ORBX says "2017 is going to be epic! - large area regional projects will blow minds"

  • New tech on the way for massive streamline production of vast photoreal areas.

    I presume Orbx will be putting the new Geoconvert tool to good use! I am happy with that! Then I can spend my time flying about beautiful scenery instead of creating it! (And I also presume Orbx will be adding detail to the scenery, something we probably can't do right away.)

  • Sounds great! Looking forward to having Orbx in the southwest US for custom autogen and airports. Hope they keep the default AFS2 photoscenery or it would be a no purchase for me.

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    Edited 2 times, last by FlagPilot (May 27, 2017 at 12:19 AM).

  • Er...? I don't know what that links if for but 1. that is not scenery for Aerofly FS 2 and 2. it is NOT the kind of scenery we would like to see in AFS2!!!

    Luckily JV posted on the forum that the regions will be photoreal but he also posted they won't be using the Geoconvert tool and that they will use source material that can be sold legally. So no crappy online stuff with odd colors but quality photoreal! I can't wait to see what they come up with!!!


  • Luckily JV posted on the forum that the regions will be photoreal but he also posted they won't be using the Geoconvert tool and that they will use source material that can be sold legally. So no crappy online stuff with odd colors but quality photoreal! I can't wait to see what they come up with!!!

    Do not mix tools. GeoConvert is to compile any photomaterial for AFS2, also legal and high qualiy stuff.

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  • To be fair, Ortho4XP is online, free and anything but crappy, it gives amazing results IMO. I agree that consistency could be an issue compared to professionally sourced material, but we have desktop access to satellite photo data these days that NASA and the CIA would have died for a few decades ago.

    I think the issue is in commercial use, they have to pay for the rights to use the source material, which is fair enough. It seems OrbX will be using in house much more powerful tools to create their work, but these guys must be among the best in the business for scenery, and with all their pre existing libraries, they are a step ahead of anyone else, so it will be worth paying for.

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  • thats the upcoming orbx look as initially stated in this thread. the pix seem in combination with p3d or xplane yet. they dont look as bad as J van E says.

    I don't think you fully understand what FTX Global is and what I meant to say. ;) FTX Global is NOT the upcoming Orbx look. None of that will come to AFS2. Not ever. Aerofly FS is photoreal only. The FTX Global pics may look okay in places but they don't look okay when you fly over them and start to notice how landclass scenery works.

    1. Landclass scenery works with the use of a limited (though still a lot) set of textures that are repeated all over the place. After a while you will recognize things you've seen elsewhere before. The same farms, the same fields, the same buildings, all over the place.

    2. Landclass scenery never ever shows you what is there in real life. It is all fake.

    3. Landclass scenery is cut off very hard and obvious when another kind of landclass is needed: you will see a hard line running right through houses, waters, etc. The shapes of the various landclasses are very sharp and hard without nice transitions.

    4. Roads and rivers are running right through the textures regardless of what is on them so you will see roads running right through houses, buildings, even a football stadion or mall.

    Again, none of this will be available in AFS2. Luckily. FTX Global will not be made compatible with AFS2. Orbx will be working on completely new scenery that ONLY uses photoreal images. No repetition at all, no roads running though houses, no hard lines, etc.

    Those FTX Global pictures can look very nice indeed but it loses its appeal when you know what you are actually looking at: fake scenery that is laid out on the ground like a crude jigsaw puzzle which uses the same pieces over and over again. I am very happy FTX Global and the likes won't be brought to AFS2 and that Orbx is working on AFS2 specific scenery which will never ever show you a single pixel twice.

    EDIT
    Obviously the pictures on the FTX Global site try to avoid the problems mentioned above so here are a few pictures of what landclass scenery looks like and which clearly shows the problems with it. I am happy I will never see this in AFS2. (These aren't FTX Global pictures but it's the same idea.)

  • i think we all know what landclasses are and how it works.
    We just may have focussed on completely different things, or you simply did not catch it.

    My point (without saying it) was to show their current method of building a world.
    That "world" (color schemes mainly) may contain any type of terrain data, may it be lanclass-textures or satellite imagery, as they clearly demonstrate it under the given link.
    i never talked about landclass or favoured it.

    We understand well that will not be the way ipacs will do it. and we all know what we want, i think.

  • Those pictures also point out something else I've been seeing. Many have mentioned that they don't like the low resolution of some photoscenery.......

    But if you really look, very often landclass is not so high resolution either.........

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  • Just asking, I'm not seeing cloud shadows during my flights. I've only seen buidings, vegetation and aircraft shadows. I'm missing something or cloud shadows are yet to be implemented?.
    Thanks if someone could clarify this for me.
    Cheers, Ed

  • Just asking, I'm not seeing cloud shadows during my flights. I've only seen buidings, vegetation and aircraft shadows. I'm missing something or cloud shadows are yet to be implemented?.
    Thanks if someone could clarify this for me.
    Cheers, Ed

    I think it's a moot point right now, since as far as I know the weather is going to be completely redone eventually, which means clouds might be subject to drastic revision anyway.

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  • Luckily JV posted on the forum that the regions will be photoreal but he also posted they won't be using the Geoconvert tool and that they will use source material that can be sold legally. So no crappy online stuff with odd colors but quality photoreal! I can't wait to see what they come up with!!![/QUOTE]

    Great news! Thanks.

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  • "Online stuff" is usually better the the photoscenery that you can buy from commercial vendors. In the US in particular, odd colors are pretty rare in modern data sources, not like a couple of years ago. Go to Africa or Sth America and yes, finding tiles is a nightmare. Western Europe is pretty good too, it all fall apart when you head over to Greece or further east. But UK/France/Germany/Switzerland/Spain etc have very decent data.