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Monday, June 10, 2013

Orbx FTX NCA Coverage Area Finalized!


FSX/P3D. Well, per Holger Sandmann of Orbx, it looks like the coverage area for FTX Northern California has been finalized! The area is quite large and reaches slightly south of Fresno, California. The developer is aiming for release late this year. See inside for the finalized coverage map.

Quote exert regarding FTX Northern California from Holger Sandmann as posted on the developers forum:
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"Northern California is in the works and we hope to release it towards the end of this year. Its coverage area has been finalized and reaches to just south of Fresno..."
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Finalized coverage area - Orbx FTX Northern California:


See the actual forum thread - click here (forum membership required to view thread)

24 comments:

Taylor said...

I was hoping that they would do Southern California instead, but this selection isn't bad. At least they are covering quite a large area.

Anonymous said...

Hoping they eventually cover Southern Rockies (Utah, Eastern Nevada, and Western Colorado).

flynw said...

would love to see them do the East Coast but cant complain about anything they do.

Todd said...

Based on what I've been reading on the Orbx forums, both Southern California and the Southern Rockies will be done. No release date has been set, so I think we're looking at 1-3 years.

Anonymous said...

holger Sandmann is one of the most talented terrain designer in the FSX scene.
too bad he got associated with orbx.

DAndre Newman said...

So that means Yosemite and Kings Canyon will be covered! Awesome news! Now we just need Orbx quality airfields in the area...

Sid said...

I'd agree with the first part of your comment, Holger has played a legendary role in this industry, which is why I'm replying. But the rest of my reply is not directed at you personally but rather using you as a general example initially and making a wider point further down regarding the lack of respect for developers and other posters we see these days in a non-constructive criticism, assumptions about what other posters think and buy without knowing them personally, which devs they actually support and respecting their own valid viewpoints as the same as one's own. There's a difference between criticism that's meant in a constructive and cohesive manner for the community and that in a destructive and divisive one that serves noone. I don't really see what you've got so much against Orbx? Probably, the usual feeble arguments. Which Orbx products have you actually bought that has made you jump on this old band wagon. It can get boring after a while. Try having thoughts of you're own, let them differ without caring that others will also see things in a different way but insulting or criticising other developers in a DERROGATORY AND UNCONSTRUCTIVE WAY (often without any real provable reason)or insulting other posters' viewpoints and making a bunch of assumptions about people you don't know (not that you personally did that in this post but simply stating that so many do these days) means absolutely nothing and warrants no reply whilst just saying a lot about you personally, whether you put a name to your comment or not. Go on then, feel free to bring on the insult if it makes you feel better. Its no skin of my nose but if I've got you wrong and you wish to extrapolate in a sensible, evidence-based manner meant to be constructive, I firstly apologise in advance and secondly, nobody will mind that. It's all the same to me as its about you anon and not aimed as an insult I assure you. But I don't reply to personal criticisms as a rule as its not important to me. I only replied here to join you in solidarity of respect for Holger Sandmann, to question if there was some really valid reason you said that about ORBX without explanation, and to make a general comment regarding lack of room many people seem to show these days for others with differing standpoints for being in this hobby and their justifiably different viewpoints as a result. How can it grow and evolve for the better and greater good of all involved without this acceptance? If my thoughts do come across as too strong in any way, I will completely understand if its not posted personally or moved somewhere else but I would just finalise by reiterating it mentions no names, is not solely meant for anon above and is very general and only meant in the spirit of community cohesiveness which I feel is important in a fragile industry as this potentially could be if we don't help it, nurture it and look after it. Thank you kindly to you and all in the community. No offense to anyone, truly. Lets all speak our different minds freely and respectfully but keeping in mind of some of these issues perhaps, myself included of course. Rant over.lol.

Best regards,
Sid

Anonymous said...

Well said Sid!

Anonymous said...

DAMN IT! I'm going to need a larger hard drive.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sid,

I will be frank with you and admit that I did not read your entire rant, because it is what it is - a rant. I have no idea if you're associated with ORBX or not, but I have been let down by their sceneries one too many times.
their ability to take amazing screenshots have made me buy one too many of their products only to be let down by OOM's, terrain bugs/blurries etc`.

I'm running a pretty solid system (3770k @ 4.5ghz / 16GB of RAM, an nvidia GTX 670 and a Samsung 840pro dedicated to fsx) and still get poor performance and image quality.


p3.

Anonymous said...

OOMs are operator error bro, never had one before and I run NGX through PNW and FSDT YVR at 4096 texture resolution. Nothing wrong with ORBX sceneries, something wrong with sim operator.

Anonymous said...

Pairing this with FB SFO is the first step! :D I agree though, would be nice to see some airfields done, perhaps even SJC, SMF, or FAT.

John said...

"Holger Sandmann is one of the best terrain designers in the FSX scene"......

I think you fail to understand that the FIRST ever FSX terrain product Holger worked on was for Orbx for Australia. Until then he was mainly working on FS9 projects.

If Holger's association with Orbx is so counter productive then why have they become the leading landclass terrain scenery developer in the world? I would think that Holger is happier being with Orbx that he was before he joined their team.

But as Sid said above, you comment is just another cheap shot at Orbx for nothing more than attracting attention to yourself or pushing some grievance.

Anonymous said...

care to share your FSX.CFG and computer specs with us, mister no OOM ?

Mr. No OOM said...

Well I have an i7 2600K @ 4.6ghz, a GTX560Ti, and 16GB of memory. I run an untweaked CFG with the exception of HIGHMEMFIX. Avsim tweaks just screw my system up. With all that I don't get OOMs. I also don't try and push my system further than it should go. No insane LOD. Reasonable AI. 2048 cloud textures

Todd said...

Well stated, sid. I don't get the negativity toward Orbx, as they are one of the most open developers out there. I run P3D with FTX Central Rockies and KJAC, OPUS, RC4, and REX cloud textures at 1024 (only b/c HD clouds don't look realistic to me), AI at 60%, with the Majestic Q400 and never get OOMs. I run my I3770k at 4.5 GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX 660Ti, and run off a SSD.

Todd

Anonymous said...

They've already started working on the east coast, mainly the north east.

JayZee said...

Anybody can run a system without OOMs if you tone things all the way down. Orbx recommends a Mesh Complexity of 100, Mesh Resolution of 5 m, Terrain Resolution of 7 cm and Scenery Complexity set at Extremely Dense. There is no way that one can fly an NGX in PNW with 4096 CYVR at that setting without OOMs unless you're running DX10.

No OOMs Here Too said...

I think you conveniently picked parts of the Orbx manuals that talk about extreme settings, when in fact they mostly tell you to avoid ED autogen, far weather, heavy traffic and they also have a table indexed to PC hardware for slider settings. Their manuals specifically warn against sliders to the right.

Who in their right mind would even try to run the NGX with autogen higher than Dense, and use 4096 textures and other memory hogging addons? You're just asking for trouble. The NGX over a desert island already is a memory hog, so your statement is ridiculous.

High mesh and terrain settings do NOT use more memory; those sliders will only display textures at that resolution if they are found, and Orbx uses standard FSX sized 1024 textures for all their products. Blame OOMs on weather addons and airport designers who use 4096 sheets which do nothing to make their addons looks better outside marketing screenshots. So how is Orbx to be blamed if NONE of their products uses 4096 sheets but still look fantastic? Even Russ White with his 1cm/pixel airports uses bog-standard texture sheets. Why do you think MS resets that limit back to 1024 every time? Because running it at 4096 causes OOMs - doh!!

Another cause of OOMs is having too many Windows processes running. If you spent a little bit of time on searching some basic Windows tuning sites you would know that more than half the windows services can be disabled which frees up both memory and CPU cycles. Also you shoudl disable windows indexing.

But this is basic stuff anyone serious about simming should already know. Complaining about OOMs simply highlights your own ineptitude at managing your PC for simming, or using a combination of texture heavy addons and then blaming Orbx for your dog of a collection of addons trying to make the NGX fly through a treacle of badly developed products.

TechWhizz said...

"But this is basic stuff anyone serious about simming should already know. Complaining about OOMs simply highlights your own ineptitude at managing your PC for simming, or using a combination of texture heavy addons and then blaming Orbx for your dog of a collection of addons trying to make the NGX fly through a treacle of badly developed products."

You seem as clueless as the person you seem to be berating with your post. If you had a clue, then you would know that OOMs in FSX and P3D are due to the 32-bit code being limited to using 3 GB of memory on a 32-bit OS and 4 GB of memory on a 64-bit OS.

If you have 16 GB of RAM in your PC, then that still leaves 12 GB for windows services, such as indexing etc., which is more than enough. There is no need to turn these off!

According to you, all add-ons but those from Orbx qualify as "badly developed"? Not so, since FlyTampa Dubai does a way better job at running without OOMs than any Orbx or FSDT airport, and this is with everything maxed out. In comparison the large Orbx airports are frame rate challenged and FSDT created a nightmare of an airport with CYVR.

TechWhizz said...

Try CYVR with PNW at those settings and I guarantee you'll have an OOM when on final approach or just after landing.

flynw said...

sweet, hopefully one day they will get as far as VA

Sid said...

Thanks Todd! I've got not de-similar specs from you: slightly slower processor, GTX 680 and also run off SSDs. I can't say I've got CYVR only because I'm not sure if it'll perform well enough after reading so many negative comments regarding its performance but maybe I should try the demo some time to see. However, my NGX or Q400 runs fine in PNW regions everyone's mentioning.

You know, I only wanted to point out to anonymous way up there that just an insult to this leading developer (speaks for itself) or any other developer, leading or fledgling with no personal explanation at all for his particular reasons just has no purpose.

He did seem to offer more then, which I thought was great whatever it was, as its certainly allowed the dialogue to continue and even enlightened a few folks around the subject at hand, or whatever but at least we're talking about something more than just sniping with no value.

And my sentiments for ORBX lie with yours...I have all their regions so far and also a few US and Aussie airfields/airports and I'm so very delighted with them. I don't have OOMs in these areas and also run 1024 REX clouds. I don't have Opus but really am tempted to try but don't know how good it is for weather so if you could enlighten me I'd be grateful. But the point I'd make to anon is that I'm certainly not affiliated to ORBX in any other way than as a customer. If you asked JV who I was anon, he'd say he never heard of me as I've only registered and started posting on their forums, which I might add are very pleasant and friendly and as Todd says, open indeed, a few weeks ago, though I'd been following and purchasing for some time longer. And I registered cos I'm very impressed about the fabulous idea that is FTX Global but now find it enjoyable, friendly and useful in general. Well said Todd...Anyone who has any doubts in the openness, standards, constant readiness to fix, philosophy of engaging their business with the community and their customers just needs to go on their forum, no need to sign up, and take one read of John Venemas exemplary June news update regarding FTX Global. Let me know about Opus vs. REX or AS2012 for weather if you have a moment Todd. It'll be appreciated. Cheers buddy!

Kind regards,
Sid

Random Name said...

That's the beauty of patched DX10, the ability run a setup you say I can't run, but still do without OOMs. Yes, 32-bit code holds up the sim, but there are ways to get around it. Tune your system right, and you won't have OOMs. OOMs are simply the result of poor system/sim management.

Regardless, this topic has been hijacked by another ORBX hater even though ORBX sceneries provide plenty of options to help avoid OOMs and has obviously not set up their sim properly to have such an extensive list of issues, thus, this whole over-beaten topic shouldn't have even been brought up in this thread...

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