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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

WIP: FSX Solomon 1943 -- long --

Update

Just want to feed some progress information in the thread.

I learned a lesson - don't make time confessions. I totally underestimated the time it takes to design coastlines and islands (no wonder, I have never done this before). My goal is to present the Solomons as "VFR" capable as possible, since this was the way pilots mostly flew in 1943. that means that all those little island must be there, as well as the correct coastlines.

I attached 2 images of the project from my SBuilderX screen. One shows how far I am with New Georgia. All the green lines need to be added with coast lines...oh well... And the other image is a close up if the Segi area. Note the detail and all the little islands...

The other three images are 1. what Segi looks original in 1943, 2. what Segi looks in default FSX, and 3. what you can expect with the first release of FSX Solomon 1943. Note the similarities between the 1943 image and my version. I'm giving my best :)

Sorry it takes more time than I anticipated.

Cheers,
Mark
 
roger, that is fanb****ytastic! :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: If you ever need custom scenery objects for the airfields etc feel free to shout up!
 
Man, no need to apologize for your work. Just take your time and enjoy it. It's done when it's done, no need to burn yourself out over it. It's looking great.:salute:
 
New Status

Just a little WIP - information:

Yesterday I completed drawing the coastlines for the project. This whole thing is a full blown scenery project now. It covers the Solomon islands from way down at the Rennell - Islands up to __and__ all of Bougainville / Buka! Here is my island table (the number represents the number of islands drawn in this section):


Bougainville: 49
Florida Group: 29
Russell Group: 50
Choiseul : 64
Malaita: 35
Santa Isabel North: 73
Santa Isabel South: 16
Guadalcanal Province: 26
Renell: 3
San Cristobal: 16
New Georgia Eastern Chain: 107
New Georgia: 70
Fauro Group: 30
Mono-Stirling: 7
Shortland Group: 23
Vella Lavella Group: 28
Kolombangara + Ghizo: 19
Rendova: 22
------------------------------------------
Total: 667
　
That means I drew 667 islands in three weeks. My right forearm seems to look like Popeye's, and I swear I could lift a car with my right index finger. But I'm in the "git 'r done" mode, I want to finish this thing in a reasonable timeframe.
Now I have to make numerous small corrections, adapt most of the airfields to the new coastlines, make the new landclasses, make new waterclasses, and so on.

To give you an idea of the complexity of the scenery I attached a picture of the northern Santa-Isabel group. This scenery is so complex the I had to split it because SBuilderX, the software I use for scenerydesign, got overloaded (happened a few times, not good, can trash the project file).

Hang on!

Cheers,
Mark
 
Ooh, this is looking so good!

If I can contribute with any period repaints, please tell me.
B-24, B-25, PBY, F4U, F6F etc
 
This is partly a friendly "bump" and also to report some initial findings testing a few period AI aircraft in the region.

Like with AI ships (e.g. USIO's), there are unfortunately a number of potential AI aircraft candidates modelled in CFS2 that would fit well historically but do not show up in the FSX format. I have tried various CFS2 aircraft - B-25, B-24/PB4Y-1, Paul Straney's Hudson, SBD, etc and as expected I got the error message - "model could not be visualized".

What has worked are some of the Donationware FDG2 planes found here: F4F; B-25J; F4U - including the Birdcage F4U-1 squadrons that were the first operational Corsairs to arrive in the Solomons. DCC's P-38 works too. Have not got too much farther than that and only made a few test traffic schedules due to the limited parking of the default airfields, the exception being Jim's great Vella scenery where I have supplemented the static a/c with a few F4U-1's which do touch and goes and all looks and works great. Ditto Ian's Camp Banjo airfield and David's Solomon carrier tracks and ships - that has really added a much needed bit of atmosphere to the place.

Am trying to avoid payware but expect many will have the payware Hellcat/SBD etc and want to add those planes accordingly. A real coup is having the IRIS P-40 which recently became freeware - thank you IRIS! - and I have populated Munda with some RNZAF P-40N's which look good. Just need to grab the dds prop texture from one of Jankees' paints and it ports well (for AI and flying IMHO) into FSX.

Will keep experimenting and reporting back.

expat
 
@ expat: this is great news! :) I also experimented with CFS2 objects, but no luck, I get the same error like you. I even strayed to the IL2 corner, where you can get the models / meshes of most of the ships openly. There seems to be a conversion path to import them into GMAX and one might be able to recompile them with the FSX SDK module, but my first tests where unsuccessful. I must admit that I'm not very firm in GMAX, expecially with that voodoo thing with texture maps, and am too busy with the rest of the scenery project.
I also tried to contact Usio and asked him if it would be possible to recompile the GMAX CFS2 ships with the FSX sdk, but I got no answer. Oh well.

@ Jan Kees: thanks for the offer! There come to my mind:

- a F4U from the Black sheep squadron
- a F6F
- a A2A B-17
- Alphas B24
- Vertigos SBD, but there is already a Solomon livery (PutPut)
- a weathered and battered C47 would be nice , there's the image of "Margie" for example, see picture. Unfortunatly I don't know the unit exactly, only that it's USMC


Now, that I'm here already, what's the actual status of the project? So far, this week I finished the new waterclass part, which was very tedious, but rewarding. It gets rid of those huge blotches of coral reef undergrounds with their annoying repetitive patterns. I tried to model the waterclass after satellite images, and despite the very coarse QMID pattern, which it is bound to, it showed up quite nicely. Then I redrew the landclass of all islands for the third time, and now start to mop up small irregularities like rivers or streets that show up in the ocean (from the revised coastlines), wrong direction of coastlines, and so on. Ahhh, I also added a few naval sites and PT boat bases. That will continue for one or two weeks. After that I will go over the airfields with some cosmetics and then I'll release this thing finally. Way to go.


Cheers,
Mark
 
Outstanding work Mark! I can't wait for this to complete ... in the mean time I'll be looking into some of the other "enhancers" you mentioned.

MCDesigns said:
Oustanding work Mark, very impressive! one of my projects was to do some airfields like this also. I did a collection of WWII objects and scenery for the donationware corsair project here for FS9. It's been my intention to recompile them for FSX and do a series or WWII airfields also focusing on as realistic visual experience as possible since Combat really isn't an option, at least not with my knowledge. My first airport was Munda based of some good photoreal data (see below) and my plans for the area was to redraw all the islands to more correct and realistic.

It's very obvious you have much more data (and time, LOL) to work with and your package is much more accurate than what mine would have been, well done!! I look forward to enjoying your work, it looks great!

Landclass is a easy fix, stiz has a good change in the library here that makes the Solomons more jungle.

View attachment 739
Click to expand...

Just recompile those scenery items from that corsair pack to FSX and I'd be very happy! ;)
 
roger-wilco-66 said:
@ Jan Kees: thanks for the offer! There come to my mind:

- a F4U from the Black sheep squadron
- a F6F
- a A2A B-17
- Alphas B24
- Vertigos SBD, but there is already a Solomon livery (PutPut)
- a weathered and battered C47 would be nice , there's the image of "Margie" for example, see picture. Unfortunatly I don't know the unit exactly, only that it's USMC
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I'll be traveliing until mid june, but I'll see what I can do when I get back
 
I'm looking for ways to complement Mark's scenery work. We have a start now on boat traffic and repaints.

Is there someone who could work on ambient sounds for the different airfields? E.g., jungle sounds for inland, beach sounds for coastal, maybe a repair shed sound, or incoming mortars for Henderson?
 
FSX Solomon is Beta

FYI:

FSX Solomon 1943 has gone beta now. I hope there is not too much that needs corrections.



Cheers,
Mark
 
Unless it's outside your time frame slightly, HMS Victorious was around the Solomon Islands in 1943 operating with the USS Saratoga which I think was the only US carrier in the Pacific at that time.

After a refit in the United States at the Norfolk Navy Yard during the winter of 1942-43,
Victorious sailed through the Panama Canal to operate with the United States forces in the Pacific. During this time, the code name for the carrier was USS Robin, from the character "Robin Hood," as the US Navy was temporarily "poor" in carriers. In April 1943, Victorious sailed for Pearl Harbor to join Saratoga's Battle Group, at that time the only operational American carrier in the Pacific. Her operations in the South Pacific area were conducted in the Solomon Islands. During this time Victorious was home to US Navy fighter squadron VF-6, flying F4F Wildcats, as well as its own Wildcats of No. 832 Squadron (832 Squadron's Avengers were at this time detached to Saratoga). Between May and July, 1943, Victorious and Saratoga provided air support for Allied forces, including the invasion of New Georgia. In late 1943, Victorious returned to the UK, to the naval base at Scapa Flow.
 
g1f99059 said:
the amerincans first encountered j1n irving in the Solomon Island... there should be some of them somewhere :jump:
Click to expand...

hand me a FSX model of it, and I will place them Gekkos!
:)

@Rich: there is a FSX Victorious out there, see

http://www.flyingstations.com/victorious.html
or
http://www.fs-shipyards.org/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=251


Has anyone tried that, any opinions?

Maybe David / dswo can build a task force traffic file with it.
We would need a typical movement of such that carrier group through the Solomons for that, if anyone has some data on that he could post it here (Rich?) !


Cheers,
Mark
 
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