Quote from Hangar45 Admin on December 10, 2017, 8:31 am

(Original thread started on 12-30-12 by Shane Barnes)

On December 29th Orbx announced that a new product, FTX Global to be released in 2013.

 

Here is a link to more information:

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/52819-orbx-announces-ftx-global-to-be-released-in-2013/

 

Basically it is a global texture replacement for FS which should be a welcome change for FSX users. Now we should be able to get rid of those unrealistic ground textures. The development team states that this is a project still in development and will be providing updates to improve the product over time.

 

This product will not work with Ground Environment X or FScene due to both of these programs being ground textures themselves so you have to choose between GEX / Fscene or Orbx . . I think on my new sim I will be going with Orbx if it is anything like the other scenery areas!

 

Additionally, Orbx has now added bugs and moving animals. Take a look at one of their latest airports:

http://www.fullterrain.com/product_usOG39.html

 

(Posted by Eric Williams on 12-30-12)

Great news. I will probably do the same Shane. If their history is any indication of quality, it will be a no brainer. I didn't know about this. Thanks for sharing.

 

(Posted by Manfred on 12-30-12)

This is awesome news! To think, years ago when John first suggested doing MSFS addons full time, I told him to be careful! I wasn't aware that he had moved to New Hampshire. He used to live in Melbourne where HQ is/was?

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 04-09-16)

Back in December of 2012 I posted about a new product from ORBX that was due to be released . . been a few years since that post but I now have ORBX global base running with P3D. ORBX in my opinion has some of the best addon scenery for FS. ORBX should be releasing North America open land class in the near future covering the United States and Mexico. If you have been in flight simulation for awhile you already know about ORBX . . so this post is for any of our newer Hangar members. . . . and maybe for some of you old Hangar Rats who have been too busy building to think about scenery just yet!

 

ORBX has released quite a few airports for Global Base including Sedona Arizona. I purchased this airport a couple months ago. ORBX did a really nice job on the details. Telluride airport is due to be released soon as well. If you are looking for nice scenery for FS go take a look at ORBX. Here is a link to the ORBX site:

https://www.fullterrain.com/

 

And a link to a video of Telluride:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2F0QU1mS4s

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 04-11-16)

I fired up the sim today and knocked the dust off of it in preparation for Hangar Day in now less than a week.

 

One of the things that I did was download and install the North American FTX Global Airport pack. Man, what a package! I did a couple test flights out of Fernandina Beach Florida,, Jekyll Island Georgia and up to Malcolm Mc Kinnon Airport near Brunswick Georgia. There are hundreds of high quality regional to smaller airports that the Orbix team has put their magical touch on.

 

(You have to first have their base package in order to install this free airport package.)

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 04-11-16)

Yes . . the freeware North American global airport pack is awesome. This also covers many airports in Canada as well. On another note, the payware Telluride airport was released for purchase today. This is an awesome airport that sits at high altitude. By chance this is also the airport where Lear 45 N279AJ crashed in 2009. Some of you know that this is the same aircraft I was able to purchase many parts from. My sim has all of the real interior panels and glareshield from this aircraft. At some point I plan on recreating the last flight of 9AJ from Arizona to Telluride with historical weather. Just waiting on adding the last two 60 inch TV's before the flight.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 05-11-16)

If you have not been watching the ORBX forum . . you should. ORBX is due to release North America open LC United States in the near future. NA open LC is in beta testing and numerous photos have been posted of the new textures. So if you get a chance go over to ORBX site, sign up for their forum and take a look at the new textures. Looks like it will be a great improvement over default P3D/FSX.

 

If you don't have ORBX global base now is a good time to get it. Global base changes the default FSX/P3D ground textures improving on color and variety of ground textures. It is also a good time to get any other ORBX products that you may be interested in. The regular prices are scheduled to increase this year.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 05-12-16)

FTX Global Freeware Airports North America include Aspen Colorado!

 

KASE Aspen, Pitkin County

Airport/Sardy Field

Aspen Colorado, USA

 

I flew out of and back into Aspen Colorado a few times this morning. The scenery was fantastic! There were more static aircraft than I could count. Probably the most I have ever seen in one airport. And it will be even that much better after they release OpenLC in a few months. If you guys have it you should try it!

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 08-01-16)

In case you missed it . . ORBX has released FTX Global openLC North America. Take a couple minutes and check out their website for current information at . . https://www.fullterrain.com/product/ftxgolcna

 

Here is a description provided on the FTX website of their new product :

We have now completed the FTX openLC North America pack after starting off with the northern half - Arctic, Alaska and Canada. openLC North America now covers an area over 24 million square kilometres with FTX Global custom textures and new textures unique to openLC. FTXG openLC as the name suggests, replaces the default landclass layer with higher detailed and a better variety of land types. This in turn creates a more varied and accurate terrain with FSX or P3D. It has been specifically designed to work with both FTX Global Base and FTX Global Vector as part of the total simulator overhaul. With FTX Global and openLC North America you can now begin to explore the vast and beautiful area of North and Central America, Greenland as well as the Caribbean islands and Hawaii. Make sure to check the photoreal volcanoes of Popocatépetl, Iztaccihauatl, Colima, San Cristobal-Casita, Telica & Momotombo as well in your travels.

(From the ORBX team)

 

I ordered the DVD version Monday. This is a big download so I opted for the disk version. In my experience, I have fewer issues with the disk versions of large downloads. Just a matter of having patience for the DVD to arrive in the mail in about a week. Also, there was a new version of freeware airports released in July 2016.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 08-02-16)

I saw the new airport list. They added several new airports but still waiting on a few key airports here in Florida. St. Augustine (Northeast Florida Regional) to be exact. Sooner or later they will run out of airports to model and get to it!

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 08-03-16)

Hey guys just had to chime in with the conversation.

 

I have just come in from the shed testing out flying with the open LC North America. I opted for the download ~ 10Gb and used a download manager. Took about 1:30 hrs last night. I sat and watched more episodes from my Season 6 of Ice Pilots DVD whilst waiting so no hassle.

 

Tonight flew Tucson to Sierra Vista. Then JAX to Orlando via Kennedy Space Center. They have the launch pads and the huge rocket hangar modeled. I not being a local would not know whether Florida looks right though. Tucson was OK. I suppose a desert would be easier to produce.

 

I will say this much that with so much more detail and having 3x 1080p projector screens the video cards had trouble keeping up. The usual symptoms of blurriness at the sides and into the distance. Also the lower frame rates sometimes down to the teens and up to the thirties. Lastly the popping into view of the trees and buildings approximately a third of the way into the distance.

 

These observations are purely subjective as everyone's computer hardware is different as is the config file. It, in my case, is a frequent changing of the graphic settings so that you can appreciate the view as against have it ruined by the frame rates.  I'll be ordering possibly 2 GTX 1070's for SLI in the next few weeks, that should help.

 

In summary much better than default but I haven't seen the wow factor quite yet so awaiting to see what you guys think. I'll just keep flying different areas to see and try and remember what default looked like. No point building a sim if you have nothing worthy to look at, so the software is just as important !

 

Try flying KGCN along Grand Canyon to Pearce Ferry (L25). Once you land you can have a bbq............trust me it is there ! That will test out Open LC for you in a desert area.  Another good piece of advice if you own any ORBX software.

 

When you upgrade ( especially P3D ) or need to re install ORBX software, the on-line verification ' Flightsim Store' information is held in your registry. Instead of looking for your print out or email with the security code, it will be kept in your registry.

 

If your computer goes into the ether for some reason or you upgrade the hardware you may lose the information and will have to go through the verification process for everything you own from ORBX.

 

Here is the procedure for saving all this information:

https://fsxtimes.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/360-skipping-orbx-online-verification/

Hope this is of some use.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 02-20-17)

In case you missed it .... ORBX announced today that there will not be a charge to upgrade any ORBX scenery when P3D V4 is released . We still do not know a date when the new version of P3D is released but there is information that it may be the long awaited 64 bit version and a potential release date sometime this year.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 02-20-17)

This is exciting news! I will wait to update my sim to P3D V4.

 

With that said, I know there will be some growing pains with this gigantic move to 64bit but I think it is a move much needed to get our sim performing where we all expect them to be. Looking forward to the release and feedback!

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 02-21-17)

Certainly exciting for us ORBXérs and Prepar3Dérs who have been with them since the start.  Hopefully 64 bit will make better use of our hardware and will sort out this 4 GB limit that has caused so many OOM's over the years.

 

But, I stand to be corrected by Eric and Jason by this simple question relevant to most of us. Will the Jet45 Avionics run in a 64bit P3D or will it need to be updated ? If so how hard will that be for Jason to recode? We may be stuck in the 32bit P3D for awhile yet if that is the case.

 

(Posted by Chris Capkalu on 02-22-17)

Of course I can not speak for Jason or Eric but with my understanding it should work without problems. Jet45 is a stand a lone software outside P3D which is fired by offsets delivered from FSUIPC or vice versa. It is not an add-on integrated into P3D. As long as FSUIPC works fine Jet45 should work...but just my understanding of the system.