Fantasy of Flight Scenery

Bomber_12th

Bomber_12th

SOH-CM-2023
As many have likely seen by now on Flightsim.to, Dimus' scenery of Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight airport & attraction has been brought into MSFS by Emerald Scenery Design. It is so fantastic to see Dimus' scenery in MSFS, as well as the additions that have been made by ESD. The scenery right now is considered a beta, as more work is still going into it, and for the time being you will need to turn photogrammetry off, as there will still need to be excludes made to remove the photogrammetry elements from the airfield.

https://flightsim.to/file/16471/fantasy-of-flight-fa08

A little-known fact about Fantasy of Flight - when originally constructed in the 90's, the main/longest runway was made long enough, and with a hard surface buried below ground, to support the operation of a B-29, if he were ever to get his B-29 'Fertile Myrtle' back to flying again. Unfortunately, of course, as time has progressed, the chance of that happening is little to non-existent. The runway did allow for the Constellation, which is displayed outdoors, to be flown in when it was ferried to the location in 2001.

For a first flight around the airport in MSFS, I decided I would fly something that I would fully expect to see Kermit Weeks flying.







 
Some more screenshots around the grounds - very familiar of course to those like me who spent many hours flying around this scenery in FSX, and anyone who has watched Kermit's "Kermie Cam" videos on Youtube.









 
The Winter Haven Airport and Jack Brown's Seaplane Base are both located just a short flight south of Fantasy of Flight, and it is fun to operate float planes back and forth from both seaplane ramps. The seaplane launch and lake by Fantasy of Flight will be a perfect location for operating the Boeing Clipper when it's released - it was of course big enough for the Sunderland.

https://flightsim.to/file/13387/winter-haven-s-gilbert-airport
https://flightsim.to/file/14679/jack-brown-s-seaplane-base
 
The screens look awesome John, along with Dimus' scenery. Winter Haven airport is my home airport. If you get a chance, can you take some shots of KGIF please? Every Sunday morning I take the car for a spin up around Polk City and FOF and back. Thanks, Bob.
 
I was thinking of taking the DC-6 from the over Cape Caneveral towards Daytona Beach for the first flight. Having to turn off photogrammetry is a slight hassle currently but from your stunning pictures it looks like it will be well worth it!
 
I was actually very happy when Chris from ESD approached me to ask permission for doing this work on the scenery and releasing it. I felt that I had to convert it to MSFS but I was not happy with many things I did back then when I was less experienced so I figured that I would have to redo the whole thing. Chris has already done a lot of work optimizing the textures and adding new stuff so it was kind of a relief for me as I am now busy with other stuff.

John, you had helped a lot back in those FSX days and I also had the good cooperation of Kermit's crew as well providing info and pictures. It is great to have it in MSFS and a big thank you to Chris for the work he has done to convert and make it better.
 
Dimus said:
I was actually very happy when Chris from ESD approached me to ask permission for doing this work on the scenery and releasing it. I felt that I had to convert it to MSFS but I was not happy with many things I did back then when I was less experienced so I figured that I would have to redo the whole thing. Chris has already done a lot of work optimizing the textures and adding new stuff so it was kind of a relief for me as I am now busy with other stuff.

John, you had helped a lot back in those FSX days and I also had the good cooperation of Kermit's crew as well providing info and pictures. It is great to have it in MSFS and a big thank you to Chris for the work he has done to convert and make it better.
Click to expand...

It has been a pleasure bringing your creation into MSFS. Thank you for the opportunity to revive this classic!

Also, for those of you that have downloaded the scenery, I just pushed v0.4.1, which is a bit more of a QOL update. This does include an exclude for photogrammetry now, so the airport blends much better! Of course, there are still some things such as aerials and terraforming that I have no control over currently. However, 0.4.1 should be a step in the right direction. :encouragement:
 
Cool, thank you very much for your work @Dimus and Christopher, I really appreciate this one. With the Florida environment around it this is a very exciting base to fly out of!
 
Bomber_12th said:
As many have likely seen by now on Flightsim.to, Dimus' scenery of Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight airport & attraction has been brought into MSFS by Emerald Scenery Design. It is so fantastic to see Dimus' scenery in MSFS, as well as the additions that have been made by ESD. The scenery right now is considered a beta, as more work is still going into it, and for the time being you will need to turn photogrammetry off, as there will still need to be excludes made to remove the photogrammetry elements from the airfield.

https://flightsim.to/file/16471/fantasy-of-flight-fa08

A little-known fact about Fantasy of Flight - when originally constructed in the 90's, the main/longest runway was made long enough, and with a hard surface buried below ground, to support the operation of a B-29, if he were ever to get his B-29 'Fertile Myrtle' back to flying again. Unfortunately, of course, as time has progressed, the chance of that happening is little to non-existent. The runway did allow for the Constellation, which is displayed outdoors, to be flown in when it was ferried to the location in 2001.

For a first flight around the airport in MSFS, I decided I would fly something that I would fully expect to see Kermit Weeks flying.



Click to expand...
The trailer park is spectacular! I can see where I live down there. ;-)
 
Fantasy of Flight has been updated to v0.4.2! This is a big update, delivering a lot of improvements:


  • Added barrier fencing and more clutter items around the main ramp.
  • Added custom globe pole lights. (Requires Emerald Object Library update!)
  • Added light effects to airport buildings and runway lights.
  • Added LODs to more models to further improve performance.
    • Boardwalk, Storage Buildings, Tables, Tents, Water Tower
  • Added water to many ponds around the area.
  • Adjusted position of SW Building (main ramp), as it was misplaced by a few meters.
  • Adjusted position of storage buildings.
  • Fixed an issue where two apron materials were conflicting on the main ramp.
  • Fixed an issue where photogrammetry would override certain terraforming changes.
  • Fixed missing seat-backs on chairs in Tent model.
  • Fixed some stray and missing trees around Little Lake Agnes.
  • Fixed water on Lake Helene, including a few nearby ponds.
  • Improved aerial textures by removing more object/building footprints.
  • Improved fencing around museum lite ramp.
    • Extended and fixed sections of fence near handicap parking.
    • Replaced a section with barrier fencing (Based off of a recent video).
  • Improvements to Lelynn RV Resort. (Still a WIP - This place is huge..)
    • Added more RVs.
    • Added improved road textures throughout the resort.
    • Excluded many buildings and trees conflicting with RVs (heh).
    • Improvements to positioning and orientation of some RVs.
  • Optimized aerial imagery to reduce file size.
  • Removed 1235 hidden triangles from the Tables model. (~32% reduction!)
  • Removed grass from under the Museum Lite building.
  • Removed stray trees around several lakes and ponds in the area.

Enjoy!

https://flightsim.to/file/16471/fantasy-of-flight-fa08
 
Great to see the scenery evolving! Thank you again for all the work put into this.

Just a short note: Are you sure the airfield has runway and taxiway lights? I was under the impression that they we just marking poles, not lights. I may be wrong though.
 
Dimus said:
Great to see the scenery evolving! Thank you again for all the work put into this.

Just a short note: Are you sure the airfield has runway and taxiway lights? I was under the impression that they we just marking poles, not lights. I may be wrong though.
Click to expand...

That could very well be. The poles being lights was a complete guess. I have found zero information to back this up.

If this is the case, I may remove them then, as the light effects don't look that great from a distance.
 
Tom Clayton said:
AirNav's website mentions nothing about runway lighting. They tend to be pretty accurate regarding things like that, but since this is a restricted use field, there's always a chance of error.

https://www.airnav.com/airport/FA08
Click to expand...

I was looking at SkyVector and Foreflight. SkyVector doesn't specify and Foreflight just states "Unknown Intensity". Which made me think that there could be potential lighting, but it could also just be a generic statement.

I was able to get a decent look at the poles from an online photo, however there don't appear to be any openings on the top for lighting to come through. Which either means that there is something such as a slot that I cant see in the photo (unlikely), or the light would be projected downward. Neither of which totally made sense to me (As I stated in an earlier post on my MSFS forums thread).

So, the assumption that they are just markers could be factual.

3e0703ab833b4ca7adf13452ec644a3a8d145a9c.jpg
 
Hi, I have walked all over those runways and don't recall ever seeing any lights.
Here's a couple of shots if interested...
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Greenhouse357 said:
Hi, I have walked all over those runways and don't recall ever seeing any lights.
Here's a couple of shots if interested...
Click to expand...
I'm probably going to remove the effects in the next update. Plus, as I said, I really don't like how they behave right now. They are pretty buggy until you get close to the airport.

And, I'm always interested in photos. If anyone has any from FoF that could be of use, don't hesitate to send them to me!
 
When I made this for FSX I had support from Kermit’s communications department. I have several pics that I asked them to take specifically on areas a bit hidden. I can them with you. I’ll pm you later.
 
@Dimus-

I have had many a fun hour here IRL, and it has been a treat to visit it in MSFS. Thanks for your collaborative efforts with Chris- lots of memories!

I8SgzLt.jpg


Carl
 
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