In a post on the company forum, John Venema – CEO of Orbx – has detailed what users should expect and prepare for ahead of the Netherlands TrueEarth release in the near future.
John discusses some of the planning surrounding the product development, and how 32-bit simulators nearly found themselves left out in the cold due to the sheer size and technical demand of the TrueEarth product.
He says that while the 32-bit support will remain, users of Prepar3D v4.x will have the chance to purchase the Netherlands scenery first, with FSX & P3D v1.x-3.x support to be made available after some time. This comes down to essentially having to downsize the product to make it reliable on a 32-bit platform. The 32-bit release will have some changes to the core scenery, but mostly backend tweaks to make things 32-bit friendly. John warns that users may notice small decreases in some object types versus P3Dv4, but these differences are in order to best make use of the technologies involved to achieve the best results.
Netherlands TrueEarth will be packaged like so:
1. Orbx EU Netherlands TrueEarth HD for P3Dv4
– Exclusively for P3Dv4
– 77GB download
– 1m/pixel ground resolution.
– Optimised for P3Dv4 architecture2. Orbx EU Netherlands TrueEarth for FSX/P3Dv1-3
– Exclusively for FSX/FSX:SE/P3Dv1-3
– 24GB download
– 2m/pixel ground resolution
– Optimised for FSX/early-gen P3D platforms
It should also be noted that all bar 2 of the previews shown so far have been created using the 2m/pixel resolution textures, meaning the P3Dv4 package should look absolutely sensational in-sim.
Furthermore, John details the release of FTX Central 3.3 – a brand new update to their product hub which will contain improved and enhanced functionality for downloading such huge amounts of data into your sim. One of these features is the ability to set a temporary download directory (for example, to another HDD) for those who continually run the gauntlet with low space on their C drive.
So with all this in mind, you may have some questions, especially if you’re an X-Plane user. The good news is that John confirms that development is underway for bringing TrueEarth to X-Plane (and Aerofly for that matter), but does not set a timeframe for when these will be available.
For the full FAQ though, click through to the forum post.
Needless to say, this product is sounding like some amazing eye-candy, so we’ll keep you updated on the release – it doesn’t sound like there’s going to be a long wait at all.
