• La

    I have a slightly impopular opinion, but I think that IPACS actually kind of bugged up with all the possibilities to make our own sceneries. That makes the market for companies like ORBX smaller.

    I don't think the problem comes from there.

    If we take the example of XP11, many private developers have produced free scenes or planes, and that did not disturb ORBX, quite the contrary, by seeing all that they have created for XP11 in so little of time!

    And in my opinion, this is no longer a question of profitability, (This excuse is rather an ill-founded argument to silence the critics) The most likely thing, is that they simply had a choice to make, and they decided so.

    What is most regrettable with ORBX is to have hoped for more than a year projects for AFS 2 one way.

    And as admin says

    But with the new simulator around the corner, they could reconsider, we'll see.

    But seeing, as things are moving forward greatly for 2020, I fear that they will sooner or later reverse their decisions.

    Best wishes 😉

    Pascal

    AFS2 / FS4 / MSFS / - Intel(R) Core i7 -12800HX 4.80 GHz - DDR5 4800MHz 32 Go - NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti 8 GB GDDR6X - 2x 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4

  • I also doubt IPACS bugged up here because imho so far none of the user made sceneries come close to what Orbx has delivered.

    Luckily France VFR is coming aboard now which means we will get some high quality new scenery anyway! :)

  • From experience with FSX, France VFR is really a very good choice and come at the right time for AFS 2,:thumbup: which I hope will give us a new breath for this SIM.;)

    Best wishes 😉

    Pascal

    AFS2 / FS4 / MSFS / - Intel(R) Core i7 -12800HX 4.80 GHz - DDR5 4800MHz 32 Go - NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti 8 GB GDDR6X - 2x 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4

  • Anyone have a link for France VFR for Aerofly FS2?

    Wait a little bit, is scheduled for February... but you know what schedules are when finalizing airports.

    Some WIP

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • We are also a little disappointed Orbx has stopped Aerofly FS development for now. Porting Orbx UK over to Aerofly FS wouldn't be too difficult and we have also offered our help. But we of course understand their decision from their point of view. But with the new simulator around the corner, they might reconsider, we will see.

    In my personal opinion...

    1. ORBX missed the boat with the UK when they stopped because of the lack of airports. They surely could have recovered some of their investment by simply releasing a lower-cost product that provided the ortho and cultivation. They could have stated it was being offered at lower cost because they were leaving the airports up to the fans with fsCloudPort. Instead they shelved it, and thus recovered not one cent of their development money in the AFS2 version. If Taburet can sell only cultivation and mesh, ORBX could have sold the ortho and their version of cultivation. They would have made money, and the fans would have embraced it willingly.

    2. I would not write off TrueEarth photoscenery yet. There will be a lot of people who do not have the bandwidth to use Microsoft's new sim, and many more whose computers won't handle it either. These people may yet flock to AFS2 as a viable alternative, and that could draw ORBX back to us in a fast hurry. This is one reason I decided to include an AFS2 article in my series "on an older computer" at Flightsim.com.

    - Kenneth

  • Given we have a very good representation available for the UK thanks to IZ0JUB & TomSimMuc, I would love for Orbx to release one or two of their UK airports as a tester. Having the likes of Edinburgh, Cardiff and London City would create a great base for the UK. I realise there are commercial reasons for their current development strategy and I have no idea of the level of effort involved in porting these current airports to AF2 but doing so may spark an uptake of their product and AF2 in general which could make TEGB more of a viable future implementation. This also makes sense if it is true that development has not been cancelled for this region.

  • I have only in the last two days purchased and installed Aerofly FS2 having run FSX and X-Plane for many years and I have to say it is an absolute revelation for someone who just wants to FLY! I am a bit cynical of Microsoft using the release of FS 2020 to promote XBox and Windows 10, and I have found X-Plane 11 a disappointment - it is sluggish and 'dumbed down' compared to previous releases. As for ORBX and True Earth, I installed True Earth GB for X-Plane but only really found the additional buildings and landmarks worthwhile. In fact I replaced the ORBX Orthophotography with the Horizon VFR Scenery textures for X-Plane 9/10. Flying over New York in FS2 blows anything ORBX have done away in my opinion. If IPACS can produce scenery of the calibre of NE USA I don't think we should get too hung up about ORBX not continuing to support Aerofly products. I look forward to installing UK scenery from the FS2 community - who knows I might have a go at adding some myself.

  • Not going to lie to you, I'm looking to pick up TE GB for X-Plane 11 in the next Orbx sale along with some of their excellent UK based airports. This won't be replacing AF2 but will scratch that itch when I want to get low down in the UK. I really do wish Orbx would develop more for AF2 as I like the performance and immediacy of AF2.

  • Not going to lie to you, I'm looking to pick up TE GB for X-Plane 11 in the next Orbx sale along with some of their excellent UK based airports. This won't be replacing AF2 but will scratch that itch when I want to get low down in the UK. I really do wish Orbx would develop more for AF2 as I like the performance and immediacy of AF2.

    I've got most of these (full set of TE for UK, plus most UK airports). I still fly mostly AF2 for VR, with the community supplied UK scenery, which is awesome. In a lot of cases, I find the texture quality of the community stuff here actually better than TE. There's nowhere near the amount of 3D objects, of course, but it's definitely usable.

    I've done a few comparison flights, trying to do the same flight in both, and it's a close thing to be honest. Personally speaking, I prefer the fluidity of AF2 over the "extras" in XP11, e.g. global traffic, moving cars etc. Before buying the whole lot, you might want to try just one first to see if it's for you.

    Having said all this, it's partly because I'm almost exclusively VR these days and XP still struggles in that regard, at least for now. VR in X-Plane with TE at ORBX airports will slow the frame rate right down to the point of being distracting. Which never happens in AF2.

    I still prefer the systems aspect of XP11, but of course, flying a tuber at 35,000 feet kind of negates a lot of the stuff you get with TE :)

  • Thanks for your insight.

    Yup, I installed the South England demo area in XP11 and I like the immersion it provides. I wasn't expectng much in the way of differing ground textures given they mostly all share the same sources but the additional modelling of areas and airports is the main attraction, especially for someone more casual like myself. It's more the region that is driving this as my local airport is Edinburgh which Orbx provide a great version of. I'll probably start with GB North and Edinburgh then if liking that, grab the rest of the UK and main airports.

    Don't get me wrong, I do like flying over the area in AF2 and was looking to try and create a respectable version of Edinburgh airport myself at some point if freetime allows but then I would be looking to do the same with the likes of London City, Cardiff etc. - all of which are available from Orbx just now.

    I'm also not flying in VR at the moment. Something I will likely explore as the tech and sims mature as I don't have enough ime to justify the purchase at the moment.

  • Thanks for your insight.

    Yup, I installed the South England demo area in XP11 and I like the immersion it provides. I wasn't expectng much in the way of differing ground textures given they mostly all share the same sources but the additional modelling of areas and airports is the main attraction, especially for someone more casual like myself. It's more the region that is driving this as my local airport is Edinburgh which Orbx provide a great version of. I'll probably start with GB North and Edinburgh then if liking that, grab the rest of the UK and main airports.

    Don't get me wrong, I do like flying over the area in AF2 and was looking to try and create a respectable version of Edinburgh airport myself at some point if freetime allows but then I would be looking to do the same with the likes of London City, Cardiff etc. - all of which are available from Orbx just now.

    I'm also not flying in VR at the moment. Something I will likely explore as the tech and sims mature as I don't have enough ime to justify the purchase at the moment.

    That all makes sense. For non-VR VFR flying, the TE stuff is terrific. In fact it's great anyway - I just prefer AF2 for VR and that's most of my flying at the moment. But yeah, the quality of the airports is very impressive.

  • My local airport is Southampton, but my favorite from ORBX for X-Plane would be London City. Sure it would be nice to have these airports available in FS2 but it isn't essential. For me (and I suspect many flight simmers) FS2 wins hands down for giving the feeling of actually flying (whether in VR or not) because of its high frame rates and fluidity. If you want to fly to or from your local airport in detail you have two choices - buy and use the scenery for X-Plane or have a go at creating your own in FS2.