NZFF

It's official MSFS World Update 12 is for New Zealand.

Releasing approx. 7th – 8th February shortly after Waitangi Day 2023
 
This was announced in the latest Microsoft/Asobo Interview on the Official Twitch Developer Stream on Saturday.
 
NZ New Features in World Update 12
 
DEM& Aerials
4 Bespoke Airports
30+ POI's
6 Photogrammetry NZ Cities
3 Landing Challenges
3 Bush trips
3 Discovery Flights
 
Also scheduled for release at around the same time is the New Zealand Local Legend 8 Aircraft currently in development by Orbx

De Havilland DHC-4 Caribou

New Zealand World Update and dhc 4 caribou announced coming in February
 
Also coming in March 2023 in the series for Famous Flyer 4 scheduled for release ATR 42-600 / 72-600

Interesting. I wonder if that's going to surpass the current ORBX mesh. Strange choice of aeroplane in the Caribou

It's what I've been waiting (hoping?) for.
Now: do you go for the "Black Friday" (= all of November) PC upgrade, or wait for the "Boxing Day" sales? (= most of January)

Charl wrote:It's what I've been waiting (hoping?) for.
Now: do you go for the "Black Friday" (= all of November) PC upgrade, or wait for the "Boxing Day" sales? (= most of January)

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'm still flogging my 4770k and 1080Ti which i doubt would handle MSFS. I'm waiting for the new offerings from Intel and AMD to appear in the marketplace and to see prices/reviews.
I'd just like to make sure that things like the mobo and RAM are future proofed as far as possible. Usually the sales offer last of line stuff but there still may be the opportunity to pick up some drives and a power supply and case/cooler etc.

I can see some Kiwis here in New Zealand like myself will not happy.

Whats up with Orbx thinking that the New Zealander's us Kiwis, will be happy to have as their Local Legend aircraft currently in development by Orbx

The Australian Local Legend Royal Australian Air Force De Havilland DHC-4 Caribou

Orbx appear to have got it wrong.

The De Havilland DHC-4 Caribou is not a well known aircraft in New Zealand and was never part of a unique New Zealand Aviation History scene.

It's Not an iconic Kiwi New Zealand Local Legend aircraft.

The Kiwi New Zealand Local Legend iconic aircraft unique to New Zealand Aviation History could either be considered to be;

The Fletcher FU-24 agricultural aircraft made in New Zealand, that's use for aerial topdressing throughout New Zealand.

or

The iconic Bristol Freighter that SAFE Air used to moved rail freight from Wellington (the North Island) across the Cook Strait to Blenheim (the South Island) and back, using Bristol Freighters, starting in 1951. SAFE Air later reconfigured its aircraft to accept palletised cargo loaded on patented "cargons". This was a first anywhere in the aviation world.

Watch the YT video Bristol Freighter: "20,000 rivets flying in close formation."

Typical of Orbx who has failed to do their History homework on the New Zealand Kiwi Aviation History scene when developing the next Local Legend aircraft to go with the MSFS World Update 12 for New Zealand.

 That's the Aussies for yea

cowpatz wrote:I'm still flogging my 4770k and 1080Ti which i doubt would handle MSFS.

I'm running a 4-yr old box with Intel i5-9600K @ 3.7GHz and a GTX-1080 and while not a speed-demon or FPS-master, I do run MSFS mid-range settings 'acceptable for me'. VFR only (usually) and I see 70fps at best; recently I was seeing 2FPS (yes, TWO!) but whatever caused that went away! In times of heavy scenery and heavy clouds I can drop to less than 20fps, but I've noticed that less these days so either I haven't been frequenting those areas, or improvements in the sim have been made.
I'd like to get a new PC with VR and dedicated heli controls, but I just blew my cash on new paragliding gear, so for another couple of years I'm stuck with this old box! But at least I'm flying, for real, when the weather and my time align

Radar88 wrote:It's official MSFS World Update 12 is for New Zealand. Releasing approx. 7th – 8th February shortly after Waitangi Day 2023

NZ New Features in World Update 12
4 Bespoke Airports

Also coming in March 2023 in the series for Famous Flyer 4 scheduled for release ATR 42-600 / 72-600

Wow!! GREAT NEWS!!!

I wonder which airports <?> considering NZAA, NZWN and NZNS are already covered. I'd be hoping for NZCH (of course), NZDN plus (dare I hope) NZMF!
Mind you - if it's Orbx - then NZWR may be one of them.

Any of the ATRs would be a bonus. I've always liked them (never could get on with those pointy Dash things).

CH is coming from NZA isn't it?

Well, I'm looking forward to it, although I agree that is a weird choice of aircraft. I'm guessing because the average MSFS player likely doesn't have any particular interest in NZ aviation history they've chosen something which is well performance matched to NZ conditions rather than of any particular local provenance. I'm more interested in the scenery though and Orbx usually deliver pretty well in that regard.

Ardmore would be my dream. Probably not likely though, I guess they'll pick ones which will be of greatest interest to the international audience. I'm guessing Mount Cook, Milford Sound, maybe somewhere like Rotorua or Taupo for the North Island would be obvious choices.

Charl wrote:Now: do you go for the "Black Friday" (= all of November) PC upgrade, or wait for the "Boxing Day" sales? (= most of January)

BOTH of course !!!

cowpatz wrote:I'm waiting for the new offerings from Intel and AMD to appear in the marketplace and to see prices/reviews. I'd just like to make sure that things like the mobo and RAM are future proofed as far as possible.

awwww CP always with the waiting ?!?!!? ... just go for it mate, I replaced my old rig just before COVID with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA RTX 2060 super and they've been running MSFS amazingly well at decent settings. I think you'll be surprised how modest you can go and still get a decent result.

cowpatz wrote:

Charl wrote:It's what I've been waiting (hoping?) for.
Now: do you go for the "Black Friday" (= all of November) PC upgrade, or wait for the "Boxing Day" sales? (= most of January)

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'm still flogging my 4770k and 1080Ti which i doubt would handle MSFS. I'm waiting for the new offerings from Intel and AMD to appear in the marketplace and to see prices/reviews.
I'd just like to make sure that things like the mobo and RAM are future proofed as far as possible. Usually the sales offer last of line stuff but there still may be the opportunity to pick up some drives and a power supply and case/cooler etc.

Your CPU is getting on a bit, but I have a 2060 which I'm sure is slower than a 1080Ti and I have a blast flying in MSFS. I mainly bush fly, and get steady 60fps @ 2k resolution and a mix of medium, high, and ultra gfx settings. You may be surprised how well it runs and how good it looks even on older hardware.

Adamski wrote:

Radar88 wrote:It's official MSFS World Update 12 is for New Zealand. Releasing approx. 7th – 8th February shortly after Waitangi Day 2023

NZ New Features in World Update 12
4 Bespoke Airports

Also coming in March 2023 in the series for Famous Flyer 4 scheduled for release ATR 42-600 / 72-600

Wow!! GREAT NEWS!!!

I wonder which airports <?> considering NZAA, NZWN and NZNS are already covered. I'd be hoping for NZCH (of course), NZDN plus (dare I hope) NZMF!
Mind you - if it's Orbx - then NZWR may be one of them.

Any of the ATRs would be a bonus. I've always liked them (never could get on with those pointy Dash things).

I see in the promo used in the livestream an image of NZMF. Also images of the beehive and the Dunedin Railway Station.

For me it's going to be about VR.
I see the frame rate chatter out there is starting, as expected with any maturing sim.
I suspect nothing short of One-Off Bleeding Edge is going to do.
Interestingly, looking back over decades of flightsim PC's, O-OBE price has stayed the same, give or take 10% !

deeknow wrote:

Charl wrote:Now: do you go for the "Black Friday" (= all of November) PC upgrade, or wait for the "Boxing Day" sales? (= most of January)

BOTH of course !!!

HA!
EDIT: It's just dropped $150 from August, probably time to strike.

I must admit this is the one thing which I can see bringing me back to the sim, it sounds like it will tick all the boxes! I wouldn't like to have to guess which airports will be included, but I do think that Milford is a given. I'm not reading too much into the random POIs shown, based on the way MSFS has included POIs in the past. But NZDN would be a bonus.... One of Orbx's best sellers was NZQN, but they probably haven't gone head-to-head with the existing payware. We already have NZAA and NZWN, with NZA's NZCH on the way. As I said, I wouldn't want to guess what will happen, but I have noticed that NZA have been very quiet about NZCH for a while now, maybe that's either timed as a payware release with WU NZ, or they've done a deal to include it... Damn, I sound like Twitter.

But there are a lot of airports in NZ which would be worthy of inclusion. I am still very annoyed that small developers like me don't have access to the Marketplace, and probably never will. Maybe MS assumes that the bigger developers will take them under their wing, and I know that Orbx recently promoted this to small developers as a shortcut to the Marketplace. That seems to be the way things work now, I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon got in on the act, and bought Orbx etc. Just kidding.

Yeah I was thinking last night the NZA guys have gone quiet and that maybe that NZCH will be included in the world update. Maybe the other airports will be Whangarei and Gisborne since they were Orbx airports in previous sims. Hoping for Tauranga and New Plymouth myself

Did I also see Queenstown on the NZA WIP list?

ORBX were working on an NZNV scenery, perhaps that will be included?

OK, so personally I'm pretty disappointed. The photogrammetry is great, but the handcrafted airports... are not. Unless there's something wrong with my setup, to me they look like poorly done freeware. Add to that the fact that the Orbx mesh is basically what many of us will already have in the existing payware, and well... I'm glad we don't pay for the updates! I feel a bit churlish whinging about it but this definitely doesn't feel like the huge step up the other updates were in their respective regions.

Oh, and we're back to the land of giant godzilla-sized trees.

The trees are honestly the biggest thing (no pun intended...) I wish they'd fix in MSFS, so many farmland areas look like forests and if the trees were just a bit smaller they'd look amazingly accurate. The Clevedon Valley is a good example, all the correct details are there but it just looks a bit wrong because of the trees.