Scenery Gateway has Started

[fmloyola 43]

1 hour ago, ryanbatcund said:

But even the "bad" freeware, whatever that is, will be better than a default airport with no buildings.

And with wrong taxiway names.

[superspud 450]

I'm dead curious about this. 

I presume all custom items will be prohibited as they'll have no idea of their provenance or have the time to unravel technical deficiencies. 

That'll mean a lot of the existing freeware will be redundant for this, though I'm sure many can be adapted. 

I also wonder about the priorities and what gets replaced. I remember someone moaning about their carefully crafted Xplane airport being replaced in the gateway by a featureless blob that had a corrected taxiway name. 

 

 

 

[vbazillio 2,234]

Despite I love the concept shared months ago, I don't expect any short term impact for my sim considering that it takes month(s) for commercial provider to have their product on the market place and that the last annoucement from Jorg was "We found a developper and we have a prototype but it will be a long way to go".

In the meantime, hopefuly we can easily drop content in our Community folder and I consider flightsim.to as my "Scenery gateway".

[flyingjafo 16]

6 hours ago, andy1252 said:

scenery gateway?

I'm with Andy on this one....What is scenery gateway? I thought that was a Xplane thing?

[pmb 5,137]

However people think about that Scenery Gateway, I recall there was a strong demand for it shortly after the release of MSFS, and a few folks were really vocal it wasn't in place.

I also don't see such an urgent pressure to implement it. Contrary to X-Plane, where several minor airports were just a runway and a taxi pattern, but no buildings at all without the Gateway, MSFS comes well-equipped with base airports. Taxis signs may be not quite right, buildings are generic (but with a wide variety actually), but most small grass strips where I land now and then aren't flat and don't look too bad. Yes, they may not be 1:1 copies, but who cares if I don't know the original anyway.

As @vbazillio states, I am pretty content with the Community folder and Flightsim.to.

Kind regards, Michael

 

[Tuskin38 6,524]

38 minutes ago, flyingjafo said:

I'm with Andy on this one....What is scenery gateway? I thought that was a Xplane thing?

Yes, and Asobo is working on bringing something similar to MSFS.

[fppilot 4,371]

55 minutes ago, pmb said:

I also don't see such an urgent pressure to implement it. Contrary to X-Plane, where several minor airports were just a runway and a taxi pattern, but no buildings at all without the Gateway, MSFS comes well-equipped with base airports.

Like these in MSFS?  My home airport, KESN in MSFS and KCTJ, Carrolton, Georgia (USA) just west of the Atlanta metro.  Just two of perhaps 20 I have found like these.  Thankfully a member here did a very nice addon airport for KESN.  It is available over on TO.

Edited December 13, 2021 by fppilot

[pmb 5,137]

Just now, fppilot said:

Like these in MSFS?  My home airport, KESN in MSFS and KCTJ, Carrolton, Georgia (USA) just west of the Atlanta metro.  Just two of perhaps 20 I have found like this:
 

I know, you have shown this several times. I suppose it's kind of a singularity, I grant you I never took off from / landed at such a beast so far.

But I'd certainly be happy for you if it would find its way into the MSFS Gateway. Btw., flightsim.to takes requests for airports to be modelled. This really works. I requested my (smallish) home base (EDBJ), a few others joined and a couple of months laters it was made by a kind guy and already had several updates since. Looks really nice now.

Kind regards, Michael

[ryanbatc 12,857]

20 minutes ago, pmb said:

I know, you have shown this several times. I suppose it's kind of a singularity

I don't think so.  I've seen many small airports without any buildings or missing buildings (where you can see the 2d imagery but no 3d building on top of it).  Perhaps we're just flying into Joe Bob type strips lol.

I presume the community folder would continue to override any "gateway" type airports anyway.

[haskell 298]

7 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

But even the "bad" freeware, whatever that is, will be better than a default airport with no buildings.

^^^THIS. The struggle with a Gateway concept is some artists will not fully understand how taxiway signs, hold short lines, etc. all work. So they may not be completely accurate but what is what we get from Asobo? Random taxiway names, no buildings, lines that look like a drunken sailor painted them. Most anyone could do better. 

I liked that concept in X-Plane and, in fact, authored over 100 airports in the Gateway. So, while I am “fixing” all the airports I fly to in MSFS, I’d rather use one someone else has put the effort on. It may not be perfect, but is perfect the threshold we need to be better than default? 

[TacomaSailor 191]

I am having trouble understanding the benefit of an automated "scenery gateway" because I cannot imagine anything much easier to use than flightsim.to.

Each day I get on flightsim.to and check what is new and what is updated. The comments and user feedback in the form of questions on each addon page is essential for me in choosing what I want to move to my system.

IF I want a scenery addon I click on Download and then click on the download folder on my local machine where it is to be stored and scanned by Avast.   Just three button clicks and I have the item I CHOSE (not everyone in the wide world) on my flight sim system.

I then click to unzip the new download and then click to move it to the appropriate Community folder.  

What can be simpler and provide me more choice and control?

My AddOn Linker source folder is setup as a fairly complex tree structure with Continents/Regions/Countries/States so I can keep the scenery together with other items I might want to load into the sim.

My AddOn linker has presets with a similar tree structure to allow me to load just the immediate scenery I want for a particular flight.

The flightsim.to "My Downloads" link automatically shows me which addons need to be updated.

The best part of the the whole flightsim.to process is the user feedback in terms of ratings and comments/questions.

Why would I want to automate this process and loose all control of what I download and where it lives in my flight sim system?

I do hope any such "scenery gateway" is optional!

Edited December 13, 2021 by TacomaSailor

[pmb 5,137]

6 minutes ago, TacomaSailor said:

Why would I want to automate this process and loose all control of what I download and where it lives in my flight sim system?

I do hope any such "scenery gateway" is optional!

Add the fact that flightsim.to has a pretty good map (and search function) where you can search for addons in an area where you are about to go flying.

Kind regards, Michael

[haskell 298]

 

13 minutes ago, TacomaSailor said:

am having trouble understanding the benefit of an automated "scenery gateway" because I cannot imagine anything much easier to use than flightsim.to.

It would improve the BASE program. As all these amazing artists build accurate airports, they would be added to the sim at the next update. Of course, if you choose to find airports and add them to your Community folder those would take precedent. But as each of those was uploaded they would be included in future updates. What would that hurt? 

Edited December 13, 2021 by haskell

[Twenty6 693]

27 minutes ago, haskell said:

 

It would improve the BASE program. As all these amazing artists build accurate airports, they would be added to the sim at the next update. Of course, if you choose to find airports and add them to your Community folder those would take precedent. But as each of those was uploaded they would be included in future updates. What would that hurt? 

Probably not much until the Robinhood crowd decides it would be fun to make a Las Vegas in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. As I understand it, the scenery being in the core of MSFS, I'd have to deal with loading it every time I started the sim. No thanks.

If it comes as an option and I can ignore the airports, planes, etc that don't interest me, well then fine, no problem.

[haskell 298]

1 hour ago, Twenty6 said:

Probably not much until the Robinhood crowd decides it would be fun to make a Las Vegas in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

Except that’s not how it works. It would be moderated and each would have to be approved. I don’t understand, don’t you have to deal with the sim loading all the lame, incorrect airports now? You aren’t able to ignore airports or planes that don’t interest you now.