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Orbx Samoan Experience!

Tim-HH

Tim-HH

SOH-CM-2023
Hi,

I'm surprised that there isn't already a thread for this wonderful scenery. It's really spectacular :applause:

Orbx_Samoa.jpg


Orbx_Samoa_2.jpg


Orbx_Samoa_4.jpg
 
As a general rule, scenery releases do not garnish much attention, payware or freeware. Aircraft get the most attention simply because a greater number of folks will be interested in airplanes. . .almost anyone can fly them. Scenery is more personal preference. . .I can fly an airplane anywhere I like, but one scenery release to a place I would never fly doesn't get much attention. Price dictates interest also. . .I'll spend a bit more on an airplane I'll fly the heck out of before I'll spend the same amount on scenery that I may go to once and then rarely fly to any more.
 
One other factor I just noticed is that you must have FTX Global Basic installed in order to use this scenery. I assume quite a few have made this purchase but again, for those who aren't into Orbx, or just haven't bought Global Basic. . .it's a no-go.
 
I gotta say, I completely adore this scenery. I have a huge soft spot for well rendered tropical destinations, and this one delivers in spades.
 
falcon409 said:
One other factor I just noticed is that you must have FTX Global Basic installed in order to use this scenery.
Click to expand...

Really!!?!

I have many ORBX sceneries, none of them needs that.

It would be nice to fly in tropic but I am wondering how much there is to fly and explore destinations in Samoa... I wish they would do Caribbean or Hawaii, that would be quite another story.
 
falcon409 said:
One other factor I just noticed is that you must have FTX Global Basic installed in order to use this scenery. I assume quite a few have made this purchase but again, for those who aren't into Orbx, or just haven't bought Global Basic. . .it's a no-go.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, FTX Global isn't completely mandatory; in fact, the manual even has install instructions for anyone who has absolutely zero FTX products installed. Although the American Samoa portion is all completely annotated photoreal and therefore doesn't care a hoot about FTX Global, the rest of Samoa is vector based, and likely looks the best with the FTX Global ground textures.

I'm loving this scenery. Although I have a lot of FTX installed, I almost never buy at release. With 7 very well done airports, this is perfect for nice little scenic hops when you have anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or two to kill. Very nicely done. The photoreal is very, very crisp. Flying along the beaches at 500 feet is quite enjoyable.

The only drawback is that from what I can tell, a few of those small airports in real life never see anything other than a Twin Otter. It's a quirk of mine, but sometimes it bothers me a little bit to be flying aircraft in a region where they wouldn't be normally found. Which rules out most small GA for Samoa, meaning I just have to get over my quirk and pretend I had my DA20 shipped there in crates. :)
 
I'm quite sure that it will work without FTX Global. You can find the same sentence on the product pages of Palm Springs and Sedona and both do work without FTX Global. The only problem might be a rough transition to the FSX default scenery as the Orbx sceneries are optimized to blend in with the FTX Global textures.

With Orbx' Samoa only West Samoa uses the FTX Global textures. American Samao - the main part of the scenery - is covered with photoreal textures so the FTX Global textures are not used. Therefore I see no reason why FTX Global is required for this scenery. Apart from the fact that Orbx wants to sell FTX Global ;)

Greetings
Tim
 
JimmyRFR said:
. . . . . . . . . It's a quirk of mine, but sometimes it bothers me a little bit to be flying aircraft in a region where they wouldn't be normally found. Which rules out most small GA for Samoa, meaning I just have to get over my quirk and pretend I had my DA20 shipped there in crates.
Click to expand...
Wow. . . .really?
 
JimmyRFR said:
The only drawback is that from what I can tell, a few of those small airports in real life never see anything other than a Twin Otter. It's a quirk of mine, but sometimes it bothers me a little bit to be flying aircraft in a region where they wouldn't be normally found. Which rules out most small GA for Samoa, meaning I just have to get over my quirk and pretend I had my DA20 shipped there in crates. :)
Click to expand...

Hey Jimmy, I'm with you on the location-appropriate aircraft preference, but the mighty Twotter is not the only option in this neck of the woods.
Samoa Air - BN2 Islander, Cessna 172
Inter Island Airways - Dornier 328, Dornier 228 (ex-BN2 Islander and '9 seater' (?) Aero Commander)
 
falcon409 said:
Wow. . . .really?
Click to expand...

Yep. Call it a quirk, call it strange, but for some reason it lessens my enjoyment a bit. For some reason I can overlook mismatches in era-appropriate scenery (kinda have to with FSX, I guess), but I have a hard time bringing myself to fly certain aircraft in regions where it wouldn't likely be found in. Although, with the whole world at my disposal, it just means that I pick where I'm going to fly after I pick what I'm going to fly. :)
 
Portia911 said:
Hey Jimmy, I'm with you on the location-appropriate aircraft preference, but the mighty Twotter is not the only option in this neck of the woods.
Samoa Air - BN2 Islander, Cessna 172
Inter Island Airways - Dornier 328, Dornier 228 (ex-BN2 Islander and '9 seater' (?) Aero Commander)
Click to expand...

Hmm. thanks for letting me know. Might have to dust off the A2A 172 for a bit. :)
 
Montie said:
This packages offers great value at that price.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more!

JimmyRFR, I feel the same way sometimes. It can be a little overbearing, especially when I don't want to invest the time to figure out exactly which operators or what flies in those particular areas. It's like FSX OCD or something.
 
Very nice Tim! You know, I have the same quirk as you, so the Samoa package wasn't really appealing to me. That has changed now :encouragement:
 
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