First views of FTX England - Goodwood Airfield

[mutley 4,487]

Quote = John Venema

It's my pleasure to show you the first screenshots of EGHR Goodwood Airport which has been developed by the team at the Hampshire studio in the UK. This airport will be released concurrently with the FTX England region, the first time Orbx will release both a region and an airport at the same time.

Leader developers on EGHR are Russell Lin and Russ White, with additional input from the rest of the team. We showed the airport running in the sim to the manager of the airport yesterday and he was left speechless at the accuracy and the detail included in the Orbx rendition.

This airport will include most of the new Flow tech and be fully integrated into the FTX England landclass. It features and extensive photoreal area including parts of Chichester and the nearby Goodwood House and racecourse. We'll publish many more shots over the coming weeks as the airport enters final beta testing.

More here http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/49116-eghr-goodwood-airport-for-ftx-england-first-shots/

[Kasper 14]

Oh Boy! How to explain the extra expenses to the misses?

[dogtrack 345]

It is beautifully crafted work of that their is no doubt. However, from a personal perspective, I am struggling to get excited about the UK venture. Or indeed any of the released airports over the last 12 months.

Like I said, just a personal view. Why would I want to sit in a cockpit and watch grass sway in the wind, leaves fall with the season and insects flutter from one location to another. All of which is hugely resource hungry.

Bottom line:- all i really need is ATC, pothole free tarmac/grass and navaids. Fully enjoy large area land coverage...bigger the better. Stopped installing high end airfields after the release of Cushmans Meadow.

Ok, now I have got that off my chest I shall crawl back into my cockpit and get airborne....where we really belong.

[britfrog 180]

i must admit i am having mixed emotions, as I know Gary and have used his uk2000 product for must be 10 years or more since i flew him around popham, However there is no doubt that this first rendition from ftx is up to what we have come to expect from them,. I suppose they will cherry pick the more popular airports and leave Gary the remnants

And i find it difficult that they also want to step on the toes of generation X whose photgraphic scenery I find excellent no doubt they will do a better job if that is possible, however the simming community will be getting a better more realistic scenery which is after all what we all want, albeit at further cost, so why am i sad?

[ddavid 149]

An absolute must for the screen shot catchers amongst us, eh?

Mind you, I think they need to install intruder alarms...

Cheers - Dai.

P.S. I think the quality's excellent - especially the cattle!

[UKJim 502]

OMG credit card - I think I just pee'd my pants!

[needles 1,010]

Glorious!

[lateagain 0]

As a customer for all of ORBX/FTX's area coverage so far and a few of the detailed airports (I can appreciate where Arnie is coming from) I look forward to the UK land coverage with a degree of trepidation.

To explain why I'd first explain that none of the many photoreal sceneries work for me.    I'm sure they're great for "wannabe tube captains" but for me as a "Low and Slow" pilot they just don't hack it.  The default FSX scenery is SO bad in most areas that some sort of landcover and mesh is a MUST, but flying over a built up area that is just a flat grey mosaic is almost as bad IMO.  From 5000' it just about hacks it but lower it fails to convince.  Earth Simulations Channel Islands mix of Photoreal textures with 3D vegetation and Buildings is great and the tree add-ons for the photoreal scenery a big improvement but still not enough.

So why my trepidation about FTX UK cover?

Well their NZ scenery is probably nearest to the UK in terms of ground textures, roads towns etc.  It looks good to me ...BUT I don't know NZ for real.  Virtually through Google Earth of course but not so that I could go there and fly VFR with a chart and looking out the window.  The UK however I have flown over and could (despite having to give it up over 10 yrs ago) do now.  My problem is will the landclass, roads, railways and Autogen be realistic enough in an area I actually have flown over.  Alderney looks just like my own arial shots from trips there but will I be able to "eyeball" the London CTA as I did for a few years for real?  A 3D virtual Greater London/Manchester/Brum etc. is probably the FTX systems greatest challenge so far?  IMHO if they do that well they can hack anything?  Perhaps more to the point is will our systems cope with what they can produce?

We'll soon know.

With my lack of enthusiasm for the Photoreal sceneries my interest in the trees and airfields (UK2000 VFR airfields) didn't seem to have much point.  In fact flying in the UK default after the detail of PNW held little attraction.

However, the enthusiasm for the use of the UK2000 VFR fields in the FTX compatability forum made me look at them.  Once I found thge demo versions for the areas I was very impressed.  I'll buy the FTX land cover and as soon as I've got that buy the UK2000 VFR fields.  They may not be AS detailed as some of the ORBX fields but in terms of value they offer so much cover and they are all available now.  There are of course some other UK fields already covered and Denham being my home field back in the day I obviously have this http://www.mutleysha.../ncm/denham.htm and the version of White Waltham where my old instructor is now CFI.  When (if) I get tired of GA there's also a wealth of larger UK airports already out there so my guess is that FTX will look to cover stuff not already done?  I'm sure between us we can bombard them with Wish Lists   ?

Geoff