announcement Introducing TrueEarth Florida for XP11 - with new TrueColour technology!

[ba43]

Once it's released for P3D, instant buy for me!!

[Xflyboy]

Yeah!!!

Looking forward to flying around my area!

[stiletto2]

5 hours ago, ba43 said:

Once it's released for P3D, instant buy for me!!

 

Me too!

 

Rod

[Duane Hewitt]

Can't wait to fly through Tampa SOFIC style !!

[yanlaoge]

I have a feeling that Orbx might be the only one that could save "the other sims".

[iflygary]

23 hours ago, John Venema said:

Many of our US customers live in the SE and Florida has been high on the wish list for many of them.

Being a Floridian I want to be the first of many to say thanks! Also referring to the comment regarding Maine or Alaska being better, this is Orbx at work. They’re like King Midas! Everything they touch turns into gold. Many moons ago I said I would never fly X-Plane. Orbx showed up and now I’m salivating at their X-Plane releases eagerly waiting to buy and fly!! ☺️

Edited December 23, 2019 by iflygary
Misspelling

[Rob Abernathy]

1 hour ago, iflygary said:

Being a Floridian I want to be the first of many to say thanks! Also referring to the comment regarding Maine or Alaska being better, this is Orbx at work. They’re like King Midas! Everything they touch turns into gold. Many moons ago I said I would never fly X-Plane. Orbx showed up and now I’m salivating at their X-Plane releases eagerly waiting to buy and fly!! ☺️

 

I'm with you Gary!  At first I thought.....well, I suppose I "have" to buy XPlane since I am a tester but wasn't particularly over excited about it.  Now........good grief......it looks so real!  LOL

[pica]

 

just love your stuff, i hope southern california will be next.

 

just wondering John. with these many projects and these many buildings to do, how many staff do keep working for you?

[John Venema]

Southern California is about 50% complete, but it’s a big region which we want to do properly and not rush it out.

 

Including in-house full-time developers, beta testers, production staff, IT support and outsourced contractors there are about 50+ people working on TrueEarth regions. This represents about half of the total Orbx workforce.

 

We also plan to port all TE regions to P3D starting with Washington next and then working down the US WestCoast.

[StevePHL]

Are there any limits to the ortho handling in P3D?  Challenges?  Or will it be an exact port?

[pica]

impressive John, totally impressive. thanks for the info.

 

if i may address a topic you may have heard before, but it affects me really hard.

it's about hard disk space.

 

with what i have available (SSD 200GB, HD 500GB, not stratospheric either) i am just not able to purchase and install all i want. 

Since my HP pavillion won't allow adding drives, budget limitation wont allow a new system either.

 

So i thought, why not ask: would you consider offering smaller package sizes or split areas?

i know, many users share my problem, so i don't feel on a limb bringing up this idea.

 

Nocal  seeks not less than 90 resp. 300GB.  Socal, Hawaii, Florida, and others that follow will take another same pieces.

This is gigantic. hundreds of times the size of the old days's FSX packages.  

Hard to imagine all users are ready for these quantities.

 

This is a horrible dilemma, for you as a developer and for us users who have limitations.

A major and invisible/unheard share of consumers will pass a purchase for that reason,

or will consume only partially. 

 

I'd go for Southern Florida and Socal if i had a choice. Hawaii of course. 

And i would need to skip everything else just to get these loaded. What a disaster.

 

Finding the right package sizes is a pure marketing decision, and my brain resp. experience in other businesses

tells me Sales can jump as a consequence of splitting down products. i expect only advantages, for both orbx and the customers.

 

50 GB are the perfect stakes for today's market. To achieve this, the current packs need to get halfed.

Users with higher capacities will not be limited by this strategy, but users with limitations could now participate in the shopping roulette. 

 

i hope you don't reject the idea and give it a chance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric Schoen]

1 hour ago, pica said:

impressive John, totally impressive. thanks for the info.

 

if i may address a topic you may have heard before, but it affects me really hard.

it's about hard disk space.

 

with what i have available (SSD 200GB, HD 500GB, not stratospheric either) i am just not able to purchase and install all i want. 

Since my HP pavillion won't allow adding drives, budget limitation wont allow a new system either.

 

So i thought, why not ask: would you consider offering smaller package sizes or split areas?

i know, many users share my problem, so i don't feel on a limb bringing up this idea.

 

Nocal  seeks not less than 90 resp. 300GB.  Socal, Hawaii, Florida, and others that follow will take another same pieces.

This is gigantic. hundreds of times the size of the old days's FSX packages.  

Hard to imagine all users are ready for these quantities.

 

This is a horrible dilemma, for you as a developer and for us users who have limitations.

A major and invisible/unheard share of consumers will pass a purchase for that reason,

or will consume only partially. 

 

I'd go for Southern Florida and Socal if i had a choice. Hawaii of course. 

And i would need to skip everything else just to get these loaded. What a disaster.

 

Finding the right package sizes is a pure marketing decision, and my brain resp. experience in other businesses

tells me Sales can jump as a consequence of splitting down products. i expect only advantages, for both orbx and the customers.

 

50 GB are the perfect stakes for today's market. To achieve this, the current packs need to get halfed.

Users with higher capacities will not be limited by this strategy, but users with limitations could now participate in the shopping roulette. 

 

i hope you don't reject the idea and give it a chance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can buy portable hard drive for cheap! A 5TB hard drive is about $100

[Part121]

Remember, one of the largest aviation schools in the world is in Daytona...

[John Venema]

8 hours ago, Eric Schoen said:

 

You can buy portable hard drive for cheap! A 5TB hard drive is about $100

Could not have said it better  

[John Lovell]

I have all my scenery on an external HDD and works/performs just fine

[pica]

will look into that. 

 

how is it connected? USB?

[John Lovell]

54 minutes ago, pica said:

will look into that. 

 

how is it connected? USB?

 Yep, just standard USB 3

[pica]

thanks both.

 

 

 

one more question: HD vs. SD package, how do they compare other than size. 

is SD low res? (was does the "S" stand for?) if yes, what will i miss? Is HD fps-critical? 

seems a lot of questions come with purchasing all these packages.

 

 

and another one (sorry guys lol):

 

i remember there was a roadmap for 2019, but e.g. Cal. and Florida were not announced if i remember correctly.

What is the roadmap for coming year?

 

On 12/24/2019 at 10:46 AM, Eric Schoen said:

 

You can buy portable hard drive for cheap! A 5TB hard drive is about $100

seagate ok? (or if you have a good link, helps me a lot)

[John Venema]

Please can we keep things on topic? If you have hardware related questions there is a sub forum for that.

[Jon Clarke]

3 hours ago, pica said:

one more question: HD vs. SD package, how do they compare other than size. 

is SD low res? (was does the "S" stand for?) if yes, what will i miss? Is HD fps-critical? 

seems a lot of questions come with purchasing all these packages.

 

HD is ZL17 and SD (Standard definition) is ZL16. SD is superb for flying above 2-2500 ft and HD is a bit more defined under that height.

SD is a smaller download and requires less disk space, no conversion from jpg to dds in the installation process, allows higher graphics settings and loads quicker.

It's what I use and is superb. If you buy the HD version you get the SD version free and then have the option to test both versions, but only one version can be installed at a time. If you buy the SD version then there is a nominal charge to u[grade to the HD version.

I think that covers your question.

 

[pica]

4 hours ago, Jon Clarke said:

HD is ZL17 and SD (Standard definition) is ZL16. SD is superb for flying above 2-2500 ft and HD is a bit more defined under that height.

SD is a smaller download and requires less disk space, no conversion from jpg to dds in the installation process, allows higher graphics settings and loads quicker.

It's what I use and is superb. If you buy the HD version you get the SD version free and then have the option to test both versions, but only one version can be installed at a time. If you buy the SD version then there is a nominal charge to u[grade to the HD version.

I think that covers your question.

 

it does, thank you so much. 

 

 

[Dozo]

Thanks for sharing John, this is once again awesome scenery, it looks really stunning and will be a day one purchase for me.

 

I have a question about global autogen for X-Plane, are there still plans to work on this? I read about it and I think the last comment was that it proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Reason I'm asking is because default autogen is so much different from TE scenery that it's not easy on the eyes most of the time (hope that's put politically correct enough ;-) ).

 

Thanks again for all these awesome products!

[topcat_1952]

Having lived in South Florida twice in the 1980's (Miami & Ft Lauderdale) I was excited to see this coming soon. Thanks so much!

Now, on the Miami cityscape, will we be able to spot Crockett & Tubbs in the white Testarosa if we go low enough?

[pica]

not sure whether i got that right, is miami cityscape part of the florida package? can you specify the details if, or if not?

[Ereth]

On 12/22/2019 at 10:25 AM, John Venema said:

Many of our US customers live in the SE and Florida has been high on the wish list for many of them.

As a Jacksonville resident, this will be my first ever Orbx purchase. I saw it listed in the X-plane newsletter and went to the site to buy it today only to discover it's not out yet. Looking forward to it very much.

[flacop]

Absolutely gorgeous!  I want mine Right Now!

[geronimopilot]

Just beautiful guys!!!! Sign me up!

[John Venema]

On 1/1/2020 at 4:52 PM, pica said:

not sure whether i got that right, is miami cityscape part of the florida package? can you specify the details if, or if not?

Yes CityScape Miami is included for free as part of the TrueEarth Florida region. No separate install is needed.

 

It uses the same technology as CityScape Honolulu and Melbourne.

[Orbx Flyer]

On 12/22/2019 at 12:59 PM, ba43 said:

Once it's released for P3D, instant buy for me!!

Yes, I think this release will really cater to the better ocean/lake/river depictions and landing/takeoff interaction. This will be a shoe-in for P3D 4.x

[pica]

remains honolulu to be done for x-plane.. 

 

reminds me of DCS, that could use some of your stuff really. They run maps that look like fs9 default 20 years ago.

[flyingdrill]

At last.  I hope the downtown Ft. Lauderdale area looks right, and that the condos along the coast up to and including Pompano are shown.  No matter how one cranks up objects, the coastline of these areas always look bereft of tall buildings, so this will hopefully be a game changer.   Very exciting, and  my payment fingertip is hovering!   Key West also looks fabulous.

[DriverX]

After Orlando City Scene and TE coming. Any plans for KMCO for P3D? 

Edited January 10, 2020 by DriverX

[B-7]

Is it gonna have an actual landable skyscraper helipads? I couldn’t find a single one in Seattle or Portland in TE WA/OR respectively.

[Orbx Flyer]

Orbx needs to create the Star Trek Transporter Simulator...

 

I land at my vacation spot in TE Florida...I then press a button, and POOF....I'm sitting in the plane, within the scenery...I get out...and VACATION!  Yeah, Baby!

 

Who's with me on the next big Orbx Tech project...the Orbx Transporter Option.... 

[DriverX]

On 12/23/2019 at 1:55 PM, John Venema said:

Southern California is about 50% complete, but it’s a big region which we want to do properly and not rush it out.

 

Including in-house full-time developers, beta testers, production staff, IT support and outsourced contractors there are about 50+ people working on TrueEarth regions. This represents about half of the total Orbx workforce.

 

We also plan to port all TE regions to P3D starting with Washington next and then working down the US WestCoast.

What do you think how many GB i need for the whole coast line down to Mexiko. Just a rough number? Cheers Pascal I mean the P3D version btw. 

Edited January 11, 2020 by DriverX

[fdepues@gmail.com]

On 1/10/2020 at 5:11 PM, B-7 said:

Is it gonna have an actual landable skyscraper helipads? I couldn’t find a single one in Seattle or Portland in TE WA/OR respectively.

Create your own in WED.

[pica]

On 1/10/2020 at 11:11 PM, B-7 said:

Is it gonna have an actual landable skyscraper helipads? I couldn’t find a single one in Seattle or Portland in TE WA/OR respectively.

 

 

@B-7, By default buildings can be flown through in x-plane, so you need to specify such changes.

add ATTR_hard_deck to the .obj text file to make that thing solid.

 

[B-7]

4 hours ago, pica said:

 

 

@B-7, By default buildings can be flown through in x-plane, so you need to specify such changes.

add ATTR_hard_deck to the .obj text file to make that thing solid.

 

As a paying customer, I can ask questions about the product, and that’s all I did. An Orbx competitor actually does the job of putting those little specified changes.

[pica]

@B-7no doubt, your expectations are shared by others (not me). All i do is explaining you that the x-plane creators made the decision to priotize collision avoidance over landable spots.

to make a building landable, it will become a hard object which gets you crashed when tipping it, yes landing on rooftop of course becomes possible, whithout creating a helipad. (will add a short video for you).

Think of X-plane as a highly open architecture environment where editability is a wide open treasure for the community, that's why it has become so successful.

Yes, the developer could have thought of putting in some roof ports for those expecting a closed product system. Since the editing is so easy - and i can tell from

my own experience, you will find a whole new world of creativity by editing the stuff to your needs. i am not advocating the dev, because your objection is valid,

but really not a severe issue, since the correction is as easy as eating a pie. If you need better guidance of how to quickly do the change (takes 30 seconds), let me know.

[B-7]

9 hours ago, pica said:

@B-7no doubt, your expectations are shared by others (not me). All i do is explaining you that the x-plane creators made the decision to priotize collision avoidance over landable spots.

to make a building landable, it will become a hard object which gets you crashed when tipping it, yes landing on rooftop of course becomes possible, whithout creating a helipad. (will add a short video for you).

Thanks for explaining obvious things to me. I understand that Orbx decided to prioritize the collision avoidance, and that honestly is what I find a bad idea. There’re ways to make the buildings physically transparent AND add a working helipads on top of them, even as an apt.dat inclusion. Thing is, I’m not a scenery artist, that’s not what I specialize on, and Orbx EULA explicitly forbids any modification of their product (altho a separate apt.dat may not be a part of the scenery... also local laws... etc, etc, welcome to the legal grey area). One way or another, I asked a simple question (“are there gonna be landable helipads?”) and instead of the simple yes/no I got basically scolded. I don’t think Orbx make a bad product and TE FL is on my shopping list, day one. So there’s no need to be so defensive and/or aggressive about it.

Yes, I am slightly dissapointed, as a both helicopter enthusiast and a person for who Florida has a special place in the heart. So I hope that will be taken as a suggestion. If the helipads would be released as a separate compatible extension product, I would buy it in a heartbeat.