DNAdrifter Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Moderator: If this isn't the correct area to post please advise or move. Hi all, I am new to Orbx but not new to X-Plane. I thought I would purchase my home area and see if the scenery I can get with Orbx is superior to other my other orthophoto experiences. I guess the simple question is whether what I see on the screen supposed to match the example screen shots from Orbx? Some screen shots attached around the SF area from my flight (with the Kodiak) and from the Orbx product page for comparison. I purchased the HD version and I used one of the Orbx examples is from SD but it still looks way better. If it doesn't look correct any help guiding me toward setting changes or direction on where to go for help would be much appreciated. I am happy to to post my .ini file, but didn't know if that was appropriate. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 For me it looks like the main difference between your shots and the one from the produkt Page is lighting/weather/time of the day, which of course has a big impact one how a scenery looks. Take your second shot at noon under a clear sky and you will see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Hm, had a second look at you pics and realized that there are also other differences, like e.g. the surf which can be seen in the last shot. And in the first comparison water masking is quite different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Thanks for the response. Major differences I noticed are listed below. Agreed lighting seems different. This was taken in morning with clear conditions. Everything has always looked kind of gray and hazy to me when I put clear. To be honest, the difference is more striking on screen before posting (I suspect the forum software is doing some picture compression for posting) Water color is gray within no differentiation Overall way less contrast and saturation No surf No large marina on right side of first picture Seems like fewer trees in second picture in the foreground Fewer buildings overall Hard to see because of the scale on angels are different, but what is San Francisco in the background of the first picture shows nice bright buildings expanding from downtown, where as in my picture you can see the downtown SF buildings but they kind of just fall off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 what are your XP settings. World Objects must be set to maximum if not already so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 They are. See below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 To best test the Orbx addon of NorCal is to rename your Custom Scenery folder to Custom Scenery.x Then make a new Custom Scenery folder Make shortcuts to the NorCal addon and place those shortcuts into the new Custom scenery folder. Along with shortcuts for the orbxLibs library and Global Airports. Run XP then exit after it has loaded. Check the scenery packs layering that Global Airports is on top and the Norcal addon below with the Orbx Libs file See if that improves anything. There will be no other addons in the Custom Scenery file to have any potential interference etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 6 Author Share Posted January 6 Just wanted to provide an update: I did the above, and it may have made a difference with some of the objects. It is a bit hard to tell. No real difference with the color, surf, etc. What did improve things measureably from an optical perspective was messing with weather. I had visibility set to a pretty low value and increased it to max. Mid-day also increased brightness of buildings a bit relative to morning. Overall it looks much better now, but I would say it still doesn't look like the picture regarding color of water and sky which is a bit disappointing as it is marketed that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Please note that in the product page on Orbx Direct, there is reference to the use by Orbx of Xvision which will introduce enhancements depending on your settings within Xvision. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 Seems like you can’t actually buy Xvision anymore. Is this correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wain71 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 seems like it's not around anymore... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 If thats the case, it is unfortunate and disappointing that Orbx is marketing this and selling it based on pictures that the end user can’t actually achieve anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Hello, it would appear that "Xvision" is still available: simMarket: TRIFONOV YURI S.P. - XVISION FOR X-PLANE 11 VULKAN EDITION Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 It is marked as "Inactive Product" and is not available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Hello Jon, apologies, you are quite right. Sometimes things change, over time, that even Orbx has no control over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 I believe that there are posts about that explain how to use Reshade with XP11, maybe XP12, it's probably worth some investigation as the only way now to improve the muddy default XPlane colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 On 1/14/2024 at 4:37 AM, John Dow said: I believe that there are posts about that explain how to use Reshade with XP11, maybe XP12, it's probably worth some investigation as the only way now to improve the muddy default XPlane colours. Thanks John. I will look into that...appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 On 1/14/2024 at 2:03 AM, Nick Cooper said: Sometimes things change, over time, that even Orbx has no control over. No, they don't have control over if a third party discontinues software/plugins. But they do have control over: the decision to initially market the product with art/images that that was made to look better by third party software they have no control over the decision to continue to market the product using those images despite the fact that customers can no longer actually achieve those results if they didn't previously buy the xvision software I realize it likely wouldn't be cost effective to make new images to market the same product. With that said, they also aren't afraid to take customers money who are buying the product based on a potential pretense that they can achieve the images shown on their website when they can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Well to be fair the expectation was that XVision would continue to be available. This argument about Orbx 'faking' colours in XPlane has been raised before but it has never been particularly strong, because Orbx was showing what was achievable in the sim, rather than the muddy palette that XPlane serves up as default, and which would have made the scenery unattractive, whereas it had the potential to look as good as the P3D and Microsoft products do out of the box. If you want to criticise anyone it should be Laminar because they refuse, for some unfathomable reason, to improve their palette, and worst of all, to actively discourage the use of third party software that seeks to add a bit of vibrancy to the murky soup that is the default. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DNAdrifter Posted January 19 Author Share Posted January 19 On 1/16/2024 at 10:10 PM, John Dow said: ......Orbx was showing what was achievable in the sim Trust me, I don't think Laminar is free of blame. My point though with Orbx is that it isn't even achievable anymore. It just feels like even more of a bait and switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 I think the biggest complaint should be the difference clearly shown in the pics that display water masking. Clearly not visible in your pics but displayed in the product site promo. The rest of any colour differences etc is going to be always determined by the user and his/her settings and hardware and any3rd party addition. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 21 hours ago, Jon Clarke said: I think the biggest complaint should be the difference clearly shown in the pics that display water masking. Clearly not visible in your pics but displayed in the product site promo. The rest of any colour differences etc is going to be always determined by the user and his/her settings and hardware and any3rd party addition. Exactly my thoughts too Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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