London City airport

[Hans_Petter 1]

I just uploaded the London City airport package for the UK south region. The upload includes a "London Heavy" package that meshes with the airport package and adds buildings to the surrounding areas. I plan to expand the "London Heavy" package and add buildings all over greater London later. There are a lot of models and most of you will find that you have a lot of them already. There are even some models that haven't been used yet since I included my entire bunch of repalettized Seattle models. However, most of the available models will be used in the near future. Further, they even make sense for future Sanfran packages since they all use the Sanfran palette. Robert Driscoll has made most of the new UK models but I've been catching up lately :-) Anyone developing packages for the UK region should be able to find some useful buildings in this upload. We have strived to create an accurate representation of the LCA, albeit with a few "fun" models. See you in London :-)best regards,Hans Petterhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/34438.jpg

[Guest R_Driscoll]

To add my bit, this package includes the London City Airport (of course), night lighting for the area, the Docklands elevated railway (just in the vicinity of LCA), renditions of actual buildings in the vicinity, including the main skyscrapers at Canary Wharf, the ExCeL centre, the Westminster Bridge and a couple of smaller bridges (Brittania bridge etc), the Thames Barrier, the terminal hotel, cranes, pylons (thanks Jon), trains (thanks glidernut), and the kitchen sink. This is by far the most detailed package produced, way ahead of Gatwick, Stansted etc., and so although we have tried to keep it fast, may have some effect on framerates (which is why Hans Petter divided it into two bits, one for slow computers like mine, both packages for fast computers!). As for Southampton, IOW etc, the taxiways, runways and apron have all been textured. Please enjoy! Installation instructions are included and are as easy as easy could be.Limits - we could not implement terrain height changes - that's not a major problem though. One interesting limit was that approaching from the West, the required glideslope angle is 5.5 deg, not the standard 3 deg, too steep for many planes. This could not be implemented in the ILS system for LCA. If anyone has any ideas for changing the ILS angle, let me know! Anyway, if you do a realistic 5 deg descent (and you will see why you need to when you fly this approach!), then I cannot recommend you use Ansgar's recent contribution of the 747 as the plane of choice!RobD.

[Guest Ansgar]

Hello Hans and Robert,boy that 11MByte are looking fantastic, much appreciated! There is coming more and more real live into our new great world. :-)It really seems I must seriously think about a new computer at christmas....to test all that resource-hungry new addons with superb details. That scenery becomes more and more live. Especially this new models (Transmission Power Towers, buildings, etc. etc) are IMO improving the realism feeling a lot.By the way:Is there somebody also installing and testing the ILS-flights and frequencies to all our new airports around? At my last tests I ended in a ATC crash after trying to make an ILS landing in UK-South. So for the big ones it

[Lars Peter 0]

Ohhh.!!Another UK-addon.From the screenshot it looks very promising.Downloading ASAP.I am going to install all of the uk stuff over to the new system.With all the new addons my old Plll-600 is brought down to its knees.Ansgar.When making new ILS RW. you have to be careful to choose what trafficto allow for different runwaysWhat I also discovered for "southampton" and "plymouth" was that Fledhad a strange habbit to change it again when I selected "save"I had to reopen the airports again and push the "cancel" button afterlooking through all checkboxes.Othervise loading/or atc crashes could appear with spesialwind directions at the airport.Atc crashes can also have something to do with an error in the "airpace.txt".Hans and Robert.Thanks for making this package.Well.- I see you in London then.Lars Peter. :-)

[Guest glidernut]

Thank you Hans Petter, Robd and Jon Point,You hav atcheeved the best posibl efect for the leest posiblframe rate hit.This is sumthing very dificalt to do, considering ther are someny deetaled models that look so real.Every thing looks so real, its incredabl.There is so much to explor, its grat.By the way, where do I look to fined a yelow mooving crane ?North South Est or West of the runwy ?Glidernut.:-wave

[Guest R_Driscoll]

Ansgar, the latest version of the BEACONS.FLD file is at:http://www.geocities.com/adamsbpl/FU/FU3/INNE/gb.htmstill maintained by Bogdan Adamski. There was no update with the current package, but I will check if this is causing problems.Glidernut, moving cranes: there are a few, but the easiest to find is on approach from the West, just past a cluster of buildings out the right window as you pass Brittania Bridge (the bridge at a funny angle leading to the ExCeL centre).

[Hans_Petter 1]

Yes, the frame rate hit is bearable if you have a fairly high-end processor. The main reason might be that we've used fairly simple models. Speaking for myself that's due to the fact that I'm unable to make complicated models :-) Most of the houses are simple polygons with 5 - 8 "faces". The rest is accomplished through resizing (long, wide, tall) and an array of different textures. It's common knowledge that larger size and detailed textures don't cause any frame rate impact -- the main thing is to keep the polygon count or number of surfaces down. Transparency may be used to create the illusion of more segments than there really are.Thus, if you have a building that looks OK you can make an array of different ones that are all based on the same template. A slight change in proportions and another paintjob gives you a totally different one, yet the PC doesn't work any harder rendering one of each than it would when rendering two similar ones. The thing to avoid is too many separate structures within a model -- if you were to add a balcony to a house it would pretty much double the polygon count. Thus, it's better to paint a balcony. Since this is a flight simulator we hardly view residential areas from up close anyway, at least not from street level :-) best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest andy9164]

Hans and Rob,So, back from my holidays and already 2 great looking packages to install, London City and Angsars new 747, Can we keep up?I will be downloading these tonight and installing. Does this have a new Dome included to solve my "Aliens have landed" problem or do I need to find it on the original disks still?Also, soon I will be posting some pictures I took as I flew over the South of England. I might even start a competition, first person to identify the location.:-) Thanks to you all for what looks like a superb add on.Andy

[Guest Ansgar]

Hello Robert,thank you very much for that link! I downloaded that version and direct saw that it is more actual than mine. :-)So before discussing problems I first will test that version and hold you informed.Best regards :-)Ansgar A

[agtim 0]

What a difference between my old first London City Airport and now :-).I was there 1999 and remember some places of the new scenery.Well done, congratulation to Hans and Robert ! Thanks a lot :-))Just some minor remarks and tips :I had a crc error in the downloaded zip, but this was not important, because the large modelmip.tag was the only affected file and it was still the old one of 29.07.1999.Do not include this large file (15MB) in the Package if not changed please. This file will boost the zip size to 11MB but it is that of the original San Francisco area, hope most have it.If you are using my UK_IOW Package, then delete the airport Bemb in the UKS package , it will collide with the BBP airport at the same location - Bembridge. Delete also the model file m0bmam.mod inside UKS Package and in the region model folder also to avoid doubly defined airport lines /taxigraphs.Simple and safer than using FLED, just delete the file m0bras.mod in the region model folder. This will eliminate the settings of the old London City Airport and all old models of this area in one step.You will still have the Dome after this :-)Using the old model file together with the new heavy package will generate strong flickering on some buildings and will dramatically reduce the frame rate also. as far I can see after taxiing, we need an elevation fix for the runway at the far end . AI models have their wheels in the ground. :-wave agtim

[Hans_Petter 1]

I just checked the tips that you listed and they have all been implemented. The only annoyance that persists is, "yo, no airport for Bigg, killing it" whenever I select the UKS package in FLED. Where is "Bigg" (Biggin Hills?) and what's wrong with it?Regarding the inclusion of the modelmip.tag that was really a mistake. I included it in my test GEN to see all of my models and forgot all about it. As I noticed that this one was a redundant file the LCA was already uploaded. In case some of you don't understand what we're discussing -- I included a huge file that you had already. It doesn't really matter, except that it takes longer to download. best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest glidernut]

I stil hav no yelow cranes!Only 2 red one,s in Fled, in Gen, and in the game!But acording to Hans Petter, RobD, and MovObjViewer.exe,I should hav at leest 1 moving yelow crane!Can sum one send it to me plees?john.lewis@freeuk.comglidernut.

[Hans_Petter 1]

It's in your mailbox. I'm going to replace the uploaded file and get rid of that redundant modelmip.tag. The new file size will be between 5 and 6 MB. The cranes are included in day and night versions this time :-)

[Guest glidernut]

Got it.Thanks Hans Petter, & RobD.Thees rotateing things are briliant.glidernut.:-wave

[Hans_Petter 1]

I just uploaded the LCA again. If those of you who have been intimidated by the large file size wait a bit you'll get a 6ish MB file rather than the 11 MB file. The yellow crane is included.Further, I uploaded Robert's crane separately. Those of you who have downloaded the LCA already may get the yellow crane and add it.I hope we got it sorted out now. I believe that all models should be included. In any event, it's a good idea to have all of the major UK packages since I've borrowed models from Andre, Jon and Robert. best regards,Hans Petter