Orbx has recently purchased all of Earth Simulations’ digital source files and plans to republish the Channel Islands of Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. This was announced by Marketing Manager Aimee Sanjari last Wednesday in the Orbx Forum. According to this, Turbulent Designs is to overhaul the scenarios and equip them with updated ground textures, new 3D objects and an improved execution speed. Initially, the islands will only be revised for FSX and Prepar3D, but versions for X-Plane 11 and Aerofly FS 2 will follow. Because the update is associated with licensing fees for the new aerial photos and other costs, the updates will not be free of charge for existing customers of Earth Simulations products.

Earth Simulations: Closed since 2015

Earth Simulations closed its doors at the beginning of 2015 after the last scenery of the development studio hardly sold (We reported). This may have been primarily due to the fact that the photographic scenery of the Scottish Highlands was not only exorbitantly expensive due to the high level of detail, but also brought with it enormous amounts of data. Previously, Earth Simulations made a name for itself especially with its sceneries of the British Channel Islands – exactly with the products that are now being revised by Orbx. At that time, the islands could hardly be surpassed in terms of detail and were regarded as the gold standard in the scenery industry.

At the same time, the high prices and especially the complicated installation process including online activation were repeatedly criticized. Especially the latter circumstance caused a lot of displeasure after the closure of Earth Simulations – since the activation server was switched off, the previously purchased products are either not at all or only extremely difficult to install. We can only hope that the “old pearls” will now be brought back to life thanks to Orbx and that all existing customers will receive a discount. That Orbx has now bought up the source files of the sceneries is not really surprising. Finally the islands fit perfectly to the planned England TrueEarth scenery.

Image Source: Enrapture Media on Unsplash

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