simwestSOCAL Airport Comparisons

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I have been getting a lot of inquiries about "is simwestSOCAL compatible with this airport or that airport?"  Well, with around 180 airports in the scenery and with many developers each designing their own version there are just too many to give a definitive yes but I thought it best to give a few examples so you can judge for yourself if it works for you.  This is using P3Dv4.5. 

First here is the default KSAN San Diego Airport with simwestSOCAL:

 

Next we "boost" that with simwestSANDIEGO:

 

 

Here is simwestSOCAL+ simwestSANDIEGO with orbx's KSAN:

 

Here is simwest with LatinVFR's KSAN

 

Next, I just turned the aircraft around to show what the approach/short final would look like.  First, orbx with simwest:

 

 

Next, LatinVFR with simwest:

 

 

And then I turned the aircraft right to check out downtown San Diego.  Here's orbx mix with simwest:

 

 

and LatinVFR mixed with simwest:

 

 

So, you can see there can be slight differences.  One could go in a clean things up a bit.  But again, I was going for immersion... not perfection.  Here is orbx +simwest downtown at night.  Those are simwest 3D lights by the way:

 

 

Now with LatinVFR+simwest at night:

 

 

Here is 29Palms version of KTNP Twentynine Palms out in the desert with simwestSOCAL underneath it.  Lines up but the coloring between the two sceneries don't match.  Plus you can see vegetation missing around the border:

 

 

I just renamed two 29Palms photoreal files to "xxx.bgl.ORG" so they would not be loaded and here's the result:

 

 

And then there are freeware airports as well.  Here is default KONT in Ontario, California with simwestSOCAL:

 

And here is is with Shez's KONT dropped in:

 

 

To be fair not all airports seamlessly drop in.  Here below is Los Angeles KLAX default with simwestSOCAL:

 

and here is is with FSDreamteam's KLAX. 

 

 

You can see missing autogen around the perimeter and their imagery is a different color than mine.  That could possible by fixed removing some of their photoreal imagery.  It depends how much time you want to spend on such things. With different scenery, imagery, design techniques it will never be a perfect match but this should give a good representation of what to expect.  Hope that helps.

Clutch

[monica6211 173]

Excellent post Marcus, it would be perfect in the manual. I think it gives us a really good understanding of just how hard it would be to make your scenery 100% compatible with ALL scenery addons.

[flyblueskies 143]

Its hard to tell, but in your screenshots of Orbx and LatinVFR KSAN, it looks like there are two control towers...

The reason I ask, is that I have that exact problem and have not been able to solve it...

Can you allow us to zoom in on your screenshots (take another) so that we can see if there are two control towers?

[ryanbatc 12,821]

17 hours ago, flyblueskies said:

Its hard to tell, but in your screenshots of Orbx and LatinVFR KSAN, it looks like there are two control towers...

The reason I ask, is that I have that exact problem and have not been able to solve it...

Can you allow us to zoom in on your screenshots (take another) so that we can see if there are two control towers?

Have you looked at the Orbx compatibility forum?  There are probably still Orbx SAN files mixing with LVFR.

[flyblueskies 143]

9 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Have you looked at the Orbx compatibility forum?  There are probably still Orbx SAN files mixing with LVFR.

Yep...I've been looking at all weekend long. I've uninstalled orbx KSAN and disabled ORBX Socal... I still get the extra control tower. I also get the extra fuel storage tank. I just have not found the offending file yet...

[ryanbatc 12,821]

Do you have any AI Traffic software?  Sometimes those make extra BGL files for the ATC to work

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Hey flyblueskies,

I see it too.  I do not think it is  LatinVFR.  What's odd is it is a default airport tower so it is a library object bleeding through?  With simwest we do not use any AFCADs letting the simmer add their favorites.  I do not see the water tank.  Where is that located?  I will investigate to see what I come up with.

Update, I now see the two tanks...

Edited July 15, 2019 by Clutch Cargo

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I believe I know what the answer is, create an exclude poly or create a new AFCAD that has those objects removed.  Problem is I have not been to get them to disappear?!  I have tried SBuilder and ADE.  I have put in an request at the ADE forums to see if they can suggest why it is not working.

[flyblueskies 143]

51 minutes ago, Clutch Cargo said:

I believe I know what the answer is, create an exclude poly or create a new AFCAD that has those objects removed.  Problem is I have not been to get them to disappear?!  I have tried SBuilder and ADE.  I have put in an request at the ADE forums to see if they can suggest why it is not working.

Thanks Clutch!

I really appreciate the effort. Your scenery is really good and I'm determined to use either LatnVFR or Orbx KSAN.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Ok, try this file using the link I have below (very small file).  This is sort of a test.  It should be a simple fix but some weird stuff at play I need to look into.  Place the downloaded .bgl in the simwestSOCAL/scenery folder.  Now if you also have simwestSANDIEGO copy it there as well in it's scenery folder.   If it works for you it should remove the default tower and storage tank next to it. 

If it does not, create another folder (call it something like 'KSAN tower').  Create a sub-folder it called scenery and move the bgl file into there.  Activate the folder and give it a higher priority than simwestSOCAL or simwestSANDIEGO.  Delete the .bgl files that were SOCAL and SANDIEGO.   Start up again and see if they are removed.  Again sort of a test/workaround.  Let me know how it works.

Ok, try this file:

 https://1drv.ms/u/s!At0-hHOcbpVfgyPgZAZ4lgleqLn-?e=4SYvoC

Another note as I was messing around, if you do have simwestSANDIEGOL I would "turn off" the photoreal files in orbx.  That looks like to be the seven largest sized files.  Just add to the end of their names "xxx.bgl.OFF" or move them to a temp folder to try it out.  simwestSANDIEGO PR tiles are .30cm.  Try that and see how you like it.  Be sure to give orbx's scenery higher priority.  Looks like a good match up

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by Clutch Cargo
Updated link

[flyblueskies 143]

9 hours ago, Clutch Cargo said:

Ok, try this file using the link I have below (very small file).  

If it does not, create another folder (call it something like 'KSAN tower').  Create a sub-folder it called scenery and move the bgl file into there.  Activate the folder and give it a higher priority than simwestSOCAL or simwestSANDIEGO.  

Ok, try this file:

 https://1drv.ms/u/s!At0-hHOcbpVfgyPgZAZ4lgleqLn-?e=4SYvoC

 

Thanks Clutch!

I had to create a new folder I called KSAN No Tower, then a scenery folder underneath that. Once I added your file and gave it a higher priority, the second tower and fuel tanks were removed. Thanks for your help!

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Ya know what you can do, instead of creating a separate folder you can just drop the bgl file into the orbx's KSAN scenery folder.  That will have the same effect so long as you have it with higher priority than the simwest products.

I will say though simmers also create a separate folder and call it 'AFCADs' and use it to place all the custom AFCADs .bgls used throughout simwestSOCAL or other scenery addons.  That way they resolve little issues like taxiways alignments with photoreal images, elevation issues and things like that but keeps the original sceneries as they are.  Just another suggestion.