Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:59 pmDid you ever wonder why we are all so small when we are born?
There are a lot of very good reasons -- we are easy to carry around, we don't eat a lot of the tribe's resources before we can contribute, and bath-time is a lot easier.
Sometimes starting out small is the best way to go. It's been almost a year since Christian's 'I have a dream' speech, and a year is a long time in flightsim -- about 20 human years. The problem is it's difficult to jump in when you know to have to do EVERYTHING, so I thought in 2009 we might try a different tack, and start small.
One project which I've always wanted is a local autogen texture set -- the default autogen buildings are already pretty unnatural looking, and the fact that it looks like some other country's unnatural buildings doesn't help either.
This week I saw this on Avsim -- FSX Enhanced Autogen Word (sic), which is an autogen 'enhancement'. From a quick look, there've merely boosted the contrast of the default autogen textures, but the overall effect is good. It did remind me that this is one area which could definitely do with an improvement in NZ, though.
I could do this myself, but frankly I'd have to charge for it. In 2009 I'll have to spend less time on freeware projects, if I believe what I hear from the doom and gloom merchants, and I think I do believe them. There hasn't been a lot of money made in scenery development in 2008, and 2009 will be a lot tougher.
So I'm just putting it out as an idea for a small project for someone to get stuck into. I can help a lot, and maybe it's a good job for a team.
Some initial thoughts:
To make things clear, I'm talking about a new set of autogen building textures showing real Kiwi houses and buildings, made from photos of real Kiwi houses and buildings. VOZ did this for Australia, and this is one of the aspects of what Orbx do for Australia with their payware scenery.
I'm talking textures only, which means that the shapes will stay the same. We'll still have far too many double-storey houses, and funny roofs.
Trees can be simpler or more difficult, depending on your skills, so these are optional.
When I said that this was a small project, I may have underestimated the work involved. Or not. Just determining what sort of buildings to show may take a month or three, figuring out how the autogen works, then there's the photography, tidying them up, converting to textures, testing etc.
I'm not too interested in a FS2004 version, since I no longer use it, but the principle is the same for both versions.
Any takers?
There are a lot of very good reasons -- we are easy to carry around, we don't eat a lot of the tribe's resources before we can contribute, and bath-time is a lot easier.
Sometimes starting out small is the best way to go. It's been almost a year since Christian's 'I have a dream' speech, and a year is a long time in flightsim -- about 20 human years. The problem is it's difficult to jump in when you know to have to do EVERYTHING, so I thought in 2009 we might try a different tack, and start small.
One project which I've always wanted is a local autogen texture set -- the default autogen buildings are already pretty unnatural looking, and the fact that it looks like some other country's unnatural buildings doesn't help either.
This week I saw this on Avsim -- FSX Enhanced Autogen Word (sic), which is an autogen 'enhancement'. From a quick look, there've merely boosted the contrast of the default autogen textures, but the overall effect is good. It did remind me that this is one area which could definitely do with an improvement in NZ, though.
I could do this myself, but frankly I'd have to charge for it. In 2009 I'll have to spend less time on freeware projects, if I believe what I hear from the doom and gloom merchants, and I think I do believe them. There hasn't been a lot of money made in scenery development in 2008, and 2009 will be a lot tougher.
So I'm just putting it out as an idea for a small project for someone to get stuck into. I can help a lot, and maybe it's a good job for a team.
Some initial thoughts:
To make things clear, I'm talking about a new set of autogen building textures showing real Kiwi houses and buildings, made from photos of real Kiwi houses and buildings. VOZ did this for Australia, and this is one of the aspects of what Orbx do for Australia with their payware scenery.
I'm talking textures only, which means that the shapes will stay the same. We'll still have far too many double-storey houses, and funny roofs.
Trees can be simpler or more difficult, depending on your skills, so these are optional.
When I said that this was a small project, I may have underestimated the work involved. Or not. Just determining what sort of buildings to show may take a month or three, figuring out how the autogen works, then there's the photography, tidying them up, converting to textures, testing etc.
I'm not too interested in a FS2004 version, since I no longer use it, but the principle is the same for both versions.
Any takers?
