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Zeebrugge Naval Air Station Flanders 1

Hi Hertzie,

My apologies for the delay. I'm just waiting for one more part of the "puzzle" to be put in place. It probably would have been better to split this into two packages:dizzy: but I do hope to be finished very soon.
 
Yeah, I know Dutch are a pain in the ass, but curious if you did find the final puzzle-piece........

hertzie
 
Movement at the Station

Hi Hertzie,
Yes, the missing piece is in place. It was a lock system and Allen very kindly made the lock. It looks great and usefully also fits other European canals in places where one is needed.
The GSL files for Zeebrugge and Bruges are completed after a lot of tweaking. I do however have two small problems to fix before I release.
First, because the two areas are adjacent, I was careful to start one (Bruges) at the level of latitude where the other (Zeebrugge) finished. My original attempt wiped out part of the overlapping objects, even though they lined up in MB. By adding Zeebrugge to the GSL layer and calling up Bruges.mis in MB I could see the overlap and pared it back to match. When I saved the Bruges objects as a GSL file and added it I found it still had a small overlap. All of the above is a long winded way of saying that there is a very small gap in the scenery's continuity. It amounts to about 600 feet of track and some trees. The overlap is in open country and only the rail line is affected, so I would be interested in knowing whether others think it should be fixed and, if so, how to fix it. My first thought was a quick workaround, making a .lay file for the small section of track to be loaded in a mission. My second thought ( late at night) was to save all of Bruges in MB as a .lay file and add the .lay to the Zeebrugge scenery in MB (after, of course, removing them from the main GSL). Will this work? (rhetorical question:biggrin-new:) but seriously, I am interested in others' views on how to proceed here.
The second problem is more straightforward. Bruges (the dockland and the city) is a large file. You all know what that means. Overflying it gives a considerable hit to frame rates. Kevin Driver has very helpfully tested the scenery for me and suggested that the city objects need to be reduced. I'm inclined to release two versions- Bruges and Bruges_lite...one for people with more powerful computers. What do people want here? I would add that a mission to Bruges would be to the Dockland which is a short distance from the city.
All views welcome and considered!
Also in the pipeline is the .lay for both areas, but that's another story...
Cheers,
Ravenna
 

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Hi Ravenna,

Thanks for your extensive answer. Honestly to say that half of it I don't get :biggrin-new:, but that's because I'm not a scenery designer. And most of the times the designer is the most critical:adoration:.......

I (but who am I ???) think that we flightsimmers often don't see what you designers see......

But one thing is very clear, I am of no help for you..... What I can say is that a light AND a heavy version would be very nice for all of us flightsimmers, for though I have a strong machine, a lot of others don't and it would be great if they could use the scenery too.

Hope this does encourage you to make this scenery definitive.

Many many thanks for all your efforts,

hertzie
 
Ravenna,

On the question of lite versus full infrastructure, i would look to the main purpose behind this project. Is this mainly an eye-candy build or will there be extensive, heavy mission action around and over it? If you go full build with a string of heavy missions related, things might get a little choppy at times. But if any planned missions are relatively few and light in terms of loaded aircraft and surface vessels, then a full build release won't matter much on most computers, putting this more in the eye-candy block.
 
Hertzie, Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated.
Bearcat, Historically there were both kinds of missions targeting this area and a campaign using this scenery from the Allied side would probably involve missions for a flight of aircraft up to several squadrons. Part of the infrastructure in Bruges harbour was designed to protect the large number of U boats and small destroyers/ torpedo boats based there.
I've tried to make a scenery which reflects what the airmen of the time saw, but I do realise that a lot of simmers see the extra objects as just eye candy. For me it is part of what makes the flight immersive. I am going to knock down some of the buildings in Bruges and remove a lot of trees, so even the full GSL file would be lighter than it is now, but a "lite" version is now on my list of things to do this week. Once that is done I am just about ready for release, apart from adding a couple of items to the readme downloads list.
 
Can't have this thread fall off the first page.
So... Ravenna is testing some modified gun emplacements.

Regards,
B24Guy
 
Almost there guys. The B24Guy has given us 3 modified versions of the AF 15 inch Vickers gun and a gun pit to match the concrete emplacements for these guns. Large naval guns along the Belgian coast of various calibres were a feature of the German occupation. When I set out on this scenery I was unaware of this. Now the guns we have will allow the representation of the 11, 15 and 18 inch guns targeted by the Royal Navy and the bombers of the RNAS and the Independent Force.
Also just in: Kevin Driver's airfields for Kagohl 3 (the Englander Geschwader). These will be a part of this package. So too will be Allen Downey's canal lock.
I just want to stress that this package is a group effort. My part is just the choice of gsl files and a couple of Lay files. Even there, the coastal defences stop just to the south of the Zeebrugge mole. To come are the guns and facilities from there to the frontline, but that's another story.
 
As Michael said, I'm working on Gontrode and St Denijs-Westrem airfields outside Ghent. Michael and I have built Nieuwmunster which was located in the Bruges/Ostend area.

Michael has done a great job with the GSL scenery at Zeebrugge and Bruges. Allen, Robert John and B24 Guy have made beautiful models of the Zeebrugge mole, U-Boat pens and locks.

A good deal of the scenery will be valid for WW2.

Cheers,
Kevin
 
Hi Hertzie,
Just 2 airfield GSLs to tweak and we're ready to upload. I've also been working on an RNAS repaint for Stuart Green's Caudron G.4 for missions over the area.
 
For Ravenna...Zeebrugge feedback

Ravenna,

This is what I am missing for the Zeebrugge scenery layout...

Broad leaf tree2
Dead_trees2_damaged
fibldr
gr_hse1
Railroad_I2
sandbags
sbridge2
VietCraneCargo
WWI_barbed_wire
zeebrugge_lock
zeebrugge_mole
ZM_Shed

Can you provide some guidance on where to find this stuff?
 
Ravenna,

This is what I am missing for the Zeebrugge scenery layout...

Broad leaf tree2
Dead_trees2_damaged
fibldr
gr_hse1
Railroad_I2
sandbags
sbridge2
VietCraneCargo
WWI_barbed_wire
zeebrugge_lock
zeebrugge_mole
ZM_Shed

Can you provide some guidance on where to find this stuff?

Andrew,
As you can see I have cast a fairly wide net. Next time not so ambitious!
The lock and mole were made by Allen for the Zeebrugge scenery.
The ZM_Shed was made by the B24Guy for the mole. I will send you the mole, shed and lock files.
WW1_barbed_wire is from Robert Sprackland's magazine (I think it was number 6- the issue with the WW1 theme). Same for the dead tree.
Viet_cargo crane (oops, I thought I deleted that one) is on the Free Flight site, Vietnam objects, Page 2.
I think sandbags is from the same page...see the sandbag bunkers.
Gr_hse1 should be in the Beta ETO scenery set by Gius.
fibldr is, I think, in the PHP2 scenery set.
Railroad I2, the broadleaf tree and the stone bridge I will have to look at in my files and my readme (actually Kevin has added some of the links I omitted in the readme).
The sandbags and damaged trees can actually be deleted if we are looking at 1940.
I will email you today with the links to the above and the objects made by Allen and B24Guy. Do you also have KDriver's Flanders scenery remodelling and flattens?

Cheers,
Ravenna
 
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