Airport Detail, how does it work?

[learn-by-flying 37]

Yesterday, I started with a vanilla x-plane installation and I really am trying to give this sim a fair run for its money as I highly enjoy the better flight engine. In configuring the sim, I'm not quite sure how airport detail works. Throughout all of my testing the look of the airports remains unchanged. My testing was done at both KAPF and KMIA.

 

Is there something I am missing? Or does Xplane, even with airport detail=extreme not populate airport with buildings.

 

Thanks,

[RocketRod 4]

There are no buildings at some airports.  LR has started an area called Gateway where authors can upload sceneries that then once approved are downloaded in updates.  These are in your Custom Scenery\Global Airport folder.They are lego brick type airports.  I think KMIA is a payware airport, so chances are that a freeware lego style probably won't get done.  Most XP users spend time downloading sceneries from sites to populate them.  Search google for X-Plane Gateway.

[alhefner 28]

X-Plane ships with exactly two airports that have buildings... all the rest are just autogen runways and taxiways. If you want actual buildings at any airport other than the two that came with X-Plane, you have to install them yourself.

 

You'll also notice that cities and towns don't look like the actual city or town... all generic autogen. If you want a certain town or city to look like the real thing even remotely, ya gotta find it in addon scenery and add it in.

 

It can be a disappointment for anyone coming from FSX or P3D in the scenery area. X-Plane takes better advantage of modern hardware but, it falls far short in the scenery.

 

[learn-by-flying 37]

You'll also notice that cities and towns don't look like the actual city or town... all generic autogen. If you want a certain town or city to look like the real thing even remotely, ya gotta find it in addon scenery and add it in.

 

I actually don't mind the "plausible" world which X-plane is. Sure Miami looks like a bunch of houses but the amount of autogen which is created almost makes up for it.

 

Its after a flight, when you land its as if everything has been sucked into a black hole or something.

 

I know X-Plane has a plane maker but does it also ship with a scenery creator? I'm no designer my I'm sure I could handle placing a few buildings at some airports in an attempt to make them more realistic.

[__v__ 16]

 

 

I know X-Plane has a plane maker but does it also ship with a scenery creator? I'm no designer my I'm sure I could handle placing a few buildings at some airports in an attempt to make them more realistic.

 

Yes! Check this out:

http://developer.x-plane.com/manuals/wed/

[RocketRod 4]

There is even an 13 part video tutorial series for WED. http://developer.x-plane.com/videos/creating-airports-with-worldeditor/  Helped me creat my own airports.

[Finnerz 2]

 

 

Is there something I am missing? Or does Xplane, even with airport detail=extreme not populate airport with buildings.

 

It's also probably worth checking out other places for freeware airports that use other object libraries to get more complexity than you'd get in the gateway packages.  Not sure what's available in the Avsim library but it's probably worth checking out x-plane.org (sorry for invoking the name of another site, please delete if necessary) for some of what you can get for free there.

[Comanche 417]

I found Wed, very easy to use and addicting. I did all the airports in my area, Then downloaded some where other people did the same ones I did, but did them better. In the end, between Freeware, airports, I made and payware, I have my part of the country done up very nicely. Better than I ever had it in FSX.

 

However, is does take a little time and effort. Its worth it in the end if you really want to give X-plane a chance. Im glad I stuck with it!

 

Rob

[alhefner 28]

Like other folks have said, WED (World Editor) is a tool for making airport scenery. I can be used for more than just the airports.

I haven't found it as easy to use as other folks seem to have done but, I'm working on it.

[LAdamson 240]

 

 

X-Plane ships with exactly two airports that have buildings... all the rest are just autogen runways and taxiways. If you want actual buildings at any airport other than the two that came with X-Plane, you have to install them yourself.
 

 

KSLC has buildings. I'm all surprised!  I did download the current form of X-10 after loading all discs.  I'm assuming the two airports are KSEA, and the airport included with XP-9.  It's not KSLC instead,  is it?

[Janov 2,383]

To go back to the original topic:

 

"Airport detail" determines how fine the bezier curves of taxiway edges and taxi-lines are cut up into tiny lines to make them more "round". It has nothing to do with the amount of objects displayed. This is determined by the "number of objects" setting, and it affects both airport scenery and autogen alike.

 

The airport scenery is ONLY affected, if the creator of it sets a detail level during creation (the tab "show with" in WED). The default level is "default" (who would have guessed B) ). So if I place a fuel truck in WED, but set it´s detail level to "2 A lot", then it will only show if the user has set his "number of objects" to "A lot" or better.

 

I tend to leave all my objects at "default" for smaller, rural airports, but when I do bigger ones, I move most of the "fluff", like luggage carts, etc. to "a lot" or "tons".

 

For the airports that have 3D buildings and accurate layouts, go to this map (click on "required features" to start showing airports). Note that all the shown airports have been SUBMITTED to Laminar Research, but might not be included in a patch, yet. The plan is to do that more frequently in the future...

 

http://x-plane.cleverest.eu/

 

(Take a look at Germany, I am currently doing ALL of the airports there, done with about half of them, took me a year so far)

 

Jan

It's also probably worth checking out other places for freeware airports that use other object libraries to get more complexity than you'd get in the gateway packages.  Not sure what's available in the Avsim library but it's probably worth checking out x-plane.org (sorry for invoking the name of another site, please delete if necessary) for some of what you can get for free there.

 

...and I would upload all the stuff I created here at avsim in a jiffy, if the process wasn´t cumbersome, intimidating, complex and time-consuming (hint, hint).

 

Jan

[mdavis 10]

"Airport detail" determines how fine the bezier curves of taxiway edges and taxi-lines are cut up into tiny lines to make them more "round". It has nothing to do with the amount of objects displayed. This is determined by the "number of objects" setting, and it affects both airport scenery and autogen alike.

 

I'm not sure how high the airport detail settings must be to display the curves, but bezier curves "should" be seen at basic levels.  I think the graphics card settings for AA would be more responsible for smoothing the curves than having to bump up the airport detail setting.  I guess I should have checked that before posting, but I think that's a graphics setting function if the curves are there at the basic level.

 

But @Janov should know - and THANKS, @Janov, for all your scenery work !!

[Janov 2,383]

Yes, the curves are there, but they get more smooth the higher the airport detail is. If you really look close, you can see that they are made up of little "straight" segments. Unfortunately I can´t post an image here easily (sigh, avsim).

 

The anti-aliasing will not smooth out the curves, it will only smooth out the "steps" you see when a line or edge is drawn on a screen made out of pixels. It does that by mixing the colour in the pixels that sit "in the corner" - totally different from making a curve appear more "round" by increasing the straight-segment-number.

 

Cheers, Jan

[FloB 34]

KSLC has buildings. I'm all surprised!  I did download the current form of X-10 after loading all discs.  I'm assuming the two airports are KSEA, and the airport included with XP-9.  It's not KSLC instead,  is it?

 

There are more airports included since 10.25 and 10.30. They were done by the community and included in the updates. Some are good, some very simple. A list was posted here (airports new to 10.30 only):

 

http://www.x-plane.com/?article=x-plane-10-30-release-notes

 

Regards

Flo

[mdavis 10]

 

 

Yes, the curves are there, but they get more smooth the higher the airport detail is. If you really look close, you can see that they are made up of little "straight" segments. Unfortunately I can´t post an image here easily

 

No need to post, @Janov.  I assumed that the bezier curves as used in WED were vector curves (and they may well be) which were not zoom-level dependent, but I guess by creating "segments" the graphics engine transforms them into raster image lines.  Thanks for the information.

 

And thank you, @FloB, for the link to the list of included airports in the updates.  I really need to start reading all that information when a new version comes out.  I would like to add some additional airports but I don't want to duplicate what's already there unless there is a better version.