FTX Central v3 - CAUTION!

ORBX have released their new all singing, all-dancing file management suite of software tools, and in their usual incompetent fashion, their reach exceeds their grasp.

P3D scenery issues will occur unless you take ownership of the limitations of their installation software and circumvent the worst of their stupidity.

1: FTX Central now fails to recognise ANY and ALL addons that aren't theirs and will unilaterally change the position order in the scenery menu to suit it's software alone. Fine if you only have their software, woeful if you dare to install anything from anyone else.

BEFORE YOU RUN FTX SCENERY V3 BACKUP YOUR SCENERY.CFG

No apologies for `shouting` this, it's the single most important thing you will ever do and will save you from a full reinstall in many cases.

2: After their drivellous code has run, open the modified scenery .cfg and backup scenery .cfg side-by-side. You will immediately see that they've moved the scenery entries. Unnecessarily. If you haven't actually INSTALLED any new FTX scenery the backup actually has a perfectly serviceable entry location so you can rename the `new` and copy over the `old` and you're back up and running - until the next time that all-in-one tool is run again, when all your problems return at once - perhaps make it a pattern to back up scenery .cfg on a regular basis every time you even think about running Central... I recommend scenery config editor, it's now almost demanded to run alongside FTX Central v3.

3: After you've `migrated` and reinstated the scenery .cfg if you have not been prompted to update the FTX library files, do so. On three out of five rigs I've just `updated` the update is NOT being flagged unless its run manually.

Don't waste your time with the full download of FTX Library any more - it uses some proprietary format for the the zip folders that mean you d/l 2 gigs of futile file-blocking BS. Just let FTX Central v3 update the library files. It does at least seem to be good at that...

4: Oh wait, maybe not: Having done so, if you have HD Trees installed you may find your sim is now exceedingly `tree light` - looks like the stoopid software can't actually recognise it's own products, much less anyone elses.

Quick fix: uninstall and reinstall HD Trees and as if by magic, trees will reappear.

5: For yet another stupid reason, certain updates for scenery files now contain user-adjustable settings that have to be set manually. DONT just run the update or installer, quit out and launch the sim: YOU need to open the settings menus for every scenery addon (if present) and re-confirm the settings.

6: Be aware, however, that doing so is no longer the instantaneous exercise as it was under FTX Central v2 and previous. Now, write-backs to the ORBX files can take several seconds, so do not shut FTX Central V3 down until the process circle stops rotating, and your drive light stops chattering.

You don't want to know what happens if you don't...

I'm sure there will be more, but having overcome this little lot on 3 separate computers since yesterday, these idiots need to be taken into a field and put out of our misery!

Far from automating their purchase and support process, they've just increased the need for manual intervention ten fold - as their forum indicates.

In vernacular, I believer we call that Epic Fail.

You have been warned.

Have had nothing but problems with FTXCv3 since I installed it. My scenery has never worked. The FTX client is lacking in proper tools such as file (scenery) validation and forces a new download as the only way to attempt to fix a botch download of their scenery. If you click uninstall on a scenery item, it tells you the product has been uninstalled. A quick browse of your Orbx and P3D folder will show you otherwise. They even leave all the registry entries in your system as well. That's no uninstalling from the system, it is only uninstalling from the FTXCv3 console.

The worst part? If you have problems at the level I did, which requires a clean reinstall of FTXCv3, you're out of luck. There is no uninstaller. Not in Programs and Features, not in the folders they force into your AppData folder, not anywhere. A quick view of your registry will leave you in shock at what they leave behind. More work than I want to deal with at $54.00 a pop for scenery.

I vented my frustration on their forums and was banned. Even though it was slightly pointed, my post was well within their terms of use. They didn't like my criticism and banned me for it. A customer that has problems with their software, has paid well over $300.00 and is frustrated and their answer is to ban you and deny you support. OK! Let's see how that works out for them. With that move, they have lost this customer. In the end, they lose, not I. In fact, they can't even get my ban from the forums right. I was supposed to be let back in at 5:30AM this morning, yet I am still banned.

I can tell you this, I will most certainly not be supporting them any longer due to their treatment of me, the customer, when it is they who created the problem in the first place by releasing a product that has failed to work from day one on my system. Oh, yeah, I'm and I.T. guy of 23 years and build my own PCs. I manage complex consoles daily that would make the Orbx devs heads spin, yet I cannot get their scenery installed in a clean install of P3D. Go figure that. Absolutely the worst experience I have ever had.

Let me share with you some of the issues with the entire product line that I experienced.

1. Installed FTXCv3 and downloaded all 5 of my scenery items. Everything seemed ok. All library entries were in the proper location in the scenery library tree.

2. Reopen FTX and migrate to their forced newfangled lclookup migration. Rumor has it, this is causing blurries again in the sim. I know I have them now.

3. Open my sim expecting to see their scenery. What I got was morphing textures everywhere. Mind you, this is on a clean install of P3D with just one payware aircraft installed. Verified all locations of scenery files over and over. All file checked as OK in the migration tool checker dealio. No joy, scenery stayed busted.

4. Uninstalled (ahhahahah not really) my scenery from FTXCv3. Rebooted. Then, reinstalled all scenery. Same morphing problem as before.

5. Uninstalled (ahhahahah not really again) my scenery from FTXCv3 again. Wiped P3D at that point figuring something must be wrong. Well, that didn't solve the issue either once I got everything reinstalled.

6. Deleted scenery.cfg and shaders folder. No Joy still busted.

7. ran their migration tool. tells me 8 file hashes are invalid. Redownload the scenery for that failed item again. Immediately checked hashes. Same 8 failures.

8. Log out of FTXCv3 just to see if logging out and back in might help. WRONG! Couldn't log back in.

9. Finally get back in. I had to reboot my PC to flush whatever garbage they parked in memory to achieve a login.

10. Uninstall (ahhahahah not really again for the third time) all of my scenery.

11. Re-downloaded the FTX Global Base file first. Unable to see FTX in the library insertion section of FTXCv3. Can't download anything else because it will not land in the correct place. Their Library Insertion drop-down wanted to laid my LC files under P3D Default Scenery. really. How awesome! Investigation indicates the downloaded file that took 30 minutes to pull from their blazingly fast servers vanished from my PC and was never installed into P3D. Several other folders and files were though. Nice!

12. Decided to uninstall FTXCv3 completely and discovered there is no uninstaller. Super nice of them to think of the end-user.

13. Got on their forum and posted my displeasure and was banned because I, the paying customer and irritated as hell and informed them that I could not believe that they deployed this product to revenue without an uninstaller. There were some other things I stated, but not worthy of a ban. I just wasn't falling in line enough for them I guess.

So with that I'm done with them. I'm sure not everyone will have these issues, but if you do, you'll certainly be thinking about this thread if you took the time to read it all. And YOU SHOULD!

To see how AWFUL thier software is go look at the log files when this thing (FTX) craps all over itself. Enuff said. So you pay crack designers thousands yet your installer looks like an entry level script kiddie did it?

Something is not right here.

Have had nothing but problems with FTXCv3 since I installed it. My scenery has never worked. The FTX client is lacking in proper tools such as file (scenery) validation and forces a new download as the only way to attempt to fix a botch download of their scenery. If you click uninstall on a scenery item, it tells you the product has been uninstalled. A quick browse of your Orbx and P3D folder will show you otherwise. They even leave all the registry entries in your system as well. That's no uninstalling from the system, it is only uninstalling from the FTXCv3 console.

 

The worst part? If you have problems at the level I did, which requires a clean reinstall of FTXCv3, you're out of luck. There is no uninstaller. Not in Programs and Features, not in the folders they force into your AppData folder, not anywhere. A quick view of your registry will leave you in shock at what they leave behind. More work than I want to deal with at $54.00 a pop for scenery.

 

I vented my frustration on their forums and was banned. Even though it was slightly pointed, my post was well within their terms of use. They didn't like my criticism and banned me for it. A customer that has problems with their software, has paid well over $300.00 and is frustrated and their answer is to ban you and deny you support. OK! Let's see how that works out for them. With that move, they have lost this customer. In the end, they lose, not I. In fact, they can't even get my ban from the forums right. I was supposed to be let back in at 5:30AM this morning, yet I am still banned.

 

I can tell you this, I will most certainly not be supporting them any longer due to their treatment of me, the customer, when it is they who created the problem in the first place by releasing a product that has failed to work from day one on my system. Oh, yeah, I'm and I.T. guy of 23 years and build my own PCs. I manage complex consoles daily that would make the Orbx devs heads spin, yet I cannot get their scenery installed in a clean install of P3D. Go figure that. Absolutely the worst experience I have ever had.

 

Let me share with you some of the issues with the entire product line that I experienced.

 

1. Installed FTXCv3 and downloaded all 5 of my scenery items. Everything seemed ok. All library entries were in the proper location in the scenery library tree.

 

2. Reopen FTX and migrate to their forced newfangled lclookup migration. Rumor has it, this is causing blurries again in the sim. I know I have them now.

 

3. Open my sim expecting to see their scenery. What I got was morphing textures everywhere. Mind you, this is on a clean install of P3D with just one payware aircraft installed. Verified all locations of scenery files over and over. All file checked as OK in the migration tool checker dealio. No joy, scenery stayed busted.

 

4. Uninstalled (ahhahahah not really) my scenery from FTXCv3. Rebooted. Then, reinstalled all scenery. Same morphing problem as before.

 

5. Uninstalled (ahhahahah not really again) my scenery from FTXCv3 again. Wiped P3D at that point figuring something must be wrong. Well, that didn't solve the issue either once I got everything reinstalled.

 

6. Deleted scenery.cfg and shaders folder. No Joy still busted.

 

7. ran their migration tool. tells me 8 file hashes are invalid. Redownload the scenery for that failed item again. Immediately checked hashes. Same 8 failures.

 

8. Log out of FTXCv3 just to see if logging out and back in might help. WRONG! Couldn't log back in.

 

9. Finally get back in. I had to reboot my PC to flush whatever garbage they parked in memory to achieve a login.

 

10. Uninstall (ahhahahah not really again for the third time) all of my scenery.

 

11. Re-downloaded the FTX Global Base file first. Unable to see FTX in the library insertion section of FTXCv3. Can't download anything else because it will not land in the correct place. Their Library Insertion drop-down wanted to laid my LC files under P3D Default Scenery. really. How awesome! Investigation indicates the downloaded file that took 30 minutes to pull from their blazingly fast servers vanished from my PC and was never installed into P3D. Several other folders and files were though. Nice!

 

12. Decided to uninstall FTXCv3 completely and discovered there is no uninstaller. Super nice of them to think of the end-user.

 

13. Got on their forum and posted my displeasure and was banned because I, the paying customer and irritated as hell and informed them that I could not believe that they deployed this product to revenue without an uninstaller. There were some other things I stated, but not worthy of a ban. I just wasn't falling in line enough for them I guess.

 

So with that I'm done with them. I'm sure not everyone will have these issues, but if you do, you'll certainly be thinking about this thread if you took the time to read it all. And YOU SHOULD!

Were you angry?