NZFF

Hey guys. New forum user here. Hopefully I am in a better place for scenery design than some of the other forums I belong to.

My current computer/budget prevent me from running FSX in any shape or form. I'm ok on FS9 but would rather have a smooth frame rate and less visual detail than the other way around, particularly when you do a lot of VFR helo flights as I enjoy.

I'm looking at developing some scenery add-ons for NZ, but the whole 'FSX' thing is a bit of an unknown.

How is the accuracy of the default airports in New Zealand under FSX compared to FS9? Are they much better, or do we still have runways stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no taxiways for some places? Do we still have grass taxiways modeled as seal taxiways? How about Kerikeri (NZKK) - have they moved the fuel pump from off the runway yet?

What about instrument approaches? We have a lot of GNSS approaches in real life nowadays. Are these modeled in the default FSX scenery? FS9 included GPS approaches for very few NZ airports.

I have two projects I could embark upon, both involving enhancements to NZ default scenery. I'm just not sure which way I should head, given that I don't want to reproduce what's already been done in FSX.


Finally, I'd appreciate some thoughts on the 'payware vs freeware' perspective, from a scenery developer's point of view.

Thanks
Richard

I'm going to jump right in and predict that NZ may skip a generation of FS as regards in-depth scenery.
FS9 is a well-resourced bit of kit, and I haven't seen any scenery for NZ that looks so much better in FSX that I'd want to abandon FS9.
Look here,and you'll see that there is not enough time in the FSX product's life to play catch up, on the freeware side.
As far as payware is concerned, you have to hope that FSXI will use the same graphics engine as X, otherwise you will spend a great deal of time on a very short product life cycle.
I'd say a smart move would be to do scenery for FS9 with a "suitable for FSX" tag.
And what NZ FSX needs more than any bits of airport, is a decent set of landclass/textures.
Big ask.
Good grief, I'm on a soapbox...
(Gets off, leaves quietly.)

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Nov 17 2007, 07:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And what NZ FSX needs more than any bits of airport, is a decent set of landclass/textures.
Big ask.
Good grief, I'm on a soapbox...
(Gets off, leaves quietly.)

This is all really good to hear. I'm always mindful of the 'legacy folk' who stick to n-1 (where n = the latest product). There will always be those at the cutting edge who have to have the latest, but I think there are still going to be FS9 users out there for a long time.

Don't worry about the soapbox, you should see me on mine some days! I've had a decent look at the freeware list, as well as those airports popping up on the forums. It's very impressive stuff. I've done some basic ground-only AFCADs, but haven't done anything with custom objects - it's all just been using the default objects. I think I'll leave airports for those out there who already are working on them.

From a VFR pilot's perspective, what is needed for NZ I think are some better autogen textures as well as more accurate variation in ground scenery polygons. It's amazing how increasing the accuracy of things like that really change the overall 'feel' of a built-up area. The locations of roads/rivers/utilities/railroads etc are pretty awful in stock FS9, and the textures used for each are pretty shocking too. Whoever mapped roads must have decided that we have 4-lane highways here!

From an IFR pilot's perspective, things are totally different. You have the airspace that, by way of how this behaves in real life, will almost always be out of date. I know you can buy/download airspace updates for many of the payware aircraft, but this doesn't help with the stock FS birds. That's probably the area I'd like to work on. It's not really an 'oooh aaahhh' thing to improve, but it sure makes flying more realistic.

Still, these are all relative criticisms since it wasn't so long ago that "New Zealand scenery" for FS meant an artificial offshore island off the coast of Florida (back when the sim didn't extent outside of the US)!