Hi Mud,
No there's more to say. If you are used to the great stuff of OrbX, this seems pretty average. In my opinion not worth 28 euro's. At my sim club they bought it as a nice side step to fly to from Australia. But see for yourself. Load the stuff and situate yourself at e.g. Vivigani and decide for yourself .
All valid opinions, Anneke. Many simmers once having tasted the texture and landclass work of OrbX will never want to fly outside of Australia again, at least until they do PNW. But please allow me to interject, and this is not directed at you or meant to be a critique, I only write this to give simmers interested in possibly purchasing Raw Grit a clear picture. Whether or not it is worth the 28 euros, well, that depends on each individual.
For potential users of the scenery keep in mind that this is not an FTX like product. It was built to add color to a part of the flight sim world that is otherwise ignored. And it was designed to be accessible to all. Graham, the developer, uses a 5 year old computer and in his description he describes his frustration with all the wonderful add-ons he can't use. So he decided to design a scenery anybody can.
Now the flight sim community is pretty harsh on products that don't bring some sort of eye candy that hasn't been seen before. PNG unfortunately just doesn't have the satellite or aerial imagery coverage to do high resolution textures like FTX, so it uses default textures. And the one man development team behind Pacific Island sim doesn't have the prodigious budget of Orbx.
So what do you get? 23 individual PNG airstrips (plus a secret one!) built to be as real as possible with the information that is on hand (a PNG pilot contributed many valuable resources) with over 500 unique custom-made objects. You get a a 76m mesh that vastly improves over FSX default. All in all, you get a chunk of PNG that is a blast to fly around.
So no, Anneke is right, when you compare to FTX you are not getting the same thing. The resources to produce an FTX quality scenery for PNG simply don't exist, at least, they don't exist without Orbx's prodigious budget. John Venema by his own admission has pumped over a million dollars into FTX, and the results are fantastic. Pacific Island sim doesn't have that budget. Nor was the scenery designed to be an FTX. But I'm positive you will find hours and hours of enjoyment in PNG with this scenery.
For those simmers who can't stand to see anything but FTX ground textures, it probably won't be worth your hard-earned dough. For those that have wanted a more immersive PNG experience, who like challenging airstrips, who appreciate the long long long hours of work that Graham put into this project (sales will not nearly cover the work that went into the product), I think you will find great enjoyment with this product.
That's my two cents, for what it's worth.
