OpenLC Corrections of Base FTXG? - American West/Southwest/Colorado

[flapsdown]

I believe I understand that when OpenLC is made available, texture corrections for specific areas will be part of the plan, yes? While I am really enjoying FTXG and am a many time happy ORBX customer, the representation of the American Southwest including many parts of my area (Colorado) are far too green and lush, and the hues are much too "purple" - and a flight over the Grand Canyon area in particular was a bit of a surprise, as it almost  looked like the Canyon was buried in greenish snow (which I think was meant to be a "sage brush" type of texture).

 

Just looking to confirm my understanding (hopefully), that OpenLC for the North American region (#2 on the release list I think I saw in another thread), will be able to put this right and return the reddish/brown hues of the desert Southwest, and provided corrections to areas such as around my neck of the woods in Colorado where the default FSX land classes (and therefore FTXG as well), have tree cover well above the 10,800 foot tree-line, and not the gray granite peaks I see out my window.

 

Many thanks for providing an ongoing series of excellent products, and looking forward to the addition of OpenLC,

 

Chris B. - aka "Flapsdown"

 

Orbx - FTX: Global

Order Date: 2013-07-27

 

My apologies if this is considered more of a tech support type of question and might be in the wrong forum - but really just seeking a clarification...

 

[flapsdown]

Here is an example of a very "green" Grand Canyon:

 

[Rob Newman]

While I can't speak for the developers and their plans for Open LC, I do believe that the plan for Open LC is indeed to provide a better, more refined, and even corrected representation of the existing FSX base LC. Plus FTX Global adds even more textures to the palette to call from... Open LC should widen the texture types used to make FSX even richer.

 

Sadly, for the moment at least, we have to put up with that (often) terrible FSX base and it's limitations... FTX Global goes a long way to making things look better, but if FSX landclass data tells Colorado to be green, sadly, that's what it will be until Open LC tells it otherwise

 

There are options out there for replacement LC for the whole USA however in the meantime... They won't use all the new textures and features of FX Global, but while we all wait, it's an option

[FScamp]

Yeah same thing seems to be in a lot of Central Asian countries like Afghanistan that in reality are very dry but now covered with similar looking green textures... That's the problem with all FSX texture replacement addons, either you have green looking terrain in green regions or green in dry regions...

 

I very much hope ORBX will take the time to do all the areas properly with their OpenLC packs so that dry areas have dry textures that belong to them, then it will be all just perfect.

[flapsdown]

Hey Rob,

 

Actually overall, I am pretty pleased with the general look of the texture improvements to Colorado, understanding it's all driven by the limitations of the existing FSX base LC's, but this business with the Grand Canyon and high desert in Arizona is a little puzzling since the textures that were there in FSX were of the right hue, and it just seems odd that those FSX textures would be replaced with items seemingly so far off the mark. Perhaps a developer will chime in...

 

Regards,

 

Chris B.

[flapsdown]

Yeah same thing seems to be in a lot of Central Asian countries like Afghanistan that in reality are very dry but now covered with similar looking green textures... That's the problem with all FSX texture replacement addons, either you have green looking terrain in green regions or green in dry regions...

 

I very much hope ORBX will take the time to do all the areas properly with their OpenLC packs so that dry areas have dry textures that belong to them, then it will be all just perfect.

 

As do I - while I understand that the increased accuracy of the dedicated ORBX regions is one reason I own so many of them, since the Southern Rocky Mountains region seems to have been put off indefinitely, I was (and am), hoping that FTX-Global and the upcoming OpenLC pack will spruce up the presentation enough so I can fly more in my local area...

[jjjallen]

I made a flight from Catalina Island to Aspen last night and my impression is that I like the FTXG textures better than GEX.  The only 2 things that I need to rectify are the bogus night lightening on major roads which I think I can solve in the UTX configuration.

 

The second are the goofy town textures in the outbacks that seem to be islands of light but not blended well into the surrounding terrain.  I'm hoping that the LC packs resolve this. 

 

Remember the big stink that everyone has been making about the monotonous FSX desert textures in the American SouthWest - IMO I think that FTXG has made a big move in the right direction to alleviate this.

 

Overall FTXG is a big improvement for this area.

 

Regards

jja

[flapsdown]

I made a flight from Catalina Island to Aspen last night and my impression is that I like the FTXG textures better than GEX.  The only 2 things that I need to rectify are the bogus night lightening on major roads which I think I can solve in the UTX configuration.

 

The second are the goofy town textures in the outbacks that seem to be islands of light but not blended well into the surrounding terrain.  I'm hoping that the LC packs resolve this. 

 

Remember the big stink that everyone has been making about the monotonous FSX desert textures in the American SouthWest - IMO I think that FTXG has made a big move in the right direction to alleviate this.

 

Overall FTXG is a big improvement for this area.

 

Regards

jja

 

The repetitive look issue does seem better, but the overall presentation is a big miss for me, color tone wise its completely off the mark, and that drastically kills the immersion factor IMHO...

[jjjallen]

Noted - I guess its a to each his own thing.  I do have Holgers Grand Canyon scenery installed also and it does not seem to blend in as well as it did with the GEX textures.

 

Regards

jja

[flapsdown]

Ah, at least I am not just crazy   - in the support forum (where I should have gone with this in the first place), is my exact problem:

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/61911-feedback-too-much-green-in-the-desert/

[birdguy]

The green cast for the Grand Canyon is very noticeable on the default scenery

It's barely noticeable in the OZx version of the Grand Canyon

Noel

[flapsdown]

The green cast for the Grand Canyon is very noticeable on the default scenery

It's barely noticeable in the OZx version of the Grand Canyon

Noel

 

 

Hmm, what screen-caps I had of the area from previous flights before I installed FTX-G were never green like that - wonder if I was always flying in "Winter" or something and never noticed? I am tempted to uninstall FTX-G and fall back to default FSX and have a look, but so far I haven't been able to find any info on removing FTX-G

[flapsdown]

Update:

 

I went back momentarily to the FSX textures and got this "Summer" screen cap:

 

 

It certainly won't win any scenery awards, but the color palate is much closer in my mind to what it should be.

Guess I will just switch back and forth depending on the region I want to fly in for now...

[birdguy]

I would recommend OZx's Grand Canyon and Death Valley to anyone who flies these areas.  They are both pretty awesome and they are both freeware.  OZx is the closest thing I have seen to the real thing.  My son works at the Grand Canyon and I have been there several times.  I've also been to Death Valley a number of times.

 

The default Grand Canyon looks like a 5 year old tried to put icing on a cake.

 

Noel

[John Venema]

I echo Noel's suggestion; why bemoan how landclass scenery portrays the Grand Canyon when only a photoreal solution can do it justice? And the best GC scenery happens to be freeware from OZx.

[FScamp]

However this thing isn't limited to Grand Canyon, just go flying around Afghanistan and you will see unrealistic green look in areas where it doesn't belong to and that don't have any photoreal coverage available. Is this going to get better in OpenLC packs?

 

I mean this is the same problem that has caused certain green areas look ugly with previous texture packs, if you finally manage to get rid of the problem of having same textures being used in areas that are in reality green and in dry areas it would make FTX Global just totally superior to anything released before... 

[flapsdown]

I echo Noel's suggestion; why bemoan how landclass scenery portrays the Grand Canyon when only a photoreal solution can do it justice? And the best GC scenery happens to be freeware from OZx.

 

With all due respect sir, and I truly mean that as a multi-time purchaser of ORBX offerings and as a reasonably sophisticated buyer of simulation products, this response puzzles me a bit. As FSCamp and many others have pointed out here and threads elsewhere, this "green creep" goes way, way beyond the Grand Canyon, to just about every desert/semi/arid area of the planet I have gone to inspect. It is certainly my fault in this thread for pointing out only this one example, and contrary to what may being thought, I was not expecting anything more than hopefully an improved color palate and texture blending in these areas. 

 

I realize that this is only FTX-G launch plus a day or so, so I am hopeful that a fix or reconfiguration of some sort is possible, otherwise I will wait on OpenLC, but without trying to sound overly critical, and fully understanding the development process as a software engineer myself, having the customer having to swap one texture palate issue for another is something I am certain ORBX would not have been aiming for, but perhaps this was unavoidable to some degree given the nature of FSX's land-class implementation.  As it stands, I am very pleased with those areas in which this new set of textures works well, but honestly a bit dismayed about how large an area of the world is negatively impacted, and at least for me personally, the purchase of FTX-G has been a bit of a "wash" so far, but I am looking forward to further updates and releases that will hopefully make progress on this problem.

 

Kind regards,

 

Chris B.

 

Order Number: FSS0222547

Order Date: 2013-07-27

[ORB-727] Orbx - FTX: Global

 

Order Number: FSS0218529

Order Date: 2013-06-30

[ORB-726] Orbx - FTX: EU Scotland

 

Order Number: FSS0206784

Order Date: 2013-03-24

[ORB-722] Orbx - FTX: NA Blue Southern Alaska

 

Order Number: FSS0157397

Order Date: 2012-04-01

[ORB-067] Orbx - FTX: NZ South Island

 

Order Number: FSS0145987

Order Date: 2011-12-31

[ORB-057] Orbx - FTX: NA Blue USA/Canada Northern Rocky Mountains

[ORB-056] Orbx - FTX: NA Blue USA/Canada Pacific Fjords

 

Order Number: FSS0138754

Order Date: 2011-12-04

[ORB-060] Orbx - FTX: NA Gold USA Central Rocky Mountains

 

Order Number: FSS0118465

Order Date: 2011-06-26

[ORB-052] Orbx - FTX: NA Blue USA/Canada Pacific Northwest

 

Order Number: FSS0117584

Order Date: 2011-06-19

[ORB-601] Orbx - Lancair IV-P

[John Venema]

Again locking another "green creep" topic.

I refer to my other response to Birdguy's topic for an explanation.