announcement UK / Ireland photoreal regions coming to XP, AFS2 and FSX/P3D!

[John Venema 8,950]

Hello all,

 

Normally Orbx does not announce projects until they are at least in alpha or beta stage and we have something to show. However in the case of this announcement, a lot of exploratory pre-alpha work has already been done and indeed I've shown some sneak preview shots already. Moving forward I think in the current climate of multiple sim platforms we will likely be giving more advanced notice of future projects.

 

What I can announce today is that we have secured pristine aerial photography for all of the UK and Ireland and this now paves the way for projects to commence in earnest. Jarrad Marshall will be announcing the name of these series of addons this weekend so I won't reveal the Orbx product series name yet, but they will be made entire from aerial photography orthoimagery and not landclass based.

 

In addition to the Netherlands for FSX/P3D coming in a matter of weeks, we will be releasing photoreal regions for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Pacific Northwest USA and Germany in 2018/19. These will be released as a region each, allowing you to pick and choose which ones you want and also manage the footprint sizes on your drives. We may split Germany into halves to contain the installation size. The prospect of flying from Ireland to the eastern part of Germany in a contiguous photo based scenery is now very real.

 

The first sim platforms these UK/Ireland regions are to be released on will be X-Plane 11, followed by Aerofly FS2. This is because the pre-work has already been done and they will be summer season only. FSX/P3D will follow but there is a lot of work to produce 5 seasonal variations of each regions therefore extra development time will be required.

 

We will be producing a test compile somewhere in the Midlands soon, and we can then share a few further sneak preview shots.

 

These regions will be "install-and-fly". Everything will be managed by OrbxDirect and FTX Central so you can focus on just enjoying the regions themselves. We plan to include every house, building, tree and structure in all of the UK/Ireland and the regions will also include (based on each sim's functionality) night lighting, traffic, power lines, water masking, light houses, cityscapes, POIs, marinas, ships and thousands more 3D objects. Airports will be upgraded in the FSX/P3D version but we are not 100% decided on XP/AFS2 for airports at this stage. Those may follow in a service pack or we take a different approach (more details TBC).

 

So imagine doing an approach with scenery that looks like this:

 

 

This will soon be possible across multiple sim platforms and I am sure you are just as excited as we are about the prospects of seeing this level of detail in your favourite sim.

 

More information to come in due course!

[rjlfry 4]

Will follow this this with great interest john cheers. 

[Rimshot 84]

Excellent news! Thanks for sharing in this early stage.

[gazpatt 28]

Very exciting times ahead!

[Pilot 49]

Thank you for the early news! As an owner of all the above currently published regions, I would like to ask if an upgrade discount is planned for us. 

[pmb 702]

That's great news indeed. I'm all in, at least for the Prepar3d and AeroflyFS versions.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[John Venema 8,950]

4 minutes ago, Pilot said:

Thank you for the early news! As an owner of all the above currently published regions, I would like to ask if an upgrade discount is planned for us. 

 

We will consider this. Because we are using all-new technology we see this as an entirely new product line. Orbx is investing six figure sums in source data and labour costs for each of these regions. If we do offer a cross-grade discount it won't be at the level of the airport ports of 40% we're offering now. I'll discuss that with the management team.

[Pilot 49]

3 minutes ago, John Venema said:

 

We will consider this. Because we are using all-new technology we see this as an entirely new product line. Orbx is investing six figure sums in source data and labour costs for each of these regions. If we do offer a cross-grade discount it won't be at the level of the airport ports of 40% we're offering now. I'll discuss that with the management team.

 

Thank you very much John for your reply and considering this. I understand its a completely new development. The only 'pity' is that owners of the landclass regions will probably dismiss them forever if they choose to buy the new products. That would be even more of a pity for example for Germany which is a new product. As a loyal customer and having invested a lot of money on all ORBX regions, I would find the  necessary motivation to dismiss them, if an upgrade discount was possible for the new photoreal ones. 

 

Again, thanks for the update and the excellent development :  )

[Asheroo 75]

This is exciting news! When I tested out XP11 last year, I was quite amazed at Tony's UK scenery. In my mind I imagined a world where he would be working for Orbx creating photoreal regions. And here we are today. It is also has been good to hear that you are working on seasonal textures for these photoreal regions in P3D. I am prepared to pay full amount for the region, and discounted for purchasing for a second sim. The high quality orthoimagery is worth it. This tech is a new era of flight sim scenery. Here's hoping to the same thing eventually for Norway/Canada/Alaska!

 

 

Edited March 14, 2018 by Asheroo

[pmb 702]

16 minutes ago, John Venema said:

 

We will consider this. Because we are using all-new technology we see this as an entirely new product line. Orbx is investing six figure sums in source data and labour costs for each of these regions. If we do offer a cross-grade discount it won't be at the level of the airport ports of 40% we're offering now. I'll discuss that with the management team.

I can only speak for myself, but given this is indeed a new development and good imagery is all but cheap I would be prepared to pay the full price for these photo regions, even if I own all the landclass regions (for Prepar3d). Although I wouldn't mind a bit of a rebate for loyal customers, of course.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[BrettT 113]

What is the intent with regards to the add-on airports for these regions.  Will these be updated to mask well with the new PR regions as well?

[John Venema 8,950]

Yes they will be made compatible with the FSX/P3D versions of the regions and most if not all will be ported to the AFS2/XP versions. They will be colour matched and seamlessly blended. Since about 60% of our airports fall within these regions there will be plenty of destinations for you!

[FILOU 3,205]

Even with a high price. Even with a lot of space on the hard drive. Even with only one season XP11 with this kind of product will be an indisputable winner. Several Simmer coming from another horizon will melt like snow under the sun.And I don't even imagine what will be with XP12... And no need to wait 10 years for that... Very good Orbx news! 

[Dadtom65 438]

John Orbx never ceases to amaze me and to think it all started 10 years ago. Any other surprises in the pipeline though what you have just revealed I doubt it. Thank you very much, appreciate what you and your fellow workers have accomplished. Derek.

[paulb 9,535]

That sounds amazing JV!

 

My only interest is in P3Dv4. But the thought of truly accurate UK scenery (with all seasons) is one thing that I have been hoping for .

 

Thank you sir!

[robmw 24]

As a long time user of the Horizon / Playsims UK VFR scenery and the sadly defunct Earth Sims I'm very pleased to hear about this!

 

One question - for P3D /FSX might it be an option to release a summer only version with the option to upgrade to full seasonal support later? The reasoning behind this is to save somewhat on potential disk space and maybe to get the scenery earlier than would otherwise be possible. After all the previous UK photo scenery was available only for one season and many users would be used to this as a starter at least.

 

Anyway great news for a UK resident to be able to see their own country in full fidelity. 

Edited March 14, 2018 by robmw

[Flygsidan 80]

As much as I like the idea, and get extremely impressed by the announcement of 5 different seasons for the photoreal areas in P3D I cant but wonder if its a bit of overkill. I can  understand a summer season and a different winter season but I would not hesitate a second to buy the areas with fewer seasons. Especially if they can be produced faster and cost a little less disk space. Perhaps its just me

[rockliffe 423]

This is great news as I'm considering seriously moving to XP11. I'm tried of chasing P3d v4 around the houses to try and get it to load photosceneries. I will be looking forward to this immensely.

[pmb 702]

9 minutes ago, rockliffe said:

This is great news as I'm considering seriously moving to XP11. I'm tried of chasing P3d v4 around the houses to try and get it to load photosceneries. I will be looking forward to this immensely.

Howard, you can't exclude that even LM understood there is an issue with photoscenery until ORBX UK photo P3D will be due. There are still miracles in this world...

 

Kind regards, Michael

[John Venema 8,950]

27 minutes ago, robmw said:

One question - for P3D /FSX might it be an option to release a summer only version with the option to upgrade to full seasonal support later? The reasoning behind this is to save somewhat on potential disk space and maybe to get the scenery earlier than would otherwise be possible. After all the previous UK photo scenery was available only for one season and many users would be used to this as a starter at least.

 

That is actually a good idea! We could possibly release Summer only for FSX?P3D then offer season packs later.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Dadtom65 said:

Any other surprises in the pipeline though what you have just revealed I doubt it. Thank you very much, appreciate what you and your fellow workers have accomplished. Derek.

 

There are always surprises around the corner Derek  

[Buffy Foster 339]

I like how you have Iceland set up to show off the Orbx stack; could you maybe do something like that (or update it?) to show off how the photoreal will look and perform?  I'm still confused how flat pictures will look nice (even on a good terrain mesh) or how you'll put buildings, trees, etc on it to fill it out.  Will it be kinda like how Google Earth puts 3D buildings?  It all sounds pretty cool though.

[Speedbird85 2]

This is great news..........I just loaded up on the NA regions thanks to the great sale and now I'll have to start saving for all the photo scenery releases. LOL LOL

 

Thanks to ORBX for the great sale and a big thanks for moving to a new photo scenery world.!!!!!!!!!!!!...............cant wait for the UK stuff.

 

Hopefully as someone said in an earlier post , Canada and Alaska will eventually be done but I'm sure the photo PNW will cover the same area as the original so my home town of Vancouver will get covered this year.

 

Big thanks again for all your great work!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris

[Christopher Low 115]

Post of the century, John. Fantastic news!! I absolutely agree with the idea of releasing a "summer only" version for P3D.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Christopher Low

[John Venema 8,950]

43 minutes ago, Buffy Foster said:

I like how you have Iceland set up to show off the Orbx stack; could you maybe do something like that (or update it?) to show off how the photoreal will look and perform?  I'm still confused how flat pictures will look nice (even on a good terrain mesh) or how you'll put buildings, trees, etc on it to fill it out.  Will it be kinda like how Google Earth puts 3D buildings?  It all sounds pretty cool though.

 

It will look something like this:

 

Some pre-alpha shots of a UK region exploratory work:

 

 

 

It won't look like Google Earth because the 3D objects used there are built using street level and aerial photos stitched together in a very crude fashion and without any error correction. We will use custom autogen buildings using appropriate generic textures local to each area.

 

Will you see your house? Yes, but it will be using generic textures. 

 

We may offer a "put my house in the sim" service for those people wanting to pay for it  

 

[John Venema 8,950]

43 minutes ago, Speedbird85 said:

Hopefully as someone said in an earlier post , Canada and Alaska will eventually be done but I'm sure the photo PNW will cover the same area as the original so my home town of Vancouver will get covered this year.

 

PNW won't include BC or Canada because we cannot source affordable licensable imagery (yet). We'd love to include it but the costs are horrendous right now. The USA has access to free NAIP and USGS imagery so it's more feasible for us to do that, although it will be in smallish chunks. We could not possibly cover the entire US like this in a short space of time.

[chasordod 0]

Very impressive shots, and in a different league from existing UK photo coverage. Keenly awaited.

 

Would also support the early release of summer only for P3D, and to leave that as a permanent option. A personal view only, but I can't see myself wanting to acquire the disk capacity implied by all the seasonal variants, particularly if I make the move to SSD.

Edited March 14, 2018 by chasordod
Mistype

[Taph 1,381]

Great news John, I have tried Horizon VFR but found the lack of 3D buildings and objects, with only a single season a limiting factor, therefore look forward to a 5 season offering

[Speedbird85 2]

Thanks for the reply John,

 

It sucks that there isn't affordable imagery for Canada. Its not the first time I've heard this from a developer but hopefully one day you will be able to solve the issue. The Canadian Rockies would look outstanding in photoreal.

 

Anyway, looking forward to the new products..........

Chris

[Speedbird85 2]

Great shots of the UK John,

UK was going to be my next region purchase but I think I'll hold off.....LOL LOL.........Lots of other ORBX stuff to get on my list anyway..........lol

[John Venema 8,950]

This is a whole different league to previous UK photoreal products. It is relatively recent imagery for a start, (Ireland has not even been completely flown yet). This is not satellite imagery, but taken from low flying aircraft under the cloud layer using specialist equipment.

[BBoyJD10 1]

Sign me up for put my house in the sim

[petehowell57 84]

Brilliant news John.  I have been flying some XP11 lately, as I like the way roads don't crash through the middle of built up areas (as they do in FSX/P3D).  I have been playing with Ortho4XP but it is so time consuming. Your new photoscenery regions will be a dream come true as I fly mainly in the UK.

 

Many thanks in advance

 

Pete

[Matthijs 66]

Thanks for the update, is there anything to say about a timeframe for The Netherlands region for X-Plane?

[Dusterman 40]

Is Orbx planning to get rid of the "table top" airports required by P3D and FSX in their X-Plane conversions? AI traffic in X-Plane does not require  flattened runways so the runways and airports can follow the actual contours of the terrain, providing a much more realistic flying experience.  Check out the Courchevel airport to see what I mean.  EGPB Sumburgh already has an option for sloped runways in FSX and P3D, would be a good conversion project for X-Plane.

[GCBraun 20]

Very good! Even though I already have 4Tb of Orthoscenery for XP11, I would gladly pay to get guaranteed compatibility and a hassle-free experience. Day one costumer here!

[riverreveal 37]

Amazing news!!

 

Any rough ideas of what the install size of a 5 season photo real scenery will be for a region the size of England? Has the Netherlands install size been announced yet?

 

 

 

[Christopher Low 115]

This announcement has provided me with a firm roadmap of where I need to be in 2019. Basically, that means an upgrade to P3D v4 (or whatever 64bit version is available at that time), and a new PC! Where I am going to get the money for all of this is anyone's guess, but I am not going to let a minor issue like that worry me

[Pete H 72]

Amazing news! I've been waiting for so long for decent photoreal coverage of the UK, and the fact that it's coming from Orbx means this really will set a benchmark for scenery quality. 64-bit sims really have opened up the possibilities for scenery development - I dream of a future of increased LOD radii, higher-resolution VR, and photoreal scenery - it'll be breathtaking!

 

I second the idea of releasing just a summer season for P3D initially - I do 90% of my flying in the summer anyway (who wants to fly in a British winter)?

 

A question - will customers have to pay full price for each sim platform, or will a discount be available if, for example, you already own England photoreal for XP11 but want to buy it for P3D?

 

I wonder whether Orbx are considering a more "menu-like" pricing structure for the future? By that I mean, instead of having a fixed price per region for each sim platform, instead the user could simply select which products they want and for which sims, with the store then giving a single price at the end for a combined, single product?

 

For example, in my case, I'd want to buy a photoreal England, Scotland, and Wales, but I wouldn't be interested in Ireland or NI. I would like to buy the regions for P3D, XP11, and potentially in the future AFS2. So, to buy three regions for three sims each means nine separate products in total. Instead, how about Orbx simply sell a single "British Isles photoreal" package, with the user then being able to "tick" which regions they want and for which platforms? The user could then go back at a later date and tick another sim (e.g. AFS2) and just pay an additional fee, rather than buying the full product again. For what its worth, I would happily pay in the region of £200 for such a product (a combined ENG/WLS/SCO for XP11 and P3D).

 

Alternatively, maybe consider a monthly subscription model, which would give the user access to the entire Orbx catalogue, for all sims, plus lifetime updates/upgrades? I'd be interested in that too.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Pete H

[Sniper31 3,186]

Great and exciting news JV! Orbx rocks!

[riverreveal 37]

14 minutes ago, Pete H said:

Alternatively, maybe consider a monthly subscription model, which would give the user access to the entire Orbx catalogue, for all sims, plus lifetime updates/upgrades? I'd be interested in that too.

 

I would be up for that idea. Orbx could leave the global products out of it and make the subscription purely region/airport based. Heavily biased opinion as I own all the global product range and now want all the upcoming photo scenery!

 

£10 - £15 a month, would equate to more than I would spend in a year (as I am a buy in Orbx sales kinda chap) but much easier to justify to the Mrs!

 

.........well, possibly.......