I’m a little confused at some of the Payware on the Market.
With so much already in the Game, I wanted to be sure I that any purchase I made was not going to be doubled up. orbx are selling LOWI Innsbruk Airport and it looks really nice. I went to check online if that airport is already in the game and low and behold I found it already exists in the standard edition of the game.
What am I miss here?
I bought the premium deluxe edition. Don’t I already have HD airports and is this something I have to be careful of when purchasing payware airports? Like I am not going to get a warning that I already have the same airport HD rendered?
How do we go about purchasing this kind of thing when we don’t need to because we already have it in game?
Clearly I don’t understand. It would be nice if someone could explain how it works and if there is anything I can do to ensure I don’t wind up unnecessarily buying addons I don’t need because I already have them? Like one of the selling points for Premium was extra rendered airports? Do see what I am saying?
Steam is good for this by already knowing what content I already have … but I can see this is not the case when purchasing 3rd party? Is this a genuine concern?
Quite simple. Just check the list of what modeled airports come with the game. You could google that and also check in your content manager.
Its normal developers release different versions of the same airports. Whilst the hand modeled ones are decent, they are not the same level of quality or detail that some would expect.
For example I bought Chicago O’Hare Airport from FS Dreamteam even though it was included in the simulator simply because theirs is far superior. That’s just flight simming for you. It’s all about the details.
Yep yep, that’s what I did. Used Google to find out I was buying an airport that I already had.
As for the HD rendering component being used to sell the airport again, I could only think to myself - “Hey, I just shelled out X amount of $ for the Premium edition MSFS2020 on the basis I was getting more airports already highly rendered as ground breaking for 2020 and so on … ???”
I understand this might not be the case for those with standard edition … BUT … the one I was looking at was already in the standard edition of a Newly Released High Tech Version on the premise of already detailed airport. It still does not make sense to me?
I could understand if it was like a different airport but not ones already on the list as being advertised as already glossed???
I do not compare (as have not yet seen) but more question the need for these addons given the existing marketing of MSFS2020 regarding it’s claim of glossy graphics and that I thought entailed the 40 listed airports. What you show here only makes me question from that context all the more.
Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Now I can definitely compare. I once more truly question what all the fuss was about with respect to the original MSFS2020 gloss. YES - in this case I can see a massive difference and it being worth it for those who can afford.
Yes that helps very much and TY. I am a little confused though as I was talking about Orbx. How many different companies sell these kinds of Payware? I thought 3PD was just another flight sim which is in a list of compatible sims at the bottom of an Obbx product/addon?
Forgive my lack of understanding on these matters.
It’s been clearly shown to me now that the original/marketed airports with MSFS are not what they were peddled to be. hmmmmmm Best I can say it I guess.
Lots! But you should say ‘how many companies CREATE’ airports as payware. There are even more resellers.
You are confusing 3PD with P3D: 3PD is short for third party developer and P3D is short for Prepar3D (indeed another sim).
Wrong. The marketed airports are A LOT better than the non-handcrafted ones but… ariports from 3rd party devs often are even more better. I think the MSFS handcrafted airports are somewhere in between the standard ones and 3rd party ones.
So May I ask directly … Anything compatible with ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator’ as listed by Orbx will be better graphical wise than regardless if that asset is already in the game?
Just trying to eliminate having to go an search if I already have something as a YES to that question will save me a lot of time. More comparison Links like the once recently added would me it easy as well I guess.
Be careful with Orbx. Some of their MSFS stuff is subpar in my opinion and a money grab. I have bought a few of their airports for MSFS and have been buying their stuff for the past 14 years and have to say they are putting way less effort into their new addons compared with before. I am not saying all Orbx new stuff is bad. It is not but several of their new releases are not up to scratch.
I highly recommend watching addon review videos on youtube to help you make the decision of whats worth getting. Some developers are better than others. FS Dreamteam, Flytampa, LatinVFR and Flightbeam are the best so far in my opinion.
Thanks for the break down there Jvan. Roger on the first two points. The third I am still struggling with. There are 40 Marketed airports - however these 3rd party places are already coming out with better graphics on those being marketed. I already listed one of them in the opening post.
Thanks for persisting … I will get it soon enough. … as in the penny will drop.
Yes, well, that’s the idea at least. But as you can see:
So… all you can do is watch reviews and also compare what you have in your sim right now with screenshots of the product they want to sell!
On a sidenote: people tend to forget that Orbx has more or less become a shop that sells stuff from various developers. In the good old days Orbx created scenery and even though they were created by various people the quality was on a certain level. However, over the last few years more and more developers are working under the Orbx umbrella (Orbx now even sells stuff from other developers as a regular shop would do) and you tend to see this when you compare quality. Not every Orbx addon is created equal anymore. There can be huge differences.
I have to add that I stopped buying airport addons: I spend to little time on (or nearby) a single airport to justify the purchase. I spend more time in the air and so I am more than happy with what MSFS offers me out of the box. So I would certainly not buy an addon airport to replace one of the MSFS handcrafted ones…! But that’s very personal and subjective, of course.
BTW Be expected to have the same confusion when more and more addon airplanes are being released. You have an Airbus 320 right now already but I am a 100% sure a better one will be released as payware someday. The same goes for the Boeings… and well, in fact for any plane. And also here the difference will be the quality (well, again, that’s the idea): the payware versions or planes that are already in the game will have better flight models and/or more working switches and knobs and deeper systems, failures, etc.
In short: payware is usually better and sometimes worth the purchase even though you already have something similar in the sim already.
before I buy a new airport or scenery, I start MSFS and fly there. Then I compare the pictures and if it looks at least 50% better, they buy. Only if I’m interested in the airport, of course.
BUT BEWARE
In various shops, a large number of third-party airports are already being offered where the name was not even known until now. Then the quality is also subterranean!
Amen to that. I sometimes really wonder how people dare to ask money for something I wouldn’t even want as freeware…! Payware doesn’t equal quality: sometimes payware is really bad and worse than what the sim offers ouf of the box already.
The problem with Simmarket is that you want to sell EVERYTHING. There I see names of manufacturers who don’t even have a website.
Scenery with 4 houses, of course always from a different perspective, costs 10 euros. Or simply imported things from P3D for only 15 euros. Could go on like this for hours … But there are also good ones like ORBX, Gaya, Digital Design just to name a few.
I’m not sure what’s so confusing about this to be honest, seems like you’re overthinking it. Asobo originally handcrafted 50 airports, which look miles better than the default AI generated ones. If a 3rd party developer wants to create those same airports then that’s down to them, Asobo doesn’t have any control over what a 3rd party company does. Some of them look better than Asobo’s handcrafted airports, some of them don’t. As with anything, it’s down to you, the buyer, to decide whether you think the 3rd party airports are worth it or not. Just google the included handcrafted airports and you’ll get a list of those that are included
Not at all. I have gleaned a lot of information pertaining to a topic I have no idea on. Already from the replies I have learned much.
All comes down to perspective. I am a complete newbie to the concept of these addons and thankful I have questioned as I have and more so for the responses. I know when I have overthought something. However from another’s perspective … well that’s for them to decide.
It’s clearly not a simple case of believing the claims.
Talking about perspectives:
The time of day and angles of comparison photos are usually done in a way to make the original look worse and the other look better than it really is. I think people don’t question nearly as much as they should.
Once I can navigate or fly like someone that knows something, I like the idea of personally checking out some of these payware claims. I’m diving head first into the best way to compare and thus far enjoying the ride. Thanks for your feed back.
Yep Yep … already don that. The discussion is more about the claims not the list. … and the best way to compare. I guess the topic has evolved somewhat. I know thinking on it has.
@Davekyn. The 3d handcrafted ones done by MSFS are shown with a Star on the World Map. There is also a list of them somewhere. They are generally quite good. Even some of the smaller autogen ones (ie not 3d handcrafted) in the Sim are quite good. Third party developers - payware or freeware - can produce whatever they want. It is up to you, depending on how much you value the degree of realism and accuracy of an airport, to decide which version you want for any particular airport. You may, for example, not care too much about airports at all. You may want the best possible versions only for airports you personally know or are close to you. And on and on it goes. I personally buy very few and I am a big user of freeware.
Another consideration, I think not mentioned in the posts above, is that MSFS will be steadily producing more of their own 3d handcrafted airports offered for free in the Sim just like they have just now done for Japan. So here is @nother area of possible waste of money.
BTW, your chosen solution involves looking at reviews which is, of course, common sense. But it also seems to accept that orbx is not as good as it used to be - this is arguable and not very professional.
