John Venema Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Peter Wilding and John Venema announce Flight Terrain X October 1st, 2007 - Berkshire UK and Melbourne Australia - Well respected texture artists Peter Wilding and John "Koorby" Venema are proud to announce to the flight simulator community their partnership to release ground terrain texture products for Microsoft FSX. Flight Terrain X (FTX) is a joint venture between Aerosimulations Ltd. and Orbx Simulation Systems Pty. Ltd. and adds the skills of co-developers Chris Norris and Matt Tomkins to spearhead the creation of an entire family of FSX addons. The combination of Flight Environment X and FTX will bring an unprecendented level of realism to simulated flying. The partnership between the award winning creators of Flight Environment textures for FS9 and Vista Australis (VOZ) was formally signed in the UK last week after many months of negotiation. Peter Wilding says, "Ever since the release of VOZ, John and I have been talking about working together, and whilst there has always been a tremendous respect for each other's work and art, we've not had the opportunity to bring our combined skills together until now. Koorby and I have a remarkably shared vision for what is possible to achieve for flight simulator users, and people will be truly amazed how our companies' technologies will compliment each other not only for environment and terrain, but also many new exciting products we have planned". John Venema adds, "To say I am absolutely blown away by the synergy between Peter and I is a gross understatement. Seeing Flight Environment X working in total unison with our 1m/pixel ground textures is like flying a whole new simulator. This is truly the FS11 experience achieved three years ahead of schedule! Flight Terrain X will take things to a whole new level. The FEX/FTX combination will share a common front-end, designed by Chris Norris, and form the basis of many more innovations to come over the next few years. Peter and I see today's announcement as a true milestone for the FS community". The first FTX Region Pack for Australia is due for release in December 2007. Visit the official FTX website at http://www.flightterrain.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auzy Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Looks awesome John. Can hardly wait for this to be released. Any word on pricing yet btw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Now I am lost. Does that mean that VOZ 2.0 or VOZ Pro or VOZ for FSX is now deferred until December this year. Please tell me that I have read it wrongly. I have already committed myself to the ASX and X Graphics because Sky and Ground Environment X were advertised but were not forthcoming for months. Is this same pattern to be replicated with VOZ Pro? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mknorr Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Like the late Big Kev said, "I'm excited!" BTW John, sorry for sending a message using the "Contact" form on the web site. It was only after sending that I saw it was for business only. But the content of my message could be considered business related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted October 1, 2007 Author Share Posted October 1, 2007 Now I am lost. Does that mean that VOZ 2.0 or VOZ Pro or VOZ for FSX is now deferred until December this year. Please tell me that I have read it wrongly. I have already committed myself to the ASX and X Graphics because Sky and Ground Environment X were advertised but were not forthcoming for months. Is this same pattern to be replicated with VOZ Pro? Sorry if we did not explain it clearly, I can understand your confusion. VOZ PRO is no more. That product has now been replaced by FTX, which will be released in December. We will be providing a hands-on preview for attendees of the Oz Flight Sim Expo in October. VOZ 2.0 is part of the VOZ freeware project and is still planned for an initial release later this year, although a change of name is on the cards, just to confuse you even more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Thanks for that explanation John. May I just express some mild disquiet and a hope. Horizon X produced great photo scenery of England and Wales but in spite of endless promises has not yet come up with night scenery or autogen. Flight X with whom you are now associated advertised for months and has only just come out with its product. I am sure that the combination with Orbx will make for a better technical product and no doubt a better commercial distribution - but please, do not allow the date to drift out. Based on your advertising I had believed VOZ Pro (now superseded),was to come out at the flightsim convention this month but this has become December. Incidentally Microsoft is not immune from the same problem - over-promising - and we still wait for SP2 and DX10. There is an old saying in government: it takes longer to do things quickly. Please make your timetables realistic and then stick to them. It seems to be an industry failing not to meet self-nominated deadlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Meiklejohn Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 I suppose that is the perennial question - release a buggy version of your product and give your company a bad name from day one, plus provide technical support for purchasers, thereby delaying work on improvements; or release the product when it is ready and as properly tested as possible, thereby keeping consumers happy with the quality of your companies work. I believe six months or so ago the words I saw were - I am hoping to have the product ready for a release at the Gold Coast convention. Same deal with Flight Environment X, whilst they advised what they were up to, I didn't see any delivery dates on their website prior to release. Take a look at the product and be thankful for the countless hours put into it getting it to such a professional state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted October 2, 2007 Author Share Posted October 2, 2007 We have night lighting up and running on some alpha areas today. To tell you it will absolutely blow you away and redefine night lighting is an understatement! We have 4 texture artists working on the project around the clock, across different sides of the globe. If anything, we will deliver the product ahead of schedule. Orbx will never release an unfinished or rushed product. We are perfectionists and pride our level of art, and the result will be there for everyone to cast judgement on in December. I would not read too much into the change of name from VOZ PRO to FTX, nor the lack of a final product to sell at the Expo. After all, we completely changed our strategy from during a one-size-fits all product for Australia, to now tackling a global solution at the same fidelity we had always planned. As doing deals such as the Orbx-Aerosimulations one takes time, money, negotiations and creating a joint vision. The benefit to you as a simmer is really quite substantial, as Orbx is now part of a total solution for FSX which far exceeds what we can achieve by ourselves. It's really quite an exciting time for us! You are going to be absolutely stunned by the beauty of FTX combined with FEX. Even the beta testers including Barry above have no idea what is in store for them over the coming weeks, and even now they just can't stop flying over the test area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Nieuwenhoven Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 I'll say! I only use FS9 now to test my models for VOZ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 First I appreciate your reply and the care that you have taken to explain your approach. And yes, I will wait, with my normal restlessness for December to come. But I think I have mis-read things again. I was looking foreward to a 1m mesh for Australia, and landclass that properly locates the towns, roads and coast-lines etc of this country. This is what I thought VOZ 2.0 was going to be. And I am happy to pay for it. But I think from your explanation VOZ 2.0 is now a long way away in time. This is a little regrettable as my first wish was for an FSX version of Vista 1.x so I can use my WAC charts to follow my progress across this country. Does this mean that I will still have to rely on the freeware mesh, the Cloud 9 landclass and the occasional enhancements like the Gold Coast add-on and the RBE mesh for Victoria? FTX on the other hand sounds like a global replacement. What will it mean for those of us who bought the ASX and X Graphics package. Is it one or the other, or are they compatible? This last question was not intended to be the least aggressive - Even after this time (since the first flightsim) I haven't got my head around the difference between landclass, texture, tiles and the specifics of scenery structures. I hope that at the convention I can get a better understanding of how all the products fit together. But as to quality I have no doubts. Koorby always made the stand-out enhancements for this country and I am confident the new structure will do it better, and on a larger scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Snyman Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Congrats on the partnership! Looking forward to the future releases! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Meiklejohn Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 I hope John doesn't mind me answering your questions Macca. I won't go into to much depth because as a beta tester I must exercise a significant degree of cautionary discretion. However, the information I am providing is a summation of what is already in the public domain. I am specifically not answering your query about landclass as that is something John may want to discuss at a future time. Orbx's Flight Terrain X (FTX) is a texture package. Orbx will be developing this as region specific textures. At times Orbx will be releasing some aerodrome packages that will blend in beautifully with these textures. The first region to be released will be a region of Australia. Other "regions" will follow suit and that will include other countries over a period of time... Orbx is not providing mesh. The Andy Weir mesh is still usable as is the Red Baron Victorian mesh. These mesh are designed using FS9 technology and whilst they work in FSX they miss out on some of the new features. Some of the beta testers are using FSGlobal X/2008 and I think one of us may be using the FSGenesis mesh. Whilst these mesh products are derived from the same Space Shuttle mapping project as the Andy Weir mesh, they have been updated to comply with the new FSX schema and you can tell just by looking at many of the beta preview shots how superior these new products are to the old style mesh. BTW a 1 metre mesh would be extremely large in filesize and would bog any modern computer down. The highest resolution mesh you can get at the moment (if I am up-to-date) would be some of the 9.6metre US and European Alps mesh. There is nothing like that available for us Aussies. It's possible that you misread a comment from John advising the use of 1metre per pixel resolution terrain textures. This will be the resolution of FTX textures, sampled from 15cm per pixel aerial photography. In comparison the highest resolution textures available for FS9 are 5metre per pixel. Active Sky will work fine with FTX and Aerosimulations Flight Environment X (FEX) if you have that as well. Active Sky purely calls the weather up. X Graphics should work ok as well although some of its capabilities are duplicated in FEX (nb., not FTX which is terrain). That is to say, you might want to use X Graphics clouds but FEX water; so you would set the options of each to load only the desired textures. If you were to initially load clouds from X Graphics and then subsequently also load clouds from FEX the last one loaded would be what was displayed. I hope I haven't confused anybody with that paragraph. I am sure that people are going to be blown away when they see how this stuff works and how realistic it is to fly over when seen in action at the convention. As one of the lucky few beta testers for Orbx, I am constantly being amazed at what I am seeing in the sky and on the ground around me. I hope that I have been able to shed some light on how these products are going to work together for you. And I do sympathise with you as to how far away December seems. I know you will believe me though when I say the wait will be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Many thanks indeed Bazzam for such a comprehensive reply. I realise that I have in fact got the Global 2008 mesh installed, but I did put RBE Victoria on top-I will need to check which gets priority. Thanks also for clarifiying the complexity of the various texture sets. At present I would then expect to put FTX 'on top' of ASX and Xgraphics. Of course I could not load xGraphics, but its advantage is that the land and sea reflect the sky which is of course the way it is in the real world. I certainly look forward to seeing the beta demonstrated at the Convention. I see that you are from Burpengary, so will you be on the GC as well for the meeting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auzy Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Have you guys thought about opening up the beta to preorder customers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Meiklejohn Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 G'day again Mr Macca I have in fact got the Global 2008 mesh installed, but I did put RBE Victoria on top-I will need to check which gets priority. FSX will automatically prioritise your mesh based on its resolution (wish it could do that with scenery and landclass), so it doesn't really matter where abouts you put them in the library. The common practice is to place your mesh at the top of your scenery library. At present I would then expect to put FTX 'on top' of ASX and Xgraphics. First up Active Sky and X Graphics don't appear in your scenery library, they are run prior to FSX. X Graphics swaps new textures in to replace default textures and Active Sky "tells" FSX what textures to call based on the weather information it is receiving from the internet. So there is no problem with using X Graphics exactly as you use it now. With respect to Flight Terrain X I have to be careful not to discuss issues that John has not already made public. Rest assured that Orbx will be making the installation process as simple as possible to help those flight simmers who just want to fly but don't really understand computers. FTX will not replace any of your default Flight Simulator textures and that means that if you decide to fly outside Australia you will not have to deactivate the product, you will automatically see the default FSX scenery for that area (or other addon scenery that you may have applied). Here is a quote from John that might help - If you have invested in other addons for FSX such as vector scenery for new roads, rivers, water or topo products, terrain elevation mesh, AI aircraft and airport sceneries, you have the complete assurance that FTX will work seamlessly with all of them. If you are using more comprehensive and detailed topo products such as UTX, we'll work with Allen Kriesman and other developers to ensure they don't conflict, or allow you to turn our topo layer off simply and easily. You can be safe in the knowledge that other addons will not conflict with FTX and many developers will take advantage of the publicly available SDK we will release to allow their products to blend in with our ground terrain. I see that you are from Burpengary, so will you be on the GC as well for the meeting? I am hoping to be there but I haven't received my roster yet. I think that I am working an afternoon shift on Sunday so barring any unforeseen changes there is a strong possibility I may be able to get down on the Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Bazzam: many thanks for that helpful response. I do in fact have FTXUSA installed, and I assume this is a parallel product. FTX USA gives a great experience - and if the new partnership with Orbx makes that even better then the wait will be well worthwhile. I am a critic of the many clumsy aspects of FSX and the SPs are the necessary retro clean-up ..... but the new scenery approach is breathtaking particular once the add-on makers started turning out new material. I now fly FSX as much for the view as I do for the skills. And when I was a real-world pilot, I would often sit up there and watch the geography co by, it is what you do... and FSX has got closer to that then any previous sim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stian Rolandsen Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 FTX USA ??? Are you sure you don't mean UTX USA? UTX wich is the FSX version of Ultimate Terrain. If so, FTX and UTX have nothing to do with eachother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Yes you are absolutely correct, my mistake. How does UTX stand in compatability with FEX? I know that the Australian regional product will obviously not conflict with UTX. I have just done a flight using the FSD Navajo (I flew the Navajo in real life and loved it), from Coffs to the Gold Coast airport ( I use add-on scenery for both airports). ASX weather gave me a great low visibility, real world flight, and XGraphics good texturing. Global 2008 gives good definition, especially around the Lismore/Tweed Heads region of hills and scarps, but the Cloud 9 landclass is only a small improvement on the default. Nevertheless for all of its irritations, FSX gives a fantastic experience and I found myself sitting up there with the instrument approach plates and my hands sweating just like they did when I did it for real. I use a Matrox Triple Head2Go, and the 3840 pixels of width gives an unnervingly good experience. I am hanging out for the new terrain and look forward to seeing the beta demonstrated at the upcoming convention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Just read the flightterrain site. It is very helpful indeed - and very useful to a keen simmer like me, but one who is still struggling with Scenery 101 to understand how everything fits together. Therefore, its the Blue Region in December with Lilydale thrown in. I can't wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stian Rolandsen Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Macca, you're gonna be blown away mate... That much I can promise you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca22au Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 I drove out to Lilydale airport today. Its a hell of a drive through the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne, but the airfield is beautifully located on the floor of the Yarra Valley with some challenging hills - and wineries - nearby. There is a Flying Club and flying school as the centrepiece, but there is a skydiving mob, and several hangars, including one of those green modern imitations of the old Quonset hut shape. I noticed a wide range of aircraft tied down outside ranging from a 310 to Jabirus - one plane had grass growing up to its belly. The strip and surrounding areas were a beautiful green. I hope that you can capture that in the AFCAD. A young woman had just returned from her first solo nav, and she was all hyped up, pleased and excited. It was great to see. So John, it would seem from all the beta testers that the terrain is fantastic. I hope the airport builders can keep as much of the character of Lilydale as possible - given the limitations of the underlying sim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennman Posted October 19, 2007 Share Posted October 19, 2007 I just found this forum, This is great news I have hoped for decent aussie scenery ever since flight sims began, After selling my saphire and moving to tassie a year ago flight simming is my chosen form of flight, I hope and am sure it will be good enough to do some vfr flying using real maps AHHHH real maps. Congatulations to the Orbx team and wish you guys all the success, I can't wait for the release dates. cheers Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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