, install it into my beta install ( on a separate much larger drive) then move it as needed to show up in the non beta?  FTX central already asks me which XP verison i'm after when I start it. If that wil work for others, thought I'd throw it out there.

 

 With XP you don't need things like symbolic links. You just need "shortcut" link.  I have 3 installs of XP. v11.3b6, 11.3b7 (on a 1TB SSD) and in reserve 11,26 on a 1TB Hybrid HDD. I have all my XP airports, libraries and Ortho on a 2TB Hybrid. I have created "shortcut" links for all the sceneries and placed the shortcut links into the 3 XP Custom Scenery installs. This results for example in my v3.7b install having links to 300GB of sceneries but the install itself uses only 101GB. There is no lag nor any significant difference in loading times. For installing e.g. True Earth into the 2TB Hybrid, I just used the method advised by FlyAgi/Nick Cooper(2nd post down from the start of this thread/topic)

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  • 5 months later...
Rob Ainscough Life Member

Rob Ainscough

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On 12/9/2018 at 3:35 PM, Ben McClintock said:

These will come with with FTX Central 4, which is a few months away. We're committed to creating the best installation experience in flight simulation, I think you'll like the changes we have planned.

 

Hi Ben, it's been a little over 6 months, any updated ETA on FTX Central 4?  

 

Cheers, Rob.

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Rob Ainscough Life Member

Rob Ainscough

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I've been out of the loop (moving from CA to OR), did FTX Central 4 get released ... if so, is it using the P3D way of add-on support?

 

I'm getting my main FS rig back up on running so wondering if I should wait for FTX Central 4 or not as I have a feeling the new way might resolve some of the TE TB South issues I was having.

 

Cheers, Rob.

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patful Senior Member

patful

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22 minutes ago, Rob Ainscough said:

I've been out of the loop (moving from CA to OR), did FTX Central 4 get released ... if so, is it using the P3D way of add-on support?

 

I'm getting my main FS rig back up on running so wondering if I should wait for FTX Central 4 or not as I have a feeling the new way might resolve some of the TE TB South issues I was having.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Not unless you're using Mac or Linux, there's a Central 4 open beta for those. Windows users are out of luck. I've been flying default P3D since May hoping it would be released. :-

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Rob Ainscough Life Member

Rob Ainscough

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That's a shame, I'll just have to wait some more ... on my main FS rig 430.86 has caused all kinds of problems ... driver fails to load, even with a DDU prior and manual download of driver, still no go.  Apparently known issue on the nVidia forums, but no solution?  So not much I can do with my SimPit right now.

 

Cheers, Rob.

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