ORBX Global Scenery. How Good is it?

[Erazer]

Windows 7 64-bit, Intel i7 Quad Core 3.4GHz with Hyperthreading. 16GB RAM. Nvidia 1050Ti 4GB graphics card. MoBo and PSU won't take any more.

Considering purchasing Orbx Global Scenery but would like to know just how good it is or is it purely fictitious scenery?

What I would like is the realism of Google Earth so that I can realistically re-create the many journeys which I have made in the past.

E.G. 128 North Atlantic crossings from Manchester to Montreal and on through the St. Lawrence and Welland canals, past 1000 Islands, to Calumet City harbor, South Side Chicago going up the Calumet river.

In this dockyard there was a lock system leading to a small Marina run by the local Sherrif where we used to go for a little R&R.

He told us that the canal/river led to the Mississippi and that you can get all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

What I would like to see are the locks and harbors as they were, when I first started out back in '68 and then fly down the Mississippi to the Gulf.

Can't find any of this detail on Steam: FSX as it is now given that it is not accurate and not high definition.

Seems that one of the Orbx pages is missing as I get a 404.

[3 Wire]

As someone who uses the full FTX Global range of sceneries including FTX Global base, FTX North America, South America, and Europe Landclass, and FTX Vector in both FSX SE and P3D v4 I highly recommend them, and this much I can tell you for sure.... It will make a huge improvement in your default ground textures and scenery.

Most people here who use it think it's excellent, but there are a small minority that don't like it, which is typical for virtually any add on.

There's one small caveat to ORBX... Vector can have a significant performance hit on some systems, and for that reason I use it in P3D but not FSX, and not having it in FSX is scarcely noticeable and you still get the benefits of the other ORBX sceneries. Outside of Vector, the other sceneries have little if any impact on performance.

The ORBX sceneries are not cheap, quality comes at a price, but if you enjoy looking at the ground scenery, like mountains, hills, valleys, deserts, jungles, alpine landscapes etc. while you are flying, ORBX will tranform your scenery in ways that have to be seen first hand in your sim to be appreciated, but if all you want to do is stare at the VC the whole flight, then ORBX won't offer you any benefit.

Just so you understand, ORBX is not "photo real" scenery, which I personally do not care for because it looks fine when you are looking down at it from 10,000 feet, but as you get closer to the ground it starts to look a little fuzzy. ORBX stays sharp and crisp even when you're very close to to the ground.

[chelmo]

Orbx Global simply replaces the default textures with one's which are more realistic; but it is still, at the end of the day, generic. So I am afraid you will not get Google Earth realism with it.

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by chelmo:

Orbx Global simply replaces the default textures with one's which are more realistic; but it is still, at the end of the day, generic. So I am afraid you will not get Google Earth realism with it.

True enough.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, will give you scenery that looks like you are flying around in a real airplane looking out the window with your own eyeballs with the real world sky and scenery going past.

Such a thing simply does not exist, not even in commercial and militray simulators costing tens of millions of dollars, and even if such a thing did exist, it would require several Cray Supercomputers to run it.

[dhasdell]

Global replaces textures worldwide and is a great improvement, but if your flying is confined to a favourite region, such as England or US Pacific North West you'd do better to buy that particular region and get textures, mesh, upgraded airfields etc all in one add-on.

[Erazer]

Thanks guys. I won't be installing ORBX if it doesn't give true to life scenery as I prefer to live in the 'real' (if supernatural) World rather than engage in fantasy.

PS I tried Google Earth Pro which, believe it or not, has what they call a flight simulator mode with two aircraft.

In a word, rubbish.

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by Pegasus:

Thanks guys. I won't be installing ORBX if it doesn't give true to life scenery

What you seek doesn't exist and probably never will in our lifetime, at least not for home PC based flight simulators.

[Full_Throttle_F14]

Imagine a sim with real time traffic both ground, air and sea. Being able to see traffic jams. Having a video based terrain and scenery in real time. Goind across amusement parks, parades etc in the comfort of your own home.

[Nightmare1964]

Originally posted by Pegasus:

Thanks guys. I won't be installing ORBX if it doesn't give true to life scenery as I prefer to live in the 'real' (if supernatural) World rather than engage in fantasy.

PS I tried Google Earth Pro which, believe it or not, has what they call a flight simulator mode with two aircraft.

In a word, rubbish.

There is another option: About AU$8000 gets you a light sport type pilots license and a further $10K - $100K gets you an aircraft in that category.... scenery problem fixed :)

You think I'm joking? I did it. Look at my avatar, it is my real life plane.

[KatanaDV20]

I can understand the OPs desire for something realistic but as others have said such a thing does not exist and even if it did we would need quantum computers to run it. I have been on airline Level D flight sims and even THEY do not have the detail you desire.

The closest you can get is to download photoreal tiles of the area you desire. But at low level these do not look good unless you have 3d object generated on top of them.

I have Orbx and its totally worth it. Also they have LOTS of freeware. For example you can get Iceland & Tasmania completely for free to see how Orbx is. In addtion theres lots of free Orbx airports. Their standard is high and you can experience it without spending any money:

https://orbxdirect.com/freeware

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by KatanaDV20:

..... The closest you can get is to download photoreal tiles of the area you desire. But at low level these do not look good unless you have 3d object generated on top of them.

I have Orbx and its totally worth it.

I know this thread has kind of run it's course but I agree with you completely on both points here.

I have used a lot of the Blue Sky freeware photo scenery, it looks nice from 10,000 feet, but close to the ground it's quite blurry, which I don't like at all. I'll take ORBX over photo scenery any day.

ORBX is totally worth it. The price of admission isn't cheap, but in this case you do indeed get what you pay for.

[Rogen]

Well if you don't mind flat sceneries there are a number of photo sceneries, some free, some donationware (practically free) and some payware and as per KatanaDV20 Orbx have free areas you can install and tryout and they are not small areas, e.g. the whole of Tasmania, plus they have a number of free airports.

Even if you were not going to buy why wouldn't you download the free items...

Take a look into this thread which has a few links.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/1/1733213724890607556/

Cheers