ANSWERED General Question on Relationship of Land Class and FTXG

[fltsimguy]

Unfortunately I know enough to be dangerous when it comes to the inner workings of FSX.

 

While I don't yet own FTXG, I am trying to make a decision about whether I care to buy this product or not for a number of reasons.  I already own some competing products, and have some freeware products as well that do a so so job of parts of the world I don't fly regularly.  Personally most of my flying is in the FTX regions I own.

 

I have just spent two days reading tons of threads and posts about folks views, positions, understandings on what FTXG does or doesn't do.  I do know what this product does and what it does not do.

 

What I don't know is related to this: My understanding is that FTX products or FTXG contains a modified lclookup table that matches FTX textures (same texture filenames as original FSX textures) to a value which is called upon based upon landclass identifiers.  That, other land class products use the same table to display their landclass mapping of various areas, regions of the planet.  QUESTION IS: If the lclookup table is modified does that mean that other landclass products will not display textures in the original intended landclasses they had expected?

 

Which would mean other commercial available landclass products would not necessarily give the best representation of FTXG textures!  So it would be best to stick with FTXG and associated landclass products.

 

cheers, Bryan

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Bryan,

 

yes, lclookup.bgl gets modified by FTXG global but there's a difference between the "base" and "hybrid" modes: both unlock blendmasks, lightmaps, and seasonal variants not available in the default FSX version but only the "hybrid" version remaps some of the class-texture assignments for several FSX regions and alters slope calls; it has to to do that in order to be as compatible as possible with the various FTX regions products.

 

In other words, all third-party landclass add-ons should work with FTXG in "base" mode while some changes to class and slope assignments might be visible in "hybrid" mode. If in doubt switching between the two using a saved flight situation and taking screenshots of each should reveal any differences.

 

Cheers, Holger 

[fltsimguy]

OK thanks Holger.  It's nice to be able to go to the expert. 

 

So some of the comparison shots I've seen which do show on the ground differences in some ground textures could in fact be a result of which setting in Central (hybrid) was chosen and a possible resultant different texture class and/or slope assignment. The unlocking I suspect you are referring to unlocking unused areas so that's just a bonus to you folks and us consumers.

 

This is an exciting time for us simmers.