My question is this - given the ramping up of third party scenery/airports for purchase (and some I’m eyeing to pull the trigger on) if one purchased for example Wash. DC Landmarks from the marketplace what is preventing landmarks in Wash. DC from being updated in the future World Update - or any official update for that matter (I.e. spending money when you don’t need to)? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting third party developers, the money I spent on enhancements from previous sim titles is evidence of that.
I don’t know the arrangement with third party developers so perhaps scenery/airports that are offered for sale in the Marketplace won’t be upgraded if a third party dev already has it for sale? Sorry if my question seems illogical but just wondering how this is handled - or if it’s “buyer beware” and/or a roll of the dice when purchasing something that may be updated within a sim update later.
I will thank you in advance!
You’re pretty much rolling the dice. Base scenery could be improved at any time. There is also the possibility of multiple 3rd parties releasing scenery/airports for the same location. So it’s up to you to choose what to do.
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Okay, yeah, that’s what I was kinda figuring - then throw the fact like you said, several different developers releasing duplicate sceneries/airports. If that happens I always go quality over price point. But that’s just me.
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I guess the next question would be upon downloading a new payware airport from the Marketplace, if an update included the airport you bought it would simply write over it requiring a person to re-install the payware airport once again (presuming you liked the payware addition better of course)?
USA is the next World-Update from MS/Asobo.
I would bet that Wash DC would be one of the handcrafted cities…
Still a handmade third-party scenery is most likely better than Asobo could do.
That’s also the case for Innsbruck for example. It’s a handcrafted airport but ORBX still made a payware for it.
If you’re fine with paying the money and flying with the scenery now, don’t bother guessing when and how the scenery might improve in future updates.
I for one don’t bother spending money right now, since there’s enough plaxes my to fly from/to out of the box for me.
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Actually World Update is GAYA doing this, it’s 3rd party official partner.
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Yep, but they won’t offer a quality of a well made third party scenery for all big cities and airports in the US. I guess Gaya will still leave room for their paid addons since it’s not an exclusive deal but a partnership where both benefit from.
There will always be the risk to get a well done vanilla experience at some point which makes a mediocre payware scenery suddenly seem overpriced.
yes, 3rd party addons have higher priority so they overwrite default world
Just for the same reason ASOBO don’t make any study level planes, to not kill the third party Devs, I’m sure they wouldn’t do the same for third party scenary that they sell in the market place.
Even if they improve say Washington DC, it won’t be as detailed as the payware.
The payware eco-system is essential for MSFS to live for years to come.
Okay, so what I’m reading in this thread then is…
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Add-on airports/scenery won’t be overwritten by the sim itself in updates as third party creations are set to a higher priority by the sim to use (I seem to remember in FSX his was true as well).
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Payware add-ons are the best bet if one wants the ultimate in eye candy, accuracy and immersion when comparing add-ons to stock software even in FS 2020 (which in my humble opinion beats all other flight sims right out of he box in this regard).
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As in all sims let the buyer beware as competing vendors (or for that matter freeware creations as well) can cover the same airport, scenery, etc. in question and in some places if not done correctly I would guess could even break an existing well behaved stock airport, scenery, etc.
I do like the Markeplace as it’s kinda a one stop shop thing and will automatically do the install as well along with showing the star reviews for each product.
This is what sparked me wondering about sim updates versus payware offerings.
Does one wait and see what the World Update 2: USA covers or throw caution into the wind and go with the payware already out?
For me after looking at how things were represented in earlier MSFS titles compared to this one I’d venture to say that what we are flying with in terms of eye candy (and around the entire globe nonetheless - minus the north and south poles) is out of the box a better experience than even some of the past payware add-ons could do. And then to think that payware titles can even take that to another level - whoa.
Sigh…decision, decisions! But wow - kinda a nice place to be in for a change!
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OK, so what is the process when:
- determining/selecting the best scenery - the latest Asobo version or 3rd party version?
- getting rid of the one not wanted?
- Or, if both are kept, will there be any conflicts?
I have both the third party Washington DC landmarks and the ImagineSim KATL. Yesterday’s update included those. Trying to figure out which to keep? The USA tour requires keeping the new DC landmarks.
The way I have has it explained to me (that’s my disclaimer FYI) is that anything in the Community folder takes precedence over anything written in the Official folder.
If indeed that is the case then in your D.C. example, one would choose based on personal preference which scenery to be shown in FS2020. With no replacement for that particular scenery in the Community folder the new updated D.C. will show. If one likes the 3rd party better, then place it in the Community folder and this would show in game, effectively overwriting the U.S.A. D.C.’s scenery.
There’s no need to “get rid” of either scenery in reality as it’s a matter of dragging and dropping items in and out of your Commuinty folder. That’s one huge advantage (for me it is) over FSX as in FSX I had folder contents scattered everywhere in accordance to the dev which resulted in headaches when trying to track down conflicts. If you choose to run 3rd party there MAY be a chance it COULD conflict with the contents in-game in which case drag the 3rd party scenery for that local back out. This is why it’s always best to have your Community folder empty when updating.
So now there are to my knowledge currently 3 D.C. sceneries to choose from. The one in the new update, a payware scenery and the freeware D.C. scenery available at flightsim.to. I have the freeware scenery for D.C. which is great and I believe it contains POI markers as well if the user chooses that option.
Someone please chime in here if I’m wrong on the topic as this new sim is still a bit of a learning experience for me as well. Hope this helps some.