Orbx announced that work had commenced on developing TrueEarth for Great Britain – first coming to X-Plane 11. As the first large-scale X-Plane 11 development for the Orbx team, they waited until Cosford to really go into detail about the product. The project has been headed up by specialist Tony Wroblewski.
The first piece of important information is that TrueEarth Great Britain has been split into 3 distinct areas: South, Central and North. Whereas before FTX landclass regions split across the countries in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), the team were unable to replicate this due to how X-Plane uses 1-degree tiles within the sim. As you can see from the picture, the way Orbx has split them has meant all countries are included if it’s within the geographical split. It’s useful to note that when the Prepar3D and Aerofly FS 2 versions are released, the way the product has been broken down will be the same.
The first of the TrueEarth Great Britain products to be released will be Great Britain South. Central and North will follow in the coming months.
The screenshots below you see are from beta 2, with beta 3 coming to testers soon which adds even more buildings and objects.
TrueEarth GB South includes 42,000 square miles of coverage for the South of England and Wales. Because of the new technology developed Orbx has developed, they are able to make region-specific autogen. So expect accurate looking buildings and other realistic eye-candy throughout your simulator. For example, trees and buildings are at the right location and height within the simulator. Of course, it’s not just the autogen that should please simmers, but also the huge amounts of points of interest for simmers to explore. These have been hand placed and designed for maximum realism.
Even the smallest details have been realised too. For example, there are loads of VFR landmarks such as windfarms, power-lines and more placed accurately. As you fly around the country, you will also notice that road traffic will move on the left-hand drive over accurate roads which blend into the photoreal scenery.
What about airports?
As for airports, Orbx are working to ensure that all England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland airports currently in Prepar3D are converted to X-Plane 11. It’s hoped this will be completed by the end of the year.
EGHI Southampton, EGFF Cardiff and EGKA Shoreham are likely to be released sooner than later.
When? File Size?
Whilst there is a huge amount of detail in this package, Orbx will release a brand new version of FTX Central, which adds a built-in decompression system. This means the download size will be 35GB compared to original size of around 120GB.
TrueEarth GB South will be available to purchase from OrbxDirect this month for AUD $54.95 (approx. USD $39.55 / €33.95 / £30.60). The price includes life-long free updates, including additional points of interest in the future.
For those wondering, the Prepar3D version is roughly 60% complete with the aim to get it out for Christmas.
Finally, it should be noted that there is no cross-grade discount from the landclass-based FTX England, Wales or Scotland regions.
What after England?
Focus on TrueEarth will shift to America in early 2019, with the first region being Pacific North West.
TrueEarth Great Britain South Features:
- 42,000 square miles (107349 km2) of hand corrected, crisp, color-matched aerial imagery
- New autogen technology developed specially for X-Plane 11, allowing thousands of realistic looking UK-themed houses to be placed at a realistic height with minimal impact on performance
- 130 million trees at the correct height and location
- 13.2 million buildings at the correct height and location
- VFR landmarks such as masts, windfarms, churches, power-lines, and lighthouses are all accurately placed.
- Hundreds of custom-modelled 3D POIs
- Hand-placed and custom modelled landmarks placed throughout the scenery such as bridges, skyscrapers, castles, piers, and monuments – this is especially noticeable in city areas such as London and along the coast.
- Sharp and detailed 10-meter mesh brings out stunning detail in natural features such as hills and beaches
- Superb watermasking along the entire coastline
- Accurate road and rail network blended into the aerial imagery with moving left-hand drive traffic.
- Control Panel option to use photoreal major roads/motorways or synthetic X-Plane ones.
- Summer season only with full night-lighting supported
