Ortho-photo scenery

XsimReview : Review UrbanMAXX Extreme V2 3D

Posted by flightime56 on August 30, 2012
Posted in: Developer Updates, Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews. 5 comments

When on opening X-Plane10 (beta) for the first time all those months ago now. The shock of the new was apparent.

It was green, and even more green, I called it “Austin’s billiard table” because you could roll a ball down it and really not hit anything. Turn up the objects and you got some “Southern Californian” housing and a backyard pool.

The version was in its infancy and we all expected things to improve. They did but not by as much as we expected. 9 months on and we have a few taller buildings and a library full of airport objects but not much else.

The X-Plane community as usual stepped up and into the breach to create some add-on’s to at least help the situation move at least forward. The best of these was John Spahn’s Urban Maxx.

 

It works like a visual card trick and by putting graphics under the default OSM (OpenStreetMap) scenery, underlays have been around since the dawn of simulators but instead of this being a photographic representation of the ground under the OSM, UrbanMaxx just tries to blend in and follow the OSM data to fill in the blanks.

Low down it works very well, but go above 15,000ft and you get these sort of sharp triangles of grey.

These grey patches have now been smoothed out far more with Version 2, but not eliminated.

For me UrbanMaxx is a tool, not an add-on or a piece of scenery, but a requirement to make the simulator at least work in the visual department. If you don’t have UrbanMaxx then visually at this point your X-Plane scenery will look awful.

 

Running X-Plane10 with objects set at “Too Many” should look like this… Which in effect is not that much different from when X-Plane10 was released.

This is basically the OSM pattern recreated on the X-Plane platform, It may represent the correct mapping of the OpenStreetMap but visually it is not very appealing.

John has just released UrbanMaxx Extreme V2 (Version 2) 3D and installing the add-on changes the visual view to this.

The object setting is the same but the viewpoint is very different.

It is hard to believe you are looking at the same picture, go in closer and you see the patterns at work.

The default OSM is in there if you look hard enough, but the spaces between the roads are now well filled in.

Continue Reading

xp+10+reviews + 1 august 2012 + X-Terrain France

Posted by chip on August 1, 2012
Posted in: Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews. 18 comments

by Chip

Kind of a single subject issue today, and concerning a scenery package – and one that’s not an airport – which is something of a rarity around here. X-Terrain France is a new payware release by XP-France Simulations, and we have to mention right off the bat that this group is not affiliated with XPFr in any way, shape or fashion. Next, and even more unusual for us, this is essentially an ortho-photographic package, and while these don’t come along too often these days, I’ve tended to avoid them like the plague.

So when I got a release announcement from the Org I immediately ran and bought it! Why?

Well, it’s France. All of it, from the Norman coast to Nice, from Biarritz to Bayeux, and I flat out love France. Always have, always will, and not simply because my mom’s side of the family tree shakes loose from those parts. I love Paris in December, Avignon in autumn, Chamonix any time of the year, and Honfleur any day of the fishermen unload their catch.

And there’s another reason, too. The preview images got me, but in one certain, special area. So, what’s the scoop?

Well, I’ve tended to fly a certain corridor in France within XP for quite some time, namely Paris to Lyon to Nice and back – again and again – and in no small measure because the scenery along this route is spectacular. At least it was in v9.70. It’s been a little muted in v10, and with villages and towns all but gone within the auto-gen landscapes 10 renders, but the essential formations in the area are still nice. But what I saw in the preview piqued my interest.

So, let’s take a couple of flights along this corridor and see what’s what, and first let’s take a short hop from LFPO Paris Orly to XPFr’s glorious LFPG + Paris + Charles de Gaulle.

There are few freeware airports as good as XPFr’s LFPG, and the file holds up well in XP10.10 b5 too. Here are a few images over Paris x-LFPO to get you in the mood.

Yep, this is an ortho, no way around it. It looks decent up here around 7000AGL, but dip down low (say below 3000 AGL) and the illusion breaks down fast. Orthos do that, and there’s just no way around it, though some packages, notably Real Scenery’s orthos of Oahu and Reno/Carson City, Nevada, work quite well at even lower altitudes. That said, these orthos break down well above that level, but they work well within their range.

Still, the vast majority of ortho packages simply do not include any night, or LIT textures. They’re just too hard to get right in ortho packages, though Eric at Real Scenery has been a leader in getting immersive night textures onto his orthos, and that’s what set’s this new package apart: quite nice looking night landscapes that work very well at higher altitudes, and are decent in the 3000+/- AGL envelope as well. Let’s look at Paris once again:

Above and below, overflying LFPG, and note how well the ortho generated streets and cityscape blends in with the airport at night, but what’s even more impressive is that these nightscapes are indeed quite representative of Paris, with roadways and prominent landmarks just discernible and accurate enough in placement to be VFR reporting points.

Now let’s head south to LFLL + Lyon and check it out, and this is another great airport file.

Details here are impressive. Always have been. A must have file.

But I don’t think XPFr’s LFLL has ever looked better than it does here in XP10.10b5, and there are all kinds of details I’ve never seen before popping out. It’s long been a favorite of mine and I use this one for flight tests all the time, but keep in mind that these images were made with airport detail at default, the recommended setting for the Terrain package. It’s capable of even more detail, I suppose. Now let’s look at what the default XP10 landscape looks like, then at what this new Terrain package does for the same area. Again, we’re climbing SE from LFLL on our way to LFMN…

As a note to keep in mind, look closely at the night landscape just above. Now here’s the new Terrains package at work…

Uh-huh, yup, orthos are dead, right? Ahem…well anyway. Above, climbing out of LFLL to the SE, and by golly that landscape looks pretty damn nice to me! Well, no, it looks gorgeous to me, so let’s keep on trucking southbound and see what we’ll see, because this is the prettiest stretch along the route and a real eye-opener in this package.

That’s LFLL receding (above), and the landscape is varied, not full of blotchy, repeating textures, and that’s because the feel is almost “organic”, and the way the land is when real human settlements are rendered. Instead of patterns embedded in textures what we’re seeing is villages and streams as imaged by satellite, then draped onto the “mesh” in X-Plane, and to me the look and feel here is exceptional. But the best is yet to come…

Above, we’ve just passed LFLB + Chambery-Aix, another wonderful airport by XPFr, and another must have file (and not only because it stages you near the Alps for GA OPS).

Still southbound below, moving closer to the Alps, and now is the time to start enlarging these images (if you haven’t already, just click on them), because this is one of those regions where the alpine detail in this package is truly amazing.

Look at the limestone banding forming these cliff structures near Grenoble (above). Just awesome, jaw dropping scenery here, and these formations don’t really come alive like this when rendered by the default XP engine. Below, a sequence in the immediate area:

Things to focus on? The rock formations certainly, but look at the villages, roadways and streams too.

Now let’s get rid of the Sun for a while and look at the next stretch with a little less light on things, and watch those little villages closely, as this is where the real magic happens!

Okay, so small villages stand out at night and be sure to compare these with what you saw in the default (above), and keep in mind these are not simple repeating textures but are the actual villages as imaged by satellite. And we’re flying here at FL210, while these towns and villages are around 16-18,000 feet below. Now below, a little urban build-up with more roads too.

You have to keep in mind that the streets and highways below are accurate representations of what’s on the ground in France, and then you realize you might as well try navigating by road map!

And it’s very nice how these villages “fit into” the landscape, and don’t appear to be placed by random algorithm. But that’s how real landscapes evolve, isn’t it? Again, compare to the repeating textures in the default XP – even with OSM data. The default excels at rendering generic buildings and roadways, and they look nice down low but the effect isn’t quite as nice to me…at high altitude.

Now let’s get back into the warm Mediterranean sunshine as we begin the letdown into LFMN + Nice, and note the new cirrus cloud structures in XP10.10b5. Nice indeed.

Now about FL180 (above), the villages perhaps 10,000 ft below the aircraft. In the next image we’re approaching Nice, with LFMN just under the port side #1 engine, and now at about 8000MSL.

Below, the view west, towards Marseilles:

Below, passing five for three, and you begin to notice texture degradation the closer you get to 3000.

Below, on final now for 4R, and we’re well below 3000 here and the urban textures are really beginning to degrade – while the distant mountains continue to look excellent.

Ortho’s limitations are clearly on view here, and the lack of objects simply hurts immersive realism.

Let’s make one more short flight, from LFHU + Alpe d’Huez back to Grenoble, and you can just make out this high altitude thrill ride of an airport to the left side of the image  below (and this is a must have airport file if ever there was one!), so let’s check out these same areas from a little lower perspective.

We’ll be anywhere from 4000 to 1000 AGL along this route, so let’s see how this package works for GA VFR OPS.

Note the urban area ahead (image below); with recommended object settings at “default” there’re simply no buildings to give the town any definition at this altitude.

And now let’s switch off the lights again, because things get interesting again!

Because those villages start to do their thing again!

Yes, those same limestone cliffs, but from a fresh perspective. The villages being better defined by the lighted streets helps the Terrain package even down here close to the ground, though the textures could be a bit more crisp for optimal effect. Maybe with 64-bit processing that will be possible?

Above, now getting quite low and the textures still hold up well in low light. Below and now just a few hundred feet AGL and the distant mountains look excellent, and even under the aircraft in this light the effect is within the “reasonable” range, though it’s still typical for an ortho.

So, the bottom line? Is this a worthwhile purchase?

Well, if you think about it a bit (and I have, really!) this file will be a must have addition for the following people:

  • those who routinely operate within France (Dude, c’mon!);
  • those who fly heavies over central Europe;
  • and for those who don’t really care all that much about OSM type cityscapes.

I found these textures simply gorgeous at high altitude, and both during the day or with lower light levels. In fact, I found myself looking all around the aircraft, pausing, going into Google Earth and looking for the names of the littlest villages…and they were there! The accuracy of these types of scenery files is astonishing and immersive as can be. In short, I was impressed, and very happy with the purchase.

If, however, you tend to fly GA singles at 2-3000AGL in daylight this package may not grab you – as without objects filling out a relatively low-res landscape the effect is a little tiresome. Still, you could experiment with objects besides airports, maybe tweak things to your liking, but you’ll need a powerful machine to pull that off and keep texture res at extreme or very high – assuming XP can handle that kind of load. Trying to run this with XPFr’s huge Paris City file is an absolute no-no, too! Instant crash!

In the end, a forty dollar file isn’t unreasonable for coverage of a complete country the size of France, and if orthos in general interest you this is a worthy addition to your collection. If orthos are new to you however, this is a good introduction to the look as it covers some of the most beautiful scenery around, but there are other options out there so think about where you fly most and go from there. I heartily recommend France, however, and as payware orthos go, this seems a good price for the coverage provided. Still, I think flying at higher altitudes over France in heavies is where it’s at here, and I’ll leave it at that.

UPDATE: 1 August 2012 | There are a lot of good comments following this post concerning the nature of this package, and I highly recommend you read them before deciding whether or not to purchase this file.

The file is available at the Org store, for 39.90 USD. The 1.2 Gb download takes time, and I had some trouble with the download, but the fault was not on the Orgs end, but mine. When downloading, I had no luck at all with Safari. Due to the size of the file Safari just timed out and stopped downloading, twice. Trying the download in Firefox was successful, however. You’ll need your serial number from your emailed receipt after the download is complete, and if you enter it into the provided box and get an error message (I did) just cancel and then unzip the file with the “stuffit expander utility” (free App at the Apple App store) and enter the serial number when prompted, and you should be good to go. Dive into the resulting file and look over the “read me” file for further installation procedures and recommendations, and happy flying! Vive la France, and Hasta later –C

 

xp+10+reviews + 31 May 2012 + news heard round the ramps

Posted by chip on May 30, 2012
Posted in: Liveries, News, Ortho-photo scenery, XP10 scenery development. 19 comments

A few odds and ends here on this last day of May, 2012, so let’s jump on in and look at the news.

+++++

  • Brittney Miculka, the manager of prospective pilot and youth outreach at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, says most student pilots find that learning to fly is a “rewarding” experience. “For most student pilots, flight training exceeds their expectations,” Miculka said. “I could have never imagined how awesome my first solo flight would be until after my instructor got out of the plane to let me take off and land by myself.” The Frederick News-Post (Md.)
  • Blogger Jamie Beckett encourages general aviation pilots to become involved in their communities. “The general aviation community has a history of holding together through thick and thin, in good times and in bad, for one simple reason: It is a true community of people who are dedicated to making sure the guy (or girl) next door has what they need to be successful, when they need it,” Beckett writes. General Aviation News/Politics for Pilots blog
  • The Republican National Convention, which will be held Aug. 27 to 30 in Tampa, Fla., will bring extra traffic to general aviation airports. Temporary flight restrictions will be in place. “It’s still too early to know just how much extra traffic the airport will handle,” said Tom Jewsbury, deputy director of operations and facilities at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. The Tampa Tribune (Fla.) 
  • A solar-powered plane completed the first leg of its intercontinental flight last week. Solar Impulse, a Swiss aircraft, flew from Payerne, Switzerland, to Madrid in a little more than 17 hours. The next leg of the journey will be from Madrid to Rabat, Morocco. CNET/Crave blog
  • Pilot Chip Yates, a pioneer in electric motorcycles, is planning to re-create Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 trans-Atlantic flight in an electric plane. Yates is planning to undertake the flight in 2014 through his company, Flight of the Century. He is planning on using unmanned aerial vehicles to refuel during the 3,600-mile trip. Wired.com 
  • Aircraft designer John McGinnis is trying to raise $65,000 for his Synergy aircraft from private individuals on Kickstarter.com. The five-seat plane features a double box tail. McGinnis said the unique plane is “lighter, simpler, and more economical” than other planes. On Thursday, McGinnis had reached almost $59,000 in funding with 10 days left in the campaign. AVweb
  • Some police and fire departments are turning to unmanned aerial vehicles partly because of their cost-effectiveness. “Helicopter time typically runs $1,500 an hour. These aircraft can operate for $100 an hour. There is this huge pent-up demand both for the effectiveness that these aircraft can bring and the economy that it can bring,” said Donald Smith of UA Visions in Dayton, Ohio. WKRC-TV (Cincinnati) 
  • A father-and-son team plans to fly from Kentucky to England in a twin-engine Beechcraft. “This trip is one that’s been on my bucket list for a long time,” said Gray Lang Jr., who will be joined by his son Graeme Lang. The trip will take about a week, and will include stops in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland. Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.)

And finally, this bit of earth shattering news:

  • A vandal or vandals caused thousands of dollars in damage at Hutchinson Airport in Hutchinson, Kansas. “They hopped into one of our tractors with a 16-foot mower deck,” said airport Manager Pieter Miller. “They got it started up and they drove along the edge of the main apron.” The vandals destroyed 18 runway lights, three pilot-guidance signs and a runway threshold light. KAKE-TV (Wichita, Kan.) 

Uh-huh. Sure.

Cow-tipping on the active, anyone?

+++++

So, whither goest the poor, blighted ortho scenery now that XP10 has come along and allegedly blown them out of the water? Is there truly any need for orthos anymore, or have they been consigned to the rubbish heap of SIM history with XP10.05?

Ahem, cow-tipping…anyone?

Well, if orthos are dead someone forgot to tell Chris K, who’s started a bit of a sensation over at X-Pilot with his ongoing work on YSSY Sydney, Australia. We’ll have more on this one as it develops, but you can download the beta and keep tabs on this one as work progresses, but read through the thread and take note of some of the people beginning to pitch in and make this scenery fly. An awesome community effort is taking shape, a fine thing to see happening, but do keep in mind this is a WIP file so don’t expect perfection – just yet. We do consider this to be a important bit of work, however, as there’s a lot of cooperative work going on out of sight and the results are most impressive.

So, even a quick glance around tells the story. The success of any building venture depends on the strength of the foundation, and at this version of YSSY the crisply executed orthos make for a really strong backdrop to some excellent building and static development. In short, the orthos used provide a fantastic foundation for further development, and the results so far are beyond “promising”…

I’ve seen a lot of ortho projects marred by smeary grass and taxiway textures, but not so here.

Even the oil stains are relatively crisp! I’d imagine using Jack’s (er, excuse me, Fly J Sim’s) new über-kewl runway textures will only enhance the overall look of this effort too.

Static aircraft placement is excellent so far, and framerates were decent too.

So go ahead and look this one over. There’s a list of known bugs posted but try it out and contribute if you can, and again just keep in mind this is a works-in-progress, but even in it’s current state Simon and I think you’ll find this one worth keeping a close eye on.

Oh, a few new liveries seen here, including a nice retro JAL on an XPFWProject 757/200 RR, and a Thai Cargo on Heinz’s Dreamliner.

Anyway, good to be back, and thanks for coming along. We’ll seeya soon.  Chip

XP Reviews : 21st March 2012 : Airports – EGAL : Quebec Estrie + YMML (Melbourne) – WMKK (Kuala Lumpur) A332F Flight

Posted by flightime56 on March 21, 2012
Posted in: Ortho-photo scenery, XP10 Clouds and Weather. Tagged: . 4 comments

I gave b10.04rc3 a real long test flight from YMML to WMKK to see if it really does live up to its stable and fast reputation – the results are below and they are very interesting…but first.

EGAL Langford Lodge WWII Airfield – Golf 1 : EGAL Langford Lodge

Langford Lodge is located in Northern Ireland and is the home and test-centre for the famous Martin-Baker ejection seat.

As noted:

The Langford facility provides full test data retrieval and photographic coverage with all the associated engineering services necessary to support final qualification of the entire escape system for Flight Certification and Service Release. Langford Lodge has a new purpose built seat test centre which includes a large test sled working area, supporting workshops and test instrumentation/dummy preparation laboratories together with supporting customer post test meeting and conference facilities.

Martin-Baker’s high speed rocket sled track (0-650 KEAS) is a NATO and U.S. Government approved 6,200 feet long sled track has been used in numerous qualification programmes including the Eurofighter Typhoon, Raytheon Texan T-6A (JPATS), Boeing JSF X-32, NASA T-38 and Panavia Tornado. Various special sled vehicles are constructed by Martin-Baker and used for development testing. (perfect for the kiddies to have a ride on during airport museum open days).

And it is also home to the home to Ulster Aviation Society Museum and Langford Model Aviation Club.

Sitting by a lake not far from Belfast its a great place to drop in to.

You could be mistaken too wonder why something so violent as an ejector seat could be built and tested in such a serene place – and at least they have a big lake to fall into if something goes wrong.

A hostel on the site, close to the track, provides accommodation, restaurant and recreational facilities is located far left in this picture.

But this very good and well created WW2 era type scenery from Mr Golf.

It does not have a standard control tower but more of a control block (building).

Lots old WW2 era buildings and hangers are very well placed and set out.

It is of course a museum as well with plenty of WW2 aircraft on display.

No night textures to speak of except for a revolving beacon

Certainly well worth the visit.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Quebec CZBM Estrie – Jacques Brault : CZBM Estrie

Mr Canada in Jacques Brault is back with a selection of Airports situated in the triangle of the south-west of Quebec and to the west of Montreal, Canada.

The list:

CZBM Bromont

CYSC Sherbrooke

CSQ3 Valcourt

CSM3 Thetford Mines

CSR3 Victoriaville

Jacques is well-known as a good and thoughtful designer and his work is usually well done and he is well-regarded.

CZBM Bromont is the first cab off the rank,

A very nice Terminal area and other airport out buildings.

Lots of lovely placed GA aircraft and gliders and well-built hangers.

All these airport sceneries are all basically the same sort of buildings and similar styles and all have no night textures to see of.

CYSC Sherbrooke:

Sherbrook has a really excellent terminal and main hanger areas, plenty of fuel tanks and refueling areas are also situated in every airport as well.

CSQ3 Valcourt:

All are slightly different in some way which gives them all the “not all the same but still slightly different place” look, here at Valcourt it a barn type hanger.

CSM3 Thetford Mines:

CSR3 Victoriaville:

All are of course outstanding, but there is an overall issue that spoils the scenery from being exceptional.

Jacques uses photo underlay’s under his scenery – and for the limitations of XP9 i suppose, But in Xp10 they don’t fit in very well into the surrounding countryside and look totally out of context and in many areas they look quite flat.

If you fly around the area you can find each airport not by its runways or buildings but by their splat of different colours and shapes on the ground, pretty they are not.

Worse is where there is any water positioned…

…the fake blue covers the reflecting river (water) underneath, my first thoughts on downloading the files was to simply pull all these out and let the XP10 landscape do the job better.

A clean XP10 version would certainly be an interesting visit…but i am not crazy about the photo underlay’s which i feel really let down and spoil this excellent scenery.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

YMML (Melbourne) – WMKK (Kuala Lumpur) Flight

After finishing my b10-04rc3-one-of-the-better-updates post – I wondered how really good is b10-04rc3 and does it live up to the claims of is it really now more faster and stable than the earlier updates…Is it really better?

The reasons are many but when you look at an update you are only looking at it sometimes in a certain viewpoint and that is usually within a certain focus and layout.

what I mean by that is that if you say look at Melbourne YMML (Melbourne) you go there and load the scenery, fly around it and usually takeoff and land, then jump to another place and do the same thing again and compare that one with the earlier one.

You do get numbers doing this but really you are also just getting a snapshot as well, the numbers are correct of course but you don’t really change the situation around it much.

And that was my worry with b10-04rc3 as because on paper the numbers look great…but what if it really had to work hard and go through much more situations and changes and would it then still deliver.

This was borne out back in January, I had toddled around the UK and the east coast of the United States of America for ages until when I finally did a full sector flight of between EGLL (London Heathrow) to OMDB (Dubai) – and I was  bitterly disappointed when i finally did so. Because when i finally got up to a reasonable flying height as it was in this case FL355 (Flight Level 35,500ft) i got this picture below.

Other things were not great either, frame rate was so variable it was like sitting next to Forrest Gump and him picking out for me totally different types of chocolates or in this case frame rates, In the end it just crashed altogether.

So my fear was in that in this context of snapshot reviewing b10-04rc3 would be great but in another (so-called) real world running could it fail.

I had to find out and with that it was time to go back a year to my “follow the Grand Prix” trail. What I did last year in Dr Hunter’s Boeing 742F My-Planes was to follow the flyaway races throughout the whole 2012 racing year and fly in X-Plane as if i was moving the actual Grand Prix cars and their equipment to each race around the world (they really use six B744 freighters, This year they are using the B748F).

And the 7h 38m sector this week is to ship the cars from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur for the next race weekend coming up on the 3rd and 4th of March.

It was a good comparison as i did the same route exactly one year ago in X-Plane9 and all the details like route planning and scenery are already done and in place and so i was already set ready to go.

So first some system details so you know how to compare it to your own systems:

Aircraft : Samen’s Airbus A332F  X-Plane Paintshop

Computer : Apple iMac 27 – inch : Processor  2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 : Graphics  ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB : Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 :Memory  6 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

I don’t have any fancy add-ons or overclocked graphic chips or replaced graphic engines – it is a stock standard iMac straight out of the box, and which i would say is about just slightly above the average in a range of comparable computers.

I picked Samen’s aircraft because it was quite light in size, Peter’s A388 or the default United B744 would have left me little room to maneuver if i wanted to change the settings to push the limits of what i wanted to do – I will run Peter’s A388 to see how that does compare as well but that is of another time.

To get the feel of the aircraft i picked it up at 10NM out from YMML and circled around landed it on RWY19 and headed for the Cargo bay.

Yes I know odd isn’t it – and at least it doesn’t fly like that!

First off my first reaction was “that is far better”, the sky was clear over Melbourne but my frame rate was pushing a nice 38fr and the YMML scenery is a frame rate puller, a week ago I was sometimes pulling 21fr and sometimes a horrible 7-8 frames! – Yes you read that right 8 frames.

The biggest difference was the fact the frame rate was almost constant in every view as i swing around on a complete 180 degrees of the airport, If I had tried that last week it would have shuddered or the frame rate counter would keep reacting to big changes of high to low, now it was clean and smooth, I not saying that sometimes it slightly hesitated because it did usually when it hit the really big scenery numbers – but overall it was smooth and very usable.

Of course no clouds helped and the HDR is off, but overall the numbers were very good, I can use my EGLL (Heathrow) now in the high teens (19-18), were as last week it was usually in the high single digits (8-9).

I tracked and headed for the South Australian border, and a few whiffs of clouds started to gather and my frame rate was in the 73-80fr range because the custom scenery had now unloaded itself.

The horizon was awful and not very pleasing so I changed a few render settings and it made no difference, up at FL330 that bad artifact banding that was so noticeable (upper picture) back in early January had also gone, It was certainly far better but not in a “great better” feeling – as the horizon was just a big brown deep blur that covered the scenery changes behind it.

As my frame rate was high i switched on the HDR…and wow.

Suddenly the horizon softened and it all came to the good, I still feel that a little more adjustment here would help but it felt far nicer and certainly much more realistic.

Importantly the frame rate now was down around (33fr – 34fr) no doubt still a huge chunk of power, but up here it didn’t affect the simulation to much as you had no large chunks of custom scenery coming along and pulling it all down.

The clouds pulled in a little more but the “view from up here” was perfect, I was impressed, seriously impressed (26-30fr)

The biggest noticeable thing was it was just so smooth as b10-04rc3 barely flickered up or down in frame rate as we sailed along, it would jump at a tile change and weather updates – but otherwise it was excellent.

The more westward I went the more the clouds built up and they did pull the frame rate down and I had them set quite low at 30%. Now i was now hovering around the 23-25fr mark and with HDR on.

Water reflections was excellent, here you have two, one up near the horizon and a deeper reflection lower in the picture and my water setting is set in the lowest position, there is no doubt and certainly thinking back to the same place last year – Is that XP10 is a huge leap forward visually in this area.

The clouds built up quite high and so down went my frame rate – still it was usable at 19-20fr, but it put you in an interesting position – do you switch HDR “ON” or  “OFF”.

I went for OFF – And as I couldn’t now see the horizon anyway and it didn’t make much difference anywhere else either.

That jumped my frame rate back up to a healthy 43fr, I had no doubt it could have still ran smoothly at 19fr with HDR on, but it was more absorbent to the changes of the weather with it switched off. Personally it didn’t make any difference of what was noticeable around me so really it wasn’t needed.

I passed a storm and the weather cleared so i went back to the HDR on – And normal rates resumed.

All these changes and b10-04rc3 was still silky smooth, and very stable.

Arriving close to Kuala Lumpur and the view was simply stunning.

Turning over the coast I suddenly realized it was all very different from last year at the same place, Highways were buzzing with traffic as the lights started to come on, there was this movement everywhere as the highways snaked away from you in all different directions and the main highway was leading you directly to the airport.

WMKK is not as heavy a scenery as Melbourne’s YMML – but to go in with HDR on and not a flicker and good frame rates of 23fr – 26fr was again impressive.

No HDR lighting at WMKK – If there was i think it would still be above 20fr.

XP10 still had another surprise for me…

I had landed and was taxiing to the cargo section when something then caught my eye – It was a Cathay Pacific B748F that landed only a few minutes after i did and virtually followed me in as if we were traveling together, and then I realised that WMKK was swarming with aircraft, ten A.I.s were all on the move all around me.

Again the contrast back again to a dead empty airport last year was also very convincing.

So as a sum up, what was the final verdict on b10-04rc3?

pretty impressive all round…smooth, very smooth as my computer never seemed to be stretched at any point – and no crashes or holding the breath as I twiddled the render settings around quite a lot either, It seemed get smoother as you flew as well and seemed to give more performance at the end than at the beginning of the flight, the HDR was switched on most of the time and still on when landing was a testament to that.

I have no doubt that heavy weather would change this simulation a little or even a lot if I had been using some heavy custom scenery and then if you throw in a heavy file like Peter’s A388 in there.

That would of course is to be expected, but something I did come away with was – for now HDR is not needed as much at low levels or with heavy cloud, but it is essential to be switched “ON” if flying very high.

The buzzyness of coming back to a lower level of highways and aircraft in XP10 is very noticeable – And the sky, light and amazing clouds are the biggest visual differences to XP9′s run last year.

Niggles – Three really and all bugs, first one was every time I reset the render settings I lost the Cathay Pacific Cargo livery and had to switch back and to twice to get it back again, once was fine but doing it every time you adjusted something was annoying, to fix it for now i will just create a file with no liveries – but it is still annoying.

Second was the blur that was supposed to be the engine heat exhaust effect, It is way too big and in the wrong place and if it does look cool on the runway – It then just looks simply silly at height – and all you can think of is that is this effect using up huge amounts of frame rate that could be reduced if it was a just a fraction of its current size – done right I think it would look great, but right now it is just plain silly and wasteful.

Third was that the Weather METAR download failed again and gave me some very bad heavy full slider turbulence and shear at medium and low levels when i arrived at Malaysia to my utter disappointment…I thought that one had been fixed.

So job done and my final thoughts were – Smooth – Impressive and stable…..b10-04rc3 is confidently stable.

FT56 ©2012

xp+10+reviews + 9/10 March 2012

Posted by chip on March 9, 2012
Posted in: MS Flight, News, Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews, Xplane 10 talk. 9 comments

Well, it’s that time of week again… some new reader’s screenshots and a few scenery files to look at, so let’s dive right into the news so we can get to the good stuff!

  • The U.S. business-aviation market is showing signs of improvement, analysts say. Sales for used aircraft continued to grow, and prices for business jets rose in January. Business-aircraft flights also rose by 1.27% in January. Aviation Daily
  • Blogger Scott Spangler says more women in aviation can help the industry. “For the most part, we men haven’t done a very good job of nurturing the pilot population (or the nation). Maybe now is the time to step aside and give women a chance,” he writes. As part of Women of Aviation Worldwide Week, female pilots are getting the word out about the aviation industry this week. Jetwhine.com
  • The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking public comments on its process for choosing test sites for unmanned aerial vehicles. “Unmanned aircraft can help us meet a number of challenges, from spotting wildfires to assessing natural disasters,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “But these test sites will help us ensure that our high safety standards are maintained as the use of these aircraft becomes more widespread.”Los Angeles Times
  • Pilot Chuck Burkhead performed an emergency landing in a Cessna 310 aircraft on Tuesday when his landing gear failed to deploy. “We were unable to extend the landing gear in the airplane, so we tried both the standard procedure and the emergency protocols,” he said. “Neither worked, so the last resort was to make a wheels-up landing.” SeacoastOnline (Portsmouth, N.H.)
  • Northern Oklahoma College in Enid, Okla., plans to launch an aviation program this fall. Students who complete the program will gain an associate of applied science in aviation degree, as well as a commercial pilot’s license. The college is partnering with Aviator’s Wing, at Enid Woodring Regional Airport, for flight training. The Enid News & Eagle (Okla.)
  • The FAA has presented a broad outline of a future national airspace with half of the current VOR network decommissioned by 2020, and AOPA is urging the agency to make sure GA pilots — and current equipment — have a place there. AOPA Online
  • On the MsFLIGHT front, some artful soul at MicroSoft has made a Stearman livery that sure looks an awful lot like it a Royal Australian Navy (or RN) trainer. Rampant rumors flooding the AvSIM forums that an Outback version of Flight is imminent. Thanks for the intel, Jose!
  • Thanks to Robert Arts’ timely information that AeroFly FS is now posted and available at the Apple App Store, I have the SIM onboard. Hopefully we’ll have a report up within a few days. So far the v1.01 file seems very buggy, and I’d hold off purchasing just yet. More as soon as possible.

Readers’ Screenshots

Some very special in-house shots of the STMA Pilatus PC12, from Kevva:

Interesting images, no?

And from Harrison S., that über special 752 dressed up in the last Continental paint:

Kevin Mee sent along the following shots over Real Scenery’s Oahu ortho textures, and he tried out MsFlight over the same area and advises he likes the XP10/Ortho combo of this area over Flight’s version:

He also advises this Gyrocopter file is a blast to use over the area. Can’t imagine why! Take a look:

What’s particularly interesting (let alone unique) is this next image of sunspot 1429 is that it was taken without using any kind of specialized equipment – at all! The image was taken from Alto, New Mexico on 7 March by David Tremblay during a major dust storm, and the attenuated light reaching David’s camera was sufficient to reveal the sunspot but to NOT damage the imaging equipment or the photographer’s eyes:

We’d be totally out of line by not be re-stating here that looking at the sun without adequate filtration is a sure way to be blinded, with permanent blindness the usual result. Again, NEVER look at the sun without proven, adequate filtration! Pointing an unfiltered/unprotected digital camera at the sun is an equally good way to destroy the imaging sensor in any camera or imaging device. If you’re interested in imaging the sun during this solar-max cycle, there are a few good ways to do so, and a few of these are actually not too expensive.

The first is with a dedicated Hydrogen-alpha solar telescope, such as the Coronado PST. While not cheap, with this scope and a few accessories you can take images of the sun like this:

You can also temporarily modify existing optics, anything from telescopes to camera lenses to binoculars, to view the sun safely with BAADER AstroSolar™ Safety Film, from Baader Planetarium, Gmbh. Need ideas…drop me an email! One of my hobbies is chasing down globular clusters like M13, but I’ve done a lot of solar imaging too. Let me know if I can help or answer any questions.

Of course, as we’re entering the solar max cycle these events are going to be ongoing for the next few years. As Earth’s magnetic field reverberates from the impact of the CME on March 8th, a second CME is now on the way, just reported this morning.  Big sunspot AR1429 unleashed another M6-class solar flare, and the eruption hurled a cloud of plasma almost directly at my backyard BBQ pit.  Forecasters say the CME could reach our planet during the late hours of March 10th or early hours of March 11th. Very strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the newest cloud arrives, and my weekend plans to roast some bison just went up in smoke.

+++++

We’re always on the lookout for new projects under development, and we recently ran across this site. WindMill Aerodev is making Helsinki, Finland’s Malmi Airport, and as far as we’re concerned we need all the good, high quality airports in Scandinavia we can get. We’ll be keeping an eye on this project, and they’re looking for interested artists to join forces. Team building always sounds like a good deal to me.

So, with that in mind let’s look at two now airports in Finland, then let’s drop down to Africa for an oldie but goodie.

+++++

FlightTime56 will have a more in-depth run down of these next two airports, but I wanted to get these images out for the weekend, too! This first, EFJY | Jyväskylä, is a small GA/commercial airport, and the facility is simply a gorgeous, must have MsFS conversion. OLaine is turning out some really impressive files, and our hat’s off to him. And our Thanks, too!

Next up, a smaller still GA facility:

EFSI | Seinäjoki may well be one of the most interesting GA facilities yet purpose built for XP10, and again, this is another “must have” file.

This airport too is an MsFS conversion, and it’s just gorgeous, but with tons of small details that attest to a careful conversion effort. Well done OLaine!

Look at the detailing on this gas station just outside the airport grounds. Prices, nice pumps, great reflections in the windows, and v10 compliant lighting. Outstanding!

All hangars and fuel loading stations are well done too, making this a premier GA facility.

Again, FlightTime56 will have more detailed information up shortly.

+++++

We’ve not heard from or about Cami de Bellis in quite a while, but did find an older scenery of hers she apparently made for XP Africa and that can now be found at XPFR. FBSK | Gaborone is located in Botswana and will be of interest to both short-haul regional and medium range operators alike. The following airlines operate regularly from this facility:

Air Botswana Francistown, Harare, Johannesburg, Kasane, Lusaka, Maun
Air Namibia Windhoek
Kenya Airways Nairobi
South African Express Johannesburg

In times past, British Airways, Lufthansa and Emirates have operated out of here as well. And here’s the location, in southern Africa:

And here are a few images around the real airport, and first up, the new terminal, completed in 2010:

The terminal in the scenery file is based on this older terminal building, and which, as you’ll find, is spot on accurate:

And here’s the scenery file in XP10:

We’ve mentioned this before, but XPFR has a fairly large listing of African airports now available for download, all freeware, most decently done, and a few of exceptional quality. Most have been out for some time, previously released under the auspices of XP/Africa. As it appears we’ll not be seeing any more work from CBD I tend to view her files as “collectors items”. She is a true artist, and sorely missed.

+++++

And that’s all for now! We’ll be working through trying to get AeroFlyFS up and running this weekend and will hopefully have a report up soon. Thanks for coming along, and we’ll seeya next time. C&S

xp+10+reviews + 23.02.12

Posted by chip on February 23, 2012
Posted in: News, Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews, Xplane 10 talk. 1 comment

A nice temporary price cut is showing up on the Fly-J-Sim Dash-8 Q400 at the Fly-J-Sim e-store, xplane addons, and the .Org-store. At 32.95USD, consider this is a nice inducement to buy this ACF, and the offer is good through the end of the month.

And for no apparent reason at all, have a look at these ATR-72-500 liveries!

But I thought this Czech Airlines was the best, which got me looking’…

Howzabout the retro liveries on those 735s? Very cool stuff!

+++++

Perhaps you’ll recall the El Hierro, Canary Islands photo scenery we reviewed a few weeks ago? Well, read this from NASA’s Earth Observatory:

Four months after it began, the underwater volcanic eruption off El Hierro Island persists. This natural-color satellite image, collected on February 10, 2012, shows the site of the eruption, near the fishing village of La Restinga.

Bright aquamarine water indicates high concentrations of volcanic material. Immediately above the vent, a patch of brown water resembles a turbulent hot tub and indicates when and where the eruption is strongest. Video of the eruption shows the activity in more detail.

This image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. The eruption is just off the southern coast of El Hierro, the youngest of the Canary Islands. El Hierro is about 460 kilometers (290 miles) west of Morocco and Western Sahara.

According to El Hierro Digital, measurements of the sea floor by the Instituto Oceanográfico Español found that the volcano’s summit is now only 120 meters (390 feet) beneath the ocean surface—10 meters (30 feet) higher than it was in mid-January. The height of the erupting cone is about 210 meters (690 feet) above the former ocean bottom, with a total volume over 145 million cubic meters (5.12 billion cubic feet) of new material.

Interestingly enough, the file for XP has been revised, and the plume is now visible in the photo scenery, and while FT56 didn’t particularly care for this one I happen to like it a lot! With this new little addition the package makes for an interesting geological tour, and as I mentioned earlier, with the inclusion of the airport terminal facilities – and an Atr-72-500 – this area will come into it’s own.

+++++

  • American Eurocopter, the U.S. arm of Eurocopter, sold the most helicopters in the U.S. commercial market during 2011 for the 11th straight year. “Most of the sales are being driven by the age of the assets, the necessity to replace them,” said Marc Paganini, president and CEO of American Eurocopter. American Eurocopter is based in Grand Prairie, Texas. Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)
  • Texan Kris Anderson, a high-school sophomore, has completed his first solo flight in a general aviation aircraft. Anderson, a fourth-generation pilot, plans to earn his private pilot’s license when he turns 17. “It’s great,” he said. “It’s kind of crazy to think that I can go after school and fly by myself.” Midland Daily News
  • Wei Chen, a Chinese citizen who resides in Memphis, Tenn., plans to start China’s first civilian aerobatics team. The pilot previously made news for circumnavigating the globe in a TBM 700 to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “My goal is the same as always. I want to promote GA and the passion for flying in China,” he said. AVweb
  • The Civil Air Patrol brought 51 volunteer pilots to Lakeland, Fla., for flight training over the past weekend. The Check Pilot Standardization Course held at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport enabled the pilots to certify other pilots. “It’s a way for our members to give back to the community,” said Lt. Col. Luis Garcia of the Civil Air Patrol program. The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.)
  • Errors by air-traffic controllers remained flat in 2011, say people who have seen a forthcoming report by the Federal Aviation Administration. During 2011, controllers committed around 1,900 errors, sources say. An FAA spokeswoman said the shift to a new reporting system has “produced a wealth of information to help the FAA identify potential risks in the system and take swift action to address them.” The Wall Street Journal
  • The world tour of Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-92 helicopter arrived in Thailand this week. The Royal Thai Air Force flies S-92s, and other branches of the Thai service fly the company’s Black Hawk, Seahawk and S-76 helicopters. “With a country like Thailand that’s already using different types of Sikorsky helicopters, it’s hard to go wrong with paying them a visit,” said Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst. New Haven Register (Conn.) 
  • Several students at Sterling High School in Texas have flown solo flights through the school’s aviation program. Most students begin the program in ninth grade, and can earn their private pilot’s license by the time they graduate. “Everything was racing through my head, everything. My parents were crying, my instructor was proud,” said James Bunch, 17, of his solo flight. KTRK-TV (Houston) 
  • The Pilot Club of North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina is holding its 17th annual fundraiser Saturday. The fundraiser raises money for several of the club’s community programs, including the Pilot International signature program BrainMinders, which educates about brain injuries and disorders. The club has 25 members. The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
  • Alaska’s House Transportation Committee is considering legislation that would require signs warning travelers of pat-downs and electronic devices that use radiation. The signs would be posted near airport checkpoints. State Rep. Sharon Cissna, a breast cancer survivor who experienced what she described was an invasive pat-down, sponsored the legislation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/The Associated Press

+++++

You’ll find John Spahn’s latest effort in central Colorado. KLXV Lake County/Leadville is located just east of Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, the two tallest peaks in Colorado (14,440 & 14,428 ft respectively). “At an elevation of 9,927 ft (3,026 m) above mean sea level the airport claims the distinction of being North America’s highest. Pilots receive a free certificate commemorating their landing upon a successful landing. Aircraft performance deteriorates rapidly with altitude, so many organizations use the Leadville Airport as a base for high-altitude performance testing,” (wikipedia) and 30 miles due west you’ll find KASE | Aspen – but you’ll have to cross those mountains to get there!

This is a relatively simple scenery file for XP10, and consider that there is an airport for XP9 already; also note that a recently released Airports of the West for v10 package will conflict with this latest file. Best not to have both installed!

Built in 1965, the airport was envisioned as a kind of refuge from the bad weather that forms rapidly over the central rockies during summer months, and the airport has saved a lot of lives when heavy snow and icing conditions develop without warning – even in mid-summer. Many GA aircraft make the run from Texas or the plains states to Aspen during this period, and as aircraft gain altitude to make the crossing in fair weather they often run into deteriorating conditions and have to beat a hasty retreat, and the closest airport is typically Leadville. Weather forecasting in this part of the states is still a little problematic, so take nothing for granted in this region if flying under METARs.

Recommended for XP10.

+++++

XPFR’s latest is ZUNZ | Nyingchi Mainling Airport is kind of an unusual airport – one with instrument approaches that can best be described as hair-raising. Let’s let wikipedia carry the load here:

“It is suggested to be one of the most challenging instrument approaches in the world, since the airport is in a winding valley. Nyingchi Airport is the third airport that Tibet has put into operation. Built at a cost of 780 million yuan (96.18 million U.S. dollars), including investment by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), the airport is 2,949 meters above sea level, lower than the other two civil airports, with a designed annual passenger flow of 120,000. Known as ‘the world’s most difficult airport for planes to reach’, Nyingchi Airport is situated in the valley of Yarlung Tsangpo River in the Southeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, surrounded by over 4000m high mountains enveloped by clouds and fogs throughout the year. Planes have to fly through the narrow and winding river valley. The narrowest flight path is less than 4 km from one mountain ridge along the valley to the opposite one. According to meteorological data, there are just 100 days overall that are airworthy in the airport each year.”

The airport is located in Tibet on the north slope of the Himalayas, but conveniently for us we have new airports in Thailand and China available in XP9 and 10 less than a thousand miles away. Base elevation at the airport is 9675 feet, the single runway (05/23) is 9842 feet (3000 M), and NACAIDs are scarce. Here’s the list of carriers and destinations:

Air China Chengdu
Tibet Airlines Chengdu, Chongqing, Lhasa

And here’s the facility in XP9.70:

XPFR has thoughtfully included full FMS files that can be loaded directly into your aircraft’s FMC, including SID/STARs. In order for this to work you’ll need to add the relevant FIXes to XP’s database, and this information and the procedures to follow are included in the download.

This is a highly recommended, must have file for XP9 only.

+++++

blumenmann may have claimed line honors and made the very first LegoBrick airport for XP10 with his EDDG | Münster/Osnabrück for XP10. This is a sweet airport file and highly recommended, but there’s a lot going on here and we’ll be looking at this one in more detail soon.

The airport is a full-fledged international airport, not a little GA field, and this marks a real departure for blumenmann as all his earlier efforts have been for GA aircraft. While we have a list of carriers below, consider this one a good addition to our Q-Flights inventory as well as for the Helgoland Triangle.

Next, a few images of the real terminal. You’ll note that the LegoBrick approach makes recreating a realistic design impossible:

And here’s the list of carriers and destinations:

Air Berlin Berlin-Tegel, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Munich, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Antalya, Corfu, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Kos, Malaga
Air Via Burgas, Varna
Bulgarian Air Charter Burgas, Varna
Germania Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Kos, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Tenerife-South
Lufthansa Regional / Augsburg Airways Munich
Lufthansa Regional / Lufthansa CityLine Frankfurt, Munich
Sky Airlines Antalya
SunExpress Antalya, Izmir
Tailwind Airlines Antalya
TUIfly Antalya

And now the facility in XP10. First, the view from the runway:

Next, in the pattern:

Next, night shots of the terminal area:

You’ll note similarity to the demo KSEA in XP10, particularly the Jetways and lighting pylons, and you’ll have already noted that Global Illumination compliant lighting is used everywhere.

Again, we’ll have more soon, and our congratulations to blumenmann for a job well done!

+++++

With all the other high altitude airports reviewed today we thought it would be a good time to look at another XPFR Classic in XP10. LFCB | Bagnères-de-Luchon is located 87 m. S.S.W. of Toulouse, at the end of a branch line of the Southern railway from Montréjeau. The town is situated at the foot of the central Pyrenees in a beautiful valley at the confluence of the One and thePique. The town is famous for mineral baths and remains popular due to alpine skiing, cycling, and soaring, and it’s a mountain town.

The airport is close to several others by XPFR, including those recently released along the Bay of Biscay and in Basque Country, as well as their Mediterranean airports, and Toulouse is nearby as well.

You’ll find hang-gliders as well as a nicely modeled town in this scenery package, and that even some of the alpine ski area is included.

This is mountain flying with all that entails (steep-walled canyons and high mountains, unpredictable weather), and underpowered aircraft will not be particularly pleasant here (think the Carenado C152II), but with the right aircraft and a good load of charts you’ll likely have a lot of fun. Most highly recommended, too.

And that’s about all we’ve got today…but we’ll be back with more soon. Thanks for coming along. C & S

Review : EGSY Sheffield City Airport + EL Hierro

Posted by flightime56 on February 9, 2012
Posted in: Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews. 7 comments

EGSY Heading

by FlightTime56

One of the great things about X-Plane is that when you download a scenery is that many times it has been created by local eyes, eyes on the ground as you could say, i don’t know what KSEA looks like close up because i have never been there but ask me about any major airport in Australia or anything in Queensland and i could give a fairly good description of the place, I know what should be there and what is not and so i would be the best person to create or adjust scenery created in my local area.

Jiggyb2 lives in Sheffield and here is his 2nd local airport after EGCN Sheffield – Doncaster which is about on the wing slightly north-east of EGSY (Jiggy noted an update to EGCN on the weekend) and here he has taken and very heavily edited the MSFS scenery created originally by Birdman (AKA Robin).

So there is no doubt that now jiggy’s airport’s are as like or as close to the real place as possible, it really helps to be a local or to comment on a scenery you know is not correct or does not reflect on the real place so when you go and land there it is to get that correct feeling and a visual sense of what that place is really like.

Overall view EGSY

EGSY Sheffield City feels like an airport over-run or pushed into oblivion by the sprawl of the growing city, in fact the airport closed completely on 30 April 2008 and the runway will become just another business park.

It wasn’t very big in the first place when opened in 1997 as for EGSY was only a city airport like London Dockland City Airport (LCA) and It only offered flights to Belfast, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Jersey and London with the airlines KLMuk, Sabena, British Airways and Aer Arann and now only used as a heliport for the South Yorkshire Police and Ambulance services.

It is shame really as EGSY is a great place to land with all those buildings being so close to the runway.

Streets

It shows how great XP10 would be with more industrial activity around airports of which in most cases there is as many airports that are now mostly in the grip of encircling cities and seem to be shown in XP as only placed in empty spaces where as in reality they are in built up areas.

Factory

I certainly like the very large factory and the smaller business park and the OSM is excellent as it weaves through the scenery.

and not far away the M1 and major link roads run at full capacity,

M1

the only note was that 2 buildings where slightly out of alignment and cut into the service road.

Align

It would be great when XP10 WED comes along to fix the “buildings in a field look”, a bit of gravel and a few carparks will lift most scenery above this standard XP look and EGSY would certainly benefit from that.

The old terminal and tower are excellent and seems such a waste not to be used anymore.

Tower Terminal

There is not much LIT here, just some XP10 lighting and a police car arresting some youths up to no good in the lighted carpark.

Pollice carpark

OSM lighting around you is excellent, again it seems a waste of an airport to be closed and not active as landing here would have been great at night if the terminal was active.

Night OSM

As a GA airport EGSY is great to use and certainly best as in its role as a heliport which i think is the objective of the scenery, use it for that and i think you would get a lot out of it as for me I’ll do a few short VIP hops from EGCN and fly back and too from this city airport as they make a great pair in the same area, thanks jiggy

EGSY Dis

+++++++

EL - Hierro

El Hierro island (photorealistic) by Cestomano

There is no doubt of the benefits of photorealistic scenery as when it is done well it looks excellent.

But i have an issue with this approach not in instance by the work of Cestomano but by the approach of using them, I saw XP10 as a new start, a clean sheet as they say.

I want a whole complete world that is totally meshed together in perfect synchronization with the custom scenery in love with the default scenery and not with huge blights of bad ex FS Polly wrapper coloured flashing bad textures that come with most converted FS sourced scenery, I don’t just hate it, i loath it and i believe that XP and certainly in the new 10 version can rise above such bad ideas no matter how much you want to put such and such scenery into your folder.

So i think the default scenery should be right in the first place to create this effect and you are not having use a substitute to make up for the poor textures provided, but i doubt that Laminar could create such complete photorealistic scenery of the whole world, but i certainly don’t want a patchwork of tiles that will clash and work on one level but fail on another either…and that brings me to EL-Hierro which is a nice little island somewhere in western and southern area of the Canary Islands and owned by Spain.

Flying to here would be a pleasure and as Chip mentioned if you want to land here it has to be a small enough aircraft to do so for as to get this one wrong would be a total mess and a quick drop into the ocean,

The Fokker F27-600 seemed just to be the right tool for the job.

Up high the photorealistic scenery looks very nice and certainly around the edges where the scenery meets the water, but lets look at both aspects of the island as the top one is the default Laminar and the lower is the Custom Photo Scenery.

Island Default

Island Default

The default is slightly more rugged and colourful than the Photo, go closer and there is more of a difference.

This is the great cut of a mountain and again the default is on top.

Cutting Default

Cutting CS

The large cut away cliffs are spectacular, and the Photo is certainly more volcanic, it does look better and the cove on the opposite side of the island shows the same effect.

Default cove

Custom cove The Volcanic feel is certainly better so from up here at this level and the photorealistic images are certainly a benefit, but then as you go down and land it all changes for the worse.

Custom line

The scenery becomes very stretched and blurry with noticeable gaps between the photorealistic scenery, edges also become sharper and rocks are quite square, worse the scenery goes very flat.

Default Stones

In the default the scenery has still some stretching, however there is far more grittyness like the stones in the foreground, also in looking at the differences between the different levels and angles that use the light with shadows it creates an environment that is more interesting and natural so in other words it is more realistic.

Default jaggy edge

An issue with the default scenery is the jaggy edges that look like they were cut badly with scissors, we know the custom scenery is excellent in this area but however,

One of the issues (Or Bugs) that have not been attended to by Laminar is this problem as all coastlines we look at are very poor to awful, and most have a white line under the water.

So I am not going to criticize this issue as feel it has not been dealt with yet by Laminar, once fixed i feel these areas will be far better.

Climbing out of GCHI you can see the different textures better, default is again on the top.

Default Climbing out

Climbing out CS

The stretched photorealistic scenery looks far more average than the default, it is maybe more in tune with the correct textures of the area but does not translate well to a realistic picture.
You are really looking for something between the two textures that has the light and shadows with less grittyness of the default but with the correct coloured textures of the photo.

In some areas the photo is just plain bland.

Bland photo

The biggest turnoff for me even if the photo is still very good high up is that they just don’t blend well together.

With the default scenery is all one clean continuity from coming down from a high level to sitting on the runway, it feels more interesting as well as you fly past it.

Default scenery

The EI-Hierro scenery is a 376mb download which is a hefty chunk so that has to have an effect as well somewhere on your framerate, but it is also creating a more of a patchwork of scenery in your XP10 world, many will dagger themselves and swear by the photorealistic realism that they provide,

here we had an island which is quite easy to cover and not go past its boundrys which are buried under the water.

The same on a larger area would certainly create a line no matter how hard you tried to hide the differences of when you went from the photo to the default and that for me is the big issue, so photo would have to be very good and then make a very noticeable difference before i would use it, but then also would have to meet the ideal of a complete experience and so I want my cake and eat it.

Both types of textures have their benefits and both have their faults, but i would rather use the default Laminar scenery every time, which brings me back to the first issue of if the default is good enough it is certainly the best way to go.

FT56

Final F27

The News…Heard ‘Round the Ramps…for 7 November 2011

Posted by chip on November 7, 2011
Posted in: Aircraft First Look, Liveries, News, Ortho-photo scenery, Scenery Reviews. 7 comments

Well, all the breathless excitement of yesterday is subsiding, but still…it was a birthday of sorts! XP10 beta 7 lives and breathes, and Austin’s presentation was apparently well received, Tom Kyler’s presentation as well. To clarify matters: PMDG has a beta copy of XP10 on hand for evaluation purposes, and no beta of PMDG ACF has yet been acknowledged – publicly. I’d say an email campaign is in order now, however…time to flood their in-boxes will requests that they proceed with porting to XP! We also updated our post last night with video that includes comments about PMDG by Austin and “someone in the audience” from Aerosoft. If you missed this, you need to watch it, and listen carefully. Tom Kyler has also cautioned people not to take word of a PMDG epiphany too close to heart, as it’s far from a done deal at this point. As always, Tom’s is the voice of clear reason and we see no need to dispute his call.

Now let’s get on with the news:

More comments pro and contra Orthos this weekend, and Simon’s images of the R22 over the Grand Canyon definitely stirred things up a bit. That said, here are a few more images over Simon’s homebrew G2Xpl Grand Canyon scenery.

Looking straight down on these rock formations reveals lots of detail and the deep shadow effect works well with the sun at low “twilight” angles.

Seen from a distance, and from a horizontal aspect, many of these formations become blurred and indistinct and, when all is said and done, not too much more interesting than the default Grand Canyon scenery.

So if there’s one thing that becomes clear in these images it’s that orthos CAN enhance the scenery experience, but the benefit comes with limitations. It’s generally been accepted that the lower you go, the closer you get to ground level, the more blurry things get, but at least in the Grand Canyon area seen here, viewing angle and how far away the detail is can play a part in the success or failure of these textures too. And let’s not forget, only Eric at Real Scenery has tackled adding night lighting to his ortho scenery packages, which is a real negative against these other efforts.

+++++

Any time Cami de Bellis releases a new scenery is time for a celebration, at least as far as we’re concerned here at Chaos Manor. She’s released some of the best freeware files for XP9 and her latest – TIST | Cyril King Airport just west of Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands – is no exception. The town of Charlotte Amalie is a major cruise ship destination and during winter months the area is filled with vacationers from colder climes, with yacht charters taking a huge slice of the business. Most of the commercial traffic into and out of the USVI uses this airport too, so it’s simply nice to have this one period, but a real treat that Cami made it.

Looking over the list of airlines and destinations served tells a lot of this story, so let’s take a look:

Air Canada Toronto-Pearson [begins December 24]
Air Sunshine Beef Island, San Juan, Vieques, Virgin Gorda
American Airlines Miami, New York-JFK, Boston
American Eagle San Juan
Cape Air St. Croix, San Juan
Continental Airlines Chicago-O’Hare [begins November 12], Newark, Washington-Dulles [begins November 12]
Delta Air Lines Atlanta, New York-JFK
JetBlue Airways San Juan [begins December 12] Boston [begins December 15]
LIAT Anguilla, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Maarten
Seaborne Airlines St. Croix, San Juan-Isla Grande, San Juan, Vieques
Spirit Airlines Fort Lauderdale
Sun Country Airlines Minneapolis/St. Paul
US Airways Charlotte, Philadelphia
Vieques Air Link Vieques

Now let’s look at the specifics…

First. compare the terminal above with the overhead in Google Earth. No OSX objects here, Amigos!

TIST is pinned off to the right, above, and it’s about 1600 miles to KJFK, 1100 to KMIA, and 4100 miles to Heathrow.

Charts? Cami has included the current airport diagram and ILS to RWY10; here are a few others you might need:

Exceptional to note, however, is that she’s including charts, a trend we hope other scenery developers will embrace.

We tried out a number of aircraft here, and from the x737 to the 747/100Classic all handled the runway here no trouble. OPS with the Q400 and CRJ are possible of course, but most ramp photos I see show 757s in use here. Oh, Ramzzess? We’re ready for you now!

Now…let’s roam around some…

Because of prevailing tradewinds, take-offs and landings on RWY28 are uncommon, and NOTAMs warn of antennae, bush and trees on this approach. Below, an overview of the APPR to 28 in the XPFWProject MD82:

It’s not quite as challenging as St Barts or Saba but it has a little pucker factor to it.

Night LIT textures are Cami’s real strength, and her talents are on full display here.

One of the things we can’t really convey here is the quality of work done on the ramps. As at her recent mid-Pacific efforts, many of the ground trucks and carts are animated, and they are scurrying about all over the place in this effort. It’s just this sort of effort that increases visual chaos and really improves the overall quality of an airport project, at least to our eye. More payware scenery developers would do well to follow this lead and incorporate this kind of detailing in their projects. Airports are, in the end, not really static objects!

Overall? Easily one of the best of her efforts to date, and an easy nominee for scenery of the month on anyone’s list. A total must have effort.

A side note: Cami has posted a notice asking for donations. If you enjoy her work why not fire a few bucks her way? Personally, I think her work is too good to be freeware, and I think she’d do well making these available as payware files. Any thoughts on the matter?

+++++

In short order RoyalOak fired off TUPA |Auguste George Airport just north of St Thomas on the little island of Anegada. Waters to the SE of this island are feared by sailors and merchantmen alike. Known as the Anegada Passage, it marks the line where the Caribbean and Atlantic meet, and where the cooler deep ocean water meets the warmer Caribbean Sea. The atmosphere around this area should be avoided as well, at least in real aircraft.

Accommodations on the island are scare and most visitors come by small air charter company to fish or dive on world famous Horseshoe Reef, the fourth largest barrier reef on the planet and a huge attraction to hard corp divers. Sailing here is treacherous and most yacht charter companies forbid approaching the area due to the vast reef structure around the island. Shipwrecks abound, however. Due to the nature of temperature and current, large pelagic predators abound too. Not a happy mix.

Here are images from around the island:

And some images from RoyalOak’s scenery package for XP9.7. Note that his buildings are a little…nicer…than the ones on the island:

Coming on the heels of Cami’s St Thomas effort, this is a perfect addition to your scenery folder, and is highly recommended as well. The Carenado Saratoga is probably a more realistic choice than the 733, however, and note the sectional chart included above also shows this island in relation to St Thomas. Happy trails!

+++++

LIPQ is another excellent freeware file that comes close to payware quality in many areas, but for cryin’ out loud…look at the LIT textures on those control tower stairs just above. Fantastic! I think this is just outrageously good quality to find in freeware and a far cry from OSX components too often seen these days.

This latest version of LIPQ | Trieste offers great ramp lighting, improved LIT textures everywhere you look, and better buildings than previous efforts. It’s not perfect, yet, but the way these guys are progressing this could easily rank up there in the top ten freeware airports list one day soon! There are precious few airports with towers anywhere near this good -free or payware. Great work, guys, and a must have facility for northern Italy.

+++++

‘jiggyb2′ continues work with the 787, this time for QATAR Airways, and I like this one generally and think you’ll find it a nice addition.

+++++

‘char1ie473′ fired off this fictional kiwi air force 787, and it too is a winner in our book. Classic lines and clear graphic elements make this one a keeper.

+++++

Meet Tony.

Tony is good looking, and he knows it.

Tony is fast, and he likes to show off his speed, too.

In fact, Tony looks good any way you look at him.

Tony dresses well, and turns heads wherever he goes.

Tony’s brains are as sharp as his appearance, too.

And he operates as well in the dark as he does in daylight.

Tony is in fact a real smooth operator.

And Tony is freeware.

You’ll find Tony hanging out here, and we whole-heartedly recommend that you get to know this character as soon as possible, and that you spend lots of time with him. Tony is obviously better than about 99.999735 percent of all freeware files available for X-Plane, but he’s also better than a large number of payware files too, but he’s a modest sort and doesn’t want the word to get out.

+++++

And that’s all we’ve got for you so far. We’re digging around, trying to get word on a few “pressing matters”, and will have more when we learn something.

So, adios for now, but we’ll be back soon and hope you join us next time! C & S