Is it possible yet to add third party objects/scenery?

[AlbacoreTunaMan 16]

Yes Luis!  Your idea of filling in the seaplane bases is a good one.  It took me a LOT of hours to land at every seaplane base in Flight.  The task is made much harder because they are not marked in any way.  By using the overhead photos and diagrams in SkyVector, and by using the touch-and-go technique with the Cub, I was able to collect them all as unique airports.  I have often wondered how MS was going to handle this, without making the waterscape look funny? 

How would you guys handle this? 

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Great minds, Tom! There are plenty of seaplane base objects in FSX so there is no need to recreate them . It would be a lot of detail work, but I was thinking of placing piers, hangars, and even some bouys (also present in FSX) to indicate the contours of the landing areas. The bouys are animated in FSX, by the way - very cool.

 

Here is a picture of the Beluga Lake seaplane base at Homer, Alaska.

 

 

 

 

 

So, by consulting the Google images first, and also the charts, it should be possible to create a good depiction of the seaplane bases.

 

Steve's thing is aircraft, that is what interests him and where he is concentrating his efforts. Also, he does have a job, and probably a life! :lol:   So, we have to be very patient and hope for the best. No problem - in the meantime, let's fly! B)

 

Best regards.

Luis

[Orion 2]

Great minds, Tom! There are plenty of seaplane base objects in FSX so there is no need to recreate them . It would be a lot of detail work, but I was thinking of placing piers, hangars, and even some bouys (also present in FSX) to indicate the contours of the landing areas. The bouys are animated in FSX, by the way - very cool.

 

The buoys are animated in FSX?  I'm not sure I've ever seen any.

[OMGBBQ32 12]

I have, and it doesn't look that good. At least it's animated. More about Flight, is there a way we can change the elevation of the water to make it look like it's not in line with the land? The lakes look like they are flooding everything around, except not really flooding.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Thanks for asking about the bouys (and giving me a chance to continue that topic! :lol:  )

 

I did have some animated gifs of the bouys in the water, but with so many screenshots it gets difficult to find anything after a while.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that I am not the only person to have used them - I placed them in my Virgin Islands scenery on the East end of the runway at Beef Island, in the water where boats are forbidden (because of the takeoff zone.) Bouys are really there so it was realistic. Sorry, can't find the screenshots of that either. :rolleyes:

 

Best regards.

Luis

[Orion 2]

gen_buoy_01_red {450EF4A0-41DF-48D1-8867-292FBB015B4F}

gen_buoy_02_green {0FEA38E2-CEDD-4A64-B90D-8269F1B0233C}

 

Those two default library objects?  I'll have to have a play with those sometime.

[stonelance 136]

 

 

Is that something you've done, Luis, or is it an image you got from Steve? Any info on how it was done?

 

The model was extracted and converted from the FSX bgl using a similar process to the Aircraft model conversion (actually, much simpler since there is no animation).  I think the placement was done using my own simplified version of bglcomp to convert an xml placement file to an obx bgl.  This was actually an old screenshot from when I first started playing around with scenery and aircraft addons.

[meshman 109]

Probably saying what is already known, but the MDL concept is a wonderful way to cure some of the tree blockage to the runways. If the workings of FSX carry forward to Flight.

 

A MDL file will suppress autogen, so a MDL file placed on the runway heading, but outside the Airport Background will take out any trees. The MDL file is placed at a negative elevation, thus not compromising the view. A few simple MDL files of varying width and length can be made for FSX format and coded and converted into Flight compatible files, couldn't they?

 

One of the bigger issues with Flight (just from me being Orange) is knowing where you are, to a precise degree. Wondering if the UIPC can provide Lat / Lon and Hdg and thus make it into a on-screen window, such as what TCalcX_003 does. If so, placement becomes an easier task and such a utility can help provide data for making airport files for areas like that part of Canada that ships with Alaska.

[HiFlyer 9,343]

I like that the Flight graphics engine seems to work fine casting shadows from the imported object.

[OMGBBQ32 12]

I would actually like to see more screenshots before I make my opinion.

[stonelance 136]

 

 

MDL file will suppress autogen, so a MDL file placed on the runway heading, but outside the Airport Background will take out any trees.

 

It depends on what the source of the tree is though.  There are actually three possible sources of autogen trees: LC agn files, aerial imagery agn files, and scenery placements.  In Flight we changed it so that autogen annotated on aerial imagery does not get excluded by scenery.  Scenery placed trees also won't get excluded by other scenery.  An autogen exclusion poly would probably be a better option if it is from an LC agn, but I'm not sure if we ever tested them in Flight.  Theoretically they should still work.

 

 

 

I like that the Flight graphics engine seems to work fine casting shadows from the imported object.

 

The Flight shadow system is dynamic and occurs automatically based on the rendered geometry.  No special work needed to support them.

[HiFlyer 9,343]

It depends on what the source of the tree is though.  There are actually three possible sources of autogen trees: LC agn files, aerial imagery agn files, and scenery placements.  In Flight we changed it so that autogen annotated on aerial imagery does not get excluded by scenery.  Scenery placed trees also won't get excluded by other scenery.  An autogen exclusion poly would probably be a better option if it is from an LC agn, but I'm not sure if we ever tested them in Flight.  Theoretically they should still work.

 

 

 

 

The Flight shadow system is dynamic and occurs automatically based on the rendered geometry.  No special work needed to support them.

 

So much cool stuff going on in Flight..... it will be such a waste/shame if it never gets the chance to show more of its true potential.

 

(Boos+hisses in the general direction of Microsoft) 

[OMGBBQ32 12]

IF I had time and software, I could possibly help. Then again, I only have experience in java right now. I think you use other software for Flight.

[Air1 136]

So much cool stuff going on in Flight..... it will be such a waste/shame if it never gets the chance to show more of its true potential.

 

(Boos+hisses in the general direction of Microsoft) 

Roger that, big time. Every time I fire up FLIGHT I can't help but think about what might have been! Right out of the box, nothing can come close. Oh yea, there is no box.

Just smooth as silk, never a problem. Sitting on the runway with the pitter patter of rain on the wings and watching the trees swaying back and forth in the wind. Still love it.

 

Steve

[Giorgio262 2]

...I just hope somebody has in the works a mod that would populate airports with parked planes and choppers. That would help cheering up those places quite a bit, in my opinion. Sometimes when I land it just feels like virus apocalypse happened. It's a bit sad.