I've been stressing a bit over how long it

Bob,I know just what you mean! I've only been designing a short time, but I'd estimate that 80% of that time has been spent trying, discarding and trying again various techniques. I was fortunate in some ways to be new to design -- it means I didn't have to unlearn a bunch of techniques. I've found that gmax is my favorite tool so far, as long as I discount the incredible propensity for crashing and taking my machine with it. I swear I've gotten a sixth sense about when it's going to happen, though! All in all, it was pretty easy to learn and start designing with.My biggest issue has come when I interface my gmax buildings and models with the ground. What technique should I use (rhetorical ;-))??? I'm designing a small area, and so far I've tried gmax ground polys, Airport ground polys, custom terrain via TerraBuilder, building those same terrain tiles myself using your spreadsheet and resampler, and using some of Rhumbaflappy's TMF decal techniques. I've had some success with all of them, but still can't light on one method for making small dirt roads, dusty turn-around areas at the end of bush runways, and so forth. I've become somewhat obsessed with figuring out which technique will have "legs" and be supported in CFS3 and FS2004, in as much as I can see the future on those counts. To that end, it looks like a combo of custom terrain textures and some TMF decals might be the most viable way to go. My next challenge is how to get the blessed autogen to show up on my custom terrain! I'm sure there's an answer for that riddle, too.However, all that being said, it seems like if I had a stable set of techniques and tools, I could design much faster than I do now. So I'm still working on a method that looks great and isn't too repetitive or programming-intensive. Hope I find it soon!-Bill Womack

thanks for the comments, Bill...y'know from what Rhumbaflappy has shown us, I'd put my time into his decals with transparency for your dusty roads. You'll be able to avoid huge file sizes, cuz you won't really have to use various seasons..the default seasonal changes will show thru, if your area is real, you could use a selection of an aerial photo to base the decal on, only showing the roads...that way, no need to tone the colors of the textures for seasons...just a thought. If you do that, hope u'll be my tutor in a few months, when I'm ready to learn tmf decals!B

Hi Bob I for one am looking forward to your creations I hope to finally start on some northwest stuff( starting to do some dem stuff)in between getting our Thunder Bay scenery out the door. I've startedat the Skaget county line and will go north from there through Whatcom county and into the southern BC coast Feel free to contactme if interested. Dan

Those are good points, Bob. I did have a bit of luck with Dick's TMF techniques from his tutorial (and other sources) so I'll probably stick with learning those for the moment. I'm creating fictitious bush scenery right now, so a satellite photo is only available if I make one up ;-). I hadn't given too much consideration to the download size yet, but that sounds like a good reason to do more TMF decal experimentation.-Bill

Hi Bob, I hope to have out, in a week or two, my version of FS Landclass for the Northwest. It's been a several months project and will cover all of Oregon, Washington and lower BC. The only holdup is I'm not happy with my rendition of the desert area east of the cascades, which is taking more time than I expected. I would like to get together with you before too long to compare notes on landclass ideas. We're probably not more than a couple of miles apart. Really looking forward to those new g-max airports, especially Harvey Fld. Good to see you here at AVSIM.

Hi Dan, certainly interested! Course by the time I have updated my fav airports, fs2004 will be out! LOLB

Hi Neil, excellant news with u getting to be an expert with land class. Thanks for the note and y'know, I wouldn't mind meeting over a cup o coffee sometime!B