Palmerston North - WIP (Any photos?

[Ian Warren]

One thing pointed out .. not sure off the texture, take a photo of a similar window or window view, a little edit you would nail it !

[cowpatz]

You're right Ian! The buildings are the most time consuming part. I model extra stuff now like guttering, window sills/panes some interiors so that part takes a while now too!

Che there seems to be a bit of discussion on various forums about the desirability of modelling airport interiors (seats etc).
There have been quite a few simmers requesting that airport interior modelling be an option, possibly selectable via a configuration tool etc.
Until 64 bit comes along many simmers, with high end add on aircraft etc, have VAS and FPS issues. It is similar to the aircraft interior cabin modelling argument....how many times do you wander back there in flight or even on the ground for that matter. Just something worth considering as this extra detail all takes time which could hold you back from starting your next great project!

[Ian Warren]

Large airport, I would give the idea of internals a miss, great for Mikes 'Taupo' that is still a real shiner that equals Che's New Plymouth ... thing also is getting the internal photo's , its difficult enough already to get externals.

[Riddlez]

Cheers[/quote]

You're right Ian! The buildings are the most time consuming part. I model extra stuff now like guttering, window sills/panes some interiors so that part takes a while now too!

Che there seems to be a bit of discussion on various forums about the desirability of modelling airport interiors (seats etc).
There have been quite a few simmers requesting that airport interior modelling be an option, possibly selectable via a configuration tool etc.
Until 64 bit comes along many simmers, with high end add on aircraft etc, have VAS and FPS issues. It is similar to the aircraft interior cabin modelling argument....how many times do you wander back there in flight or even on the ground for that matter. Just something worth considering as this extra detail all takes time which could hold you back from starting your next great project!

Do you have a link to the forum? In my experience with doing the 2 terminal interiors, they really have minimal frame rate impact. Though when I do create them I am very conscious of the polygon/triangle count of the model. If you can keep it down you should be sweet with fps. The biggest thing that chews the FPS are the FSX ground polygons. Bellingham's terminal was a little bigger than New Plymouth, but it wasn't that bad with the FPS. I do have LOD installed in the terminal that reduce the FPS. When you get in or near the terminal the interior "appears", otherwise it's gone.

Ian is right though. A terminal interior is great for a small airport like NZNP, NZPM and many other small airports. But you wouldn't do NZAA or bigger with a terminal interior. What do people think of them?

Ahhh the Man himself! haha many thanks for the positive feedback. Yeah, we have looked around Google street view, and it has been very helpful. Would love some tips on your ground poly's as they look absolutely breath-taking.

Cheers

Sorry didn't see this! I'll have to come up with tutorial, heaps of people of have asked me that!

[cowpatz]

One of the links to a market research on AVSIM

http://www.avsim.com/topic/489783-marke ... try3434369

Comments also appear regularly on airdailyX.

The against lobby is generally based around FPS, VAS but also the fact that all this creativity takes time which has a $$ tag and increases the cost of the scenery package or else the time could be better spent on improving the exterior modelling or producing another scenery package. I don't think that I have ever wandered into a terminal. I'm here to fly!

[Ian Warren]

has a $$ tag and increases the cost of the scenery package or else the time could be better spent on improving the exterior modelling or producing another scenery package

You have to admit , landing into FSX Taupo for example and parking up is one hell off a pleasure .... you are right tho, it is Flight Simulation and not Couch Simulation , one looks at the equal but lessor FS airports, so its the HU YEAH ! with the small terminal to the OK lets get down to business type , they work both ways .... biggest thing so far all the walk ins I know off are free ... EXTRA

[toprob]

I did follow that thread, although I didn't vote, and it certainly implies that people don't want interiors. However the news sites tend to love them, so we're talking about a degree of 'marketing' here, which is just the way things work.

These days it makes sense to see inside a terminal if you can see inside it from the tarmac in reality -- this is part of the 3D effect which defines an airport. Generally I don't go beyond there, but I can see why some developers do. Developing scenery is a lot less to do with churning out airports, and a lot more to do with matching a vision of how the developer wants to see the finished product. If someone wanted to churn out airports with no frills, good luck to them, I'd even encourage someone to go for it, but personally I'd get bored very quickly.

The comment about passengers is tongue-in-cheek, but -- Microsoft were in fact working on a way to include lots of people into their new sim, based on the features of their train sim which was in development at the same time. This makes a lot more sense to me, as airports are normally stuffed with people. Otherwise I get a 'langoliers' vibe....

Orbx have gone some way towards adding people, but not where it's mainly needed -- a big busy airport, with people bustling everywhere. It's a pity MS never finished these sims, but I think it would take a built-in feature from the get-go to make it work. So in the meantime I'll stick with matching my own vision.

[cowpatz]

I understand what you are saying there Rob and in no way would I want to stifle a designers creativity. For me I believe realism would be improved by implementing moving jetways into scenery and other tarmac goodies.
Jetways and other animations using SODE would be an example. Having access to good quality P3D scenery is limited and can be expensive, especially as LM will drop support for the older SDK very soon (they did try) which will render a lot of FSX scenery unusable. For the simmer it is a balance between getting the airfield of choice versus waiting for a developer to produce it. Maybe producing some basic airfields with progressive enhancement updates?

[Ian Warren]

The 'langoliers' that is So so soooooo Retro ... but really So so soooooo Retro even the actors are retro

Watch on youtube.com

[Ian Warren]

I understand what you are saying there Rob and in no way would I want to stifle a designers creativity. For me I believe realism would be improved by implementing moving jetways into scenery and other tarmac goodies.
Jetways and other animations using SODE would be an example. Having access to good quality P3D scenery is limited and can be expensive, especially as LM will drop support for the older SDK very soon (they did try) which will render a lot of FSX scenery unusable. For the simmer it is a balance between getting the airfield of choice versus waiting for a developer to produce it. Maybe producing some basic airfields with progressive enhancement updates?

I think this is were the GSX is a good fill in , tho yet try it on small airfields

[ablaimckerrow]

Some more previews! Very happy with progress so far!

[Ian Warren]

Looking Great so far, well done looking forward to plopping my .. well we will see what I have into Palmy

[NZ255]

Some more previews! Very happy with progress so far!

Looking great man! 'Depatures' is spelt wrong though!

[Ian Warren]

Some more previews! Very happy with progress so far!

Looking great man! 'Depatures' is spelt wrong though!

Well picked up on Nick , mind you I have seen a spelling mistake in an old Bristol so I would say every aircraft ever build has that very mistake.

[ablaimckerrow]

Thanks! We hope no one would notice, but you did haha. Cheers

[Lindstrim]

Do you need any airside pictures of the terminal?

[ablaimckerrow]

Do you need any airside pictures of the terminal?

Would be great mate!

[Lindstrim]

I'll see what I can do when I'm there over the next couple of days

[ablaimckerrow]

A quick wee update.

No I'm not dead, just busy haha.

I have some time now, so Modelling is well underway. Tested it in the sim today and works pretty well. The ground poly is in the same boat, seen in the sim and works. Just a matter of finishing them. Cheers guys.

[Ian Warren]

Ablaim , looking good , this was one of the very first airport ever custom built for FS98 and FS2000 done be Clive Ryan, so this one is long overdue.