Orbx announces FTX Global to be released in 2013!

[Josh]

Remember, if you don't have landclass to say what type of texture to put down, it's just using the FSX default.

Could you explain the basics of what you mean to those of us not in the know, please.

[ak416]

Could you explain the basics of what you mean to those of us not in the know, please.

Basically, I break up the FSX "world" into 4 categories. Textures, mesh, landclass and autogen. Mesh is your surface, so airport elevations or mountain range heights, they are all governed by the mesh (all 3d objects in the world also use a mesh, but that's irrelevant for now). The textures and autogen sit on top of that mesh, but it's the landclass that determines what buildings and trees and textures go on top of that mesh.

The default landclass in FSX is mostly wrong, you would know this if you ever tried to fly in an area you are familiar with. There are houses where trees should be, roads and rivers are missing or completely wrong. A good landclass addon should fix that. On a very basic level, landclass determines what "environment" any one selected FSX "tile" will have, whether it be a road or farmland or desert or winter tundra.

Hope that helps!

[Waterman981]

From the Orbx forums: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/top...-it-all-about/

Hi all...

Just to help clarify just what FTX Global is, and what it isn't, plus what we can all do to maximize our setups and get the best out of FSX/P3D, here's a quick explanation of the various FSX/P3D scenery "layers".

Basically, there are 4 main layers to FSX/P3D scenery...

MESH - Simply put, quite literally a 3D grid (or mesh) that defines the shape of the terrain.

LANDCLASS - Basic shapes draped over the mesh which tell FSX/P3D what type of terrain is in an area. No actual textures or imagery, simply a definition of what is supposed to be there.

TEXTURE (& Autogen) - What you see on the ground. A collection of textures which are stored almost like a library and applied to the landclass definitions. Autogen buildings and vegetation are assigned positions within the textures and show up when the textures do. The texture tiles are designed to be tiled together to cover large areas if needed.

VECTOR - All the "line" data in the sim... roads, railways, rivers, power lines etc.


FTX Full regions provide one stop solutions to all 4 layers... They provide mesh, landclass data, textures and vector data to give maximum detail.


FTX Global provides just textures and limited landclass improvements... A huge upgrade to default FSX and primed for future upgrades, but limited landclass data at present.


Open LC when it becomes available will provide the much needed fixes and better definition to landclass data.

As you can see, FTX Global is the best texture replacement available for FSX, but does not include any Mesh, Landclass, or Vector data... In it's raw form, it simply uses what was provided by FSX default, but will also use any 3rd party Meash, Landclass and Vector data if it's installed. So to get the best out of FTX Global while we all wait for Open LC, you may want to invest in some of that 3rd party software to help smooth out those rough edges of FSX/P3D default There are also many freeware packs out there for small areas.

Examples would be:

Mesh - FS Genesis, FS Global 2008/2010/Ultimate

Landclass - FS GLobal Landclass, UTX

Vector - UTX, USA Roads

Hope this helps clarify how FTX Global fits into the grand scheme of things... and gives you a few ideas and pointers on how to get the most out of your new FSX/P3D world

[Josh]

Thanks for the explanation AK416 and Waterman981. I"m sure this will help not only me but others in their decisions for buying this add-on.

[ak416]

Version 1.1 coming soon, no fix on the DX10 issues as of yet as they are apparently waiting for the tools they need to make that happen.

- Lights now 140% brighter
- Better FPS again through model and texture optimisation
- Now vector roads don't use .fx for much better FPS on vectors
- Denser vector lighting, now 100% density versus 75%
- Added intersection congestion traffic brake lights





Personally looking forward to the landclass fixes! I have Holgermesh for the Grand Canyon (minus the photoreal textures) and it looks great aside from the green areas.