Some GEX - FTX Global comparisons

[Phillip Gallagher 101]

It sounds like there are a lot of people underwhelmed by FTXG.  Therefore,  I'm going to stick to GEX for now.  I was hoping for more of w wow factor with FTXG! 

[Guest]

 

 

I was hoping for more of w wow factor with FTXG!

 

I most certainly was wow'd...! But I don't own GEX which made it easy for me.

[xplanery 250]

 

 

It sounds like there are a lot of people underwhelmed by FTXG.  Therefore,  I'm going to stick to GEX for now.  I was hoping for more of w wow factor with FTXG! 

Really it just depends a lot from where you fly, in green areas FTX Global is just superior in my opinion while GEX does some dry areas better (with cost of some green areas looking too dry). 

 

Anyway I believe there's no doubt that FTX Global + OpenLC packs will be way superior to GEX as they finally add more variation to FSX world. 

[dave2013 1,142]

I've had FTX Global for 4 days now and so far I love it.

 

I've flown around various areas around world, e.g. England, Italy, Egypt, India, Southeast U.S., and the Southwest U.S., and the scenery looks generally better and more realistic than what I saw with default and GEX textures.  I'm just using the default landclass.

 

It is true that Arizona is too green.  It is now clear that either the semi desert shrubs texture that gets called for the Southwest U.S. region needs to be modified, or a different texture needs to be called which would require a landclass modification.  California and New Mexico look OK, so I'm pretty sure this green texture is the result of the *entire* state of Arizona, or most of it, being located in the Southwest U.S. region.

 

I believe that ORBX is looking to fix this issue.

 

In the meantime, I'm having a blast flying around Tennessee in my Cessna 210 and seeing scenery that finally looks *very* close to the way it looks in real life.

[PDX Flyer 111]

First thanks to FSCamp for going to all the effort to do this comparison. I can only speak for myself in that the shots seem to be in areas where most of us don't fly?

 

I wonder what the shots would have looked like comparing more populated areas of North America and Europe, etc. Maybe this would be a fairer test to either keep GEX or buy FSX Global.

 

From what I have seen so far, I am heavily leaning on buying FSX Global early next week.

 

Happy Flying!

[DickB 6]

I'd hazard a guess that those that are saying that FTXG looks much better than GEX do their flying mainly in US, where GEX is due a major update (in plan I believe). I don't have GEX US, but the difference between FTXG and GEX EU looks to me fairly marginal right now.

[mmann 72]

I have Ground Environment X North America, but I do all my flying in northern Canada and Coastal British Columbia. For BC I use Orbx PNW which is unbeatable for the area it covers. For northern Canada I found FTX Global too green so I did a disk recovery with Acronis True Image and went back to GEX NA.

This is temporary; once Orbx puts out an update (with an uninstaller) and releases openLC for North America, I will replace GEX.

[robmw 22]

As to NickN's comments re FTXG method of overwriting textures - I've known Nick for quite a while and he just tells it like it is. People are reading WAY to much drama into his post.

 

+1

 

I have both of these products and want to be able to use either as I see fit. I keep a 'mirror' of my main FSX install and using file comparison software can see EXACTLY what changes have been made - I always do this for a major install which might alter core FSX files as I like to have control over my FSX installation, not the other way around.

 

I can say for a fact that FTX Global does alter core FSX files such as those in the autogen folder, the key lclookup.bgl file and terrain.cfg. ORBX have said as much in their forums in describing the changes necessary to support their way of 'extending' FSX. What isn't made so explicit is the effect this may have on other products and as it stands restoring any saved textures backed up by the FTX Global installer won't return everything to its pre-installed state. As the new FTX Central app no longer has the default option which used to perform this function it's impossible at the time of writing to return to a pre-installed state unless the affected files were carefully backed up by the user.

 

I note that Orbx have said they will release a full uninstaller. I will test this once it's available and I hope that will resolve the issue of how to fully revert to another global texture product. I would have much preferred the old default option in FTX Central to have been retained in some form though.

 

This from a long time purchaser and user of most Orbx and all GEX and UTX products and one who can see the point Nick is making.

 

Rob W

[benclark 0]

Surprised they didn't do anything about the water textures since this is a texture update, that alone is underwhelming given how most of the Earth's surface is water.

[DickB 6]

+1

 

I have both of these products and want to be able to use either as I see fit. I keep a 'mirror' of my main FSX install and using file comparison software can see EXACTLY what changes have been made - I always do this for a major install which might alter core FSX files as I like to have control over my FSX installation, not the other way around.

 

I can say for a fact that FTX Global does alter core FSX files such as those in the autogen folder, the key lclookup.bgl file and terrain.cfg. ORBX have said as much in their forums in describing the changes necessary to support their way of 'extending' FSX. What isn't made so explicit is the effect this may have on other products and as it stands restoring any saved textures backed up by the FTX Global installer won't return everything to its pre-installed state. As the new FTX Central app no longer has the default option which used to perform this function it's impossible at the time of writing to return to a pre-installed state unless the affected files were carefully backed up by the user.

 

I note that Orbx have said they will release a full uninstaller. I will test this once it's available and I hope that will resolve the issue of how to fully revert to another global texture product. I would have much preferred the old default option in FTX Central to have been retained in some form though.

 

This from a long time purchaser and user of most Orbx and all GEX and UTX products and one who can see the point Nick is making.

 

Rob W

 

Pretty much as I expected. Are you able to list all the files changed, Rob ? Or are there too many ?

[xplanery 250]

 

 

First thanks to FSCamp for going to all the effort to do this comparison. I can only speak for myself in that the shots seem to be in areas where most of us don't fly?

 

Yeah I had only GEX Africa and Tropics installed when I did the comparison, thus no comparison shots from other areas.

[rsperge 182]

Well, I have been a big supporter of Nic, and with his expertise and guidance about fsx, he seems right on the ball.!!!!  Yes I do have GEX, and of course Nick is trying to hold the fort, and I am also happy with utx, I am still out on the fence with this new addon, especially when they do not have an uninstaller, and also changing my files with fsx.  In addition GEX will be having a major update of North America upon readin Nicks comments, so I jkust might hold out and wait,  $100.00 its a lot of money.!!!  If it was less, like $50.00 then I would go for it.

[vgbaron 3,714]

Which product suits you is an individual call. What I do have a problem with is the difficult if not impossible uninstall process for FTXG.  They have said they are coming out with a dedicated installer and that will be a good thing. IMHO, the release should have been delayed until the uninstaller was complete. There might be quite a few people who will get a big surprise when they try to restore to the previous state.

 

Doesn't make FTXG a bad product, just think it could have been done a little "friendlier" for the user. For me, using it in P3D, it's a snap to simply restore my original P3D install - FSX users with tons of installed add-ons might have it more difficult should they want to revert.

 

Vic

[mmann 72]

 

 

FSX users with tons of installed add-ons might have it more difficult should they want to revert.

 

Thankfully I had a disk image I had done with Acronis True Image.

[benclark 0]

I'd say imho any product that comes out with no uninstaller but a promise to add one later is unfinished and not ready for release. But then that's also almost certainly part of the thinking behind the OpenLC packs, allowing them to release the textures now and then bits and pieces of the world as and when they finish them simply because trying to finish a project as large as this in one go would easily take over a year (probably two) even with the development team they have on hand.

 

As rsperge said if the base textures were only $50 I might be tempted but for $100 I'm not. Wait a year or two for all the OpenLC packs to come out and you'll probably be able to buy a finally completed product for that initial $100 and it would be reasonable. But that's just the two cents of a poor pig farmer, your mileage financial and otherwise will vary.