La Spezia project finally completed!

[Rami]

Reply...

Unfortunately there's another detail that doesn't look too good, I'll explain below.

My help request came only out of fear of having misplaced Tobob's scenery, with all the mistakes I had made in the past! :isadizzy:

About the layout, it already looks nice but I think that the civilian/commercial harbour difference from the military area should be more evident. Besides, I would not use Wolfi's forest patches in town, as all Liguria region towns are heavily settled with extremely thin flat areas where to build, since the Northern Appennini chain drops directly into the sea in many places. Between the Po Valley and Liguria there are peaks over 2,000 m (over than 6,000') high. To be more specific, 99% of Liguria looks like Ireland's tall cliff-ed Western shore and the Cliffs of Moher.

Therefore, forest patches are more proper on the steep hills looming over La Spezia and surroundings, sparse single trees would be much more realistic and I'll take care of it. I'll see also if I can mix Wolfi's Med buildings with something more akin to continental Europe because, as you saw yourself when you were here, this part of Italy looks considerably less Mediterranean than the rest of it. Much more like French Cote Azure than Naples, for example.

I did a little homework to help identify La Spezia harbour better, I hope I will not be arrested for spying like those Japanese secret agents at Pearl!

Attached below two Google maps:

1. in the first I indicated the various areas, I hope the distinction between the commercial and the military harbours is clear. The dotted line indicates the heavily settled city limits: I would not place forest patches inside of it. Wooded areas are instead the light green patches actually mountains, to the East and West of La Spezia.
2. This is the "L" shaped Arsenale closeup, which matches the WWII model picture Jagd attached above. This was the main target for Allied bombings, as warships were moored here for resupply, repairs and such. Google's small "A" cloud indicates the location of the Naval Museum Xavier, Dave and I visited last year. The Musem building was once part of the Naval Military Academy. Dave and I drove around it last year on our way to visit medieval Portovenere, right in front of Palmaria Island mentioned above, I am sure he still remembers the high wall surrounding all the military area and drydock.

The CFS2 scenery so-so detail I mentioned above can be seen from the first map: it's the important Magra River that flows Southeast on the Northern side of the mountains surrounding La Spezia, visible in the upper right corner. In CFS2 only the estuary can be seen and the river is almost missing. I don't know if it can be fixed in CFS2, but to someone like me, who spent a lot of his vacation time in these places, it really looks poor.

Stefano,

I like your modifications to my layout for the harbor. Do you want to do anything more with it, such as adding more trees, buildings, or other stuff?

 

[kelticheart]

La Spezia CFS2/MB available scenery

Stefano,

I like your modifications to my layout for the harbor. Do you want to do anything more with it, such as adding more trees, buildings, or other stuff?

Thank you, Rami!

Yes. If you agree in the sort of identification of the La Spezia CFS2 scenery areas I sent you via e-mail, which I am attaching here too for everybody who might be interested to evaluate, I will continue with the layout of the piers in both civilian and military harbours. Trees, buildings and industrial complexes will come afterwards and you will, if it's ok with you, create a "target rich environment".

In my next layout I will make a clean copy without crates, oil barrels and such, in order to have a clear, uncluttered picture of the harbour. You might have noticed my feeble attempt to build an idea of medieval Portovenere, which lays on the southwestern tip of Golfo (gulf) di La Spezia, facing Palmaria Island. It could be a good waypoint reference for attacking formations, but we all have to be careful in order to avoid too many objects and saturate the CFS2.gsl file with the rest of the MTO sceneries installed. Unfortunately for us, the entire area is so heavily settled that there is not continuity solution around the entire horseshoe shaped bay. We are seriously risking to kill framerate with objects, even when using present-day powerful pc's.

Just an historical curiosity: the Allied formations rally point for bombers and their escorts heading for North-Western Italian targets was on the sea in front and above Chiavari, the next town due West of La Spezia. There all formations coming from liberated Southern Italy airfields, particularly those from bases in Puglia like Lecce-Galatina and S. Angelo dei Lombardi, would form up with their escorts and then split again if the same formation had different targets to hit. This rally point was for all North-Western Italy like, for example, Torino and Milano, it was used also by the formation which hit my hometown on May 13th, 1944. These skies saw famous MTO USAAF, P-51 equipped, fighter squadrons like the "Checkertail Clan", the "Tuskegee" and another one, which I cannot recall off the top of my head, but had distinctive diagonal red stripes painted over the natural metal of their entire Mustang tails.

I will select objects very carefully using only those that, from my previous GSL work experience, get the best fps performance. Wolfi's ETO/MTO and Canion's ETO are my first choice, followed by some of Xavierb2's, but not all of the latter since, for example, Xavier's hangars have the same size problem identified, and cured, by Pen32Win last year in Gary20's BoB objects.

Now a few questions for you:

1. Any chance that some generous friend would design a, even slightly, more accurate coastline overlay, using Google maps, for us? CFS2 coastline is so different than the real one!!
2. I think I remember someone designed a drydock scenery object to place anywhere it was needed, am I correct? If so, where can it be downloaded?
3. I would like also to have some medieval castle objects, there are plenty in this area and I would use it to build a small Portovenere, are there any available anywhere?

I'll be responding more quickly over the week, since I only have wide band connection at my workplace office.

Did you meet with Morton? Say hi to him for me!

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

P.S.: Nice work on the 8th USAAF front!

 

[tobob]

1. Any chance that some generous friend would design a, even slightly, more accurate coastline overlay, using Google maps, for us? CFS2 coastline is so different than the real one!!
2. I think I remember someone designed a drydock scenery object to place anywhere it was needed, am I correct? If so, where can it be downloaded?
3. I would like also to have some medieval castle objects, there are plenty in this area and I would use it to build a small Portovenere, are there any available anywhere?

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

Hi Kelti,

I can take a look at the coastline around the harbor and Portovenere. CFS2 rarely lines up with satellite maps which makes complete accuracy difficult. Sometimes artistic license is needed. It will take some time, and the gsl will likely have to be redone.


tobob

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Hi Kelti,

I can take a look at the coastline around the harbor and Portovenere. CFS2 rarely lines up with satellite maps which makes complete accuracy difficult. Sometimes artistic license is needed. It will take some time, and the gsl will likely have to be redone.

tobob

Tobob,

The GSL hasn't been done yet, no worries. I asked Kelti to help because of his expertise, and he has already made some great modifications. There is no rush on this project, I know you are busy.

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Thank you, Rami!

Yes. If you agree in the sort of identification of the La Spezia CFS2 scenery areas I sent you via e-mail, which I am attaching here too for everybody who might be interested to evaluate, I will continue with the layout of the piers in both civilian and military harbours. Trees, buildings and industrial complexes will come afterwards and you will, if it's ok with you, create a "target rich environment".

In my next layout I will make a clean copy without crates, oil barrels and such, in order to have a clear, uncluttered picture of the harbour. You might have noticed my feeble attempt to build an idea of medieval Portovenere, which lays on the southwestern tip of Golfo (gulf) di La Spezia, facing Palmaria Island. It could be a good waypoint reference for attacking formations, but we all have to be careful in order to avoid too many objects and saturate the CFS2.gsl file with the rest of the MTO sceneries installed. Unfortunately for us, the entire area is so heavily settled that there is not continuity solution around the entire horseshoe shaped bay. We are seriously risking to kill framerate with objects, even when using present-day powerful pc's.
I will select objects very carefully using only those that, from my previous GSL work experience, get the best fps performance. Wolfi's ETO/MTO and Canion's ETO are my first choice, followed by some of Xavierb2's, but not all of the latter since, for example, Xavier's hangars have the same size problem identified, and cured, by Pen32Win last year in Gary20's BoB objects.

Now a few questions for you:

1. Any chance that some generous friend would design a, even slightly, more accurate coastline overlay, using Google maps, for us? CFS2 coastline is so different than the real one!!
2. I think I remember someone designed a drydock scenery object to place anywhere it was needed, am I correct? If so, where can it be downloaded?
3. I would like also to have some medieval castle objects, there are plenty in this area and I would use it to build a small Portovenere, are there any available anywhere?

I'll be responding more quickly over the week, since I only have wide band connection at my workplace office.

Did you meet with Morton? Say hi to him for me!

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

P.S.: Nice work on the 8th USAAF front!

Kelti,

1) First, thanks for the compliments on the 20th Air Force; this is turning into a really fun project...although there is considerable overlap with Captain Kurt's 354th Fighter Group, so I am going out of my way to find differences and such to provide separation.

2) You can do some pretty cool things with Xavierb's forts and walls, that's a place to start on the castles, but no one has provided a castle set.

3) There is a floating drydock by Psullykeys. But there is not one to be placed on land. Tobob has offered if we can provide detailed plans, and Robert John might be another to ask.

4) La Spezia was targeted directly on the return trip from Operation Bellicose. The RAF Lancasters hit Friedrichshafen on the way down to, and La Spezia on the way back from Blida, Algeria. And, you have carte blanche to modify things however you'd like, my friend. Getting it right is far more important than having my ego stroked. :mixedsmi:

5) Nope, I have not talked to Morton just yet; I don't want to get overwhelmed by having too many projects going on at once.

6) For the next 20th Fighter Group mission, I have to kneel before either God (Captain Kurt or Achim) and ask for one airfield in Germany that does not exist; Salzwedel. This was the airfield in Germany attacked by the 20th Fighter Group on April 8th, 1944 when their escort mission was scrubbed. They destroyed everything in sight and earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the first ground-attack mission in the Air Force history. Thereafter, the unit was unofficially known as "The Loco-Busters."

 

[kelticheart]

Progress report

..........
2) You can do some pretty cool things with Xavierb's forts and walls, that's a place to start on the castles, but no one has provided a castle set.

3) There is a floating drydock by Psullykeys. But there is not one to be placed on land. Tobob has offered if we can provide detailed plans, and Robert John might be another to ask.

4) La Spezia was targeted directly on the return trip from Operation Bellicose. The RAF Lancasters hit Friedrichshafen on the way down to, and La Spezia on the way back from Blida, Algeria. And, you have carte blanche to modify things however you'd like, my friend. Getting it right is far more important than having my ego stroked.........

Hi there!

Everyday is a learning day, for example yesterday I took a look at the "Bing Mappe" website here:

http://it.bing.com/maps/default.asp...=-89.7831437390076&dir=0&alt=1676499.41976809

and realised that the military harbour area is more limited than what I thought, let's say figured from driving around a very tall wall with "Military Area: do not trespass" signs all over.

Seen from the air there's another object that's not as conspicuous from a land point of view: it's the thin breakwater that cuts the entrance of the entire harbour from the open sea and it doesn't look as if it were a post-WWII construction. This is probably what made La Spezia harbour a tough target to approach frontally from the air and I would think from the sea surface as well.

Please, forward the above link to Tobob and Robert John as well, the "Bing Mappe" website is in Italian language, but it's a guarantee for accuracy and the maps are copyrighted by Microsoft. When zoomed in closely the details are amazing and all the moored units from Italian Navy are cristal clear!
I am not expecting to have a coastline of the bay as precise as it appears on satellite pictures, but something that, at least, will allow a better placement of the available CFS2 scenery objects, which are generic, therefore they must be adapted.

Talking about how La Spezia bay looks in CFS2:

1. I'd be very happy if we could cover that weird penisula that appears at the top of the harbour as a piece of land in CFS2, but it's not, because the first two attached Bing Mappe sat pictures show clearly it's a man-made huge commercial pier. This would allow placing correctly one or more of Wolfi's port objects;
2. next, reshaping what appears on the left as a small bay, which in turn it's the heart of the military complex, with its drydocks, warehouses and shipyards, as the third satellite pic shows;
3. my last request would be reshaping the left hand side part of the bay with its four small peninsulae right above Portovenere, as the fourth shot shows. This picture shows also the thin breakwater protecting the whole harbour mentioned above. Which, BTW, it's already in place in my new layout.
4. Sadly, I'm afraid I will not be able to build the medieval fort with the church in Portovenere as I planned earlier. The small peninsula shown in the last picture is entirely missing from CFS2, where there's water and not the necessary cliff elevation to build on top of.

If we look at the CFS2 scenery I attached a few replies above, never mind the military area I wrongly estimated too wide, differences from the real thing are very big.

Last but not least, a progress report. I already mentioned last night I placed the breakwater in front of the bay and the same goes for the breakwater which sort of "hugs" the military area or "Arsenale". Repositioned the Molo (Pier) Italia, the first pier on the left from the top of the bay, above the Arsenale. Defined better the civilian piers a the top (north) of the bay and started selecting buildings and houses to place here and there. Wolfi's Med apartment blocks look nice in MB for La Spezia, but I haven't flown over it yet to determine how good they look from a cockpit. Sometimes what looks great in MB looks poor from the air.
I added a few more buidling to Portovenere as well.

As a bonus, I rearranged Achim's Piacenza-S.Damiano. I could not help but disliking Japanese hangars in an airbase 15 miles away from where I live and, since I take off from there to go check La Spezia...........:mixedsmi: Now there are admin buildings at the entrance of the airbase, living quarters, a fuel storage hideout and a guarded entrance with fences and trees. All approximately placed as they are in real life, with all the allowances we have to deal with CFS2 landclass, which, in this part of the world, are strictly SdC's ETO scenery.

I will upload it with La Spezia layout/GSL, when everything will be done.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[UncleTgt]

for Tobob

Tobob (or anyone else interested in G2K scenery projects), Rhumbaflappy made a neat little tool for viewing, comparing & saving LOD 8 map images...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?79022-LOD8_Image

It's quite interesting to compare & contrast the differences between the various "accurate" mapping sources!!!

 

[Fibber]

RAMI, KELTI....

I have been following this as my ship did spend some time in LaSpezia around Thanksgiving 1966 while returning from duty with the then "COMMIDEASTFOR". As I had previously posted, at that time there were still the remmnants of AA batteries in the hills and on a breakwater. I have looked all over for my souvinier pictures and the ones I do have have deterioated so bad ( old Kodak instamatic film) that nothing is discernable. The little I do have is that we were on on a "H" type pier with the then flagship of the Italian Navy next to us. I believe it was the "Galibaldi"(SP?).
At that time, as I had previously posted, we were told that some structures in the hills at the waterline were sub pens. I have since searched and no references to active pens can be found. As Kelti states, and I do remember, there was a thin breakwater in front of these. Could these have been inactive and never used?
The overviews of now no way resemble the La Spezia I was in in 1966 so all my bearings are off. The hills I remember had very few houses and I do remember a road running up the hills.
As a postnote, before I became involved here I used to do a LOT of WW2 reading. I seem to recall that there were a lot of, I believe, A20 and other plane, missions on the base and the problems that the pilots spoke of were the breakwaters and the proximity of the hills.

 

[kelticheart]

Progress update #2

I have been following this as my ship did spend some time in LaSpezia around Thanksgiving 1966 while returning from duty with the then "COMMIDEASTFOR". As I had previously posted, at that time there were still the remmnants of AA batteries in the hills and on a breakwater. I have looked all over for my souvinier pictures and the ones I do have have deterioated so bad ( old Kodak instamatic film) that nothing is discernable. The little I do have is that we were on on a "H" type pier with the then flagship of the Italian Navy next to us. I believe it was the "Galibaldi"(SP?).
At that time, as I had previously posted, we were told that some structures in the hills at the waterline were sub pens. I have since searched and no references to active pens can be found. As Kelti states, and I do remember, there was a thin breakwater in front of these. Could these have been inactive and never used?
The overviews of now no way resemble the La Spezia I was in in 1966 so all my bearings are off. The hills I remember had very few houses and I do remember a road running up the hills.
As a postnote, before I became involved here I used to do a LOT of WW2 reading. I seem to recall that there were a lot of, I believe, A20 and other plane, missions on the base and the problems that the pilots spoke of were the breakwaters and the proximity of the hills.

Hi Fibber!

The military harbour structures are the third sat picture I posted above, that's the Arsenale, which in Italian it's a word that comprises both military harbour and shipyards, drydocks, ammo dumps and general ship supplies. All military, of course. I am quite sure your ship, being an Allied US Navy unit, was moored exactly in this area. Can you download the picture and point out where those sub pens and AA emplacements were located. If you try the link to the Italian map site, you'll be able to zoom in very closley and see if they still can be seen from the air.

Attached is again the Arsenale, located in the western side of La Spezia bay/harbour, from Google's satellite pictures.
In 1966 lots of the scars left by WWII were still evident, but nowadays they might be hard to detect. The sub pen might be that square structure that can be seen here at the bottom left corner, laying inside of the hug-like thin breakwater which protects the entrance to the military harbour. Or even the square pier right after it moving upwards, with the two concrete small piers I fought hard yesterday to reproduce. I'll explain why.

The problem I encountered yesterday, when trying to build the Arsenale piers, is that the western coastline of the bay is way too over-flattened in CFS2, so there aren't many steep cliffs there to place a cliff-built sub pen there or AAA emplacements. In spite of Microsoft's claims for geographical accuracy built into their flight sims, I must say this part of the world is very lacking!
Moreover, I apparently haven't got any thin concrete pier object to use here and this is a real problem!

Both Xavier's and Wolfi's concrete pier objects are way too large to use, the correct size would be Xavier's wooden piers and small breakwaters, but this is not realistic because in Italy, a construction wood-starved country, poured concrete was used in harbour construction since Roman times, when stone blocks, grafted together with lead braces and caulked with concrete, were used. Xavier's small concrete breakwaters are not good replacement piers, since they have slanted side walls where a ship cannot get close.

Wood piers are fine for civilian sailboat harbours and I found already several place to place them here, but we need badly small concrete piers, unless I am missing something in my CFS2 gsl object library.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[mvg3d]

Hi Fibber!

The military harbour structures are the third sat picture I posted above, that's the Arsenale, which in Italian it's a word that comprises both military harbour and shipyards, drydocks, ammo dumps and general ship supplies. All military, of course. I am quite sure your ship, being an Allied US Navy unit, was moored exactly in this area. Can you download the picture and point out where those sub pens and AA emplacements were located. If you try the link to the Italian map site, you'll be able to zoom in very closley and see if they still can be seen from the air.

Attached is again the Arsenale, located in the western side of La Spezia bay/harbour, from Google's satellite pictures.
In 1966 lots of the scars left by WWII were still evident, but nowadays they might be hard to detect. The sub pen might be that square structure that can be seen here at the bottom left corner, laying inside of the hug-like thin breakwater which protects the entrance to the military harbour. Or even the square pier right after it moving upwards, with the two concrete small piers I fought hard yesterday to reproduce. I'll explain why.

The problem I encountered yesterday, when trying to build the Arsenale piers, is that the western coastline of the bay is way too over-flattened in CFS2, so there aren't many steep cliffs there to place a cliff-built sub pen there or AAA emplacements. In spite of Microsoft's claims for geographical accuracy built into their flight sims, I must say this part of the world is very lacking!
Moreover, I apparently haven't got any thin concrete pier object to use here and this is a real problem!

Both Xavier's and Wolfi's concrete pier objects are way too large to use, the correct size would be Xavier's wooden piers and small breakwaters, but this is not realistic because in Italy, a construction wood-starved country, poured concrete was used in harbour construction since Roman times, when stone blocks, grafted together with lead braces and caulked with concrete, were used. Xavier's small concrete breakwaters are not good replacement piers, since they have slanted side walls where a ship cannot get close.

Wood piers are fine for civilian sailboat harbours and I found already several place to place them here, but we need badly small concrete piers, unless I am missing something in my CFS2 gsl object library.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

Hallo,
There is a way to use the "La Spezia" and "Taranto" in FS9 ? (Stupid question....)
:salute::salute::salute::salute:

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Hallo,

There is a way to use the "La Spezia" and "Taranto" in FS9 ? (Stupid question....)

:salute::salute::salute::salute:

Mvg3d,

It's not stupid at all! However, there will be some issues. For destroyable scenery, CFS2 relies on something called a "Global Scenery Layer," where destroyable objects are placed on flat ground and then made permanent in the GSL layer so they reside in that specific spot. I'm not sure how that would work in FS9, but the mesh, land, and water classes would certainly work.

 

[Fibber]

KELTI...

.....I have looked at your attached picture and I have looked and found a picture of he pier we were on. It is the "herringbone" pier over at the Arsenale. I recall ( remember this was awhile ago) we were tied stern to the pier, just like all the other ships you see there, near the end towards the entrance into the inner harbor.. I recall the breakwater (as I had previously posted) seemingly not far from us. The place that we were told was to be for U-Boats would have been approximately where "Marola" is indicated on the map. I do not recall alot of those structures but I do remember that the hills, at that time, did not seem to have as many structures as there now appear to be. Must have been a boom time of construction at some time.

Ironic that my neighbors father had served in La Spezia during the war and then was stationed on the Italian Navy flagship that was next to us at the time. Sadly he is gone now so that fountain of info. is empty. Sorry I can't be any help with pictures.

 

[kelticheart]

.....I have looked at your attached picture and I have looked and found a picture of he pier we were on. It is the "herringbone" pier over at the Arsenale. I recall ( remember this was awhile ago) we were tied stern to the pier, just like all the other ships you see there, near the end towards the entrance into the inner harbor.. I recall the breakwater (as I had previously posted) seemingly not far from us. The place that we were told was to be for U-Boats would have been approximately where "Marola" is indicated on the map. I do not recall alot of those structures but I do remember that the hills, at that time, did not seem to have as many structures as there now appear to be. Must have been a boom time of construction at some time.

Hi Fibber,

that's exactly what I imagined when I zoomed in as much as I could the Google satellite picture. Knowing that a WWII sub pen was built there, the shape of the structure you are pointing out is too obvious for being something else but a wartime submarine protection against bomb attacks from the air.

My true problem is that if someone, more skilled than yours truly at building sceneries, doesn't step in and creates an overlay to reshape CFS2 harbour coastline with correct elevation for the surrounding cliffs, and someone else to create thinner concrete piers (I am almost tempted to call Xavier Berdaguer who lives in La Spezia!!), I'll never be able to put together a credible La Spezia for CFS2!!! .... :isadizzy:....

Ironic that my neighbors father had served in La Spezia during the war and then was stationed on the Italian Navy flagship that was next to us at the time.....

Yes, that speaks aloud of how much sense wars have made in human history, for as much as some of them were a true necessity like WWII......

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[kelticheart]

La Spezia project development thread

A good day to you, Wolfi!

May I please ask you if you could add a few simple objects to your port structures collection?

If you followed the La Spezia thread started by Rami, I am in the process of dressing up La Spezia harbour to create a WWII target area for his mission work. Rami just advised me there is no immediate upload deadline here, so we have some time before he will upload RAF and USAAF attack missions to the most important Italian Western Mediterranean military harbour during WWII.

This is my problem:

I am using what's available to build both the military and civilian infrastructures, that is your objects and Xavier Berdaguer's. Both you and Xavier did not include small concrete piers, the same size of your wooden piers, which was, and still is, less common here than in other parts of the world, where construction wood is more easiliy available.

If you look at the satellite pictures I posted here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89236&stc=1&d=1372233661

and here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?78603-La-Spezia-Bermuda-Bric-à-brac/page21


you can see that there are a lot of small concrete piers built all around the entire harbour but, with what I have now, I cannot reproduce them because everything that's available is way too large and it does not look realistic at all.

Could you please put together a set of small concrete piers, in the same lengths you offered for your wooden ones (if I remember correctly: 25, 50 and 100 metres long)?
If it sounds possible, you could use the wooden pier bgls and turn them into new solid, grey coloured, concrete pier objects. If you had a vacation trip here in Italy and went to any seaside place, you must have seen the piers I am talking about. Sometimes, they are built as breakwaters on the side facing the open sea, while the side facing the harbour is shaped like a pier, to have extra mooring place with just one infrastructure.

I was thinking to ask Xavier if he could modify his small breakwater objects, by making both side walls straight, but he wrote me his wife is having some health problems and they went back to his native Spain for the entire month of July.

Should you decide to contribute with another one of your great CFS2 Mission Builder/GSL objects, thank you! in advance, but I have an extra request:

please, do not use CFS2 stock textures to paint the new small concrete piers because I discovered that, when I installed Captain Kurt's ETO replacement textures for CFS2 stock objects, some of those textures changed some of your objects in a way that they look like something entirely different and now they are useless in the ETO.

Your small wooden pier object is one of those affected, now it shows windows and a solid wall where there should be the foundation poles holding it up. This new small concrete pier object must have its own texture file.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[Rami]

Reply...

BUMP :greenbo: BUMP

 

[tobob]

View attachment 89639

tobob

 

[kelticheart]

UNBELIEVABLE!

View attachment 89639

tobob

WOW! WOW! WOW!







TOBOB YOU ARE A TRUE MAGICIAN, MY FRIEND!

YOU DID IT ALREADY , I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES: IT'S A MASTERPIECE!






​

I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL HERE, OR I'LL DIVE INTO MY PC SCREEN, THINKING I AM SWIMMING IN LA SPEZIA BAY AS I DID SEVERAL TIMES IN THE PAST!!!!

THANK YOU!
KH :ernae:

P.S.: If I may suggest: I noticed you used the same land textures as in Taranto or Bari. Although Med textures, with sparse vegetation and woods, with clay coloured ground are absolutely realistic in Southern Italy, in Northern Italy they do not look realistic anymore. Ask Rami or Jagdflieger: they visited me last year and both noticed immediately the country around my hometown does not look "tipically" Italian.

The Po Valley, ranging from the northern side of the Appennini chain to the Alps, looks correct with Sander's standard ETO textures, or any central European texure, like the ones converted from FS9 or FSX, for example.
La Spezia makes no exception, even if it lays on the sea on the Southern side of the Appenninis. The steep hills facing the sea, actually mountain foot, surrounding La Spezia are covered mostly with a very tall tree of the conifer stock, but it's not shaped like a pine. It is called here "Maritime Pine" (Pino marittimo), it is very common all along the Northern Med coastline. It loves to grow in salty/sandy grounds and, from a distance, it looks like a wide top hardwood tree.
Woods made entirely of pini marittimi are responsible for the very dangerous summer fires that thunderstorms, or human folly, ignite often enough from June to September in these areas. Due to the high resin content of their wood, they ignite instantly and their flames are hard to put out. Parking your car under one of those pines means fiinding it laquered few hours later. A fire here can be lethal extremely fast because, once caught halfway between high sea cliffs (in some places over 400' high) and the high mountain tops there's no place to escape to.
Is there anything positive about these trees? Yes, "pinoli nuts"! A staple ingredient of the famous basil vegetarian pasta sauce called "Pesto alla Genovese", the main course of this region called Liguria, is "pinoli", the seeds found inside pini marittimi pine cones.

It's very common, as we head towards the top of the mountains, finding oaks, maples, birch patches, pines, a conifer which resembles US hemlocks, spruces, walnuts, hazelnuts and finally, above 1,200', chestnut trees. In the woods surrounding the hills where I live, I can find all of these trees easily.

You must have noticed the MB screeshots I attached to Rami's thread of La Spezia bay: SdC's ETO textures fit perfectly here. I created a Northern Italian CFS2 install just to be able to use SdC's textures over here, the Med look starts immediately south of Firenze.

Tomorrow I'll attach here the *.lay file with what I was able to do with the breakwaters, in case you needed it. Should you need any help locating specific areas or info about La Spezia, just ask!

 

[kelticheart]

Speaking of sub pens in La Spezia...

Hi there!

Check this link from Wikipedia, it's a testimony about German U-boot activity from La Spezia. U-77, U-205 and U-331 among them, read from 6th patrol down here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-77_(1940)

and here, 3rd patrol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-205

More here, 4th and 5th patrol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-331

Following a link to 29th U-flotilla page I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29th_U-boat_Flotilla

There was definitely quite a U-boot activity in La Spezia, during WWII, so the sub pens are a must in our La Spezia for CFS2!

I can see already Tango's Type VIIC U-boats moored right below the Arsenale!

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[kelticheart]

My latest La Spezia layout

Hi Tobob!

Here's my layout of what I did so far to the La Spezia bay, as promised. I am not expecting it will work with your overlay, as it fits CFS2 standard scenery, but with all of Rhumba's new mesh files and water flatten installed. Probably, we'll be able to keep only the breakwater that protects the whole harbour.

It's not a problem, just take a look at the ideas I had in my initial attempt at creating a gsl scenery as close as possible to the real thing, with fps performance well in mind. So, I won't use objects that I experienced did slow down my computer.

Every object is temporary, even in the city of La Spezia, where I placed some Med city blocks made by Wolfi just to see how they looked like.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[dombral]

Hi Tobob!

Here's my layout of what I did so far to the La Spezia bay, as promised. I am not expecting it will work with your overlay, as it fits CFS2 standard scenery, but with all of Rhumba's new mesh files and water flatten installed. Probably, we'll be able to keep only the breakwater that protects the whole harbour.

It's not a problem, just take a look at the ideas I had in my initial attempt at creating a gsl scenery as close as possible to the real thing, with fps performance well in mind. So, I won't use objects that I experienced did slow down my computer.

Every object is temporary, even in the city of La Spezia, where I placed some Med city blocks made by Wolfi just to see how they looked like.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

View attachment 89718View attachment 89719View attachment 89720View attachment 89721

Voici 4 vues de mon interprètation de la base de La Spezia , je pense qu'associer à la dernière version définitive du scenery de Tobob on devrait avoir un résultat correcte.

(Here are four views of my interpretation of the base of La Spezia, I think that combining the last final of the scenery Tobob we should have a correct result.)

Je joint des vues de Venise Gene Imperia et Vado Ligure pour completer les ports du nord de l'Italie.

(I joined Gene views of Venice and Vado Ligure Imperia to complete the ports of northern Italy.)

View attachment 89723View attachment 89722View attachment 89724View attachment 89725View attachment 89726