Thank You

[ShawnG]

I haven't been here as much as I used to a few years ago, but as I believe a new dawn is just about to break over the flight sim universe, I did want to stop by and say a few words.

 

In 2009, I had owned FSX for about 3 years, but my pc couldn't run it very well, and I was still flying in fs2004 over my 3 favorite fs9 sceneries ever, which were Misty Fjords, Tongass Fjords, and the freeware Glacier Bay, by Holger Sandmann and friends.  After surfing the various fora in hopes of news of the long awaited FSX versions of those places, I came upon a comment that referenced the fact that Holger was working on some Australian project instead.  While my immediate thought was that I preferred he work on my favorite places instead, I did a quick google search and ended up here.  after seeing screenshots of the original Australian regions, I purchased two of them, and then began obsessively simming in a place that one day earlier, I had zero interest in flying at all.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention.  I feel that if the Orbx team lived in Wisconsin or Germany, they never would have made all this. Those places didn't look particularly good in default fsx or the early texture packs, but crucially they didn't look a million miles off, either.  Australia was brutally neglected by the Aces scenery development and did not look anything like itself, so if Aussie simmers wanted to fly over home, they had to make it themselves,  first with VOz for fs9 (which I had heard of but not installed) and then Orbx ftx.  To do this, they had to modify how the sim loaded landclass, and had to invent all their own autogen, in addition to the usual coastlines, mountains, and airports.  In doing this, thankfully, someone realized that this had applications for everywhere on earth, not just Oz.

 

So, Thank You for doing all this.  The sim was once overloaded with procedural IFR simmers who never really even looked away from the dials of their 2d panels.  A real and compelling world opened the hobby up for VFR and Bush flyers, and proved that using flight sim simply as a means of exploring our earth, not simply simulating flight was viable.  and that has kept me here, when previous interest in flightsim would have died out for me.   I also do not think that the upcoming sim, with its mind boggling portrayal of the earth would have been commisioned were it not for the influence of Orbx, and the appetite of simmers for such scenery.

 

So, I mean this simply to be a heartfelt thank you. (you also do have a sizeable chuck of my discretionary cash from the last ten years as well) Not a goodbye, as I am sure I will be buying your products in the future as well.

[andy1252]

3 hours ago, ShawnG said:

A real and compelling world opened the hobby up for VFR and Bush flyers, and proved that using flight sim simply as a means of exploring our earth, not simply simulating flight was viable.

I second that emotion (as they say) and add my thanks to all at Orbx (as I happily download KSJC!)

[tuisong]

14 hours ago, ShawnG said:

So, I mean this simply to be a heartfelt thank you. (you also do have a sizeable chuck of my discretionary cash from the last ten years as well) Not a goodbye, as I am sure I will be buying your products in the future as well.

 

Very well said Shawn. 

 

My experience has been similar to yours. I had given up on flight simming until I saw an add for Orbx. They have cost me thousands in scenery and hardware. And I thank them for it.

[Taph]

Here Here, Orbx have had their hand in my wallet and I am the richer for it

[Steve Colbert]

53 minutes ago, tuisong said:

 

Very well said Shawn. 

 

My experience has been similar to yours. I had given up on flight simming until I saw an add for Orbx. They have cost me thousands in scenery and hardware. And I thank them for it.

I, too, had given up on flight simming after ACES closure, but one day years later I decided to see if my FSX could be loaded on my $400 new PC used for everything but gaming.

 

It worked, though at low settings, so I searched the Internet for the tree exclude file for the end of the default KORS I used to enjoy flying to that some nice fellow created for me.

 

The file was gone, but a little blurb about Orbx KORS with photos came up.

 

Needless to say I, too, have very happily spent time and hardware and software money ever since.

 

And Orbx’s KORS Orcas is STILL my favorite field, and I look forward to visiting it in every sim that is developed.

 

Steve