MAIW Conversion Question

[Duckie]

I know MAIW has posted instructions on how to convert their scenery to FSX but has anyone here tried it? And if so, how do they look in sim? Not worried about AI right now, just the scenery.

Thanks

 

[delta_lima]

I know MAIW has posted instructions on how to convert their scenery to FSX but has anyone here tried it? And if so, how do they look in sim? Not worried about AI right now, just the scenery.

Thanks

Done a few of the bases.

I've not done "conversions" per se for the scenery - I'm only aware of converting the AI FPs from FS9 format to FSX format using the awesome freeware program AIFP. Which, incidentally, works very well, is super easy, and well worth doing. But I digress.

Scenery portovers have mostly worked out well for me - some cause big frame rate issues, most don't. The biggest factor to do/not do the portover is the type of hangars/buildings. I fly mostly in a "retro" world (50s/60s/70s) and so I'll go for a scenery if there are the older curved hangars, vs the giant square externally cantilevered messes that came about in the last couple of decades. Using ADE (also free), I've stripped out what hangars and towers I don't like, and in a brutishly caveman-tech way, gotten an approximate representation of what the scenery in question would have looked like say, prior to my birth. By no means a Calclassic-type result, but good enough for me.

Now if you're happy with the period that MAIW develops for (basically, the present) then it's simply install as desired. Don't try and install directly to FSX. Install to a temp directory, and drag over what you want. I think I skipped installing the landclass files, and I think also the VTTP files - I seemed to recall the latter applied only to FS9 - but I could be wrong. Whatever you do - DO NOT install the traffic files anywhere. They will disable your existing FSX traffic. Convert them to proper format first, if you choose, then install.

Off the top of my head, bases I've brought over include

Pensacola
Patuxent
MCAS Beaufort
NAS Key West

Probably more, but I can't recall here at work. For UK flying, I'm a bigger fan of ACG airfields than MAIW, as well as Robert Richardson's which is already backdated to the 50s - bonus!The latter two I've succeeded in retroing rather nicely by not only deleting the new buildings, but adding a few old ones to fill things out. Again, heavy use of artistic license.

MAIW is a gold mine for military fans. Michael Pearson has done a mountain of FS9 AI planes, and is now making plans to do some in FSX native format. John Young has done a lot of AI too, also in FSX format - so the military AI world is getting better quickly. And as far as scenery goes, on any pack that has proper scenery (some are just AFCADS to enable AI) - those are already way better than the stock FSX scenery. Go nuts! (but hopefully not forget those lovely A-7s you're working on ...)

dl

 

[falcon409]

Duckie, the only things I can remember that gave me trouble when I was using their sceneries were fences and trees. . .the alpha channels left the fences looking solid black and the trees had mirror rectangles that blocked out any scenery behind them. If you have ModelConverterX these things can be corrected, but that would be up to you to figure out. Also, as DL explains, there were some that caused a real drag on fps, mostly due to the number of objects in the scenery and the fact that they were compiled using the fs9 SDK. . .and not FSX.

 

[henrystreet]

I have spent a good deal of time with the MAIW scenery packages and have installed several in FSX. The procedure published at The Owl's Nest looks more difficult than it really is. If you know your way around the FSX file structure you will have no problem with the very good instructions. And the sceneries are not only good to look at but are generally pretty accurate.

The issue that I found, however, was terrible performance with the sceneries in FSX. I've done a good bit of R&D about why that is. The net result of how to resolve it can be seen in my conversion of John Strinstrom's KNTU to FSX.

I'm oversimplifying (so anyone else with more experience in this sort of black art, please chime in) but object textures optimized for FS9 are very UN-optimized in FSX. FS9 does not seem to mind having 4 or 5 textures for a single object. Use that object and multiple textures in FSX and you get 4-5x the number of drawcalls. There are other negative contributors to performance (such as SCASM) but this is at the heart of the performance issues when trying to use MAIW in FSX.

This multiple textures per object problem is also the issue with the performance of some commercial airport sceneries such as MileHighSims.

If you have a 4ghz+ Intel processor and a higher end graphics card, the MAIW performance hit will likely be not so noticeable. However, if you have a 3.2ghz I3 or AMD processor, you will definitely notice the hit.

Hope this helps. The MAIW packages are beautiful jewels.

 

[Duckie]

Thanks DL and henrystreet.

I just miss all my MAIW bases and traffic from FS9. Still getting used to X but the seeming lack of quality native FSX military bases is, so far, disappointing. Really not sure I want to tackle the MAIW port over process, especially if it is as hit-and-miss as you've indicated it might be.

I do have a good system, which I upgraded just for FSX, and it flies without the slightest stutter with sliders placed wherever you want them. The graphic detail improvement is great but the land scenery...well. When my sim switched over to fall my part of the rock went from a lush piedmont plateau and ancient green foothills to a desert!

Anyway, thanks very much for your replies. I remain on a quest for some good scenery (non-photoreal) of any kind but in particular military, that is, Vietnam era forward to today.

Cheers!

 

[delta_lima]

My suggestion:

Try a few. Ditch the tree and fence bgls, VTTP bgls, and see how it works. I guarantee you'll find a few you're happy with. You're less picky than me era-wise - you'll have no issues. With a few small tweaks, you'll get at least a few going well for you. I have never bothered with texture conversion, FWIW ...

There's also a few native NAS sceneries out there...

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/9241/fsx-nas-corpus-christi-scenery/

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/7137/fsx-naval-air-station-meridian-scenery/

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/7824/fsx-jacksonville-naval-air-station-scenery/

Finally, log in (free) to ACG. http://airfieldconstructiongroup.org/forum/

Their scenery has a phenomenal level of detail- with zero impact to frames - nothing short of voodoo wizardry. The only more astounding thing is that they offer it for free.

There's also some lovely naval aviation aerodromes on the rfn site: as a complement to their amazing Zephyr naval jet trainer and stellar Etendard naval attack jet - to say nothing of their 10/10 Foch and Clemenceau aircraft carriers - these are a nice way to experience French naval aviation. Trade the Chevy, burger, and Coors for a Citroen, Brie cheese sandwich and a glass of Bordeaux - you'll have an absolute riot....

A/C and A/C carriers: http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-Creations.htm
Scenery: http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-Scenes.htm

cheers,

dl

 

[henrystreet]

The links that DL mentions are all very sceneries by Jim Dhaenens. Search for his name on about any FS file site and you will find good stuff. For his Meridian scenery, I have a vLSO/FCLP mod as well.

Jim's KNSE Whiting Field is one of the best around.

 

[ejoiner]

My suggestion:

There's also some lovely naval aviation aerodromes on the rfn site: as a complement to their amazing Zephyr naval jet trainer and stellar Etendard naval attack jet - to say nothing of their 10/10 Foch and Clemenceau aircraft carriers - these are a nice way to experience French naval aviation. Trade the Chevy, burger, and Coors for a Citroen, Brie cheese sandwich and a glass of Bordeaux - you'll have an absolute riot....

A/C and A/C carriers: http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-Creations.htm
Scenery: http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-Scenes.htm

cheers,

dl

I personally have been jetting all over France in my Mirage 2000c of late!!!

 

[delta_lima]

I personally have been jetting all over France in my Mirage 2000c of late!!!

Indeed - between MAIW and RFN/Restauravia, there's not much of French Cold War aviation left modelled - we're blessed!

Your needling in now two threads of my resolve on the Mirage 2000 has not gone unnoticed ... ... I'm feeling my resistance crumbling ...

 

[Duckie]

Thanks again guys for the tips and encouragement to try some of this stuf. Been downloading a lot of Jim Dhaenens stuff and will try a couple of MAIW titles as well.

 

[fsafranek]

Their flight plans are for FS9 which screw up any FSX flight plans you may have. But they can be converted.

It is a way to get airbases with more accurate afcad and buildings that the default stuff.

You should visit Martin Gossmann's Owl's Nest website for info on using MAIW in FSX.

 

[delta_lima]

MCAS Beaufort

Just to show the buildings, and a few AI A-4s and F-8s scattered about.

I trimmed the AI volume down to reduce the hit, and converted the F/A-18 traffic to Skhawks and Crusaders. Quick and crude, but it works for me...



EDIT ....

Took another for you - to better show the aerial view of my "retro'ed" MCAS Beaufort. Lots of RF-8s, F-8s, and A-4s - all courtesy of Mike Pearson.

Also shows off a really nice A-4 scheme from a cool repainter I know ... you might like it, Steve!

Enjoy the scenery setup. Be careful of delving into the AI traffic world ... it's like the worlds biggest model train on steroids - you'll be forever tinkering ...

dl

 

[delta_lima]

Whiting Field

More or less stock MAIW .... just converted the traffic files. Squint, and pretend the T-34C's on the flightline are like the T-34A like in the picture ... you get the idea ....

dl

 

[Victory103]

All good info above, I'll add that you can also search for scenery by A. Laughmiller, who has completed some better than stock airfields with MAIW traffic in mind, he generally uses stock scenery objects. I've got all US forces flying in my FSX and as mentioned, the made for FS9 + AI can tax even a high end system...especially going to Red Flag at Nellis AFB!

Looking for mil AI, hit Owl's Nest first as he is revamping his database all the time. Mike P's retro line is becoming increasingly popular.

 

[delta_lima]

More or less stock MAIW .... just converted the traffic files. Squint, and pretend the T-34C's on the flightline are like the T-34A like in the picture ... you get the idea ....



dl

Fixed the screenshot ...

 

[Duckie]

WooHoo! Got Pensacola back! Looks like today will be scenery day!

This is Jim Dhaenens scenery. Will be installing a lot of his stuff today along with some others. Don't know how I missed this. Thanks, DL, for the heads up.

 

[Navy Chief]

Jim D's NAS Pensacola was already FSX ready, wasn't it? NC

Love his sceneries, and everything John Stinstrom did (for FS9) as well.

 

[Duckie]

Jim D's NAS Pensacola was already FSX ready, wasn't it? NC

Love his sceneries, and everything John Stinstrom did (for FS9) as well.

Yes, Jim D's Pensacola is native FSX as is several others he did. Good stuff! Jim and John collaborated on some FSX scenery as well. All good stuff

 

[expat]

Try a few. Ditch the tree and fence bgls, VTTP bgls, and see how it works. I guarantee you'll find a few you're happy with.

DL sums up my advice using MAIW scenery in FSX, just experiment. Definately worth doing (the MAIW instructions aren't really necessary). I really enjoy e.g., Key West, Beaufort, Seymour Johnson, Loring, etc with only a few compromises (eg the reflective trees Falcon mentions).

 

[Duckie]

UPDATE:

I have installed MAIW NAS(s) Patuxant River, Key West, and MCAS Beaufort so far. However I've left in the VTPP (polygon) and VTPL (lines) bgl's because without them I get auto-gen trees and buildings all over the place. So far I have seen no discernible FPS hit by using them vs not using them. I get about a 10 FPS hit with the PAX River scenery but still very flyable at 20 FPS. I have my system locked at 30 FPS.

I have removed anything with FENCE or TREE(S) in the name and no aircraft or traffic files as suggested and cautioned above.

Thanks for all the tips. Installing more MAIW stuff today. It's good to have my airfields back.