Video - Orbx FTX Global vs default FSX in Athens, Greece - click here
Again, no ENB, mesh, landclass, or any of that jazz.
See the developers website - click here
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
Video - Orbx FTX Global Athens, Greece
Video - Orbx FTX Global vs default FSX in Athens, Greece - click here
Again, no ENB, mesh, landclass, or any of that jazz.
See the developers website - click here
24 comments:
I'm just going put my comment in the right thread Mark ;-)
I mean really, how can anybody say "this video captured exactly how Athens looks!"
Are they blind? I mean seriously, Athens has never never never ever looked that green!
Athens from above:
http://oi42.tinypic.com/2v0zp5k.jpg
The background looks good but I understand what you are saying regarding the city, it does look lush. However, this is not necessarily a problem with FTX Global.
To me, this could very easily be corrected with some basic landclass upgrades. The more vibrant the upgraded textures and autogen, the more important accurate landclass becomes. There is certainly green in the city of Athens, just not to the extent shown in the video. But remember, the purpose of FTX Global is not to customize urban landclass.
Given the option between dull and lifeless default textures and this, I would take FTX Global in an instant. I see FTX Global as an excellent starting point; further customization is up to the user.
I think before people bash ORBX, they need to understand how FSX and landclass work.
Orbx is closer to reality than default FSX, by a long margin.
http://www.mvnu.edu/images/turkey-greece/album/slides/Athens%20Aerial%20View.html
Just by looking at the videos you can see the difference. I can't wait for FTX Global to come out.
Yes, more corrected autogen and intelligently placed buildings such as monuments. However, the default "dryness" of the land was correct in FSX, and this is now, from what I can see in the video and screenshots, being replaced by an overly green lushness.
So while we fix one thing, we break another? Shakes head.
It's simple really, FSX has a single terrain configuration file, called terrain.cfg, which is used to map texture information for vector data (linear data such as roads, rivers, streams, railway lines, and so on) to polygon types and flattening information. This also controls the automatic placement of certain features such as telephone poles, light poles, fences and power lines. This file provides reasonable defaults for most data types specified in vector data.
The important thing is that this file can be edited to add new texture and autogen sections in order to support new types or styles of vector data.
Within the scope of creating terrain, there is the landclass that is categorized as follows (this is constant and cannot be changed).
An example:
( GRASS=128 )
( ARID=129 )
( ROCK=130 )
( DIRT=131 )
( CORAL=132 )
( LAVA=133 )
( PARK=134 )
( GOLF_COURSE=135 )
( CEMENT=136 )
( TAN_SAND_BEACH=137 )
( BLACK_SAND_BEACH=138 )
( AIRFIELD1=139 )
( AIRFIELD2=140 )
( ROCK_VOLCANIC=141 )
( ROCK_ICE=142 )
( GLACIER_ICE=143 )
( EVERGREEN_TREE_CROP=144 )
( DECIDUOUS_TREE_CROP=145 )
( DESERT_ROCK=146 )
( SAVANNA_GRASS=147 )
Futhermore there are textures that then actually display the particular type of landclass:
These texture files have to be listed in a certain order, and ideally should include in their name initials to determine which season they apply to. The texture order is: wi, hw, sp, su, fa, lm, where:
wi = mild winter
hw = hard winter
sp = spring
su = summer
fa = fall/autumn
lm = light map (night)
Now if the textures depicting a particular landclass work in one region, they may not necessarily work in another region, and I suspect that this is where FTX Global falls short, namely that by being GLOBAL it breaks too many LOCAL things.
So while we all know that Athens and Johannesburg are fairly dry in real life, FTX Global depicts the area as lush green, which in Johannesburg for example may be correct in the summer season, but would be totally off in winter.
I guess the ultimate question is this:
Are we willing to spend money on a product that promises to improve our FS World, while it obviously breaks a great deal at the same time.
What is the price of improvement users will pay, and I don't mean the monetary price?
Orbx need to have something worth selling or they will be bashed. They have become a bloated company more interested in bux than the passion of flight simulation.
The improvements in this greek video are absolutely negligible. Either is fine.
Theres certainly a difference. The problem is, there not much improvement.
There are some very good points made in the above post and the question posed at the end is spot on. Let's face reality: we are flying in a sim that uses old code and is 32-bit (whether FSX or P3Dv1.4). This means the virtual world we fly in is imperfect from the start. There is no way to create a global product that gets everything right. Noone would be able to download that monster. Going back to the question posed above, I'm willing to pay for better autogen and more accurate placement of buildings and landmarks, while sacrificing some accuracy in greenery and terrain depiction. The accurate placement of buildings and landmarks are crucial for some visual approaches (KLAX and KLGA are examples), while a terrain being a little too green won't affect my flying. Perhaps if/when P3D v2 is released, we might see a whole different world? Who knows. But until then we are stuck with a product whose creator doesn't exist anymore, and is no longer supported (MSFS). FSX/P3D is what it is. We've had to make sacrifices in what we wanted out of our sim for years and now is no different.
This is a ridiculous comment that cannot be backed up with facts. Do you think the same thing of Flight 1 and their product GEX? There is nothing wrong with making money doing what you enjoy.
I totally agree that Global will not be the perfect fix, but will go a long way to improving FSX in a way that nothing else has (globally). They are also planning to release a world landclass that might go some way to fixing some of these issues that are being discussed.
Can we get some shots of the caribbean please?
Even EA doesn't disable comments on their Facebook/Youtube pages (especially SimCity) and they're the worst company in America. LOL
Does this product screw up addon airports in anyway?
Does it increase memory usage?
Comments like this are the ones I look at when simmers bemoan the loss as developers become disillusioned with the entire hobby.
Exactly, comment has no substance, is probably based on some personal agenda
Now, who says 'bux' around here?, I think I know who this is, would you like me to out you?
The only difference between this and every other landclass products is this is has more landmarks and more & other library objects. This is like a newer version of UTX, but UTX provides all water exclusions..what about FTX global ?
Living in Athens I'd say that neither the default nor the ORBX colours are correct. However if I had to choose I'd say that the latter is much closer to reality.
Athens might be a dry place, but it definitely is not a desert! Perhaps the flaw of ORBX is that they show Athens how we would like it to be. :D
What I am not very sure about this product is the value for money, at least for my personal style.
Is it really worth spending a substantial amount in something that won't even touch my flying experience? Is the digital landscape that important or it's the flying thing (planning, landing, navigation etc) that counts?
Perhaps for bush flyers it's the landscape, while for me it's better to have more accurate airports (thus I purchase add-on sceneries).
In any case I think that FTXG is something positive for our hobby and if complemented with accurate landclass and continuous upgrades and support will definitely be something that I'll consider. However for my personal preferences it's not a day one purchase (like LGTS once released)!
My 2 Euro cents (don't have more) ;)
No, the difference between this and other landclass products is that this is not a landclass product...
Did you install a service pack to your FSX? It changes a lot of those desert textures.
Of course (SP2), but still default Greece has nothing to do with reality!
Obviously breaks what exactly? They are replacing default textures and adding custom autogen so I cannot imagine what would be "broken" if the same FSX landclass is used.
BTW you have it wrong with regards to mapping calls to textures from landclass, slope calls etc. It's not terrain.cfg but lclookup.bgl. Looks like your developer's hat is falling off maybe?
No to both. It's a texture replacement addon, but you have not realised that yet, like most other here.
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