Eenie-meenie-minnie-moe

falcon409

falcon409

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Staff member
I've gone through about 6 different places I was going to start scenery for and either got bored with it or couldn't find sufficient reference to know what it actually looks like. Anyway, I wandered back up the East Coast to Maine and found something to expand my horizons. I haven't done an Island since I did Tangier Island a long time ago. This time, another Island. . .Marshall Island, about 26NM NE of Matinicus. At one time this Island was under developement however that fell through, the airport there was abandoned and eventually the entire Island was turned over to MCHT (Maine Coast Heritage Trust), and now stands as the largest undeveloped Island on the East Coast. Aircraft are prohibited, although I did find a Forum of Cub Pilots who live along that Coast in that area and they say aircraft (of the Rich and Famous) frequent the dirt rwy and coastal beaches during the summer. It's also popular with boaters and locals during the summer months especially. So that's a bit of history.

I'm reviving the airport, lol. I've replaced the default Island, added seasonal autogen, even processed some mesh for the Island. Now I'll start working on the airport itself. The runways will remain dirt, a small terminal, a few other buildings and such and that'll be enough, just something to view when you land. In the image, you can just make out the appearance of the dirt rwy. It sits on the NW corner of the Island. Supposedly, there are quite a few hiking trails, courtesy of the MCHT, if I can find a "floor plan" for those I'll add em, should make for some ATV sight seeing at least.
 
Here is a Google earth view of the Island.....Upon close up of the island You can make out what looks like some paths......
 
Yep, I saw the same thing, too bad it isn't more pronounced. I tried adding hiking paths in SBuilderX, but they don't show. . .possibly a problem with lines on top of photoreal images. I'll check. There are three separate paths. . .each one covers a different area of the Island and all of them appears to start in the area of the airport. I took the ATV out anyway and got some shots .
 
NICE, I love islands! Don't forget my luxury lodge on the seaward side now, LOL.

So I take it this is the mesh you PMed me about?

One thing you could do for the hiking paths, add a new layer under the photoreal in your image editing software and then find a high res seamless sand/dirt texture and apply it to the new layer. Now with the photoreal layer on top, trace the hiking trail to your liking and then delete it showing the seamless sand/dirt under it. Done this plenty or times, works great.
 
Great idea Michael. I think the only thing that will be tough will be the tree placements. The trails will invariably run right through some trees, unless I use single tree placement along the areas where the path runs and then use the poly tree placement in those other large areas. Very doable I think, just will take some time. Tell you what though, the Island certainly shows that the mesh is working, but get on the ATV and start riding around the Island and man. . .does it ever show up, lol. Thanks for the suggestion.:salute:
 
Why not simply add very narrow exclusion polygons for the path? Might be tedious to set up, but you won't have your hikers slam right into a tree.
 
I usually just do the single-tree annotating near features like that that I don't want to overrun, and save the polys for larger fill areas.

BTW, that's a very clever idea, Michael.
 
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