The next 'Real New Zealand' project

[MichaelBasler]

Thanks, Robin, for taking the time to elucidate. I wasn't aware it's that complicated. If it's not feasible to provide uninstallers, a possible way out might, perhaps, be a list of modified/renamed files outside the Godzone directory (which obviously depends on ORBX/VLC/Default as a base ...). This might be a bit tedious for the user to handle but would at least give a chance to find a way back, just in case.

If you ask me for a more general opinion, I would suggest continuing where you left before with the Real NZ approach, i.e. airports with an extended surrounding fitting nicely into the existing base, whatever it is. Nelson has been excellent in this way and I still enjoy a roundtrip from there through the Abel Tasman NP.

Besides, I would reconsider distribution via the FSS and/or Simmarket. They sure take their toll, but it will give your scenery a much larger audience. There js a similar case of a French developer making pretty smaller airports in the (Northern :-) Alps and distributing them via his own site exclusively and no one knows about them.

Kind regards, Michael

[toprob]

You've hit the nail on the head, Michael, I am aiming to go back to the original plan of steady 'Real NZ' airport releases, the Subscription was an interim project just to keep me producing, hopefully long enough to finish one 'Real NZ' airport, at least. Unfortunately that didn't quite work out, and things are still unstable enough to make me careful about announcing anything. Announcing NZDN doesn't mean that I won't go entirely broke before it is finished, but it does mean that it takes priority at the moment.

It would have been great to have the large-scale photoscenery running as a complementary project, but airports have to take precedence. The only reason why I haven't been able to release any airports recently is that they are expensive to produce, and my original 'investment' in the company was pretty much gone after my illness.

I have always been pleased with the results from SimMarket, there is a very nice customer base there, which was initially quite a surprise -- I've never been able to gain any traction in the Australian market, and I tend to sell into the US at the rate of about 1 sale a year:) But SimMarket has always been good to me. There's the wee issue of tax which complicates things -- it is cheaper for Europeans to buy direct from me, so they don't have added tax -- and it is sometimes the same for New Zealanders, GST here means that it can be cheaper to buy from Europe! However at the moment I don't pay GST, so it isn't quite as complicated as it could be. This will change though, once I get back to regular releases.

I will make a note about the uninstall issue -- but really, the Subscription isn't as complicated as most other scenery, and most 'hacks' are in the same locations:

• Scenery\World\Scenery has 'elevation stubs', and there can only be one per airport, so I disable Orbx stubs by renaming to .bak, whenever I add my own stub (*GZ*).
• Where possible, I'll 'exclude' other Orbx scenery without having to touch their files, but as this doesn't always work as intended, I need to disable some Orbx scenery files, by renaming them to .off.

Anything else tends to be either my own previous releases which need to be deactivated, or VLC airfields. It is hard to imagine someone wanting to go back to my earlier stuff, and VLC has a lovely system to disable VLC airfields -- there's an 'inactive' folder supplied, where stuff can just be shifted to deactivate it. So that's one other place to look, if you have VLC Airfields.
Some files are places outside the Godzone system, but these don't replace default or Orbx files, so they can be left -- and an uninstaller wouldn't be a good idea anyway. For example, there's the Godzone autogen house textures, (adapted from the Oceania textures released by me and Mike) but since these are used by nearly all my photoscenery, a single installer shouldn't remove them.

So for Orbx users who want to uninstall the Subscription, they should deactivate all the 'Godzone\' folders in the Scenery Library, locate all the 'GZ' stubs in Scenery\World\Scenery, and change all the FTX NZ files which I've renamed to .off in the FTX folders, and .bak in Scenery\World\Scenery, to the original .bgl extension.

The only other part is the Godzone Subscription Native Tree textures, which create their own backup of the original textures, which can be restored by running the installer again and choosing the restore function.

[MichaelBasler]

Thanks Robin for the extended reply, much acknowleged and good luck. Whatever you choose, count me as a customer for future NZ airports.

Kind regards, Michael

[AdrianPetford]

Rob, if you're in need of any reference material for Dunedin city buildings, Larnarch Castle, the peninsula or Taieri Gorge I have a few hundred photos you're welcome to use. They are not bang up to date (2009) but I doubt Dunedin is a place that changes that much.

Just let me know.

Cheers,


Ade

[Ian Warren]

Good on ya Hayden , one thing that really sticks for example , And always a hit.... is climb out off Wellington , regard this as a planning point tho the airport 'Dunedin' is a good distance away it has it really amazing Harbour and bay area is ideal for low level climb outs .

[toprob]

I'm glad that Ade brought up the 'climb out', this is one of the 'real nz' things which a default sim can't attempt to reproduce. This scenery is shaping up to be exactly as I remember Dunedin.
Here's some more shots after climbing out of NZDN and heading north.

[Ian Warren]

SADDLE HILL .. between The airport and the Dunedin city with Mosgiel to the side .. course Dunners NAC beginning .. .... be another classic scenery .. .. Course I cant see far behind .. and a Electra incoming .. has to be a must.

[Kiwia1spad]

Good on ya Hayden , one thing that really sticks for example , And always a hit.... is climb out off Wellington , regard this as a planning point tho the airport 'Dunedin' is a good distance away it has it really amazing Harbour and bay area is ideal for low level climb outs .

Ian, I was thinking more around NZTI as there has been a lot of development there in recent years, Fonterra took over the old Fisher & Paykel site and have spent millions on redeveloping it, there are new subdivisions close to NZTI, and new hangars on the airfield itself.

Ade, Dunners has changed a bit in the last 6 years, especially out on the Taieri with new subdivision in half a dozen places and expansions of others, of course the stadium has been built, and there have been other buildings demolished around the harbor too

[Ian Warren]

Good on ya Hayden , one thing that really sticks for example , And always a hit.... is climb out off Wellington , regard this as a planning point tho the airport 'Dunedin' is a good distance away it has it really amazing Harbour and bay area is ideal for low level climb outs .

Ian, I was thinking more around NZTI as there has been a lot of development there in recent years, Fonterra took over the old Fisher & Paykel site and have spent millions on redeveloping it, there are new subdivisions close to NZTI, and new hangars on the airfield itself.

Funny how things change so quick, .. should say so dramatic , well known company ... Fonterra .. its a site along the coast between Timaru and Oamaru flying at 10,000 along the coast line sticks out like dogs balls.

[toprob]

I've been trying to figure out when I first built NZTI, but I just don't have anything to pinpoint it. It was for FS2002, I think, and I used it as a design tutorial in the Godzone Magazine. So I have a web-based tutorial which starts:

My son and I set off on Good Friday on a road trip to Dunedin to photograph the Taieri Aerodrome, but also to spend a little time together.

I have no idea which Easter this was, and I don't even remember which son... One page does say that this was the very first photo scenery I ever made. Who am I to doubt myself? Again, I have no clear recollection, and this was pre-digital, I would have scanned photos to make the textures.

Before then, I previously visited Dunedin in 1985. I know that because my wife and I travelled around the area to visit her family, who were spread out around Otago/Southland. We visited some interesting places, many of which probably haven't changed since the 19th century...

But yeah, Taieri has changed quite a lot, so an update is overdue!

[Ian Warren]

You can really say looking at the area suits a revamp ... specific with the freebies incoming that ideally date to that airport .. Lodestar and DC-3 .. now the Electra ... add the Devon incoming

[richbarry]

I'll be another purchaser for 'Real Tairei'. Are there going to be any burning couches?
Look forward to it.

[toprob]

Another thing which I saw reading through my old tutorial I forgot I wrote -- there's this:

The buildings are old, but the grounds are very well maintained - probably for the same reason that the lovely wooden hand-painted bus shelters in Dunedin are not destroyed by vandals - a kind of pride which is apparent throughout the area.

I guess I wasn't talking about student neighbourhoods here, but for me to mention this it would have had to have stood out compared to my home town of Christchurch. As I've mentioned before, Dunedin is a bit of a poor relation in NZ, with a lot more going for it than is generally accepted.

Of course it is cold for much of the year.

[Ian Warren]

Well I guess you make a Student ... UNDIE 500 course and a backdrop scenery ... Never know , they may switch their 6 pack for a real McCoy Sim

[toprob]

Just an update of this, as time is getting on.
When the subscription year ended, I had hoped to have raised enough funds to support myself through the development of Dunedin, but that didn't happen, so I set out to borrow some money, but that wasn't too successful either. I can understand why, but I was starting to think that things would never get back to 'normal'. However after accepting a few commercial scenery jobs, I'm now able to at least visit Dunedin, albeit fitting the development in around the contract work.

I have been slowly making progress with Dunedin, at least the bits I can do without photo resources, and I'd like to thank Ade for supplying some photos of his, sometimes you need to look to the other side of the world for New Zealand resources, I've said before he can be an honorary Kiwi...

I have been talking with a friend about helping out, he's not hugely experienced, but when it comes to development, he's a natural, with a great eye for quality, and a knack of knowing what is important.

Speaking of collaboration, I have been thinking about this lately, and the theme of 2016 might be 'working together' to improve the NZ scenery coverage. Part of this might be a kind of mentoring program, so if anyone wants to have a go, and is actually prepared to complete a project, then I'd love to help. I think that we are on the brink of a new era in flightsim, and I don't want to see New Zealand abandoned, in favour of more lucrative areas. Orbx have already been and gone, but there's plenty of life in the old place yet!

I was actually going to post a new screenshot of Dunedin, which has recently become my desktop favourite, but I've just found it here in this thread, dammit....

[Kiwia1spad]

Rob, the NZTI hangers and the Otago Aero Club Club rooms are currently undergoing a refurbish, a local business person has donated over $60,000 so the club can return the Union Airways/NAC hangar back to its original colours and, the clubrooms are getting an update as well, as soon as i can get over the hill one weekend when its completed i will get you some high res pics if you would like

[toprob]

Cheers, I will pop into NZTI this week to take some photos (if the weather is ok), I did contact the Aero Club, and although I heard back from Murray, saying he'd passed my message onto someone (he's away this week), I don't know if I'll get full access to the place. Still, I am looking forward to working on it, it has a lot of character, and will probably get a bit more development time than NZDN, as there's more to see:)

The plan for Dunedin has always included both NZDN and NZTI, plus the city.

If I can't get there this week, I will come back shortly, this time it's a bit of a rushed visit, taking advantage of some grabaseats, so just one full day, mainly photographing DN, staying overnight in Mosgiel, then back home in the morning. I hope to get some photos from the air at some stage, if I can find someone at the aero club to take me up.

P.S. which reminds me, I haven't heard back from NZDN, either, I better give them another call tomorrow.

[toprob]

Just an update -- as some of you are aware, my trip to Dunedin didn't turn out great, so development is slow at the moment. I need to return to Dunedin, and I will do that as soon as I feel comfortable about travelling again.

I am needing to do a lot of contract work to keep some income flowing, but I am still spending a bit of time on Dunedin.

Although since I only managed to photograph a bit of Taieri airfield, I'm concentrating on this for the moment. Here's some screenshots just to show that progress is being made, albeit slowly.

These are 'alpha' shots, and not to be shared on any other site!





One thing which is quite striking about Mosgiel is the Christian influence -- there's even a computer store on the main street with a sign saying 'Computing from a Christian perspective', which intrigued me, although not enough to lure me in... Here's a rare bit of 'Mosgiel' graffiti, black on black, saying 'Jesus is Lord'. It's little touches like this which make an airfield:)

[cowpatz]

That is simply stunning Rob. certainly raising the bar.
What program are you using for your modelling ...GMAX?

[toprob]

Cheers, CP. Yes, I've always been a big fan of GMAX, however it didn't really survive the update to Windows 10, so I'm trying to learn Blender at the moment...