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Review: Orbx FTX GlobalBy Michael Hayward /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606220416_1.jpgOne add-on seen as a must-have by muchof the flight simulator community for FSX and P3D is Orbx's"FTX Global". What FTX Global does is it change all of the defaultsceneries within FSX and P3D to produce a much more realisticrepresentation of the world, without the need for VFR scenery, whichwould be almost impossible to do on a global scale. Having released in July 2013, this add-on has been out for quitesome time now. In this review, I will be taking an in-depth look atwhat this add-on does, and if it still stands with today's highstandards when it comes to flight simulation in general. InstallationInstallation of Orbx add-ons is now as easy as it gets since therelease of FTX Central 3. Once you have an unlock code or purchase the add-on from the OrbxStore, all you need to do is install FSX Central - the hub for allthings Orbx on both FSX/P3D and X-Plane. /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215500_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215514_1.jpgNext, you head over to the 'FTX Global Range' sub-header where youwill find FTX Global BASE Pack unlocked. Click on that and click'Install'. The add-on will then automatically configure onto yoursimulator. You are also given a 16-page configuration PDF which also goes intobrief detail on exactly what is included with this add-on, and how toset up your simulator for the best results. What Does It Do?Orbx FTX Global changes ALL of your default FSX ground and autogentextures, landclass and in some cases ground mesh into their ownhigh-definition images and higher Level of Detail (LOD) mesh. Thisaims to ultimately re-invent your flight simulator experience withground detailing that rivals VFR scenery, while only using a fractionof the hard drive space. Orbx have expertly done the bordering of the land classimages. When you fly at both low and high altitude, the ground imagesfit into one another seamlessly. One issue the default ground textureshad is that when the ground type changes it didn't matter what wasthere, it would just be cut and a border made. That means sometimesyou would have the odd building cut in half or a road layout thatdidn't quite fit. While it would be impossible to have it 100%perfect, the Orbx ground texture layout comes close to ensuring thateverything matches up where it should, without looking terrible. /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215741_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215911_1.jpgOne thing that the default FSX and P3D textures suffer from ischeckerboarding. This is where the textures are so few and used somuch, you can see them repeat over and over again. This makes thesimulator look bad and, especially for those that fly VFR, much lessappealing. As Orbx includes many more textures (that differ dependingon your region, I might add) and spread them out much further, thisproblem is essentially removed entirely and the issue ofcheckerboarding is no more. Speaking of regions, they also have their own set oftextures. While the default simulator just had 'Africa' and 'Europe'textures per se, the new Orbx set breaks it down into smaller areasfor example 'Central Africa' and 'Continental Europe'. This meansthere is a lot more variety depending on where you fly, and theenvironment itself is a lot more suited and recognisable - again botha benefit for VFR pilots low to the ground and IFR pilots who may havejust flown half the way around the world! Imagine flying all the wayfrom Beijing to Boston, just to see that everything looks thesame! /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606220214_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606220238_1.jpgNew autogen buildings and vegetation textures also replace thedefault ones. This means ground buildings from a neutral worldwideperspective are much better and won't appear out of place no matterwhat continent you are in, they fit the environment well. The defaultbuildings are very American, meaning when you fly in populated Africanand Asian cities, things start to look...off... Textures are also of a much higher resolution meaning you can see alot more detail in buildings while on the ground - perfect especiallywhen flying out of smaller airfields and regional airports wherehousing and buildings may only be a stone's throw away. What About Seasonal Textures?Orbx has included textures for each season, meaning no matter whattime of the year you fly, the ground scenery matches. /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215144_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606222837_1.jpgThis add-on also goes as far as to change WHEN each season textureappears, to naturally suit the world environment more than what iscurrently achieved. That meant changing the start and end date of eachseason inside the core simulator itself. The season start date changesare as follows: Spring Default - 21st March Spring FTX Global - 1st March Summer Default - 21st June Summer FTX Global - 1st May Autumn Default - 22nd September Autumn FTX Global - 1st September Winter Default - 22nd December Winter FTX Global - 1st November /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606221001_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606221241_1.jpgDo note that there are also two different kinds of winters in FSX -Winter and Heavy Winter. This determines how much snow there is on theground and is also dependent on the date, but also where in the worldit is. While personally, I'm not the biggest fan of this change as itmakes the seasons too...even, it does make them spread out so forthose that like to fly with real-world time, you will see a transitionbetween the seasons depending on what time of the year you fly. Season textures are also all to a high standard and are well suitedto the environment you are flying in. Each continent has their own setof textures and the season does change depending on which hemisphereyou fly on, which makes the world much more life-like. (While it maybe sunny and warm in the UK, it's quite the opposite for Australiawhere it snows the same time of year!) Night EffectsNight lighting and effects are greatly improved in FTX Global. Allground textures are re-done to accurately portray street lighting, butthe biggest change of all is the introduction of 3D night lighting andother miscellaneous ground lights. /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606222214_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606222300_1.jpgThis means when flying at night, you can see where roads andmotorways snake around in the distance and when flying along thecoast, where coastal roads and buildings border the sea before thedarkness of the water carries on into the horizon. High altitude flying is also much more realistic. For those thathave flown at night before, when you look out of the window, all youcan see is the small towns and cities glowing while surrounded bydarkness where the area may not be so populated. In FSX and P3D, thewhole world just glows yellow. This is totally unrealistic and ruinsthe appeal of flying at night. Overall, you will be impressed at how much better flying at nightfeels. With a realistic aircraft and a high-spec setup, flying atnight with FTX Global can be a lot of fun. Opinion And Closing RemarksFor the most part, I've definitely had an enjoyable time using thisscenery. From the air the textures look both realistic and fantastic,giving you a much stronger perspective when you fly. When asked to dothis review, I was told to make the theme of it 'Is this add-on stillworth it five years down the line?' and the answer to that is yes. Yes,it definitely is. /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606221935_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606222028_1.jpgWhen combined with their Orbx Airport and FTX Region packs, thisalso greatly improves the surroundings of these airports too. Don'tforget that on their web site, Orbx does include a number of freewareregional airports and demo locations which in turn also adds to yourflying experience. These seamlessly integrate with FTX Global andmakes the overall flying experience in FSX and P3D much moreenjoyable. The new textures for autogen buildings and trees, as well as thenight lighting, just adds to your flying experience. These are muchbetter than the default set you get with FSX and as mentioned before,the lighting just makes flying at night so much more appealing. The only real issue I have had with Orbx FTX Global is thatsometimes the ground textures can be a little 'patchy' to say theleast. This is where one square may be using a different season'stextures where there is a small 'conflict' with the seasonalchanges. This however is not too bad and there is a way to fix it byrunning an integrity check in FTX Central which clears up anyissue. I must also praise Orbx on how well this add-on runs too. I've notseen any noticeable lag spikes or drop in frames. For an add-on thattotally re-builds your world environment, this is surprisingly lighton the CPU! /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606222733_1.jpg /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606220921_1.jpgPricing for FTX Global is also not as bad as you may think. Orbxprices are generally average to low for what they do, and at $99 AUDwhich is slightly below £60 in the UK or $75 US, you are getting anadd-on that vastly improves the whole simulator world, not just one ortwo regions. FTX Global by Orbx is one of those add-ons that for those that liketo fly both low-altitude VFR or high-altitude IFR jetliner style,you'll both see and feel the improvements no matter what. The Technical BitMinimum RequirementsFSX, FSX:SE, P3D v1, P3D v2, P3D v3, P3D v43.92 GB hard drive spaceMicrosoft .NET Framework 4.5FTX Central v3 (Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 compatible only) /images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/20180606215426_1.jpgReview PC SpecMicrosoft Flight Simulator X: Steam EditionWindows 10 Professional6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 6700K Processor16 GB RAMNVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 745/images/reviews/orbx-ftx/t/orbx-ftx-global.jpg Michael Hayward Purchase Orbx FTX Global