Scenery creation in MSFS?

[jlund 380]

With over 40-45K airports it's clear that not every airport can be realistic, not even with photogrammetry or Azure AI. So how about an Instant scenery designer, WED or Overlay editor, and a global library of hangars, houses, airport acessories, trees etc.etc so the community can create their local airport or update the ones that is just standard created airports? And a Library at MS where we can upload them with MS approving of them, before others can download them. By keeping them within MS's standard, everyone can use them in the sim without having to download seperate objects from different sites. I am pretty sure many of the local airports won't look like Courchevel, so it would be great if we could make our own version of it.

Edited November 28, 2019 by jlund

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Happy to see that I am not alone wishing for an Instant Scenery-like module in the SDK ! I have used so many time IS3 in P3D, an excellent addon.

[Greazer 1,320]

I'm pretty sure they will include a scenery developer tool to build airports etc. I got one major suggestion (which I posted in another thread a while back)...  it would be good if there was a Global online library of textures and 3d assets etc that community developers can use to build airports. So as to not reinvent the wheel. And scenery developers should share their textures and assets in an online library for other developers to use.  Also suggest the airports be able to be uploaded to MS servers which streams the content. i.e. avoid the problem where everyone has to maintain a huge library of airports on their PC. Just have it all stored online. Actually this whole topic would be good for a feature video.

[in2tech 588]

Just some of the global 48,000 airports, a few in Alaska, which I fly a lot in Alaska. It appears this number keeps growing 🙂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Alaska

A few GA ones I have looked up in Bing Maps Aerail View either show nothing or they are fuzzy! I am guessing these will just be bare like other sim's? I don't know how long it would take to fly to every airport in just a state or country, let alone 48,000 🙂 But you know we are going to be looking for the out in the wild airports all over the world. Well some of us will! Can you say X-Cub 🙂

Chicken Airport, Alaska ( who knew )

Aerial Bing Maps

 

Somebody took a picture of it, it's rough but look at the Fall colors, I guess? I can only assume that this is actually Chicken Airport, why would they lie?

My point, at some point such a Tool as WED, and a depository would be great! At some point we will see what the SDK provides for scenery. Maybe it has such a tool? Somebody has to make Chicken Airport.

Chicken Gold Post down the road form the airport 🙂

 

OMG, I have to fly here in this area!

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by in2tech

[mp15 138]

There has to be a marketplace, 3D modelling, texturing, lighting, animation and determining what is collidable or not,  can be demanding in production time and barely no one would do it for free in terms of adding  quality freebies into an optional library.

[fppilot 4,355]

2 hours ago, in2tech said:

OMG, I have to fly here in this area!

 

LOL!  The dogs know where to hang out, don't they!

[RALF9636 1,921]

We really need to see the default airports, in particular smaller and unpaved airfields.

But it probably would indeed be great to have an easy way to enhance the scenery by ourselves and share that work.

Something like Instant Scenery, but even more user friendly with a well structured library of objects that is the same for every user.

 

As suggested in another thread, I'd like a standardized addon platform: all addons should - mandatory - be installed, updated, managed and uninstalled within the same system (something alike as can be seen in Orbx Central). The user created scenery could also be made available on that platform.

It has to be guaranteed of course that the user created scenery (as well as payware addons of course) can not mess up the sim by putting files all over the place, or even deleting / replacing default files.

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by RALF9636

[Wobbie 938]

For heavens sake, NO we do not need Microsoft telling us what we can use! 

We want the freedom & responsibility to choose for ourselves.

Simming is supposed to be all about Fun, Fact & Fiction, & we have had great fictional add-ons to have fun with!

[Dominique_K 10,133]

1 hour ago, RALF9636 said:

We really need to see the default airports, in particular smaller and unpaved airfields.

But it probably would indeed be great to have an easy way to enhance the scenery by ourselves and share that work.

Something like Instant Scenery, but even more user friendly with a well structured library of objects that is the same for every user.

 

 

IS3 uses the autogen, the pay- or freeware scenery customized models (for personal use) and your own models. 

I will take two exotic examples : I suppose that FS20 can approximately render Honiara airport in Guadalcanal, a medium sized regional airport, but I doubt it will render Long Island a small dirt airfield in the Bismarck Sea that I made. It would be great for me if  could recycle some of the models I made there. 

The UI should be indeed a little friendlier but placing stuff in the game was already extremely nice.

[RALF9636 1,921]

Just now, domkle said:

IS3 uses the autogen, the pay- or freeware scenery customized models (for personal use) and your own models. 

I will take two exotic examples : I suppose that FS20 can approximately render Honiara airport in Guadalcanal, a medium sized regional airport, but I doubt it will render Long Island a small dirt airfield in the Bismarck Sea that I made. It would be great for me if  could recycle some of the models I made there. 

The UI should be indeed a little friendlier but placing stuff in the game was already extremely nice.

Yes, I played around with IS3 a lot also and really miss it in P3DV4.

 

Two problems with a model library that also includes payware models:

- any update (let alone an uninstallation) of the payware product could mess up the scenery created with IS3

- you could not share your work due to copyright issues.

 

[F737MAX 5,557]

Used to download a lot of freeware scenery back in FS2002 and FS9 days, but would face problems where we would need payware programs such as Abacus EZ-Scenery and/or Lago FS Enhancer, then possibly also require freeware packages such as RWY12, just to have all the necessary library objects for just one scenery.

Really like the idea of a "community workshop" repository of 'lite' airports using one central library of objects and textures. I envisage it would be expanded on a regular basis, but controlled, to prevent non-standard objects from appearing.

Would be fantastic to have community creativity re-awoken for flight simming once again.

[SierraHotel 976]

Perhaps we will see the emergence of an X-Plane like community and the amazing "free" airports that their dedicated devs put out, that would be nice.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

3 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Used to download a lot of freeware scenery back in FS2002 and FS9 days, but would face problems where we would need payware programs such as Abacus EZ-Scenery and/or Lago FS Enhancer, then possibly also require freeware packages such as RWY12, just to have all the necessary library objects for just one scenery.

Really like the idea of a "community workshop" repository of 'lite' airports using one central library of objects and textures. I envisage it would be expanded on a regular basis, but controlled, to prevent non-standard objects from appearing.

Would be fantastic to have community creativity re-awoken for flight simming once again.

A complex issue.

First, I am all for a repository à la 3D Warehouse for FS20 freeware which could be exempt of the constraint of IP.

This is something I really want to see. But who will define the standards, who will manage it ?

For my example above, I read the P3D SDK and painstakingly learnt how to use Sketchup and related utilities to populate P3D and spend tens of hours to make cabins (and the grass, darned grass !) .  Are they up to the SDK standards ? I think so as they work well in my sim and I have had no complaint from users (which does not say much, I agree). But should we wait that somebody gives the green light before any models could be downloaded ? Who and how ?

My questions are not a polite way to deflect the topic. It is a serious issue. Could the AVsim library be of some use here ? It a way it already is without the enforcement of standards though.

 

[Dominique_K 10,133]

23 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

 

- you could not share your work due to copyright issues.

 

I know, I entirely remade Propriano, a small airport in Corsica, with the OrbX models and couldn't not upload it to anybody... I was kinda happy with my work but frustrated not to be able to share it.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

8 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

Perhaps we will see the emergence of an X-Plane like community and the amazing "free" airports that their dedicated devs put out, that would be nice.

The FS/P3D  freeware scenery community is huge. How could the XP experience help ? No sarcasm here, a genuine question, I am not familiar with the XP world.