Mystery Plane

[Guest andy9164]

After the "Dome of Doom" I now find myself with another strange tale to tell, but fortunately this time, I don't think it's my doing.See the screenshot below.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/35799.jpgThis is locatated to the west of Gatwick (You can find it by using Fled and scrolling across to the co-ordinates on the bottom of the pic.I wondered if it was me, or it had been accidentally loaded in another package, but as I flew over lower realised it wasn't a model. I opened several packages in Fled, but its always there.Any ideas? Or have the beings that took over the dome moved to Gatwick.Andy

[Guest Ansgar]

Hey Andy,a big Wooooowwwwwwwww from my side! :-)I just checked that coordinates and found the same than you did. That B747 seems to be an original one, direct in the satellite photo! There is no editable model or something like that. Indeed it seems that a real B747 just crossed the satellite camera which makes the shot in that location. You more often can see that real planes also around the big airports with a lot of traffic. But this one is more clear because it

[Guest Rich Wren]

Ah that thing. I found that back when I was placing beacons at the beginning of the year. Bonus points if you can identify the airline though...Rich.http://www.wheresthefish.co.uk/flt3aircraft.jpg

[Christopher Low 5,337]

Air France ?By the way, the AERIAL mapping of England and Wales was done using small planes, so that 747 was closer to the camera than you expected :-) I wonder if the pilot was aware of it ?Interestingly enough, an extension of this mapping project was shown on Breakfast TV this morning (BBC1). They have now developed a fully 3D elevated terrain model for these images, and they are also in the process of adding buildings and other objects. When this is finished, it will be utterly fantastic. I saw a few trees dotted around, and a hill with lots of wind turbines on top. Very impressive. Do you think that they would make a special FU3 version, just for us ? :-lolThe elevation data was collected by a Learjet, and it is accurate to 5 metres. Now, that might not seem impressive when you consider that some of FU3's terrain is at 4 metres per pixel resolution, but this isn't the same thing. What I am talking about here is the distance between successive elevation points, and an accuracy of 5 metres is very accurate indeed.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,337]

Rich,I just noticed that colour scheme on your 747. Do you have any idea when this livery will be available for Ansgar's new 747 ? The new Virgin Atlantic colours are so much better than the old ones.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest Quaxo]

Chris,Actually 5m/pixel is TOO accurate for us! The elevation model for FU3 (the one used also in San Francisco and Seattle) is 64 meters/pixel for the elevation, and as we all know, it gives good results. In the UK (except for some small hand-edited areas) we have 64m/pix elevation meshes which have been FRACTALLY INTERPOLATED from 1 km/pix data, and that's why we don't have all the details of hills, canyons, and such. If we could have the new hi-res data, well, I think it would be easy to "downsample" it to 64m/pix, getting very very good results!! :-)And you're right about the aerial photos being taken from an aircraft. That's why the 747 is SO big (I once landed the beechjet on its wing!). It was actually quite close to the overflying aircraft... this woulld not happen (hopefully) with satellites! :-)And anyway, this aircraft is not a new discovery - I posted a screenshot months ago, when I first saw it! The strange thing is, that I didn't see it when I built that area, but only later, when I was actually flying!! :-)Cristian

[Guest andy9164]

Sorry Cristian, I hadn't realised you had posted this earlier, and there I was thinking I'd made a new dicovery........Damn!!!Andy

[Guest Rich Wren]

Chris,It won't be available just yet, I've got a couple of texturing issues to sort out with Ansgar first (see the 747 thread). I've almost finished a repaint for a different (slightly simpler) scheme for practise with a new technique. I need to find out if the texture mapping is likely to change before I release that though. I'm also looking at putting together some alternative callsign sounds (as per the Jersey European Dash 8) but I don't know how long that is likely to take as I haven't tried this yet.The short answer is patience my friend, all in good time :-)Cheers,Rich.

[Christopher Low 5,337]

Rich,No worries. I'm just glad that you are working on it :-)Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest Quaxo]

Hehe! I saw it first, the prize is mine! :-) But no-one has given me anything yet... I WANT my prize!!! ;-)Cristian

[Guest Robert_S]

Have patience, Cristian.I have some postcards for you. :-)I'm just not... fast. While still an infant, my dad nicknamed me "Rapid Robert", with heavy sarcasm intended. :-lol[table][tr][td valign=top]http://www.avsim.com/other/usaribbon.gif[/td][td valign=center]Bob "SlowBert" StilesAVSIM Moderator[/b][/td][/tr][/table]"Don't stall on me, I have to soar!"~Richard Harvey, 1/21/2003