FTX England/Scotland = Disappointment!

[ronnie.d 4]

 

I do not usually leave bad reviews but the way FTX has promoted their products with some high quality screen shots made me spend my hard earned savings to try some of their products. I was fairly 'happy' with Iceland demo and decided to buy England and Scotland expansion pack but both of them turned out to be nothing but utter disappointment (Scotland more so than England).

 

I don't know if it's my settings or if it's in general I didn't notice a huge ground scenery improvements in both day and night mode.

 

 

- Vegetation and farm lands are not as vibrant in colour as it looks in some of their screenshots. 

- Big cities like London/Edinburgh looks considerably dark in the night mode. Even in day mode London doesn't appear to be as big and as dynamic it should be.

- Edinburgh's very very poorly laid out with car parks appear to be flat mesh of multiple colours and motorways that are not distinguishable from above giving you a feeling that cars are running on flat empty ground.

 

 

However, it's not all bad as buildings and textures around some airports seem to have improved dramatically. And in some cases there are some water crafts, cruises, and vessels that matches real life, i.e., Cruise ship to Amsterdam standing at Tyne mouth, Shields Ferry etc. but again the quality of the models aren't great. 

 

 

I am yet to explore the Pennies, Highlands, and Lake District but my first impression was 'complete waste of money'! 

 

It seems the developers haven't put as much effort in designing this part of the Europe as they have for some of the American and Asia Pacific regions. Or may be just the quality of FTX in general is not that good?!

 

I was planning to buy other FTX products but I will certainly not after such a let down. Now I am thinking I should have listened to other's advice and should have gone for a software like Open VFR.

 

This is not just some criticism thrown at Orbx but I am genuinely disappointed with what I expected and I have got.

 

 

[dtmicro 1]

Try Central and/or Northern Rockies, it has a unique flavor to it that I think works most of the time.

 

I agree, Scotland left a lot to be desired, looked very amateurish. The textures they used reminded me of an early 2000's video game. Their best region so far that I've seen is Alaska, Pacific Fjords, Central & Northern Rockies, and Pacific Northwest (but I don't own Australia, own NZ but haven't tried it yet). Though thus far I am definitely partial to Central and Northern Rockies over the other areas, simply because the texturing just doesn't feel quite as repetetive as their other areas. Alaska and PNW and PFJ look too similar IMO, other than the PR areas. I know those areas look similar in real life, but not exactly and it depends where you are. That said, I haven't spent much time flying Alaska, but I was sorely dissapointed in Orbx - Alaska from the time I did spend in it, it was like a BIG ho-hum, ho-hum to me.

 

I just like CRM and NRM the best for some reason...

 

I am bias'd since I started fiddling with building stuff, and I was impressed with Orbx at first. However, after flying it for a while, it just becomes way way too repetetive, unless you are willing to fork out money for all the different airports in which get some photoreal coverage, I find their tiling and scenery leaves a lot to be desired. From my perspective, other than the few PR coverage zones, I am done with Orbx stuff for now (maybe).

 

I might still buy a few airports. I didn't even buy FTX Global, cause I don't want the same repetitive textures across half the world

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Some users have been critical of ENG and SCO.  I don't live there so I have to reserve some opinion.  I find it works nicely for me however.  I like it.

 

However, dtmicro is totally correct the best sceneries are the West Coast series of NA.  I personally love the AU series and the NZ regions as well.

 

The Orbx textures are by far the best available IMHO.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

The EU regions were done by a different development team (SIM720). IMHO, their work improved considerably from ENG to SCO.

[ADamiani 470]

I strongly suggest to try Australia: I have been there (Western Australia) and I can asure you those sceneries actually convey the right feeling. I am also quite happy with PNW and the Rockies. I didn't buy New Zealand and Europe, so I can't tell.

[dave2013 1,123]

This is the "umpteenth" time I've read negative reviews of ORBX UK stuff, so I've decided that I'm not going to purchase any of the UK or Ireland scenery packages.

 

Unfortunately, when you contract out work like ORBX did, you run the risk that the contractor won't perform as agreed or expected. In this case I think the SIM720 team's work just isn't on par with the other ORBX developers who did the USA scenery.

 

I'm looking forward to openLC Europe and will definitely be getting it as I'm 99% certain it will be an overall improvement of Europe in FSX.  With the accurate landclass and custom Europe-centric textures being developed for it, I'm thinking that I won't even miss not having the full scenery packages for the UK and Ireland.  I hope I'm right.

 

Dave

[snowingairlines 20]

England was a miss for ORBX, but all of the north america work that I have bought are superb. There is nothing quite like the approach through the valley into CZST. CRM is also amazing, and the textures do a great job of matching the feel of the region. If you still have a little money left over get one of the North America regions, you will not regret it. In the future, it is also worth keeping in mind that the advertising shots are not what you should expect. It is worth expecting 10-20% less than that, because whoever is taking the shots might slew to a spot crank up the setting, and then take the shot while getting 5fps.

[Q_flyer 766]

I agree that EU ENG was a let down (and I've not re-installed it, after a recent FSX rebuild) but I think EU SCO was a huge step up and I think it's a beautiful FTX region;  on a par with PNW and CRM easily.   Perhaps you're not flying to the right places in SCO;  try the Hebrides islands, Orkneys and Shetlands, and the northern coast areas.  It's not as impressive around Glasgow, Edinburgh or the lower highlands IMHO.

 

ENG was just a miss for me;  a big shame when it's your home country.

 

My fave FTX area overall is the mighty Australia (SP4), which has so much variety and scope, it's unreal.   I do like CRM too.           I was not impressed at all with NZ;  the texturing looks cartoonish in both those regions to me. I'll also go out on a limb in saying that, unlike CRM, the FTX PNW region is starting to look dated now, especially the (very repetitive) textures that sit below the autogen trees.

 

4 years ago I would have said that anything Orbx release was insta-buy, but now I think they're a mixed bag and I haven't bought a region since FTX Global and doubt I will.

[PDX Flyer 111]

I feel I must come to the defense of Orbx.  So far, I own PNW, N. Rockies, Central Rockies, and S. New Zealand, so I do have a few areas to compare Scotland to.

 

I read from another thread (Best addons of 2013) on the FSX forum that several folks listed Scotland as one of their favorites during 2013.  Based on this, I pony-upped the dollars to purchase Scotland.  As far as an area that is fun to fly and what I think has the most detail of any scenery addon Orbx has done, I for one would highly recommend SCO.  No scenery is perfect and is identical to the real world, including PNW.

 

So I give Scotland a big thumbs up!

[ronnie.d 4]

 

[Arismac 10]

There is just one serious problem with all this. ORBX have ONLY released FTX Global for Prepar3D. You MUST install FTX Global Patch v1.2. All other Orbx product has been released for Prepar3D ONLY.

[rlkjmt73 7]

There is just one serious problem with all this. ORBX have ONLY released FTX Global for Prepar3D. You MUST install FTX Global Patch v1.2. All other Orbx product has been released for Prepar3D ONLY.

 

????

 

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly.  What it looks like to me is you've stated that Orbx released FTX Global and all of their products for Prepar3D ONLY.  I have FTX Global (and all updates ...v1.2) and a lot of other Orbx products for FSX.

 

Am I missing something in your above statement?

 

Safe Flyin'

Rod

[Arismac 10]

 

Am I missing something in your above statement?

 

Safe Flyin'

Rod

 

G'day Rod,

 

The OP has gone to some length to review a product that is either

 

1) Not yet released for Prepar3D v2.0 OR

2) Has been in use in Prepar3D v1.4 for over 15 months.

 

He then supplied a link from a discussion on Prepar3D v2.0. I therefore suggest that his "review" lacks credibility.

[Hirdy2013 104]

I agree that EU ENG was a let down (and I've not re-installed it, after a recent FSX rebuild) but I think EU SCO was a huge step up and I think it's a beautiful FTX region;  on a par with PNW and CRM easily.   Perhaps you're not flying to the right places in SCO;  try the Hebrides islands, Orkneys and Shetlands, and the northern coast areas.  It's not as impressive around Glasgow, Edinburgh or the lower highlands IMHO.

 

ENG was just a miss for me;  a big shame when it's your home country.

 

My fave FTX area overall is the mighty Australia (SP4), which has so much variety and scope, it's unreal.   I do like CRM too.           I was not impressed at all with NZ;  the texturing looks cartoonish in both those regions to me. I'll also go out on a limb in saying that, unlike CRM, the FTX PNW region is starting to look dated now, especially the (very repetitive) textures that sit below the autogen trees.

 

4 years ago I would have said that anything Orbx release was insta-buy, but now I think they're a mixed bag and I haven't bought a region since FTX Global and doubt I will.

Dave,

 

I do agree with what you say about EU. I have it (well I own all the ORBX sceneries) and I think it is an improvement on default.

[tonywob 4,768]

England was a massive disappointment after such a huge hype before its release. I could see something was wrong initially when I requested screenshots for an area I know well, and when I got them, so much was missing (major landmarks like bridges, power plants) that I just added the "looks great" remark and moved on (at the risk of being banned). Being a big fan on PNW/AUS and NZ, I went ahead and bought it, but didn't like it at all. Things I noticed on it

• Roads just ran of the end of cliffs, as well as fields. 
• So many missing landmarks, especially on approach to some major airports
• The trees looked weird, especially the weird purple smudge everywhere which is still there (after several updates)
• Large empty areas, i.e. Where there should be houses, it's just a textureless green colour.
• Many iconic areas unrecognisable, e.g. White Cliffs at Dover and the port, etc.
• Incompatibility with VFR France and additional problems.

Things I did like:

• The flow stuff at the default airports
• The sandbanks were quite good.
• They did fix some of the things I reported.

I also purchased Wales which was again a big disappointment, but I really like Scotland it was a huge step up. Not just because the scenery is generally more interesting, but the textures, colours and feel were so much better. I still often return and use it, but I haven't bothered with the remaining Northern Ireland and Ireland Regions (Should be one). And since then, haven't purchased anything else from ORBX. 

 

People say the disappointment stems from the fact that we are critical of areas we know well. But in this case, I don't think this is true. Scotland wasn't 100% accurate and had missing landmarks etc, but it had a good feel to it and the textures look good and it felt like Scotland. England and Wales looked too cartoony, wrong textures, and just full of general sloppiness. everywhere.