ORBX

FTX Global for FSX and P3D

By Thomas Jones - In Partnership with Flightsimglobal.com

i7-2600K turboboost to 4.6ghz | Nvidia ASUS GTX580 1.5gb | 16gb 1600mhz RAM | 2x 1TB HDD |

Windows 7 64 bit

NOTE: This review was written with the v1.10 update and will be based off of v1.10

What is FTX Global?:

FTX Global is “the WHOLE world the way Orbx imagined it.” That said, it leaves a large amount of room for interpretation. What the product basically is, is a complete upgrade to what FSX should have been from the very beginning. The team at Orbx has taken the plethora of textures they created in making all of their individual region packs and introduced a brand new way of showing them worldwide. No longer are there any dull and drab default FSX terrain textures repeating over and over again. Now the world looks more natural and appealing to the simmer. Not only is the Global just a re-textured FSX world, but it also improves upon the terrain blending in a more natural way, making the FSX world look more realistic than it ever has before. The city no longer turns directly into wilderness, but instead it turns into suburban area then gradually becomes wilderness or something else, depending on the location. Features as stated on the Orbx website include:

Many new gorgeous ground textures

New autogen textures for buildings

3D night lighting with zero FPS impact

Base landclass updated to enhance Asia etc.

Unlocks dormant M-tiles for perfect blending

Works with all 3rd party landclass products

Works with all 3rd party mesh products

Free service packs and patches from Orbx

Same sized textures as default

“Hybrid” mode for FTX Central regions

Expandable with Orbx openLC packs It is also noted on the product page that DX10 preview mode is not supported due to the shader bugs in FSX.

Installation: The installation process for Orbx's FTX Global package is fairly straightforward. Just extract the installer, run it, enter your registration key, backup your default FSX textures, and get ready to have a whole new FSX experience! During the installation, the autoinstaller prompts you to backup your default FSX textures. It is HIGHLY recommended that you do this, if not, you better hope the textures don't get ruined in the future. It is also recommended in case you turn out not to like FTX Global and want to go back to default textures (I don't see why one would want to though). The download is a very large 4.17GB. If your internet connection is not up to the task of downloading such a large file, there is also a DVD-ROM version available for an extra $7.95 AUD.

How does it look?: Simply put, FTX Global will forever change your Flight Simulator experience. My first flight with FTX Global was out of my hometown airport, for which there is no scenery for, and the surrounding area looked, well, real! The city with taller buildings was properly placed, it turned into suburban areas that flowed on in the right areas, leading to more spaced out houses in the woods on one side while on the other side, farmland appeared. If there was one thing I was excited to see was the farmland textures. It brings such more life into FSX than the default textures. FTX Global includes seasonal textures, too, so no matter when you are flying, the ground will match the season. My next flight brought me to Las Vegas, at night. I use to live in Las Vegas not too long ago and I was always put into a trance by the hundreds of thousands of lights. The default FSX terrain never gave me

the same feeling, until now. The default FSX night lighting is just a simple re-texturing of the ground, FTX Global is much more. Orbx is known for having 3D lighting in their region packages and now FTX Global has it, too. There were hundreds of lights all over the city, down to the stoplights, brake lights of cars at those stoplights, and a sight neon tint in more commercialized areas (added in V1.10). The lights cover every major road and artery road in the world that would logically have lights on it. The many commercial and residential buildings surrounding the Las Vegas area have also seen a major improvement in their texturing and placement. I hope this is building suspense for the pictures at the end!

Performance At this point, one may think “All of that sounds really nice, but my computer will never be able to run it!” Think again. FTX Global has absolutely ZERO FPS impact when compared to the default FSX terrain in both day and night. In addition to being FPS friendly, FTX Global even has a special “hybrid” mode in FTX Central. This hybrid mode now enables you to keep your FTX regions and FTX Global active at the same time! Gone are the days of having to exit FSX, open FTX Central, load a new region, and restart FSX. One can fly region to region or elsewhere with a continuous flow of Orbx textures to follow them on their journey. Orbx has taken a similar idea of the region switching and applied it to the 3D night lights. They now turn on automatically and don't have to be switched on or off by clicking different icons. Only in the individual regions do the lights still need to be turned on manually. As stated on Orbx's forums: FTX Day = Lights in FTX Global at night only - no lights in FTX scenery FTX Night = Lights in FTX Global always on 24/7 - lights at dawn/dusk/night only in FTX scenery Controversy: Since its release, FTX Global has been thought of a waste of money or worth every penny, depending on the user. This has created a

controversy of sorts around FTX Global. In its initial release version, buyers were complaining about frame rate drops at night, lack of lights, and not being able to see the lights from far away. When the V1.10 was released, this situation has been fixed and the product has been very much improved. Another issue concerning potential buyers was the “green” desert of the southwestern United States. It had a tint to it that made it look like it had a faint layer of grass in it, instead of dirt and sand. The list of improvements in V1.10 are as stated in Orbx's forums:

Lights now 140% brighter

Better FPS

Vector roads don't use .fx for much better FPS on vectors

Denser vector lighting, now 100% density versus 75%

Added intersection congestion traffic brake lights Fix to the green desert

In addition to these updates, Orbx has hired a team that will make FTX Global have continuous free updates to the terrain to make it increasingly more accurate over time, what you originally pay for isn't the end of the fun! A few freeware airports will also be produced in the future.

Overall: Personally, I will never go back to the default FSX terrain. FTX Global has forever changed my flight simulation experience and will continue to provide me with many fantastic, scenic flights along the way. Despite having a bumpy takeoff, I can see FTX Global having a smooth flight ahead. The only downside to the consumer is the price, running for $91.43 USD on the Flightsimstore, but in my opinion it is completely worth it. GEX and UTX users don't need to worry as both are completely compatible with FTX Global. If you are tired of looking at the boring, dull default textures in FSX than look no further than FTX Global to fix it all!

Before and after screenshots are included below. Please note, the before shots were taken with an ENB that I have since deleted and it only sharpened the textures and increased the contrast. Everyone should already know what default textures look like without ENB. I also have adjusted my water quality slider in the meantime. TOP = default BOTTOM = FTX Global

Friday Harbor

Phoenix with Flightbeam Studios KPHX HD

Phoenix

Las Vegas at night with FSDT KLAS

Las Vegas at street level

Philadelphia at night with Sunskyjet's KPHL

Philadelphia with Sunskyjet's KPHL

Duesseldorf using Aerosoft's MegaAirport Duesseldorf

Duesseldorf using Aerosoft's MegaAirport Duesseldorf

Innsbruck

San Francisco with FlightBeam Studios KSFO

Hongkong

Doha, Qatar

Doha, Qatar