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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

FA08 - Polk City - Fantasy of Flight - Development update

I started populating the RV resort east of the fence, just to make it vaguely resemble what is there with simple RV models I made (some of them have outhouses:icon_lol:).

fsx2012-06-1300-51-07-64.jpg


Some overheads compared with Google images. It is the best I could do with landclass/waterclass polygons. Textures are GEX:
fsx2012-06-1300-56-56-31.jpg

FoF.jpg

fsx2012-06-1301-00-37-77.jpg

FoF2.jpg


A good photoreal underlay would really make this scenery show much better. I have no such experience on this so may be later. Any offers on that respect are of course welcome.
 
Dimus said:
A good photoreal underlay would really make this scenery show much better. I have no such experience on this so may be later. Any offers on that respect are of course welcome.
Click to expand...

In this area there is a combination of 3m mesh source and 30cm photo source available. The photo source is from 2008. File size for the photo shouldn't be *that* bad, depending upon how large of an area was to be included. The mesh would be a much smaller file, as that compiles down at a good %.

I know if anyone has been to Florida they might wonder about hi-res mesh for the state, seeing as it's max elevation is around 350 feet. But having finer terrain detail helps when fitting photo work on top.

I can grab and tweak as necessary any mesh. I could start the photo and then if someone (cough, Ed Wells) wanted to autogen it. Or I can just get the photo in the proper FSX format, if anyone wanted to do any cleaning, sharpening, color correction.
 
Meshman, thank you very much for the offer.

I have no idea how to obtain the photo source but 30cm sounds OK, plus I guess it can be sharpened in places. For coverage area I believe that what is included in the "big picture" above would be enough. As for the mesh, I have applied a flatten to the whole area shown above but that can change of course, you obviously know better.

I would be very interested to work on handling the photo and autogen it once you have it in proper FSX format.

I think I will release a version as is and maybe work on a photoreal update later.
 
Dimus, I've got a grab at the following boundaries, if you want to check in Google Earth; 28.18 x -81.84 - -81.795 x 28.15 (N W E S). It's at 120mb and will compile down to about 10%+- of that size. The imagery is a little brownish, as a lot of the airborne work is done just coming out of winter. But adding a little green to it should get it to match better.

If you need a different size area, LMK and I'll grab it. Otherwise I can get the source zipped and uploaded to my site for you.
 
Dimus, besides everything since (like the RV lot, which I think is yet another great touch of reality being added to the scenery!), I just wanted to make sure to tell you, great job on the static DC-3! For those that have not seen the real thing, Dimus has recreated it very faithfully, down to those special faux props which were designed to make the props look as if they were spinning. The aircraft is positioned as it is, to serve as a billboard next to the highway that is at the end of the main runway (it being the same DC-3 which used to be positioned next to the highway with the tail up and nose in the ground, looking like it had crashed - which resulted in a number of 911 calls over during the time it was like that, by people thinking that an airplane had really crashed).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdl_photography/4686733143/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38016434@N05/5486057616/sizes/l/in/photostream/
 
Bomber_12th said:
Dimus, besides everything since (like the RV lot, which I think is yet another great touch of reality being added to the scenery!), I just wanted to make sure to tell you, great job on the static DC-3! For those that have not seen the real thing, Dimus has recreated it very faithfully, down to those special faux props which were designed to make the props look as if they were spinning. The aircraft is positioned as it is, to serve as a billboard next to the highway that is at the end of the main runway (it being the same DC-3 which used to be positioned next to the highway with the tail up and nose in the ground, looking like it had crashed - which resulted in a number of 911 calls over during the time it was like that, by people thinking that an airplane had really crashed).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdl_photography/4686733143/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38016434@N05/5486057616/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Click to expand...

Has anybody ever created southern tree textures with spanish moss hanging down? (see the background tree in the first photo.)
 
Meshman said:
Dimus, I've got a grab at the following boundaries, if you want to check in Google Earth; 28.18 x -81.84 - -81.795 x 28.15 (N W E S). It's at 120mb and will compile down to about 10%+- of that size. The imagery is a little brownish, as a lot of the airborne work is done just coming out of winter. But adding a little green to it should get it to match better.

If you need a different size area, LMK and I'll grab it. Otherwise I can get the source zipped and uploaded to my site for you.
Click to expand...

Meshman, the area you grabbed covers even more than I planned. Would I still be able to crop it?

Thanks again for your help.
 
Dimus said:
Meshman, the area you grabbed covers even more than I planned. Would I still be able to crop it?

Thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...

Dimus, give me the coordinates that you want and I'll trim it down. The image must be square/rectangular and from that you can create what is called a blendmask to crop out any area that you don't want to show. I'll be happy to offer any guidance to assist you on your efforts. It's terms and process that seems confusing, until you do it the first time and say "That's it?".

I admire the work done so far and try to go back into the memory banks because I know I've driven by this airport a few times when down in Florida, but the years tend to make things foggy...:isadizzy:
 
Meshman, I looked at it again. If you can, just bring the east side to 81 49' 40'' to crop out most of Polk City as I don't wish to get into that. I will mask out the rest that I don't need.

I more or less know the theory behind it but just have never put it to practice. Thank you also for your kind words.

Last night was the first time I attempted to use the scenery and fly from it. I flew full's Ercoupe and John's "Twilight Tear" and tried approaches on both runways. It seemed to work OK on my old system with no hickups. Landing on the grass with A2A's Accufeel was fun.
View attachment 67460View attachment 67461View attachment 67462View attachment 67463View attachment 67464
 
Now working on repainting the Guy Diotte's statics to represent the collection's planes. There will be a B-25, a PBY and a Stearman. Here is the B25:

fsx2012-06-1701-23-47-70.jpg


I have also added the new storage facilities north of the site:

fsx2012-06-1701-26-26-09.jpg


Won't be long now. Just the statics and the AI traffic to do. I have Meshman's photo background (thanks again Meshman!) but will work on it for a later version. For the moment I will release a landclass polygon version only.
 
The repainted Stearman and PBY. Guy's static is a normal, turret nose while the actual FoF one is turretless:

fsx2012-06-1800-09-53-31.jpg


fsx2012-06-1800-21-45-11.jpg
 
Please forgive me for posting all the time but I'm relatively new to this and every new bit feels like another achievement.

We now have a dock for the Duck on lake Agnes plus working water runways (36W-18W), taxiways and parking by the wooden pier. There is also a ramp via which you can exit the water and taxi to the runway or the cement ramp. I also added a custom refuelling station next to the maintenance hangar. The AI Gee Bee is also working, starting up and making circuits:

fsx2012-06-1901-05-13-24.jpg


fsx2012-06-1901-03-13-32.jpg


fsx2012-06-1901-08-05-04.jpg


fsx2012-06-1901-10-02-58.jpg


fsx2012-06-1901-17-31-69.jpg


fsx2012-06-1901-18-01-37.jpg
 
No problem Dimus...we're loving the results of your labours. Looks like you could spend an hour or two just exploring your Fantasy of Flight.:applause:
 
If my ASE is correct, it is raining today in Polk City. That did not stop the AI Bee from taking off for a circuit:

fsx2012-06-2100-59-10-27.jpg


Check out the fire box and the hydrant. Thank you to rdaniell for pointing out the error in the AFCAD, now the AI plan works. Also thanks to rdaniell and Bomber_12th who pointed out some issues to me that have been taken care of. I will extend the testing one more day and then release the first version.
 
From one of the Beta Testers...

....This project is simply OUTSTANDING. Before you take your first flight from it, may I suggest thay you just taxi around to take in all the detail work that Dimus has put into it. While Dimus has posted several screen shots, you just have to experience it on your computer.

When you are ready to take a flight, you have several alternative starting places, e.g., grass runways, ramp locations, water runways, or by the dock.

RD
 
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