Cairns update via triple installer

[Stillwater]

Hi,

 

do I see it right that YBCS has received an update today - which is for a German box customer like me accessible only through purchase of a cross-grade-license (which is useless for me, as I stay with FSX)?

 

This would be the first time in Orbx history that updating requires additional payment. I hope this is a misunderstanding by me...

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi Gerold,

this only would apply if you have had a DVD version of Cairns, otherwise you can download the latest version from your FSS account

[Jarrad Marshall]

G'day Gerold,

 

For people such as yourself who have purchased one of our DVDs from an alternative reseller to the Flightsimstore, there has been a process in place for the last eleven months to access an updated download copy from FSS via it's Cross-Grade Offer. If you haven't already had the chance, I'd definitely recommend having a quick read through the details and reasoning behind the policy, but I feel I should raise a couple of important points here:

- No portion of the A$3.95 (2.70 EUR) goes to myself nor anyone else at ORBX - it's a processing fee that covers the cost of the Flightsimstore staff who need to manually process your order transfer. 

- This has been in place for eleven months and has covered many existing products which were also originally sold on DVD through other resellers (including those who have FSX service packs only accessible via the triple-installers). 

 

So with that being said, I hope I can pre-emptively answer a couple of follow-on questions you might have:

1. Why don't you have an FSX-only incremental patch available for download from fullterrain.com like some other products? Aside from the double-up of resources to build the installers and beta test each version (triple installer and patch), the biggest reason why this isn't possible is due to the large amount of new content in YBCS V1.2. Of the 68 scenery files in the YBCS folder, 45 have been heavily modified or recreated from scratch - you can understand that releasing a patch that includes two-thirds of the entire product can't be done via a freely accessible download from our support page. Therefore the only viable way to release this FSX update is via the user account system at Flightsimstore - and the most efficient way to do this is via the triple-installer. 

2. As an FSX-only user, is it worth me making use of the Cross-Fee License Offer? In my (obviously biased!) opinion, I'd say definitely so Whilst there are more than a few new features such as new airside content (~12 new static types, including a couple unique to Cairns), a totally new night lighting system, heavily improved ground poly and some revised building textures, the majority of the updated work for the FSX version has been "under the hood". Small fixes, a huge amount of extra optimisation, tweaks, adjustments and 2014/2015 tech (Global-style lighting being the most obvious) has been done; if it gives any indication, I worked the equivalent of three-and-a-half weeks full-time on the SP2/Triple Installer and all of our beta testers (and myself) recorded a 20-30% (or more) increase in FPS over V1.1. 

 

Lastly, I know that you have spent quite a bit of time at Cairns over the years, and as such I added a couple of small elements in this update specifically with "Cairns regulars" such as yourself, Mallard, Kiwi Stu and a few others in mind, based on comments and discussions we've had in the past

 

Sorry for the long-winded reply, if you have any other questions or the likes please feel free to ask; retail matters aren't my area of expertise so if I can't answer I'll make sure I can get hold of somebody who can for you. 

 

Cheers,

Jarrad