Alaska Bush Scenery (Beta Testers Required)

[Guest sailormatt]

Dear AllI would like to start by saying what a great resource this forums and the many others are for our sim, although this is my first registered post i have been an avid ready for years.I have watched the general opinion about FSX with interest and tried in vain to find any bush scenery for it, therfore i set about the task of creating some in FSX.I cant say that it is up to the great standards of Glacier Bay and the like but i can say that it is ok in my opinion and fun to fly in. In fact i am trying to create some FSX missions for the scenery at the moment too.What i am looking for is someone or a few people to test the scenery and see how it runs on their machines (mine is a low spec machine), I have used FSPlanner to create my airport and the FSX placement tool and BGL compile for the other bits. It runs on my machine but will it run on others with different sliders etc.I am looking for someone with a fairly good knowledge to help with this process; and if someone knows an easy way to create custom ground textures then give me a shout!I have attached some screen shots of what i have done to date, let me know what you think...Thanks Matt

[Guest]

Did you do a high res mesh for that area? Whats actually included in the scenery?

[Guest SHawk]

Hello sailor. My limited technical experience ended with FS4, but I still "fly" fairly regularly. Looks like yer off to a good start, and I'd be willing to do some testing for you. I'm running FSX SP1 on a P4 3.6GHz single-core machine w/ an nVidia 7950GT card. A mid-level setup that runs FSX at a locked 20 out in the country and 10-15 over the most scenery-maxed cities. I've got SP2 but uninstalled it because of the transparency problem with legacy aircraft, so I would prefer to test in SP1. Lemme know if yer interested.

[kiwikat 506]

Looks pretty cool so far :DI would also like to test for you if you are interested. My specs are E6700 2.67ghz, 8600M GT, 3 GB ram, vista ultimate 32 bit, and FSX w/acceleration all in my laptop. With my settings on high I get 30-35 FPS. Most of my testing would use the carenado 182Q and the Aerosoft Beaver X and Aerosoft Twin Otter if it comes out soon ;)

[Guest sailormatt]

Hi AllThanks for your replies! Would love for you to test the scenery, just got to add an autogen exlude as forgot to do that with one part, have also added a small log cabin/camp site to the scenery.Essentially the scenery uses stock microsoft everything so it should be ok on either FSX with or without SP1/SP2. Give me a day to add the exclude.What would be best for everyone? Is it easier to post a zip to this post or email you all?Thanks again for your kind offersMatt

[kiwikat 506]

Any day is good for me... as far as the file that is up to you. Putting it on the forums would allow more people to test it, but it is just a beta so you might be better off just sending it to a few people via email if it is not too large.

[Bell417 0]

It looks awesome! I would love to help test this, as I have been looking for a good alsaka scenery for a long time! I am a good bush pilot (8/10) and an excellent helo pilot (9.5/10) Usually, if I'm not flying the Eh101, I'm flying the RealAir Scout, and almost all of my flights are in either, Alaska, BC, or the Pacific North-West. I have a low-mid end machine but it's consistently hitting 15FPS with all display sliders set at medium or over and traffic on (global texture res is set at max.) I am running Accleration and its SP2. If you want me to test this, I will most likely be doing in some combination of the EH101, the Bell 206, or the RealAir Scout. I'm happy to help! I recommend that you just email the .zip to people instead of uploading it on the forum. Oh, BTW, I am also proficient with the Object Placement Tool so I would be able to help place objects at airports once I get it installed and working again (I need to install the Acceleration SDK today.)

[Guest sailormatt]

Hi AllI couldn't find an easy way to send you the zip to test my sceenery so thought just might add it as a zip to this post.Let me know what you think and whether there are any problems etc.ThanksMattInstructions for use:Unzip the files into a folder of your choice, add them to the Addon Scenery Folder in your stock FSX instalation and enable through the scenery library.Happy flying!

[Guest SHawk]

Matt: I've installed your scenery, and my comments are these:I think you need to provide a map, or nearest town, or flight plan file of your 4 areas. Going by the scenery folder names, I could only find one: Bold Base.At Bold Base: What is the object that looks like a pile of speaker enclosures on the apron? Whatever it is, it shouldn't be there.There should not be a fence between the apron and the taxiway.The "X"s on the runway indicate that Bold Base is closed. Not good for flight operations.I'd be happy to try out Mansion, Ranger 1, and Eklutna Lake, but I have no idea where they are.

[Guest sailormatt]

Hey thereThanks for the reply, good point about the map! :-) I'll add one with the locations marked on it and add the GPS co-ords to in a sec.In regards to the comments about the Bold...I was trying to give a feeling of a working airport by adding the stuff on the apron, it is meant to be cargo waiting to be picked up but on hindsight it does look like a lot of speakers! Doh! The fence has been doing my head in also and has recently been taken out, i put the X at the end of the runway to try and give the feeling that you should only land at one end but see your point about it being closed. Will action each of the points and re-send a zip.Thanks for looking at it though, look forward to your next feedback.Matt

[Guest sailormatt]

Dear AllFollowing comments please find attached another zip with changes to scenery.ThanksMatt

[Guest sailormatt]

And a map...:-)The GPS Coordinates for the four scenery areas are:Bold Airport (A13) (Folder=Bold Base)Latitude:061

[Guest SnowGoAK]

Here are some real pictures of the runway at Eklutna Lake, Alaska.http://www.websitesalaska.com/scvolz/Eklutna1.jpghttp://www.websitesalaska.com/scvolz/Eklutna2.jpghttp://www.websitesalaska.com/scvolz/Eklutna3.jpg

[Guest sailormatt]

Coool!!Thank you!I'm afraid i have rather built a bigger airfield their now. :-) Poetic licence so to speak.gives me an idea of the are though, perhaps some more scrub bushes in the airfield itself would be good...Matt

[Guest SHawk]

Coool, indeed. That looks like a fascinating place to fly in to in real life. Rather less crowded than O'Hare, near me.