I need help please with a strange problem.  A visual waypoint on the Warbird approach into Oshkosh is missing in my installation of X-Plane.  I am running the latest version of X-Plane.  The waypoint is a small island in Lake Winnebego about 6.5 miles SE of KOSH, and has the GPS designation VPWAR.  It is not a big deal, but it is bugging me that I can't find out why the island is missing.

Over time I have installed various custom scenery packs.  At this point I have deleted everything from the Custom Scenery directory, and restarted X-Plane to regnerate the scenery .ini file.  The island is still missing.  I have confirmed with other X-Plane users that they see the island properly rendered.  Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Thanks!

Hmm, this part

10 hours ago, bgilmer said:

I have confirmed with other X-Plane users that they see the island properly rendered.

confuses me.

It is normal for X-Plane to not render every small terrain feature, there is some loss in the data compression when the global scenery is made. If other users see it (in their unaltered version of X-Plane) and you don´t --- there is something amiss with your installation.

I think this is highly unlikely, though - since you can see the rest of the scenery just fine. It is very likely that these "other users" have installed extra scenery of higher fidelity that renders the island.

You can try the (free) HD Mesh V4: http://www.alpilotx.net/2017/12/08/released-hd-mesh-scenery-v4/

this may cure it.

Another alternative is to make your own satellite imagery with Ortho4XP which will certainly show it.

Yet another way would be to make a small custom scenery with WED...just for the island.

Cheers, Jan

 

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by Janov

12 hours ago, bgilmer said:

I need help please with a strange problem.  A visual waypoint on the Warbird approach into Oshkosh is missing in my installation of X-Plane.  I am running the latest version of X-Plane.  The waypoint is a small island in Lake Winnebego about 6.5 miles SE of KOSH, and has the GPS designation VPWAR.  It is not a big deal, but it is bugging me that I can't find out why the island is missing.

Over time I have installed various custom scenery packs.  At this point I have deleted everything from the Custom Scenery directory, and restarted X-Plane to regnerate the scenery .ini file.  The island is still missing.  I have confirmed with other X-Plane users that they see the island properly rendered.  Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Thanks!

 

I can confirm it's not there in vanilla X-plane (we are talking 'Warbird Island' VPWAR according to Skyvector and Long Point island according to Google Maps).

I only have, and only ever have had, custom scenery in the UK (Orbx TE UK).  Just taken off in the Cessna and flown down the coast to where the Avitab map clearly shows the island and can confirm that nope - it's not there:

I would log it with Laminar - it's quite an important airfield...

 

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by AJZip

3 minutes ago, AJZip said:

I would log it with Laminar - it's quite an important airfield...

Normally writing a bug report for something like this is a good idea!

In this special case it won´t do anything, since there will not be a new global scenery for XP11.

The next version of X-Plane will likely have a finer granularity for terrain/water and the island may be present. LR is rarely "hand editing" scenery...unless its really a widespread problem affecting many users (like the infamous "Botany Bay" missing). In those cases there may be scenery tile recuts to fix a glaring error.

If a (smallish) terrain feature is missing "by design" (i.e. the scenery engine just isn´t made to pick it up and represent it) - they won´t really add it manually. Otherwise they would be flooded with bug reports like "there is this small fishing pond near that airfield I fly to, it is a vital landmark because I always chop the throttle right overhead and I can´t do that now in X-Plane because the pond (it has a little red rowing boat on it, too!) is missing 😉

Cheers, Jan

 

Thanks @Janov and @AJZip.  Yes, this is a very important waypoint.  There will be a virtual AirVenture at Oshkosh this year put on by PilotEdge, and they are adding the Warbird Arrival to their program.  Simventure had over 1000 flights into KOSH last year, and it was an amazing experience.  But it would be great to have Warbird Island be in the sim, since the experience is supposed to be VFR.

@AJZip, I will see if I can figure out how to log the issue with Laminar.

4 minutes ago, bgilmer said:

I will see if I can figure out how to log the issue with Laminar.

Here is how:

https://dev.x-plane.com/support/bugreport.html

But as I said above - don´t hold your breath for an official fix 😉

PS: Just checked on OpenStreetMap (thats where XP11 took a lot of information about terrain features) and Warbird Island is tagged as "Wetland". I am not sure how the scenery engine deals with that - but it could be that this type of area is just represented as "water"...which would explain the island missing.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=wetland?uselang=en

 

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by Janov

@JanovThanks!  I will file it anyway.  I expect they won't fix it, but the guys over at PilotEdge have some people who work or used to work at Laminar, and if it effects their event, they may be able to get it addressed.  Or more likely, PilotEdge will add it to their custom scenery for SimVenture.

BTW, I highly recommend checking out the event.  It features actual FAA controllers who work at AirVenture and procedures and the NOTAM that are very close to the real thing.

Again, thanks for the confirmation that the island is missing.

4 minutes ago, bgilmer said:

BTW, I highly recommend checking out the event.

It sounds aweseome! I never really found time for online flying (except for WW2 sims) - but am fairly familiar with the Oshkosh event as I have made some custom scenery for Laminar Research especially for that event many years ago...

https://www.x-plane.com/2015/07/free-scenery-for-oshkosh-airventure/

Cheers, Jan

 

1 hour ago, bgilmer said:

@JanovThanks!  I will file it anyway.  I expect they won't fix it, but the guys over at PilotEdge have some people who work or used to work at Laminar, and if it effects their event, they may be able to get it addressed.  Or more likely, PilotEdge will add it to their custom scenery for SimVenture.

BTW, I highly recommend checking out the event.  It features actual FAA controllers who work at AirVenture and procedures and the NOTAM that are very close to the real thing.

Again, thanks for the confirmation that the island is missing.

The other thing maybe worth doing at the same time is finding out from the folks who can see it what ortho / scenery / etc they are using.  It maybe that there is an existing free add-on in the download section on X-plane.org or similar.

@Janov I am specifically looking to fly a WW2 aircraft into Oshkosh for the event.  Looking forward to it.

@AJZip Thanks for the suggestion.  Finding a scenery pack that has the island is probably the short-term solution.

Thank you very much for your help!

2 hours ago, bgilmer said:

I am specifically looking to fly a WW2 aircraft into Oshkosh for the event.

Have you got one in mind?  If not I can thoroughly recommend the Flying Iron Simulations P-38 Lightning.  It is a stupendous piece of modelling, especially in VR!

@AJZip Thanks for the suggestion.  I have always been a fan of the P-38 IRL.  I will take a look at it!

@AJZip what a great airplane.  Got it and will definitely be flying it to SimVenture.  Thanks.

19 minutes ago, bgilmer said:

@AJZip what a great airplane.  Got it and will definitely be flying it to SimVenture.  Thanks.

Yup...it's the tops.  If you haven't already tried it, the starting from cold is a treat 🙂

Nope - have not tried that yet.  Saw the description in the manual.  Will give it a try sometime.