FTX Global Architecture explained

[mutley 4,487]

Reprinted from the Orbx forum, with thanks.

 

 

Given that each new FTX Global announcement raises more questions and in particular about third party landclass and mesh products, I thought it may be time to draw some diagrams of the architecture behind FTX Global and explain it that way.

 

The first illustration is a (somewhat simplified) top to bottom data path for most scenery and airports. Notice that the default FSX texture pool takes up about 5.6GB on the hard drive. Also notice that Orbx FTX Regions and Airports are sellf-contained capsules which do not dip into the FSX architecture too much because most of the files like textures, mesh, landclass, objects and more, are inside our Orbx scenery folders. However because of the archaic and awful design of FSX there are some global control files which are shared by all scenery vendors and which cause the most compatibility issues in general.

 

 

Now let's look at what we replace with FTX Global. Firstly the complete set of FSX textures are replaced and added to, growing to 6.8GB. This means that the net increase after an installation of FTX Global is about 1.2GB, smaller than many of our airports.

 

We then replace the base world landclass file to fix the really bad Microsoft warts like all those desert areas around Sau Paulo for instance. Finally we make necessary changes to important control files for autogen and terrain. Of course we're going to ensure maximum compatibility with other vendors but as a precaution we'll back everything up for you so you can switch FTXG on/off.

 

 

So from these diagrams you can see how other landclass products will now dip into the Orbx-ised pool of control files, base landclass and textures to give them an Orbx appearance. This is what you can see with our preview screenshots using third party addons like UTX, TLSC, openVFR and more. Since we've replaced the FSX textures they automatically begin to draw from the new pool of content. There's little to nothing you need to do to get this upgrade; just install global and go fly.

 

 

Now the final piece of the puzzle is openLC. That is our "uber landclass" product which will provide unique and distinct textures, autogen with custom landlcass derived from many data sources including OSM, and split across 7 continents or regions to give each area a distinct feel.  In this way FTX Global will begin to really shine because we're then making maximum use of our vast library of texture assets. openLC is competitively priced because it does not do what our full FTX regions do, nor what other terrain enhancement products do. It just gives you the best landclass we believe is possible given today's data sources.

 

Think of it as us tweaking FSX to make it a better sim. We still allow everyone else's products to work with our stuff but for someone new to FSX or P3D they could probably just install Global and openLC as a very convincing starting point to go and explore the world, then begin to add other Orbx regions, airport, other vendors' mesh, landclass, airports and layer stuff on top as they expand their content.

 

I hope this helps answer a bunch of questions which have been raised these past weeks.

Regards,
JV

reaction and more here http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/58990-ftx-global-architecture-explained/

 

[brett 2,283]

Nice graphical chart that does make things a little clearer. Thanks for the link.   I like the FTX look so I am interested in this but I wish they would make the roads and railroad tracks more accurate for navigational purposes. I see that other folks are concerned about this as well and would rather get them from their UTX product but given todays technology why doesn't ORBX include this in what they have created. You would think it would be easy. Where are roads and RR's and bridges, what they are calling vector data, located within FSX?   

[britfrog 180]

Thanks for the explanation Joe,

So basically we are replaceing the free, reliable if a bit aged,  fsx textures with ftx textures which take up much more space and cost a whole lot of money and which will only be avaialble in drabs over a year or so, I wonder if you can really tell the difference between the 2 when flying at FL250 ? or even FL50? are they going to refund those that bought GEX, UTX and other similar progs?

I am starting to have sidelong glances at the JV idea of world domination.