FTX Global - Base and Vector... your comments?

OK, there's right now a 50% discount (I don't know if this is common for Orbx), and now I considering purchasing both the Base and Vector packs for FSX-SE. What do you think about those packs, regarding VAS and FPS impact?

I guess that, for the Base pack, there should be no VAS/FPS imact (except maybe the 3D night lights), but for the Vector one? I'm basically not running any scenery addons; just Zinertek airport, trees and skies/clouds.

OK, there's right now a 50% discount (I don't know if this is common for Orbx), and now I considering purchasing both the Base and Vector packs for FSX-SE. What do you think about those packs, regarding VAS and FPS impact?

 

I guess that, for the Base pack, there should be no VAS/FPS imact (except maybe the 3D night lights), but for the Vector one? I'm basically not running any scenery addons; just Zinertek airport, trees and skies/clouds.

No there will be an impact because FSX Global ALSO installs replacement textures via FTX Central and Vector brings in revised vector graphics such as roads and coastlines.

Realistically, you should NEVER assume anything installed to a sim will have zero impact, but if you don't tell us your hardware specs, how can you expect anyone to offer an opinion?

I don't worry about framerates, I look at the smoothness of flight. If it's totally smooth, I don't care if I'm getting 30 or 300 fps.

Under Orbix Global Base I could fly in Los Angeles with the sliders pretty far to the right and be totally smooth. Once I added Vector, it dropped to old stop-motion film standards. I had to bring the sliders a bit to the left in order to get things smooth again, and they're still not as smooth as they were pre-Vector.

Everywhere that isn't a ridiculously large metro area is glass smooth and looks worlds better than it did, so it's a tradeoff I'm reasonably happy with.

Specs: Win10/FSX, i5-4590 @3.3ghz, 16g ram (I know, only 4 gets used by the sim), GTX760 graphics card with 2 megs, so there's definitely a lot of room for hardware improvement.

If you care to look, I just posted some shots of Switzerland taken with Global Vector. Other than traffic, I usually keep my sliders full right so I can get good scenery detail. I'm not too interested in seeing cars and trucks jumping up and then disappearing all the time on the roads!

My speed is locked at 25fps and I seldom have any pauses or lag. However, I am running an Intel processor with a 4.5g clock speed and 16g of 2400 ram. Obviously your success with FSX is hugely determined by the clock speed of your Intel CPU and good ram!

As to the "special." Yes, they do that at least a couple of times a year. That's the only time I buy.;)

For me,ORBX Base is a MUST. It "rejuvenate" our old FSX.

I also have LC, Vector and all FTX regions. But, as I mostly fly GA(bush/amphibie) in the west-coast,

I disabled Vector a year ago due to the hit on fps versus what it "add" visually in the FTX regions.

Had to make concession to keep the fps at about 30, whatever the weather.

Still, ORBX have great products, very addictive stuff that keep many of us stick to FSX.