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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

FTX NA BLUE - USA Canada Pacific Northwest Officially Released

This package is the pinnacle of FSX for large scenery areas. It is absolutely stunning. I purchased it and Twin Oaks and my first session lasted 4 hours that went by in one!

TrackIR + PNW + FR Super Cub + REX = as close to being there as you get without a pilot lisence.

Bill and the rest at ORBX,

Thank you so much:applause:
 
Will this be release in stores on a DVD. Like @ Fry's Electronics perhaps? If so does it come with the Airports that are being released?
 
Major_Spittle said:
Will this be release in stores on a DVD. Like @ Fry's Electronics perhaps? If so does it come with the Airports that are being released?
Click to expand...

It's available on DVD right now as pre-pay from the Flightsim Store. I think they're planning on shipping the DVDs at the end of this month or thereabouts. I don't know if there's any sort of deal with retailers in the works, but I doubt it'll happen soon even if there is. The problem with selling at a place like Fry's is that they take a big chunk of the profits for themselves. Couple that with the take from a third-party distributor who gets it to them in the first place, and there's almost nothing left for the product's creators. Needless to say, it's not a very attractive option for us.

However, if it's just a disc you're looking for, here's the link: http://www.flightsimstore.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=92 - the DVD versions are three items down on the page.
 
Thanks for the reply. But I have a couple other questions.

Does the Twin Oak Starks and Dun??? airports come as part of the pacific northwest scenery???

If I get the download without the DVD can I just make my own DVD and install it forever with whatever key code I get or does this have some odd copy protect that makes me unable to install without contacting ORB everytime???
 
Major_Spittle said:
Thanks for the reply. But I have a couple other questions.

Does the Twin Oak Starks and Dun??? airports come as part of the pacific northwest scenery???

If I get the download without the DVD can I just make my own DVD and install it forever with whatever key code I get or does this have some odd copy protect that makes me unable to install without contacting ORB everytime???
Click to expand...

No, Twin Oaks and Darrington are separate projects, just the way they did it with the add-on airports for FTX Australia. I think it's okay to do a DVD of the PNW scenery, but I'm not clear on whether there would be any issues with reinstallation. Your best bet is to ask on the FTX support forum at http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?board=14.0

Bill
 
spotlope said:
No, Twin Oaks and Darrington are separate projects, just the way they did it with the add-on airports for FTX Australia. I think it's okay to do a DVD of the PNW scenery, but I'm not clear on whether there would be any issues with reinstallation. Your best bet is to ask on the FTX support forum at http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?board=14.0

Bill
Click to expand...

Bill,

I back up all the installstion file for FTX PNW and REX to an external HD and then to a DVD also. But to reinstall from a DVD, I think it best if one either copied from the DVD to one;s HD or an external HD for the fastest reinstallation.

I'll be getting both add-on airports, but the FTX ONW has over budgeted my March check, I'll have to wait until my Chinese uncle comes again next month.

Caz
 
I'm going to get the lot...soon I think. Bill's airfields look fantastic and the FTX colours and landclass look excellent (wish you guys would do the UK!).
I am a little concerned about the frame rate hit with PNW though and I'm reading reports on several forums before I finally take the plunge.
 
I have done nothing but fly in PNW since I purchased it and installed it! My brother came out today and he was lost for two hours! It is just total immersion. I just took a late afternoon (PST) flight in Craig Richardson's just released Classic Wings Eastborne Monoplane (thanks Roger) from Strom to Moss Field. Better know your bearings with the Eastbourne, there's no compass. :icon_lol:

It will draw you in so help me, Orbx, I want the mid-Atlantic states done! :medals::guinness:

Caz
 
Roger be careful, the country areas work great but the cities are a joke. I get the blurriest textures available and when I voiced my concerns in their forum I was basically told their product is so wonderful that I have no room to complain and just stay away from the cities. When concerns are met with arrogance I'm immediately turned off. I happen to have an older system but it runs gex maxed out with no blurries, also I'm using their settings that were suggested or my rig AND BELOW. If it's so system intensive then they should note that. On their product page they make no claims of this and I couldn't find system requirements listed. I believe I wasted 50 bucks with no hope of a refund.
 
Like:

- Same things I liked in the Australia region packs: richly colored textures with custom autogen, street lighting
- Even better roads, shorelines
- Scores of custom airports (these are a major feature, similar to the freeware OZx that doesn't exist for this region)

Disappointments:

- Urban framerates are lower than I expected for an FTX product
- Seems more prone to texture blurring even on a quad core
 
I don't think they claim that all of a sudden there will be FS9 like performance. It probably handles roughly the same as default FSX, with a really nice FPS boost over fields/forested areas. Urban areas take a hit on my system, just as with FSX default or UT.
 
One of the first things I ended up doing, after installation, is create a shortcut on my desktop to the Google Earth coverage map. I can't seem to stop comparing the scenery with the map. PNW is so well detailed it's hard not to.

There's two things I'm now really looking forward to; Emma Field X and the inevitable slew of, PNW compatible, freeware airports (hopefully to the same quality as those from Ozx). Then, I'll be able to recreate one of my favourite short hops from FS9, namely Emma Field to Orcas with a short stop at Diamond Point.
 
Like any product purchased, virtual or hardware, one either likes it or dislikes it, that is human nature. I think a lot of folks anticipate great wonders and are let down by the fact that it still looks like a sim. Well, compare it to FS2004. A lot of folks are let down by the performance, us grade then please.

The key to a good FSX flight is to (1) plan the flight before hand, (2) defrag, shut down and restart. Open FSX, choose flight, aircraft, weather, time, season, etc. Then fly, like you would in the real world, don't pause, slew, switch views too often, just use the VC and fly. The only time my frame rate went below 30 last night was landing at Moss Field right at sunset. I find the clarity amazing, the auto-gen matching stunningly, the little bumps and rolls of the terrain that one does not normally see pop out, rivers have banks, fields look like fields, rocks look like rocks! In short gentlemen, sometimes one purchases a Trumpeter Chinese wannabe, but in the case of Orbx's FTX-PNW, you're getting a top-of-the-line Tamiya!

Caz
 
deimos256, with any scenery I find locking my frame rate to 20-24 (depends on scenery) helps tremendously with the blurries. Flight is still smooth and the textures load much better. I know they recommend unlimited in the manual but that is just inviting blurries on an older rig.

If you've already tried this I don't know what else to recommend other then try their forum again.

Hope you get satisfactory results.
 
I have tried locking the frames at different values, leaving them unlocked, using an external limiter and still get blurry textures in urban areas. Yes I did voice this over at the orbx forums and I was told to just avoid them. That doesn't work for me as I have been doing a lot of airline flying and I tend to wind up in them areas. Diabling FTX from their control panel left all the taxiways and runways at Portland 10 feet below the ground!
 
deimos256 said:
Roger be careful, the country areas work great but the cities are a joke. I get the blurriest textures available and when I voiced my concerns in their forum I was basically told their product is so wonderful that I have no room to complain and just stay away from the cities. When concerns are met with arrogance I'm immediately turned off. I happen to have an older system but it runs gex maxed out with no blurries, also I'm using their settings that were suggested or my rig AND BELOW. If it's so system intensive then they should note that. On their product page they make no claims of this and I couldn't find system requirements listed. I believe I wasted 50 bucks with no hope of a refund.
Click to expand...

Are you the user who goes by ve2dgz on the Orbx forums, by any chance?
 
No I go by the same name over there. After reading the support forums im not the only person who is having this problem, I just read a thread by someone who is using the same settings as me with SUPERIOR equipment and he is getting the same results, and I'm sorry, but instead of wondering if there is something wrong with their product, the staff just says tough, nice knowing ya. That is what I would call terrible customer service, I'm now in the process of figuring out how to get it off my system.
 
Ah yes, I see your postings now about the blurries problem. I can totally understand getting frustrated when you can't get a product to run the way you'd like. During the testing phase of PNW, I had a rig that was very similar to yours, only my CPU was a C2D E6750 overclocked to 3.2GHz. I had some issues with frame rates over Portland early on, but with the later builds, the problem was largely resolved. Having said that, every system is different, and some struggle for reasons none of us can quite grasp.

In looking at your posts, I didn't see any evidence of you being treated arrogantly, though. John Venema tried to help you with settings to test, as did some other users who aren't on staff. I'm sorry it didn't work out, but the transaction seemed professional and courteous to me. Maybe there was something offline that I missed.
 
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