• Warbirds Library V4 (Resources for now) How to


    We just posted part one of the how to on uploading new files to the Library. Part 1 covers adding new files. Part 2 will cover making changes to your the uploads you own.


    Questions or comments please post them in the regular forums. Which forum is that... Well it is the one you spend the most time in.

    Thanks the Staff

    Library How to

Next Scenery Project

So coooool

I looked up online what aircraft flew out of there for when it's completed. :wavey: Like Alameda if you put in roads it can be driven around in one of the driveable vehicles like the Jeep CJ or even the Willys Jeep that you can do in USAF blue with markings (Or I can if you want me to)


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tgycgijoes said:
I looked up online what aircraft flew out of there for when it's completed. :wavey: Like Alameda if you put in roads it can be driven around in one of the driveable vehicles like the Jeep CJ or even the Willys Jeep that you can do in USAF blue with markings (Or I can if you want me to).
Click to expand...

During my time there the primary Jets for the 7272nd were F-100C's and a couple of "F" models. Transient were F-4's mostly and the Libyans had T-33's. The Air Rescue folks flew the HH-43 "Huskie".

As for driving around the base. . .that would be awesome. It would really be a shame to do all these buildings and then never see them other than as you're landing or taking off.
 
Great

falcon409 said:
During my time there the primary Jets for the 7272nd were F-100C's and a couple of "F" models. Transient were F-4's mostly and the Libyans had T-33's. The Air Rescue folks flew the HH-43 "Huskie".

As for driving around the base. . .that would be awesome. It would really be a shame to do all these buildings and then never see them other than as you're landing or taking off.
Click to expand...
Ok count on me doing that Jeep for you driveable and I will send you the file you can include there is permission to do that. I know there's no real hurry. I am doing a special Alaska Airlines repaint that I will share here down the road as it gets further.
 
Thank you Sir. This Tower has a story to it;

This is the tower I remember from my time at Wheelus, however after chatting with a controller that was there at the same time, there was a newer tower. Only problem is that the only pic of that tower is about the size of a postage stamp and impossible to see any detail other than the fact that it's a Tower, lol. Because of that. . .and because I like this tower better anyway, this is the one that will grace the scenery.

You can probably tell there is an alignment problem with the stripes. Because the tower is multifaceted each plane must be textured individually and getting each plane to line up is proving difficult (but not impossible). I'll get it done eventually.

Wheelus_Tower by Ed Wells, on Flickr
 
One thing that drags this out significantly is not building the objects. . .it's cross checking the current layout with what it looked like prior to the takeover. There are numerous new buildings and changes in landscape that were never there before and so figuring out where specific buildings should be placed and then adjusting the ground texture to remove and tweak to look correct or as close as possible is a bit daunting. In the end I want it to be as accurate as possible, but also realizing that it would be slim to none that anyone would have been there in the first place.

I belong to several Wheelus Facebook sites and they've been a major help in locating pics and remembering where certain buildings were located. . .but no one I've ever run across in those sites is familiar with Flight Simulations. They know of it, but beyond that. . .nada, lol. So the reality is that whatever I end up producing, I'll probably be the only person who knows the base.
 
I dont post much here these days, but im really looking forward to this project, My local airfield,RAF Manston was home to USAF units untill 1958, and Wheelus was a regular destination for gunnery practice by Manston units. Looking forward to some long flights south from SE England, maybe stopping off at Luqa for a beer :encouragement:
 
ian elliot said:
I don't post much here these days, but I'm really looking forward to this project, My local airfield,RAF Manston was home to USAF units until 1958, and Wheelus was a regular destination for gunnery practice by Manston units. Looking forward to some long flights south from SE England, maybe stopping off at Luqa for a beer :encouragement:
Click to expand...

Thanks Ian, I'm doing my best to get it completed.
 
I can assure you Ed you have my full attention as well. However I had to google the airfield as I was completely unaware of its existence.

Like most of us here I grew up during the cold war and from my viewpoint now, it is amazing how much infrastructure was build during this period. While in my youth it was just normal....

Cheers,
Huub
 
Well, I may have painted myself into a corner here, lol

This is the current extent of what I've accomplished. If I am honest, this also represents about half of what I had planned on including in the scenery when completed. The problem is that I think I might be reaching the limits of my system because those F-100's you see on the flightline turn black when I get too close. This suggests (I think) that my graphics card is being taxed and if that's the case then anything else I add will only exacerbate the situation. I had big plans to add the theater, NCO Club, Officers Club, Terminal, Base Ops and so on. If I'm right about the graphics card, none of that will happen. Ughh!!

Wheelus_9_28 by Ed Wells, on Flickr
 
F-100s or scenery

It's always a decision to make. When I finished NAS Alameda all who had been following me said how fantastic it was. But then, many said it was a frame hog. I did not know back then how to use "Clean-up" in Sketchup either to remove all those pesky triangles from it before its exported for MDCx.

I believe that you have accomplished as fantastic a scenery here with Wheelus AFB. There are all kinds of freeware and payware that is great,l but the military bases have long been neglected.

I am going to suggest that you add the buildings you want and make the F-100's ai a separate folder that can be added or not by the user. Also the same for the sound files. The end-user can decide based on their system capabilities. I don't have a powerful game system either and that is what I did. Its your decision in the end.
 
Outstanding work, Ed! It makes me wish I had a system that could run FSX well, as opposed to just running it! :banghead:

I wasn't aware that Sketchup had a function that could clean up the scenery object, but it makes sense since GMAX has something similar if I'm not mistaken. For GMAX I think it's "smoothing", but I may be mistaken.

Another option (though VERY time consuming) would be to make Levels of Detail (LOD's) for the objects. I can't remember if FSX handles them the same way as CFS2/FS9 did, but it may be an option.

Also, if you use one texture sheet per object as opposed to several sheets for one object, then it will reduce the "drawcalls" for the sim as well. You can do all the drawcall stuff with MCX. It won't be the same as if you did it prior to applying the textures to the object in Sketchup, but at least it will lower the need for computer power since the system will be calling up one or two textures as opposed to a dozen.

Since FSX can handle up to 2048x2048, you can have a better option of reducing the number of textures than you would when using the MCX function for FS9 since that one only goes up to 1024x1024. By using 2048 you can "stuff" more textures as pieces onto a single sheet - almost 4x as many.

If you model the LOD's individually in Sketchup, you can then add them one by one in MCX using it's LOD editor.

You also have an option to use the "auto" function MCX has and have it do it for you. In that case you just run the models you have through the MCX function and won't have to make the LOD's yourself, but you'll sometimes get some strange looking shapes as a result - especially with the lower LOD's.

It's definitely a wonderful project, Ed. Let me know if some of the tricks I've learned recently can help. They're meant for FS9, but FSX shouldn't be too far off. I'd be more than happy to share! :encouragement:

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
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