Scenery Suggestions

[e.a.wicklund]

Hello all,

I've been out of the CFS2 world for a long time and am pleased to see so much activity and development.

I'd like to get started by improving the scenery. I'll start in the PTO, but later that would extend to MTO, and ETO. What sceneries do you folks recommend in the Pacific to start?

Should I begin with the Rhumbaflappy mesh? Does that have compatibility issues with anything?

Cheers!

Eric

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Hey partner, welcome to the club! You should PM Maskrider to see what he has done and plans to do. He is currently working on a revision of bases in the PTO and I'm sure you can work with him on it to prevent duplication of effort. Maskrider's bases are excellent and hard to beat.

Much has been already done for the ETO and Med. Contact Rami about what we need.

Again, welcome to the CFS2 scenery world. :wavey: :applause:

SW07

[Rami]

EA,

His LOD mesh, yes, but not his coastlines, because that means that you will end up with a lot of Pacific airbases (especially in the scenery expansion packs) that are underwater. I believe when Dvslats modified my scenery installation guide for the PTO, he made this distinction.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=49&id=6050

[e.a.wicklund]

Wow! Installing the new scenery seems awfully complicated. To you folks recommend creating a separate install for PTO?

[Captain Kurt]

Yes. I have one for the PTO, one for the MTO, one for the ETO, one for the CBI, one for the Spanish Civil War, one for WWI, etc. It's easy to have as many as you want since they do not interfere with each other. This works better for a number of reasons. One is that having too many aircraft, or ships, or object dp's will cause the game to not load quick combat, free flight etc. Another reason is that it is possible to overwhelm game engine if you have too many airfields, scenery objects etc. There are so many aircraft, airfields, and scenery object add ons available that trying to do a world wide theater is too much. By separating your installs into individual theaters, it is much easier to manage the number of add on objects to keep the game healthy and still give you all you want to see and use in each particular theater.

Also you will want to have appropriate land textures for the theater you set up. Textures for the Mediterranean are going to be different than you would use for the PTO, which will be different than Europe etc. Setting up a theater just the way you want it can be both fun and satisfying. Not as much fun as flying in it of course, but still.

In the Warbirds Library you can find Rami's set up guides for Europe, the Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters with Rhumbaflappy's mesh and are well worth following to give you the basis for each theater. From there you can start adding whatever else you want.

I should caution that the PTO is a huge area. A lot of scenery for that area was made for the stock game and isn't compatible with Rhumbaflappy's mesh and coastlines, while some of the later scenery is. It's a mixed bag and one we all sometimes struggle with what to install and what not to. Some folks are working on adding areas island group by island group. But there's still a long way to go.

I have made three PTO campaigns available here, and only use the stock game's mesh because the airbases used all were made to fit with it. Other good campaigns are similar. So for the PTO you might want to have one PTO install with the stock install only and improve the scenery with better texture sets, airfield add ons etc. and have a separate PTO set up with the Rhumbaflappy mesh installed.

Conversely, I have also done ETO and MTO campaigns that require following Rami's ETO and MTO installation guides. Most of Rami's campaigns require the same. Stock doesn't work very well in those theaters.

Anyway, welcome to the fold. Have fun setting things up just the way you want them.

[sixstrings5859]

Thanks for the info. Very helpful.

[bub]

Sir,
Not to be a PIA, how about some Flying Tiger airfields. Kunming, Lashio, Mingaladon and Toungoo (Kyedaw). Something to consider.
Thanks,
Bob