Orbx Previews Eagle County

  • I called up Google Maps and used the distance feature. It is a little over 30 miles East to West. J van E must have eyesight like an eagle if he can see from one side to the other, or else he is flying so high that scenery should not matter. :P


    Well, thanks for that picture, Ray! I decided to fly that 'flight' you drew from right to left (it was easy to find it in AFS2) and boy, I was totally wrong when it came to the size of this addon! That coverage map gave me a totally wrong impression! I started of above Eagles Nest on the right and by the time I was at Edwards I found out that instead of having flown over the entire area that is covered in the addon (I thought that was about it), I wasn't even half way! And while the coverage map gave me the idea it was mostly green and trees out there I noticed in AFS2 there are LOTS and LOTS of houses, villages, etc. out there. I do presume that the KEGE addon will have 3D stuff all over the place just like with LOWI...? Well, so far it seems the AFS2 screenshots I've seen doesn't do this addon justice: all I saw were shots of the airport...

    Anyway, if this really is the area that is being covered with 'LOWI-similar quality' I will definitely buy it at release day.

  • There is a FSX/P3D version of KEGE, so I would expect the AFS2 edition to be a clone of the area, just look a little better but have less animation and people.


    Regards,

    Ray

    Just read a post from Jarrad saying that it indeed is a clone as far as possible but that it doesn't look a little better but a lot better. Let me quote him here:

    - The terrain engine is much sharper. Ground textures and autogen (cultivation in AFS2 parlance) render more clearly in the middle and far distances. This is particularly great for mountain sceneries; the definition in distant peaks is much better than P3D.

    - Performance is through the roof. Contrary to popular belief, this is not solely due to lack of systems (AI, complex weather etc), but because the IPACS team make it their core mission to make an extremely lean core engine for us to work with. Throwing the kitchen sink at the sim and still getting 200fps (even with VR) does wonders for increasing the sense of immersion.

    - Sloped runways, sharper shadow rendering (compared to P3Dv4), and a few other small improvements all add a little bit of incentive for us P3D developers to try it out.

    He also said this:

    I've tried to keep KEGE as similar to it's P3D counterpart as possible. There will be small differences you may notice - the density of the vegetation is higher, the ground poly "noise" textures are at a higher resolution, and some minor substitutions have been made. And of course the runway is curved in AFS2.

    That's not a little better, that sounds like a LOT better to me!

  • "- The terrain engine is much sharper. Ground textures and autogen (cultivation in AFS2 parlance) render more clearly in the middle and far distances. This is particularly great for mountain sceneries; the definition in distant peaks is much better than P3D."

    This is something that excites me greatly about Orbx sceneries in AFS2. I love mountains. When I first got LOWI for AFS2 and loaded it up, I looked at the mountains and was like "woah!". Orbx doesn't even need to give me an airport, just give me mountains and I'll land wherever I can on them, haha. As much as the official DLC is a step up from the blurry default, Orbx's quality is a step even further up. I seriously can't wait for PNW. We'll see what they pull off for a region.

    - Ashley

    P3D v4 / AFS2 / XP11 | Intel i7-4790K oc'ed @ 4.6GHz | 16GB RAM | 8GB Nvidia GTX1070 | Windows 10 64-bit | Oculus Rift

  • Hi guys, just chiming in quickly as there seems to be a bit of discussion here (and elsewhere) regarding coverage size;

    - KEGE is much larger in coverage area than KMRY

    - KEGE and LOWI are in the same ballpark in terms of coverage area; KEGE is 65km from one edge to the other, versus 70km for LOWI

    - ORBX coverage areas for airports include complete cultivation (buildings, vegetation, 3D lighting). We use a mixture of hand-placement, in-house tools and commercial GIS data for our cultivation, which means it is far more dense and comprehensive than you would get from OSM data. In the case of KEGE, all building and vegetation data was placed by hand, a process that took me about 7 weeks of full-time work :)

    - ORBX airport PR areas are heavily edited, balanced, colourised and cleaned-up from the original source. Again, a great deal of work, but we hope that this correlates with a better-quality product for you guys :)

    Cheers,

    Jarrad

    ORBX Lead Airport Developer: Innsbruck | Palm Springs | Monterey | Eagle County | Jackson Hole

  • Great to hear about the info. Thank you Jarrad!

  • The screenshots are absolutely breathtaking! This is another reason why we need a good helicopter in AFS2.

    Credit card ready

    Redtail

    KFRG, KTEB, KEWR, KLGA

    ~Straighten up and fly right~

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  • Hi guys, just chiming in quickly as there seems to be a bit of discussion here (and elsewhere) regarding coverage size;

    Yes, well, that could be due to me because I totally misinterpreted the scale of the coverage map that was posted elsewhere. So sorry about that... But I've been spreading the good news about KEGE since I found out wrong I was. And I will definitely buy it!

  • Bought it! This time through Orbxdirect. I bought LOWI through Steam because I found it easier to reinstall everything in one go (and the updates appeared faster on Steam than on Orbx), but well, if you buy it at Orbxdirect and buy it again later on for another sim you get a discount...! Now I don't expect to ever buy KEGE for P3D but I do have a long list of Orbx addons for FSX/P3D and whenever they come available for AFS2 (PNW and quite a few PNW airports!) I will buy them through Orbxdirect anyway to get the discount. So I might as well start using FTX Central for AFS2 too. BTW Right now it isn't even available yet on Steam... ;)

    Can't wait to get home and fly over this scenery!

  • Yes, this is a nice addition. I like the fact that we have plenty of upgraded DLC airports close by to add to the immersion. You can takeoff, fly a hundred miles or more and thenenter the Eagle end or the Vail end of the improved Orbx area for some really beautiful valley flying.

    Every time We get one of these new super high resolution areas added I notice how much I miss having a helicopter. I yearn to hear and feel the wop, wop, wop in VR. :P:S:/

    Thanks Jarrad, thanks IPACS.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • I've just done some flying around in it. Stunning work. The autogen is excellent and the mountains are beautiful. Awesome work Jarrad! Can't wait for KJAC and the regions.

    - Ashley

    P3D v4 / AFS2 / XP11 | Intel i7-4790K oc'ed @ 4.6GHz | 16GB RAM | 8GB Nvidia GTX1070 | Windows 10 64-bit | Oculus Rift

  • Yes Ashley, stunning work it is indeed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the STOL airport is long enough to handle takeoffs in the Lear45. I was wondering about the density altitude. My first takeoff was there at the STOL runway heading toward KEGE. What a beautiful scene climbing out over sleepy little Avon and Nottingham Park and Lake with the Beaver Creek ski slopes out the pilots window.

    Eagle-Vail has one of the most scenic golf courses in the state and is a wonderful vacation spot in the Spring and Summer. I guess that is what we have with this IPACS/Orbx scenery here - Summertime in Colorado.

    Highly recommended add on.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • I was looking at Google Maps and comparing that screen to AFS2 and I am so very pleased that Jarrad chose to model the STOL runway as it was back in its day.

    I would trade a Super Wal-mart and Home Depot for a Learjet capable runway with knock you socks off scenery any day.

    Thanks Jarrad.

    Regards,

    Ray