ORBX has been growing and expanding not only its offer but also its software. This has been particularly clear since the first movements in 2018 and the new versions of their software, ORBX Central has been showing the company’s desire to offer not only more products – including from other developers – but also a better software that allows us to actually buy those products.
The latest version of their software (again, ORBX Central) was brought to my attention by my fellow grumpy simmer, Novawing24. He was especially interested in the new ‘Discover’ tab. In fact, he was so impressed with it that I immediately opened my instance of the software and updated it.
Wow.
I immediately noticed a redesign in the organization of the application and quickly clicked the beforementioned ‘Discover’ option at the top. I was presented with a nice-looking world showing the location of all the products ORBX has available on their store, which is nice. When you click on it, a small popup comes out with a bit of information about the scenery.
But here’s where things get (even more) interesting: the map allows you to filter the scenery and one of the options is… heliports! That option actually covers heliports and helipads (places where we can land but are not full-blown actual airports for helicopters – just a pad at a hospital, for example).
While exploring this option, I zoomed into Innsbruck and the map presented me not only the available helipads/heliports on the scenery but also other points of interest around the area!
This is, clearly, a very valuable tool for those that want to fly around the scenery (and not just jump from airport to airport at 5-digit altitudes) and especially for those that are looking for scenery with features that allow them to perform the kinds of flights helicopters do, in environments that are helicopter-friendly.
The example of Innsbruck is a great one with the inclusion of the rescue heliport (at the airport), the Innsbruck Hospital helipad and the Hat Tux Heliport. Honestly, I didn’t even know the latter had been included!
I obviously had to go take a look at it!
“Does it have helipads?”. Well, just look at the map!
Well done, ORBX!
