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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

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Photoreal Scenery, Vegetation & AI for FSX

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Falcon, Mark and Daube...great comments.

The free downloads from ORBX do contain a large object archive. When I purchase an ORBX library now, half the motivation is to see what goodies are in the box. The use of the "free" libraries for scenery development could be justified i suppose. I'll contact them and get their views on this. This is an issue of intellectual property and ethics.

The concept of an ORBX "friendly" airport addresses this in part. The info is embeded in the file without placing an ORBX .blg or sheets in the library. The airport just points the guids to files already purchased by the end user.

Marks comment gives me an idea. If those interested wanted to go to their local airport and take clean photos for the texture sets, a large library could be developed quickly. The criteria would be easy to establish. The larger task would be to extract the buildings from their backgrounds in Photoshop. For the most part that would be relatively easy as buildings tend to have straight edges and are easy to mask.

When I design in 3D I take a screen snapshot of the scaled wireframe building and use that as the blueprint in Photoshop for my textures. Using a method similar to this could establish a common "calibration" benchmark.

Military AI Works is a good example of group contribution development. Their archives are large and the quality of the work is consistent. SOH is, of course, the best example I can point to. The contributors here are the most talented people in the industry.
If there was a genuine interest in developing an archive of royalty free objects it could certainly be done here.
I’m just thinking out loud here…any thoughts?
 
First off, nice job on enhancing the airports, been doing this exact thing for awhile for airports in ORBX regions for personal use for awhile. I find the non payware airports, while spruced up, still look bland and mismatched and I usually find a good photoreal to replace them with and a few good object selections from the ORBX library also.

As for a developers kit, while they would get sales from the kit, I totally believe it would hurt their sales on airport packages. I am really surprised they haven't found a way to lock BGLs so that their assets couldn't be used outside of the area they are used for, it's what I would do in this small market.
 
Actually, I would like to see Orbx release an "airport" improvement app, that would allow users of Orbx products to enhance the airports within the Orbx areas that they aren't going to make payware packages for; i.e.-turn Orbx users into periphery developers, but anything you "export" for uploading and sharing at a site they create would have your specific account code attached so they knew it wasn't pirated. Because once they release FTX Global, there are going to be a world of airports that need updating, many that they will never do themselves. It would be great to have a way to upgrade them further to something between the LOD of their basic upgraded airfields and their payware releases.

Having said that, thanks for all of the "how to's" in this thread. There's another developer making an add on field that Orbx actually brought on board after seeing his excellent work. I'm trying to follow what he is doing in his development thread located at the link below.

5S0 Oakridge State
 
When I shut down/re-tasked my software company (due to piracy), I re-vamped my business model. I hosted my intellectual property on my own server and effectively would license the designs through a third party. In this case it was intended to be 3M & General Motors...but GM moved to China and I didn't necessarily want to move to Bejing.

ORBX could host their scenery objects on their own servers and create a subscription based asset library. Once they have a world wide coverage area (I assume this is the intent) their lisence would be universal in FSX. From that point the subscription would allow the use of the whole of the assets anywhere, anytime for one licensing fee paid via the subscription. Problem solved. There would be no need to code the individual assets against piracy. The parent ORBX software could be coded to activate the art only within it's own environment.

REX usses this approach and it works fine. Of course REX delivers the art with the package but they could just as easily keep the art at home and populate FSX during setup via internet. It would eliminate the 9 gig downloads and headaches associated with upgrades. (I had a helluva time with my download...corruping the files. Reed finally sent me a personal disk copy. Awesome customer service.)


In the meantime...sharing design ideas here is what we have to work with now. I'm looking forward to everyone's contributions.

BTW thanks for the positive feedback on my projects. Tipella was my first attempt at building an airport.
 
Rather than tread on ORBX toes, I have begun to develop my own scenery. I am begining with trees and ground cover, but will move on to buildings also. If anyone would be interested in helping with beta please contact me here. I'll do the work, I'm just looking for input and feedback. I've run these in my system and have no negative impact on frame rates or any other buggers.

In the photos below, the trees and large bushes are my designs. The grasses are ORBX and are added for effect. I will soon have my own grasses finalized. The airport is Bryant 057, Bridgeport CA....a WIP.
 
are there any plans to do an FS9 version?
That shouldn't take too much extra work - just run the object libraries through ModelConverterX and compile an FS9 version of the phototerrain.
(I'm running the ORBX KHQM, 2S1, 4WA8, and 7WA3 in FS9 - minus the phototerrain and the sounds - just fine. The AFCAD took some tweaking and the sounds and phototerrain didn't convert - but that is because I don't have the source files for those! ModelConverterX took care of the rest.)
 
EMatheson said:
are there any plans to do an FS9 version?
Click to expand...

I'm sure I would want to do an FS9 set as well. I've been thinking about this for a while. I've been huddled in the back room working on the art. I've got the parameters pretty well developed, the rest is just design...and a lot of it. I am concentrating on ground cover first, then moving into different categories of trees and brush. This will take a while, but I will post updates along the way.

There is an album on my page...I'll be adding new screens. I'm using Bryant 057 as my testbed.
Bryant is a WIP...the screens below are progress shots. One thing I'll be doing for sure is creating an asphalt/dirt transition to soften the edges of the runways. That always makes me nuts, so I'm going to fix it.


Thanks Falcon for the attaboy. I've been burning the candle on this art...nice to know it's appreciated.

G
 
Copy that...

I think I could post up Tipella now.

KMMH, KBIH and Bryant 057 need a bit of tidying up, but I'd be glad to share the work I did on these three. I've done all of the buildings for the first two. Bryant is almost finished.
 
Scenery enhancements at CBB7 Tipella I did using ORBX scenery libraries. ORBX doesn't offer this airport as a standalone addon yet, but you can see what enhancements can be added fairly easily using native ORBX files. This particular airstrip was made using AFX & Instant Scenery2 (details above).

I've featured Milton's Dash 7 as a thank you for introducing me to this great location. He dropped the challenge to learn this approach. I liked the airstrip so much I had to spruce it up a bit. Pardon the video quality, I'm operating at the upper threshold of my system and some of the shots are a bit choppy.

The short flight is flown "dirty" at pattern speed and altitude. Enjoy.

 
richoday said:
Nice work Gman, do you plan on selling your works or will it be freewre?
Click to expand...

The scenery I am developing will available as beta to anyone who wishes to use it. I'm still refining a basic library of ground cover and trees. I'll notice this thread when it is ready for use. (soon)

I really can't say what I will do yet with the finished art. There is certainly a niche for this kind of product so I will have to give it some consideration. I'm trying to take my FSX environment to as close to photoreal as I can get. The beautiful environments that occur spontaneously in this software sometimes leave me mystified.

WIP: My backyard
O57 Bryant Field: Bridgeport, CA
 
gman5250 said:
The scenery I am developing will available as beta to anyone who wishes to use it. I'm still refining a basic library of ground cover and trees. I'll notice this thread when it is ready for use. (soon)

I really can't say what I will do yet with the finished art. There is certainly a niche for this kind of product so I will have to give it some consideration. I'm trying to take my FSX environment to as close to photoreal as I can get. The beautiful environments that occur spontaneously in this software sometimes leave me mystified.
Click to expand...

Exactly... beautiful work "G"!!! ;)
 
OK, a few things;

1) Cool videos.
2) Nice Landings.
3) This makes me want to find an airfield to upgrade.

There is one I know I would like to upgrade, but I think it would require a lot of building upgrades as well.
 
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