The next 'Real New Zealand' project

[NZ255]

That looks great, Rob!

Sweet ground techniques

[MichaelBasler]

It is inevitable that most simmers want scenery for areas they know, or can relate to, so although New Zealand appears -- to us -- to be a popular choice, just about anywhere else is guaranteed to sell at least twice the number of units, and more.

I've heard this argument several times, including from ORBX, but continually disagree. ORBX themselves provides the counterevidence. Their PNG series seems to be a bestseller and is ever more expanded. Which percentage of the flight simmers would you think have ever been in New Guinea? Maybe 0.01 %, but probably less. Did you ever meet a simmer from PNG???

And, btw., I think there's not even so much difference in landscape (bear with me, I say this as an European), PNG has stunning mountains (net even as high as NZ), difficult approaches, beautifiul beaches, which all New Zealand sports as well. Moreover, NZ has a hand full of fascinating cities/towns and a number of beautiful larger airports which PNG lacks.

There must be something beyond that argument which I unfortunately couldn't reveal yet.

However, Robin, you can be sure I'll get Dunedin at day one.

Kind regards, Michael

[Ian Warren]

Papua New Guinea .. been there done that , I know four other flight simmers who have been there, one was even born there in Mt Hagen, the three places I stopped I did scenery for, so I think the percentages would start going up ... watch out for the cannibals, they only want to eat for their strength tho, and you may need to learn the near 860 different languages.

[cowpatz]

Yes it is all about the marketing. NZ had very little for some odd reason.
Not having many focused airports didn't help either.
Their call entirely of course. I just don't believe they made much of an effort.

[MichaelBasler]

for the cannibals, they only want to eat for their strength tho,

That speaks even more for NZ instead of PNG. I only once was in "real" NZ, but didn't meet any cannibals there.

Kind regards, Michael

[Ian Warren]

I just don't believe they made much of an effort.

They had a huge base of knowledge and designers here and for some reason got totally by-pasted.

[toprob]

i don't think it has as much to do with Orbx as the developers. And there are plenty of developers who specialise in different projects, so I'm sure they are keen to do something different now and then, but I imagine that things get difficult when it comes to the next big project -- Orbx would be pushing for something more main-stream, as it earns a lot more for them and the developers.

PNG, by the way, is a Global scenery product, which has a much wider customer base -- not only those who have bought into Regions, but also those who just want the worldwide improvements of Global without a huge Regional investment. There are only 12 Global releases so far, and I guess this will keep improving, as Orbx seems to be shifting away from full-on Regions. So although individual PNG airfields are better than NZ, that is more to do with the improvements in technique and resources.

And I don't think that Orbx by-passed local developers, I'm sure that anyone here could have approached Orbx with an airport project, and Orbx certainly went looking -- maybe the problem was more that they didn't find many takers. (Remember that the initial developer base were mainly Australian, so there was initially a closer attachment to NZ.)

I know they picked up Mike, it is a real bugger that didn't work out, and I did have a few chats with them myself. I did have a few issues with working for Orbx at the time, and not much has changed. It would be interesting to try a NZ project for Orbx, but I wouldn't expect to make much money. And really, I'd only consider it as a collaboration, but this doesn't really happen in NZ. But if someone came to me with an plan, I'd listen, payware or freeware. Although I'd like to at least finish one project of my own first, which isn't getting any closer!

The original NZ developers -- and I think that only one FTX NZ developer was local -- can't be blamed for moving elsewhere, there's a big wide world out there. As I said earlier, I would think that no matter what you did or how you marketed it, you are only going to sell half as many NZ addons as other areas. And the way it works, that is the difference between a barely ok and a great income.

[Ian Warren]

for the cannibals, they only want to eat for their strength tho,

That speaks even more for NZ instead of PNG. I only once was in "real" NZ, but didn't meet any cannibals there.

Regard to the PNG .. Pig..Nice..Good .. just bring the apple sauce

[toprob]

Still plodding....

[Ian Warren]

BEEN THERE .. Looking superb!

[cowpatz]

Wow. Move over ORBX.

[Splitpin]

you clever bugger!

[toprob]

Just a catch-up, posted here rather than Facebook, just to keep it in the family...

There's a point where I start to see some real progress with a project, where it gets over the hump, and full-steam ahead. Even though there's a huge amount of work to do yet, Dunedin is getting to the stage where it's fun to load it up in the sim. I'm not showing NZDN at the moment, and I may not until the scenery is released, but Taieri makes a good showcase anyway. I've mentioned before that I modelled Taieri way back in the days of the old Godzone Magazine, so it means a lot to me to be able to bring it into the 21st century. When I first did it, I included the Fisher and Paykel plant which borders the airfield as handful of untextured grey boxes -- in those days, an airport was simply that, made up of hangars and related facilities, so the extra bits didn't get much attention. But even then I really wanted to include these extra features, especially the timber yard next door. So finally seeing it appear in the sim gives me a buzz (still half-finished). Although even I wouldn't have imagined that I'd model the front-end grappler to go with it.

I have yet to deal with some major headaches, mainly to do with Orbx compatibility. I've included a 5 metre mesh for the area, mainly to help define the coastal cliffs. Although it doesn't really have a huge impact on the airport areas, it does do a lot for the coast, the peninsula and the city. I've always thought that Orbx tweaked the NZ elevation just to screw with other developers, and even if they didn't, the result is the same. I had the same problem with Wellington, placing a 5 metre mesh on top of Orbx's 20 metre mesh causes LOD jumps as you move around the scenery, so the land pops up and falls back when you fly over it, switching between Orbx's 'custom' elevation and the real elevation. This is ok for Canterbury, we're used to the the ground moving, but not great for the Dunedin scenery. It may mean that I'll have to leave the mesh out for Orbx users, which would be a nuisance.

[Ian Warren]

That is looking Really really Smart

[Splitpin]

Rob , you really have to get over the hill and come and sort out my scenery ... bring Ian and Greg ... you fix , I'll work the bar

[Kiwia1spad]

WOW WOW WOW WOW that is looking freaking amazing Rob... I love how you have modeled the saw mill, my uncles own the mill and i worked there for a few months years ago. Ive never seen the yard so tidy hahahaha

[NZ255]

This is ok for Canterbury, we're used to the the ground moving, but not great for the Dunedin scenery. It may mean that I'll have to leave the mesh out for Orbx users, which would be a nuisance.

Looking great, Rob.

Nice pun

Have you tried playing with the LOD settings when resampling the mesh?
eg LOD = 11,13
or 10,13

That would override the orbx mesh enough until you're out of view I would have thought.

[toprob]

Have you tried playing with the LOD settings when resampling the mesh?
eg LOD = 11,13
or 10,13

That would override the orbx mesh enough until you're out of view I would have thought.

Actually it turned out to be easier than I thought -- setting specific LODs was my first try, but since my mesh already had a broader LOD range than Orbx, (low and high end) it made sense that this should work as-is, but it didn't. I then tried library priority, but that didn't work, I kinda already knew that about mesh. So last resort, I alphabetized it, which worked great:) Again, I already knew that, back when I was young. I need to start writing things down!

[NZ255]

Have you tried playing with the LOD settings when resampling the mesh?
eg LOD = 11,13
or 10,13

That would override the orbx mesh enough until you're out of view I would have thought.

Actually it turned out to be easier than I thought -- setting specific LODs was my first try, but since my mesh already had a broader LOD range than Orbx, (low and high end) it made sense that this should work as-is, but it didn't. I then tried library priority, but that didn't work, I kinda already knew that about mesh. So last resort, I alphabetized it, which worked great:) Again, I already knew that, back when I was young. I need to start writing things down!

That's good you sorted it.
By the way the pun part was about you getting buzz from the wood place....not the joke in my quote.
Thought I'd better clear that up.

[toprob]

By the way the pun part was about you getting buzz from the wood place....not the joke in my quote.
Thought I'd better clear that up.

Cheers, I do those things for my own amusement, but anyone else easily amused is welcome:)