Boeing Field and SeaTac International

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Jon,You should have received a copy of my modified Boeing Field by now. In this version, runway 13L/31R has been closed down, and all traffic is operating from the much more friendly 13R/31L (by this, I mean that it's easier to land on a 10,000 feet long by 200 feet wide runway ;-)).Please let me know if the AI planes are behaving properly. I have only made a quick check so far, since I have been busy making extensive tweaks to the taxiways and AI pathways at Boeing Field itself, and also SeaTac International.On a side note, I have recently installed FU3 on my work PC. In fact, I have done all of the "extensive tweaking" mentioned above on this machine......and I have made a remarkable discovery:-FLED HAS NOT CRASHED A SINGLE TIME.Yep, that's right. It took me two or three hours to painstakingly work my way through every taxiway node, taxiway lighting node, and AI pathway node at Boeing Field. This is now complete (and is included in the version that I sent to you). Anyway, my point is all too clear. FLED does not freeze or crash on the 1.7Ghz Intel Celeron system that I have at work. Quite why this is the case is anyone's guess, but it makes working with FLED so much easier.If there is anyone out there who is wondering why this is such a big deal, then count yourself lucky. The amount of work that I have done in FLED is probably incalculable.....but I have had to put up with literally hundreds of crashes and freezes (all of which required a system reboot, and sometimes an impatient wait courtesy of ScanDisk). Anyone who has never suffered this when using FLED cannot begin to understand just what a right royal pain in the **** this is. Honestly, I look back sometimes at everything that I have done in FLED, and I am utterly astonished. How did I cope with the instability on my PC ? Why did I even bother ? ;-)Needless to say, the total lack of crashes and freezes on this PC (and so far I have probably done around five hours of FLED work on it) is like a breath of fresh air. I am currently tweaking the taxiway nodes, taxiway lighting nodes, and AI pathway nodes at SeaTac International (a job that will take me considerably longer than it did at Boeing Field), and it is just so nice to be able to concentrate on the work itself, without having to worry about the mouse freezing...or one of those frustrating error messages from Windows XP (informing me that FLED has crashed).I am hoping and praying that my new PC emulates my work PC, but I am not exactly optimistic :-)As I write this, I have completed around one third of the "extensive tweaking" that is necessary at SeaTac International. That has taken around two hours. Amazingly, I am almost looking forward to the next four.......Chris Low.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

This is taking longer than I was hoping. The problem seems to be that there are other things to do at work. Like......er......work :-eek I really must find a way of solving that little problem, perhaps with the help of six little numbers on a Saturday night :-)I have probably done no more than half of the work required, but I will carry on.....for the good of the FU3 community ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest jonpoint]

Chris,Yeah, work gets in the way too much. Heck, I'd have an extra 40-50 hours available every week if I didn't need to eat or support my daughter ;)I've given up on waiting for the numbers. I just buy a $2 jackpot every now and then. Hmmmm, the jackpot is currently $1.8M - I might buy one today...I'll have a play with the stuff you sent over the weekend - in between crash modelling! It's very rewarding, really. You spend hours and hours (>300 and still counting) creating a beautiful plane then spend a couple of nights smashing into things and watching where the pieces fall :-lolAs far as your joy with FLED goes, I'm jealous. I've developed a method for this:* 10 model placements per save.* Save IMMEDIATELY after moving anything.* Place moving model points in bulk and adjust them later - again saving after EVERY move.This doesn't stop it crashing but it saves you from losing a lot of work. BTW, when I placed the tower at HAF for the screenshots, FLED crashed on exit! The tower was still there though :-roll BTW, I included a 'viewpoint' on top of the tower. I can't remember off-hand which command it is but you can switch between different viewpoints , including the tower. All the original FU3 towers have them and I'm going to include them in any future building models. Good for that 'extra' point of view ;):-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Guest glidernut]

jon,

[adams 1]

Chris,Long time ago I wrote, that fled is good and your computer is 'bad'. I edited many airports with almost no problems. I have Celeron. I thought that AMD didn't want to work with fled but I'm not sure.B.Adamski

[adams 1]

In FU2 there was a tower view, but I don't know anything about tower view point. Could you tell more about it ?B.Adamski

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Bogdan,You may well be right....which doesn't inspire me with any great confidence, considering that my new PC will be an Athlon 64 ! Let's just hope that the 64bit version will prove to be more compatibe :-)Chris Low.

[adams 1]

We'll wait, we'll see.B.Adamski

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I think all models have a viewpoint (default at 0,0,0) - I've never tried to adjust it. But a viewpoint at the top (rather than the bottom) of the tower would be better.The command is shift-O to switch between viewable objects, but for a complex package, only a few objects seem to get switched before FU3 locks onto a small group.Then shift-I to get back to your own plane (before it performs a death dive or terrorist assault).From an object, you can watch your own plane by hitting I without the shift (i.e. lowercase 'i'). and from your polane you can watch your object by hitting 'o'.Now don't blame me if your aircraft repair bills suddenly skyrocket. I am totally irresponsible. Um, I mean unresponsive. NO!, I mean I have nothing to do with anything, uhhhr, nothing, oh bother ...

[Guest jonpoint]

Folks,Bogdan, you are correct that FU2 had a specific 'tower view'.Rob, yes, you can switch between objects but usually you find yourself behind or inside it :-(The 'viewpoint' is a 'vhot*' called '@h31xxxx' (minus the quotes) where xxxx is usually 'head' for aircraft and 'view' for model objects. Theoretically, you could place one inside a car for example, and go for a drive...In the case of the tower, I placed it on the roof so the windows didn't block the view. I could switch to it OK at HAF when I tested it by hitting 'o' (or 'O', I can't remember). * A vhot is a small cube, made of 100% transparent material. They are used for all viewpoints and lights in FU2/3. For more info, post a question ;):-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

The extensive tweaks to the taxiway lines and lighting are now complete at SeaTac International and McChord AFB. The latter has also had several AI plane modifications (including the removal of the single parking spot at the northern end of the airport; I noticed that the AI planes using this were rather good at levitation :-)). I have also tweaked some of the parking spots at Travis AFB, and added three new ones.Chris Low.