NZFF

Haven't flown in FSX for a while, though inspired by the Milk Run Mondays of VATSIM, here are some pics of the Overnight Freight Run Thursday from Christchurch to Auckland, flown late at night when the airspace in NZ is remote apart from a few aircraft coming in or leaving, in a Toll Boeing 737-800 freighter. The weather implemented here were user defined weather, according to data from NOAA as the FSX real world weather system is a disaster.

The cargo onboard varies from Christmas presents, to Mail, to Packages, to food and drink products, to Plants, etc.

Now, to the pictures

At the cargo ramp at NZCH, preparing for the flight up to Auckland.


Finished loading cargo and refueling, ready to go.


Firing up the engines for the 1 hour journey, Flaps configured for takeoff.


Taxiing past the terminal to runway 02,


Holding short of runway 02


Cleared for takeoff by ATC.


We're Airborne! V2, gear up


Turning to the direct route to Auckland, Flaps retracted.


Climbing through the clouds


Reached our cruising altitude of FL320


Over Nelson


Near the Taranaki Region


Commencing our descent into Auckland, being vectored for the Cat III ILS runway 23L approach by ATC.


Maintaining 3,000ft as we await the Approach Clearance, but decided to go visual as the weather is fine enough.


Runway in sight, Gear Down, Flaps going down, Cleared to land by ATC.


We're back on the ground now, Spoilers raised, reverse thrust kicked in, manual braking.


Off the runway into high speed taxiway A6, normal thrust, spoilers and flaps retracted.


Taxiing on taxiway B (Former runway 05L-23R) and in the background, a Singapore 777 (SQ282) taking off on runway 23L


Nearing the Airwork Hangar, past the domestic apron.


Parked in the Airwork Hangar, engines cut, cargo doors open. Cargo now unloading.



Zain.

Not looking good Zain , cant see a bloody thing .. night screens really don't work for most

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Dec 12 2014,2:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not looking good Zain , cant see a bloody thing .. night screens really don't work for most

I think you are joking around Ian

For some reason, there is a bit of blur as I converted these pics to JPEG format using Paint, the quality doesn't quite look like the Bitmap pics fresh from the sim.

p.s I don't have Photoshop, so yeah

Night shots from a package and in default settings, they are one off the worst areas to step into ... and even with all the fancy scenery programs and art tools/photo-shop won't fix most of it .

Hey Zain. Nice flight I'm sure, but I can't see anything either. Maybe you have you monitor setup differently to us?
Which machine is the repaint for? MS default or PMDG? There are a couple of Toll repaints for the 737-300s (real world Toll) about, both for the Vistaliner model (free) and the Feelthere/Wilco

Same here , basically 20 almost black screens and I've looked at it on 3 machines to be fair.
I would suggest , if you must do night shots , keep it in the cockpit Zain , otherwise its a waste of bandwidth for everyone.

Night , and rain .... in fsx just dont work .... well night may , if you have good background lighting.

I have been trying for years to get a good night shot for the comp, and only ever got one usable one. Saw some great things in the sim, but the bmp captures were always darker than what I had just seen, and after using Irfan View to Resize & Sharpen before saving as a jpg, they were just as dark, and the smaller size seems to make them look worse.
Might be worth experimenting in the Dusk period, between early and late, before it goes to full Night, to see if there's a sweet spot - but I suspect it is an FSX bug.

I see now. Maybe a apparent bug with FSX might be something to do with these shots being almost black.

This leaves me with a question here, Does either ActiveSky Next or REX solve these issues with default FSX graphics?

zk2704 wrote:

QUOTE (zk2704 @ Dec 12 2014,8:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see now. Maybe a apparent bug with FSX might be something to do with these shots being almost black.

This leaves me with a question here, Does either ActiveSky Next or REX solve these issues with default FSX graphics?

Not that i can see mate , but keep at it .... who knows , you maybe the one who masters the night shot .

I can see the pics just fine... I have little issues screening at night, but then i do also tend to use PS and the curve & exposure adjustments to bring up images. But then i also do screen during dawn/dusk periods too as there are better colours

I can see the plane in every one of them, they are not just blank black. The logo light seems to have faded the colours on the tailfin, but taxiway/runway lights show up well, aircraft taxi/landing lights less good.
It is almost as if FSX is adding a dark tint to the view windows, instead of darkening the scenery, if you see wot I mean.
IRL, at night you can tell land from sea if the Moon is illuminating the sea (or snow), but the land is always flat black, with only town/airport lights visible.
In the sim at night, with no Moon, you can still see ground texture colours, which is handy, but definitely not realistic.

First, Let us see this as a Test. Night lightning in a good picture is not easy. And this here is made with the things on board and not with much extras, like mine... And is is a thing to think little bit. How can i use the options oft the scenery?
I like the effect of the headlights.

Here for example are 2 screens from the approchach at Las Vegas. Not: these shoots looking good from a greater hight,, not under 3000 ft. If you make a screen from the cockpit, use an aircraft, that have a nice cockpit-light. Maybee you can use schadows... Look, that at your scrren is enouth light.






This is another screen from a Kamov Helix over the streets near ULLI St. Petersburg Pulkovo by night. You can see, it is very dark but the street-lights are enough that we can see the heli and a bit of the ground.

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Zain, this is not magic. Every virtual pilot can made those pictures. It is only a bit experience.

These picture are "out of the sim" and not modified. I have P3DV2 in use. But, FSX in DX-10 Mode with Steve´s scenery fixer can render the same effects. With DX9 I have not so good results.

Its funny really , most all the simulators (industrial real McCoys) ... the 30 plus years ago were black and white screens ... Arr the 'tricky tricksters', having the motion and telling the brain this is real was a real as you could get , now look at us .... Soooo spoiled for choice

Yes Ian. You know, I am from the eastern side of Germany .. The first thing I brought with the new DM "Deutsche Mark" after the reform... on 15. August 1990 was a PC with MS-DOS 3.3 and Microsoft Works... Wow. But... this was for work. And for fun i got the Microsoft Flight Simulator 4, brandnew in this time. And with the "famous" Hercules-Grafic-Board, it was Black and wihite... and much fantasy.

hasegawa wrote:

QUOTE (hasegawa @ Dec 14 2014,1:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

.. on 15. August 1990 was a PC with MS-DOS 3.3 and Microsoft Works... Wow. But... this was for work. And for fun i got the Microsoft Flight Simulator 4

WOWL ... MS-DOS 3.3 and to really take 'the wrinkles outta ya shorts' ... Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 to boot ... So so Cool

hasegawa wrote:

QUOTE (hasegawa @ Dec 14 2014,4:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First, Let us see this as a Test. Night lightning in a good picture is not easy.

Fabulous examples, very nice. And yes very tricky.
Could be a challenging theme for the next screenie comp?