Which way to go?

[miatamariner]

I've had UTXUSA/Canada/Europe and Tropical Carib for FSX for years. I read the recent review of FTX Global on this site and the comments left by simmers are complimentary. I am tempted to purchase Global but have some concerns as to whether I can use it with the UTX products, or not, or if I should use just one and not the other, or both.

 

TIA for any suggestions.

[mallcott]

I've had UTXUSA/Canada/Europe and Tropical Carib for FSX for years. I read the recent review of FTX Global on this site and the comments left by simmers are complimentary. I am tempted to purchase Global but have some concerns as to whether I can use it with the UTX products, or not, or if I should use just one and not the other, or both.

 

TIA for any suggestions.

 

Separate and competing products with crossover in graphics and the landclass interpretation, it's one or the other.

 

If you have one, why would you want the other when they are extensive - and expensive - alternates?

[dnpaul]

FTX Global and UTX USA work fine on my system. The UTX entries are higher priority in my scenery library settings. I like getting the additional night lighting in particular.

[mallcott]

FTX Global and UTX USA work fine on my system. The UTX entries are higher priority in my scenery library settings. I like getting the additional night lighting in particular.

 

No they don't. You need to read up on why they don't. The addons use different file structures with their respective textures/library files. As soon as you install the FTX file library you are not looking at the files UTX wants you to see because of the LCLookup amendments. Neither product is JUST textures, which is where the problems arise...

[shadowfaxcrx]

I had FTX Global Base installed standalone until Orbx did it's 50% off sale yesterday, when I grabbed Vector as well. Global Base is pretty good, especially in interesting terrain like mountains or canyons. They look a lot more realistic and a lot more interesting.

 

It's not *perfect* (I'm unclear on why someone built a farm on top of Sandia Peak in New Mexico's Rocky Mountains, for instance ;) ) but it's a *lot* better than stock.

 

Vector is even better, though you will see framerate hits in dense areas. Before Vector I was smooth everywhere. With Vector (bearing in mind I only installed it yesterday and have done no tweaks) I'm smooth everywhere except places like Los Angeles when I slow to as bad as 15fps. I suspect I'll be able to improve those numbers without much loss of graphical quality once I have time to futz with it.

 

Vector will make the world look a lot more real... Mostly. Shorelines will look great. No more weird blocky geometric shapes. What you see on Google Earth is very close if not spot on to what you'll see under Vector.

[mallcott]

I had FTX Global Base installed standalone until Orbx did it's 50% off sale yesterday, when I grabbed Vector as well. Global Base is pretty good, especially in interesting terrain like mountains or canyons. They look a lot more realistic and a lot more interesting.

 

It's not *perfect* (I'm unclear on why someone built a farm on top of Sandia Peak in New Mexico's Rocky Mountains, for instance ;) ) but it's a *lot* better than stock.

 

Vector is even better, though you will see framerate hits in dense areas. Before Vector I was smooth everywhere. With Vector (bearing in mind I only installed it yesterday and have done no tweaks) I'm smooth everywhere except places like Los Angeles when I slow to as bad as 15fps. I suspect I'll be able to improve those numbers without much loss of graphical quality once I have time to futz with it.

 

Vector will make the world look a lot more real... Mostly. Shorelines will look great. No more weird blocky geometric shapes. What you see on Google Earth is very close if not spot on to what you'll see under Vector.

 

You are confusing this topic: FTX Vector and FTX OpenLC are nothing to do with FTX Global whcih our OP was posting about, and those two addons absolutely mess with the UTX installations in a complex fashion.

 

Perhaps stick to FTX Global and UTX as there's enough potential for conflict to be going on with?

 

Although mentioningg the 50% off sale is definitely a good idea if our OP is looking at FTX Global Base...

[shadowfaxcrx]

Yeah, see, I assumed people would be able to follow along when I said I had FTX Global Base installed standalone, and then went on to talk about Global Base for 1.5 paragraphs.

 

Since Vector is not a Global replacement and runs concurrently with it, and often people run both, and in fact Vector requires Base (and therefore does not have nothing to do with Global) and further since Global Base, Global Vector, and Global Open LC are all part of the FTX Global family I really don't understand where you're getting the idea that they have nothing to do with each other.

 

I did talk about Vector specifically for awhile, yes, because if OP gets Global he might decide to get Vector later like a lot of other people do, and it's sometimes nice to know what your future decision paths are.

[mallcott]

Yeah, see, I assumed people would be able to follow along when I said I had FTX Global Base installed standalone, and then went on to talk about Global Base for 1.5 paragraphs.

 

Since Vector is not a Global replacement and runs concurrently with it, and often people run both, and in fact Vector requires Base (and therefore does not have nothing to do with Global) and further since Global Base, Global Vector, and Global Open LC are all part of the FTX Global family I really don't understand where you're getting the idea that they have nothing to do with each other.

 

I did talk about Vector specifically for awhile, yes, because if OP gets Global he might decide to get Vector later like a lot of other people do, and it's sometimes nice to know what your future decision paths are.

 

I didn't say they had nothing to do with each other. I said they had nothing to do with the relationship between UTX and FTX Global, which after all is the actual point of this thread.

 

There is absolutely no doubt that for someone who already owns a variety of UTX product FTX Vector and FTX OpenLC is a very bad waste of money, as each expands on the incompatibility begun by TX Global and its `own` library files and interpretation of LCLookup.