Postcards From New Zealand

[Charl]

Following on from the Google Earth GUI database idea I thought I might start an ongoing photo essay with those sceneries.
It occurred to me that I've never had a full NZ install - always bits and pieces, betas, whatever.
Although there has been a similar thread before, this one is built around a new texture set, and presumably, the final product.
So: Pick an airport, a plane, a season...

North Shore is my "home" airfield, so I thought I'd check it out.
Bottom pic is GE Streetview, and sure enough, that's exactly what you see if you stop at the main parking lot in Postman Road!



...and a little more logically, starting from the bottom:

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Charl , I'm going to have a look a this in the Morrow

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE

this one is built around a new texture set[/quote]

That's always a tantalising statement. Care to enlighten us further?

[Ian Warren]

Jeeper s Invercargill lot busier since i was last there ....

[Charl]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jan 18 2011, 12:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jeeper s Invercargill lot busier since i was last there ....

Darn statics, using up all the real estate...

QUOTE (ZK-LGD @ Jan 18 2011, 12:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's always a tantalising statement. Care to enlighten us further?

This time, it's a mostly payware mix:
Flight Environment
GE Pro
AS 6.5
Pablo Diaz photoreal sky and cloud, and various other freeware bits, like ORBX grass.

I actually made up an entirely freeware sim a while back, and it looked pretty good.
There's enough FS9 stuff to keep a tinkerer happy for many an hour.

Now, moving up the coast a little, and making use of Adamski's excellent aircraft database to pick the plane

[ZK-LGD]

Thanks, Charl.

Myself, always had a problem with GE Pro and NZ scenery ... way too many trees were growing in Snowman's regional airfields and required a ton of excludes to get rid of them. Secondly, the scenery between NZDN and NZHR was way too regimented/tile-like and bore little/no resmeblance to what it is supposed to look like (for example: Heath's photoreal Timaru).

Have also tried the FSScene textures ... and was singularly unimpressed.

Nowadays, running a bog-standard (ground) texture set (with the exception of Zinnertek water) and the VOZ 1.8 terrain.cfg (gets rid of Lake/River wave motion).

Will watch with extreme interest as you continue your journey northwards.

[nzropilot]

Nice. I especially like the NZDN one

[mavman]

I think Charl should be crowned 'screenshot King!'. Fantastic, I too look forward to your postcards as you travel up the country!

[Charl]

Thanks, we have a wee way to go yet...
Moving a little further north, inland.
There is a photoreal background for this, but just out of interest I didn't enable it, to see how the generic texture set fared:

[Ian Warren]

Peters Queenstown has aged well , Great screens Charl , not using the photo seemed to work

[Charl]

Peter's stuff is great...more about that when we get up to Mt Cook.
A little west now (and in fact Peter made a start on this one but sadly couldn't finish it).
Luckily there is a Snowman scenery ready and waiting:

[Ian Warren]

Its good to see at this site - http://www.freewarescenery.com/fs2004.html covering the world , FS9/FSX , New Zealand almost sits on a pinacle above the rest , so many great freewares available .

[Charl]

Agreed, Best Scenery Resource, some links need fixing. As I go along I'll email Robert-Jan.

From Milford (True test of the sim's mesh/landclass/texture set)



setting off for Wanaka, I always find myself drawn down to Glenorchy, and along Lake Wakatipu



back over NZQN



and over Arrowtown, picking up the road, dropping off at Wanaka



No postcard from here, it's possibly the most screenshot bit of NZ... but maybe some clips from the past:

[Naki]

wow great stuff!..don't how you do it (lots of time and patience?)

I would imagine trying to do videos like this in FSX on my PC would be a framerate killer.

[Ian Warren]

I always do like your movies Charl , 1985 , i did see the Newman,s Air Dash7 flung around the sky like that pre-introduction to the airline , the airshow .. yip that,s Wanaka alright

[Charl]

... (lots of time and patience?)...

Sometimes it comes together more quickly...
Digressing slightly, but still at Wanaka:

[Ian Warren]

The Ole Wanaka Cross or the Arrow threw the Heart

[Charl]

Milton Shupe's Dash7 is an all-time favourite



and since we have Markus' excellent NZ repaint, I thought I'd go a little retro with it



(Seems to be a popular visiting spot this week)

[Charl]

QUOTE (ZK-LGD @ Jan 18 2011, 10:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Myself, always had a problem with GE Pro and NZ scenery ... way too many trees were growing in Snowman's regional airfields and required a ton of excludes to get rid of them. Secondly, the scenery between NZDN and NZHR was way too regimented/tile-like and bore little/no resmeblance to what it is supposed to look like (for example: Heath's photoreal Timaru)...

That would be a landclass issue.
Here's GE Pro sitting on Christian's topo:



...and on to Timaru



I suspect I still have custom AFCAD textures, which made for an "interesting" apron.
Stock AFCAD:

[AlisterC]

Keep it up Charl, I'm enjoying these. Good old FS9!