World LandClass Textures new NZ texture set

[toprob]

QUOTE (Bazza @ Aug 25 2010, 12:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wondered why the post on this went dead, had there been a comment that the "matter was under investigation" I could have saved all that time in backing up, downloading and using up my
bandwidth. There now seems to be a bunch of people who had reservations from the start.

Hmm, this is quite a tricky issue, there's a very fine line between having reservations and having good cause. My main concern initially -- apart from the similar name to my own scenery products -- was running an exe without much information to go on -- and no real 'pedigree' or prior knowledge of the people involved. But in this case all I could do was to ask that people be careful, which is what I did. Even this was taken as negative and non-supportive by some, but even with the p****y-footing around PC issues which we seem to be getting into more and more, I still see it as my main job to protect NZFF members from being put at risk, or taken advantage of.

As soon as I had 'good cause', I did what I could to prevent NZFF becoming part of what could turn out to be a con job.

I promise that in future I will be a bit more forward in voicing my concerns, despite the inevitable posts and messages telling me that this isn't part of my job here at NZFF.

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (toprob @ Aug 25 2010, 01:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Even this was taken as negative and non-supportive by some, but even with the p****y-footing around PC issues which we seem to be getting into more and more, I still see it as my main job to protect NZFF members from being put at risk, or taken advantage of.

I promise that in future I will be a bit more forward in voicing my concerns, despite the inevitable posts and messages telling me that this isn't part of my job here at NZFF.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't! Yes, I've noticed a trend to the PCifying we are undergoing. No surprise given the general direction the whole country has taken over the last 20 years, but disappointing nevertheless...

[NickNeedham]

I attempted to post here yesterday however the signup system is manually monitored and a user must wait for the account to become approved before posting. The time difference between locations played into that.


I would like to address some of the comments here. Its not my goal to make a speech however I do wish to convey more here than I did at SOHO because what happened is more like 'hitting home' to this forum.


I do not like suppressing speech and hiding or moving threads however there are times when a admin must make a call based on the good of the forum and ALL the products in question. I moved the thread at Simforums about this subject to the admin area because the matter was under investigation and if it had turned out that the package in question was innocent of wrongdoing, I would have restored that thread and posted they were A-O.K. and to use it. I would have tried it out myself and kept it had it been well made.

I fully support people who donate their time and efforts to the sim community in freeware regardless of the nature of the package they may make. GEX tries to work with everyone (payware and freeware) and although we can not possibly develop around every addon we strive to be sure that users can overlay our work with addons without technical issue to enjoy cities, airports and other scenery products they may wish to purchase or download from freeware libraries. GEX is kept simplistic as a generic texture and autogen replacement system for that reason.

On the other hand, since this package was nothing but a blatant plagiarism of GEX artwork and autogen, I will not restore the thread at Simforums because there is no reason to bolster that kind of negativity and the perpetrators have been shut down through proper and correct legal channels.


As I posted over at SOHO, We did not make a emotional or arbitrary call about this situation. This type of theft is rare because the norm for a pirate is to steal and redistribute the product without attempting to claim ownership. I honestly do not know why the person(s) involved would be dense enough to think they could get away with something like this, and yes the vendetta issue was brought up and is being reviewed simply due to the nature of the bizarre circumstances of leaving themselves wide open to be taken down but at the same time attempt to cleverly cover their trail in the process, which is a matter I will refrain from further comment about as that aspect of investigation is still in process. I do wish to impress the fact that we do not know at this time the real motivation behind what happened but given both GEX and the name Real NZ were used there may be more to this than simple ignorance and stupidity.


GEX is not a corporation with teams of people at work. We do not have crews of people working round the clock to develop models, photoscenery, landclass and textures. We have no goal to "take over the world" from all other developers, nor do we seek to compete with anyone. I am retired, independently wealthy and enjoy creating A/V and other artistic projects on the computer. Anthony enjoys creating flight sim artwork. Together all we seek to do is provide a low cost/high coverage area packages for the flight sim community to use as a base to build from.

When someone pulls a stunt like this and targets a small project/business it has the real potential to damage that project beyond recovery. That is not what the MSFS community is about, that is dog-eat-dog tactics in action.

Getting to the subject of New Zealand. What most do not understand is that the primary issue with that part of the world is landclass, not so much textures but of course they all work in concert to produce the result. The default landclass for NZ is very poor with little detail in it. The one that was provided in that package is highly detailed for the small coverage area. I do not where it came from but would suspect based on the nature of the entire incident it was also clipped and simply renamed.

When dealing with the default scenery textures there are two primary textures used in New Zealand and "down under" that create a massive performance problem in FSX. We know what the problem is and when we get to those textures we will fix that issue so users can fly over New Zealand just as smooth as they can fly over USA or Europe. We may go ahead and redo those textures, placing them in our current packages even though they are not used in the current package locations in a effort to give NZ flyers and GEX users a smoother ride, but the issue of landclass will still remain. There are of course other options for NZ scenery too.


I have said my peace and I hope what I posted above clears the air of questions around what happened and why. I rarely make such long winded commentary about internal or private matters but this type of theft and use of another product is rare and I believe given the circumstance the commentary was required so everyone is on the same page.

Good luck and happy flying!

[Charl]

Sounds to me there's a fairly strong case for the the upcoming VLC to marry up with some revised, specific NZ, GEX textures...
I always like a happy ending.

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (NickNeedham @ Aug 26 2010, 04:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have said my peace and I hope what I posted above clears the air of questions around what happened and why. I rarely make such long winded commentary about internal or private matters but this type of theft and use of another product is rare and I believe given the circumstance the commentary was required so everyone is on the same page.

Good luck and happy flying!

Excellent "speech" Nick - well done! I for one appreciate hearing the facts "straight from the horses mouth". Thanks for taking the time to visit with us and lay it all out.

[frostynz]

Hi Nick,

now look whats happened .... I told you ages ago you should dedicate all your GEX resources to NZ !

Regards Dave

[Adamski]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Aug 26 2010, 08:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent "speech" Nick - well done! I for one appreciate hearing the facts "straight from the horses mouth". Thanks for taking the time to visit with us and lay it all out.

... yes thanks from me too for taking the time to pen such a comprehensive post.

[NickNeedham]

QUOTE (Charl @ Aug 25 2010, 12:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds to me there's a fairly strong case for the the upcoming VLC to marry up with some revised, specific NZ, GEX textures...
I always like a happy ending.

As I posted at SOHO

If you use a highly defined LC product and it calls texture numbers that GEX produces, even though the texture files may not be defined specific "NZ" and none of them are, you will see the changes in both landclass and textures. Some of the textures come from North America, some from Europe and other from Africa/Middle East.. there are defined textures for Oceania which are Aussie/NZ specific. Those we will get to and after looking at the perf issues related to a few of those tiles when I checked on the package in question I will see if there is time in our schedule to either incorporate them or use a temp method of fixing the defaults till we get there and make new textures. If we can, we will and I will post that in the patch list we release to the public for NA, EU and the up and coming AF/ME.. I will make sure they go into all releases so if a user can not afford more than one or two they will get the perf increase regardless but I will let the cat out of the bag here.. a little, GEX Africa and the Middle East + Europe will have a HUGE inpact on NZ with the right LC.


When it comes to vector/LC/texture scenery.. Landclass is the key to your area.. the rest is in textures and autogen.



NN

[Ian Warren]

Hi Nick and welcome to NZFF , don't think anyone has said that yet . You should stick around and see what VLC has to offer .

[NickNeedham]

One other item I have not announced anywhere, but will give you a heads up... we will be offering a very nice discount for GEX users who own NA and/or EU for the AF/ME release. NA = 15% off NA and EU = 20% off and we may even offer a discount for new GEX NA/EU purchases. Simply our way of saying thank you and our way of extending holiday wishes in a hard economy. Its not all about business with us, its about the community.

no, thats not a shameless plug.. I have not announced that in the GEX forums or anywhere else so hold off for a month or so if you were thinking about picking up a GEX product as it can save a buck.. you guys got the scoop first

NN