Orbx’s TrueEarth series is the product of many years of research and development, along with brand new technology and data to enhance flight simulation. During 2018, many variations of the product were released, including a range of packages to cover the entirety of Great Britain. The first of those packages was TrueEarth Great Britain South and was released on X-Plane 11 in October last year. Since then, development has continued on making it a better package. John Venema from Orbx took to the forums to go into detail about what significant changes the product will see with the first service pack.
The update primarily focuses on bringing a huge number of brand new points of interest to the product. In John’s words: “[the work has] been a result of customer requests and our desire to improve the realism of the region even more.” In addition to new POIs, there has been plenty of work on updating autogen and other objects with PBR material, upgraded the tree placement algorithm and also added a bunch of other buildings such as supermarkets and fast food restaurants.
Finally, there has been a fair few quality of life improvements for areas such as harbours, London city centre and in and around default airports.
Development of the update began in November and the improvements listed below are a result of that development time.
- Removed buildings from airports (as long as they have a boundary set in X-Plane)
- Added Ambient Occlusion (AO) ground and wall effects to autogen
- Updated autogen to PBR
- Upgraded tree placement algorithm (forests are now even more accurate)
- Updates to autogen placement, fixed reported building rotation bugs
- Made the roads darker to better match the ortho, and these are now enabled by default
- Added supermarkets (Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Morrisons, ASDA and IKEA)
- Added fast food outlets
- Numerous small bug fixes with object placements
- Some optimisation to London buildings to improve performance
As mentioned, the majority of this update is the addition of new places to explore and enjoy. In total, 192 brand new points of interest have been added to the first service pack. This includes football stadiums (seats over 7500), new bridges, castles and cathedrals. Below is a complete list of what has been added.
- Various Gasometers (London)
- Various Static Boats, Cranes
- Castles Beckington Castle
- Salisbury Cathedral
- Saint Michael Mount
- Gloucester Cathedral
- Canterbury Cathedral
- MacLaren Tech
- Clifton Suspension Bridge
- Bristol Cathedral
- NATS Radar
- Guildford Cathedral
- Royal Crescent
- Winchester Cathedral
- Eden Project
- Rochester Cathedral
- Kidderminster Viaduct 1
- Kidderminster Viaduct 2
- Satcom
- Castles Christchurch Castle
- Castles Pevensey Castle
- Colchester Castle
- Chilham Castle
- Scotney Castle
- Leybourne Castle
- Hastings Castle
- Kinnersley Castle
- Allington Castle
- Longford Castle
- Tonbridge Castle
- Place House
- Upnor Castle
- Sutton Valence Castle
- Pendennis Castle
- IOW Ferry
- Marisco Castle
- Rose Bowl
- Southwold Pier
- Weston Grand Pier
- City Ground
- St Andrews Stadium
- Selhurst Park
- BET365 Stadium
- London Stadium
- Amex Stadium
- Ashton Gate Stadium
- Stamford Bridge
- The Hawthorns
- Emirates Stadium
- St Marys Stadium
- Stadium MK
- Wembley Stadium
- The Valley
- Villa Park
- Molineux Stadium
- Oxford City Cente
- Banwell Castle
- Eastnor Castle
- Wolvesey Castle
- Cooling Castle
- Rougemont Castle Exeter
- Chiddingstone Castle
- Sherborn Castle
- Second Severn Bridge
- Norris Castle
- Kim Bolton Castle
- King Power Stadium
- Brampton Bryan Castle
- Wilton Castle
- Cooling Castle
- Beckington Castle
- Chiddingstone Castle
- Banwell Castle
- Caverswall Castle
- Wolvesey Castle
- Brampton Bryan Castle
- Norris Castle
- Longtown Castle
- Walton Castle
- Stourton Castle
- Bramber Castle
- Portman Road
- Straddle carrier4
- Dean Court
- Priestfield Stadium
- Sandy Park
- Roots Hall
- Burnham on Sea High Somerset
- Pevensey Castle
- Ince Castle
- Elvaston Hall
- Pengersick Castle
- Hurst Castle
- Kimbolton Castle
- Lewes Castle
- Portsmouth Naval Monument
- Submarine bunkers
- Smeaton’s Tower
- Royal Citadel
- Mount Batten Tower
- Tavy House Blue
- Tavy House Green
- Tavy House Red
- Fort Albert
- Fort Monckton
- Fort Gilkicker
- St Helens Fort
- NML Fort
- Fort Brockhurst
- Fort Cumberland
- Spitbank Fort
- Horse Sand Fort
- Fort Victoria
- Golden Hill Fort
- Fort Rowner
- Dungeness Power Station
- Bigben
- Coventry Cathedral
- Harringworth Rail Viaduct
- Sixways Stadium
- Kassam Stadium
- Brewery Field
- Bescot Stadium
- Liberty Stadium
- Penydarren Park
- Pontypool Park
- Millennium Stadium
- Huish Park
- Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium
- Colchester Community Stadium
- Twerton Park
- Cardiff Arms Park
- Parc y Scarlets
- Cardiff City Stadium
- Memorial Stadium
- St James Park
- SWALEC Stadium
- Rodney Parade
- Pride Park Stadium
- Kenilworth Road
- New Meadow
- Croydon Tower
- Crystal Palace Tower
- BAE Complex on Portsdown Hill
- Royal Garrison
- Pyramids Centre
- IOW Building
- Clocktower
- D-Day Museum
- Spice Island
- May Rose Museum
- M33
- HMS Bristol
- British American Racing HQ
- Portsmouth Cathedral
- Still & West Pub
- Old Portsmouth
- Round Tower
- HMS Warrior
- Castles Pembridge Castle
- Lizard
- North Foreland
- Lundy Island South
- Pakefield
- Dovercourt High
- Longships
- East Nene Sutton Bridge
- Tater DuDu
- Ilfracombe
- Portland Breakwater
- Burnham on sea low
- Gorleston
- Hunstanton
- Watchet Harbour
- Anvil Point
- Portland Bill
- Lyde Rock
- Pendeen
- St Andrew s Church
- Folkestone Pier
- Shoreham
- Royal Sovereign
- Lundy Island North
- Southwold
- Nab Tower
- Berkeley Pill Rear
- Belle Tout
- Hartland Point
- crow point
- dungeness 2
- Start Point
- Orfordness
- Bow Creek
- Lowestoft
- Berry Head
- dungeness 1
- Gorleston South Pier
- Ramsgate West Pier
- Bull Point
- South Foreland Low
- Dubris Pharos
- Round Island
- Black Nore Lighthouse
- Hurst Point
- St Agnes
- Portland Bill Low
- St Anthony
- Teignmouth
- Wolf Rock
- Portishead Point
- Eddystone
- Portland Bill High
- Lynmouth Foreland
- Bishop Rock Lighthouse
- Happisburgh
- Harwich Low
- Gunfleet
- Berkeley Pill Front
- Plymouth Breakwater
- Lundy Island
- St Catherine’s Oratory
- Winterton
- St Catherines
- Smeaton’s Tower
- Chapel Rock
- South Foreland High
- Harwich High
- Cromer
- Dovercourt Low
- Godrevy
- Peninnis Head
- West Nene Sutton Bridge
- Trevose Head
- Carrow Road
- Home Park
- Craven Cottage
- New Den Stadium
- Fratton Park
- Meadow Lane
- Trent Bridge
- Madejski Stadium
- Loftus Road
- Welford Road Stadium
- SkyStudios
- Tescos
- SthBkTower
- ShellCntr
- 100Bishopsgate
- Scalpel
- SGApts
- BT Tower
- Heron Tower
- Cube
- Sky News Hub
- Sky Gillette
- 22 Bishops gate
- OXO Tower
- Twickenham
- Sky Carparks
- National Theatre
- Sky Central
- Sky Out Buildings (Near Heathrow)
- Tate Modern
- Gillette Centre
- Castles Hurst Castle
- Brighton Museum
- Brighton Station
- Shoreham Power Station
- Brighton Pavilion
- Shoreham Warehouse
- Castles Tintangel Castle
- Colchester Castle
- Rochester Castle
- Brownsea Castle
- Carn Brea Castle
- Star Castle
- Hedingham Castle
- Cromwell’s Castle
- Elvaston Castle
- Deal Castle
- Hertford Castle
- Downton Castle
- Fort Hoo
- Hartlebury Castle
- Treago Castle
- Lulworth Castle
- Odiham Castle
- ST Mawes Castle
- Goodrich Castle
- Launceston Castle
- Snodhill Castle
- Porchester Castle
- Hadleigh Castle
- Calshot Castle
- Starkey Castle
- Walden Castle
- Mackworth Castle
- Rye Castle
- Franklins Gardens
- Centre Court
- Crystal Place National Sports Centre
- Recreation Ground
- County Ground
- Kingsholm Stadium
- St Lawrence Ground
- London Road Stadium
- Castles Kentchurch court
- Castles Clifford Castle
- Langstone Tech Park
- Marchwood Incinerator
- Medina Mosquee
- Wilton Castle
- Grace Road
- Longtown Castle
- Withdean Stadium
- Abbey Stadium
- NO 1 COURT
- Adams Park
- Pembridge Castle
- Caerhays Castle
- Berry Pomeroy Castle
- Rufus Castle
- Compton Castle
- Corfe Castle
- Woodsford
- Powderham Castle
- Plympton Castle
- Croft Castle
- Gidleigh Castle
- Hemyock Castle
- Arundel Castle
- Portland Castle
- Okehampton Castle
- Kingswear Castle
- St Catherine Castle
- Affeton Castle
- Salcombe Castle
- Longthorpe Castle
- Drogo Castle
- Watermouth Castle
- Bickleigh Castle
- Pennsylvania Castle
- Tiverton Castle
- Lydford Castle
If you’re interested in picking up a copy of Orbx TrueEarth Great Britain South, for X-Plane, you can do so here. It will cost you $59.95 AUD (approx US$38.82 | €34,46 | £29.76)
