Does anyone have links to some printable maps for hawaii and alaska? I mean like the one on the in game map screen, but in like a pdf.

Great story.

 

I....um....can't pull stuff like that off, not by a long shot. Maybe some day....

Indeed great story

 

And that experience is what I'm hopping with Alaska

What's really gonna make-or-break MS Flight's Alaska for me is how obvious the autogen draw distance is.

 

If you fly out of, say, Unalakeet in winter in FSX, all the ground textures are stark-white. And the autgen trees are dark green/grey/black. The result is that you usually have a thick patch of dark trees around your aircraft then nothing but white out to the horizon. Then as you fly around, what was barren and white before, suddenly becomes a thick, dark forest once you get close to it. It's a huge immersion killer for me and as a result I find FSX Alaska pretty much useless.

 

This annoying effect can be reduced by better matching the ground textures with the autogen (ORBX seems to have done this to some extent). Meaning you'd be better off with a very dark ground texture (maybe with spots of white in it) to represent a thick forest of green trees on snow covered ground. If the trees have snow on them, then the texture should be lighter (more of a grey). You get the point. Other games do this better; FSX is horrible at it.

 

It's not much of an issue in Hawaii, but the green trees are usually on green textures. It's hard to tell from the screen shots so far if Flight's Alaska will have the same issue or not. If you look closely at the shot of the airport, the mountains in the far distance appear to be barren. I don't know if that's intentional or a result of draw distance....

jp1018, I have grayscale maps of Hawaii derived right from the sim's maps. I got them from these forums, but I forget where. I can send them to you if you want.

I also put them together into one big Hawaii map with all islands, but you had better print that out on a large sheet of paper.

I wonder if we can do this in Alaska.

 

 

And yes, thats a float plane landing in snow. Kenmore pilots do this even today.

Well, it is, technically, still a water-landing. :Thinking:

Is it just me..or does the river water in the first screen look like it has some pretty big ocean-type swells on it? You'll notice that with inland water in Hawaii too..the wave textures are a bit too large for those types of bodies of water (lakes, rivers, etc..)

 

BeachAV8R

Is it just me..or does the river water in the first screen look like it has some pretty big ocean-type swells on it? You'll notice that with inland water in Hawaii too..the wave textures are a bit too large for those types of bodies of water (lakes, rivers, etc..)

 

BeachAV8R

 

Nope, its not just you. It's one of those issues people are waiting to see addressed as a sign that MS is on the ball.

Yes. Waves are not a one-size-fits-all thing.

Any word on multiplayer missions/jobs/challenges? Just imagine the possibilities in Alaska: Player A drops off Player B for an aerocache hunt on foot. Player B gets lost. Player A calls Player C (who's sitting in a Helicopter) and the search and rescue is on.

 

I enjoy Flight for what it is, though I wish it were so much more. But , throw in some scenarios like I just mentioned and it might become my sim of choice.

Ray, thank you, great information, great story! Really very enjoyable.

 

Best regards.

Luis

I'm really looking forward to Alaska. I like the location, its significance for bush flying and if people are guessing rightly, I like the fact that it might come with improved weather.

I hope we soon hear about the planes involved and the release date. The cherry on the cake would be an announcement about trackIR support too.

I'm really hoping to see some serious, challenging weather in Alaska.

 

From http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/alaska...

 

The unforgiving aspect of good-weather flying in Alaska stems from the mountainous and sparsely settled nature of the state. Fuel mismanagement and mechanical problems are much more serious when you are 100 miles from the nearest airport. Sightseeing around coastal Alaska involves a certain amount of flying over water that is sufficiently frigid to make a lifejacket a mixed blessing.

Truly bad weather isn't much of a challenge in Alaska, either. The forecast will call for 300' ceilings, rain, and 1 miles of visibility. Most little airplanes won't have sufficient fuel reserves to plan an instrument flight under these circumstances because the nearest suitable alternate airport will likely be 200 nautical miles away. Summer clouds on a bad day can be solid from 2000 to 20,000 feet with a freezing level at 6000' and icing forecast from 9000 to 16,000. The minimum enroute altitudes will be from 7000' to 10,000', i.e., right where the ice can be expected. Because air traffic is so sparse there won't be any pilot reports for your planned route and altitude. If you drive out to the airport you'll find that the scheduled airlines have cancelled all of their flights.

 

Marginal weather is the most challenging situation for the aviation tourist in Alaska. The local pilots won't think twice about flying up a river valley if there is 500' or 1000' of separation between the ground and the cloud, even if the visibility is low due to rain. These guys know every twist and turn in the path, they know exactly how high they must be to clear the obstacles, and their airplanes are usually sufficiently slow to afford a lot of time to think. The Alaskan employees of the FAA have installed weathercams in many of the mountain passes that serve as transportation corridors for the state. Even if you can't get Internet access as a tourist these views are available to the telephone weather briefers in the flight service stations.

 

Strong winds aloft on an otherwise clear day can also be considered marginal weather due to Alaska's dramatic topography. Mountain flying is easy if the winds are less than 20 knots: no wind--no mountain wave; no wind--no downdraft on the lee side of a range; no wind--no turbulence in the pass; no wind--no gales coming out of gaps between ranges. Mountain flying becomes tough on the pilot and even tougher on the passengers when the winds pick up.

Icing! There really should be icing....

 

I hope we do not get only the ISA athmosphere, and it would be great if any update made to the weather model could be ported to Hawaii :-)