Roadvale Scenery available now

[anthony31]

Hello All

Sunny Roadvale scenery is now available for download from here:

www.antsairplanes.com (http://www.antsairplanes.com)

Direct download of the 50MB file is www.antsairplanes.com/downloads/aaarvale.zip (http://www.antsairplanes.com/downloads/aaarvale.zip)

Roadvale is a small private airstrip with just a hangar and a windsock. The scenery includes about 25sq km of photoreal ground textures at 1m per pixel. All objects are custom built and based on actual photos from the airfield (even the guy is real).

As there is only one hangar I've gone a bit nuts with the hangar and made it pretty hidef. It uses 3 1024x1024 texture sheets for the hangar alone (which is a hell of a lot more than I would normally use). I've also created a spec map which shows of the corrugations in the iron and gives a nice 3D effect without using bumpmaps. If so inclined you can land a helicopter on the roof as I've hardened that as well (did I mention I went a bit nuts?).

Roadvale is located a few miles north of Boonah so I recommend that you also have my Boonah scenery. Also recommended is the FTX Australia textures to best blend with the photoreal.

Please Note that Roadvale does not have an AFCAD so it does not appear in the airport selection list. You will have to start your flight at a nearby airfield (the nearest is Boonah (YBOA) or Amberley (YAMB) which is a default airfield)). The readme contains instructions on how to fly to Roadvale.

Now, to the piccies:

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/354012_Windsock.jpg

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/400013_Hangar.jpg

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/606014_Runway.jpg

[txnetcop]

WOW Anthony you just outdid yourself on this one! SUPA FINE my friend!!!

[flaviossa]

I just did a little flight from Boonah to Roadvale (I mean little) and i must say: Wow!

Anthony, your´re the man!

For your efforts, i just bought the Tecnam Sierra.

Pics:
http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/354tecnan04_tn.jpg (http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/view.php?filename=354tecnan04.jpg) http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/389tecnan07_tn.jpg (http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/view.php?filename=389tecnan07.jpg) http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/343tecnan08_tn.jpg (http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/view.php?filename=343tecnan08.jpg) http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/460tecnan11_tn.jpg (http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/view.php?filename=460tecnan11.jpg) http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/images/896tecnan12_tn.jpg (http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshots/view.php?filename=896tecnan12.jpg)

[mmann]

Well it looks like I have been a little too optimistic about the level of response I should get when I post screenshots of my scenery project. Your scenery is a 100 times nicer than mine, yet I am totally shocked by the response level towards it.

3 1024x1024 texture sheets for just the hanger!! To think that I used only one sheet that size for my whole CGG Lightstation which included a lighthouse, lightkeepers house, 4x4 shed, 4x8 shed and a raised platform helipad.

How are the frame rates like?

Regards, Mike Mann

[vora]

Hey thanx, Ant!

I'll take off from Boonah with a rough guess of the bearing and try to find it on the first shot.
Should be a tough challenge with autogen on full :icon_lol: I gotta see that hangar!




Well it looks like I have been a little too optimistic about the level of response I should get when I post screenshots of my scenery project. Your scenery is a 100 times nicer than mine, yet I am totally shocked by the response level towards it.

Mike, I don't think there are many GA guys in this forum who fly the Brisbane area. Ant's and your sceneries are a niche (FSX) in a niche (GA) in a niche (bushplane) in a niche (AUS/CAN) :icon_lol:

[MarkH]

I'll take off from Boonah with a rough guess of the bearing and try to find it on the first shot.
Should be a tough challenge with autogen on full :icon_lol: I gotta see that hangar!

Gotta try this one. I have all Ant's fields and Longreach is one of my favourite airports of all - absolute payware quality for nothing! I have a little history with the virtual Roadvale, having found the OZx one extremely hard to find ('cos they'd accidentally left out the autogen cows and stuff!)

[Cleartheprop]

Thank you Anthony. It is a perfect addition to Boonah and your recent Sierra LSA. (or your classic Tigermoth). :ernae:

[mmann]

Mike, I don't think there are many GA guys in this forum who fly the Brisbane area. Ant's and your sceneries are a niche (FSX) in a niche (GA) in a niche (bushplane) in a niche (AUS/CAN) :icon_lol:

Ok. I get it. I changed my project name from Vancouver Island Scenery to New York City Scenery. I just created a floatplane base at Central Park. Wait a minute, 5 fps is making this landing more difficult than it already is!! Oh well. Back to the boonies.

[Kiwikat]

This is a question rather than a criticism, but why don't many scenery developers create the "afcad" files for their new airports? ADE is such a great tool to use. I've modified several airports with it but I haven't yet used it to create a new one. It is possible though isn't it, or has that changed from FS9? I've created several new airports with AFCAD before. ADE has many more features so I'd assume it can do the same?

As always I might be wrong... :173go1:


The scenery looks great from the screenshots! I'll have to check it out if I ever get the time to fly again... school is KILLING me lol :salute:

[IanP]

It's easy, Kiwikat - I do it all the time. There are two parts that can be tricky: making the AFD fit the local terrain (I don't bother with fixing cliffs at the moment - see the rest of the post as for why) and, if you are working with custom or photo ground textures, blending AFDs and what is around them. Again, I don't bother, but if you're working in areas like Ant is, you're going to want what you create to blend in with what is around it.

My take on the other thread that's coming out there is quite simple - for the last three airfields I have released, I have received the total of two e-mails. One of them was asking for something. That's about the level of response I expect, considering that most of them are getting tens of downloads (or 370 downloads, apparently, for Enniskillen at the moment). Does everyone hate it and loathe it and delete it as soon as they tried it?

Knowing my skill level, probably yes, but the answer is that I don't give a flying scoobies about what anyone thinks about me or what I do. I wanted to do Enniskillen. I wanted to do Coll and Colonsay. I want to recreate as many of the WW2 airfields of Britain and Northern Ireland as I practically can. Therefore I do them for me, where I want, when I want. If other people enjoy them, good for them, but if I did it because I enjoyed the feedback or fame/infamy then good grief, I'd have given up years ago.

For what it's worth, that looks brilliant, Ant - but I won't be downloading it, because I don't fly in that area. It looks like a lot of people will be both downloading and enjoying it! :salute:

Ian P.

[Roger]

Thanks Ant:ernae:

This will be in FTX Australia shortly.

[AndyE1976]

This looks like a superb reason to head back to Oz for a little flight.

Too much to explore and too little time!

[Naki]

wow nice!..dont have FTX Aussie but Boonah fits nicely in default so I am going to give this a go too!

[Rimshot]

Thanks for another excellent addon! :ernae:

[huub vink]

Looks really beautiful Anthony :applause: :applause: :applause:

[anthony31]

This is a question rather than a criticism, but why don't many scenery developers create the "afcad" files for their new airports? ADE is such a great tool to use. I've modified several airports with it but I haven't yet used it to create a new one. It is possible though isn't it, or has that changed from FS9? I've created several new airports with AFCAD before. ADE has many more features so I'd assume it can do the same?

As always I might be wrong... :173go1:


The scenery looks great from the screenshots! I'll have to check it out if I ever get the time to fly again... school is KILLING me lol :salute:

AFCADs need an ICAO and Roadvale has no ICAO. Boonah on the other hand does (YBOA) so I made an AFCAD for Boonah. AFCADs also appear on the GPS. Not many people will have Roadvale programmed into their GPS.

Second reason is the AFCADs are useless for creating these types of airstrips. At Roadvale the northern end of the runway dips and you can't see aircraft at the northern end if you are at the hangar position. ie it's a sloping runway and AFCADs force you to use dead flat runways.

Boonah also has a sloping runway so the AFCAD I made for it is just a short one near the hangars.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from creating an AFCAD if that is what you want or need. That's the beauty of FSX, individual customisation :)

[anthony31]

Well it looks like I have been a little too optimistic about the level of response I should get when I post screenshots of my scenery project. Your scenery is a 100 times nicer than mine, yet I am totally shocked by the response level towards it.

3 1024x1024 texture sheets for just the hanger!! To think that I used only one sheet that size for my whole CGG Lightstation which included a lighthouse, lightkeepers house, 4x4 shed, 4x8 shed and a raised platform helipad.

How are the frame rates like?

Regards, Mike Mann

Thanks Mike

It's always nice to receive compliments. Especially after you've spent a couple of weeks banging away at the computer. It's nice to know that people appreciate the effort. I'd therefore encourage anyone who has downloaded freeware lately to just send the author a quick thank you.

Yes, 3 sheets is a bit excessive. I usually try to make hangar wall textures only 512 pixels wide so you can fit quite a few hangars onto a 1024x1024 sheet. But as there was only 1 hangar to do I thought I'd up that to 1024 pixels wide for each wall. Plus it is an open hangar which doubles the number of textures needed.

Usually with framerates it is more your modelling technique than the size of the textures you use that will affect framerates. It is very easy to create two models that look exactly alike but one will be efficient and the other will not.

If you haven't seen it this video by Arno from fsdeveloper provides some hints and tips:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Performance_for_3D_models_video_tu torial

[mmann]

I hadn't seen that video of Arno's. Thanks for the link.

Regards, Mike Mann

[Dexdoggy]

Looks like a great spot to house my favourite Sierra and Tiger Moth! Thankyou again Ant, youy make awesome airfields!

[ottor]

AFCADs force you to use dead flat runways.

In ADE you can get away with just placing runway starts. The ICAO will then show up in the GPS and maps, but you can't add radio frequencies, so they won't show in the ATC nearest airports list.

ottor

[Cactuskid]

Thanks Anthony for another great add-on! Flew my Tiger Moth out of Boonah, and it took a bit of circling aroound to find Roadvale. I'm amazed at the detail of the hanger, and the Moth fits perfectly inside. After shut-down, I saved the flight so now I have a great starting point for flights to other interesting places in the Brisbane area... Good work! Thanks again...

[mal998]

Anthony,
I have all your airports and they add immensely to the enjoyment of flying around Aussieland.

So with that in mind, a big Thanks! goes out to you for all your hard work. It does make a difference and we do appreciate it.

BR's,
mal

[mmann]

Anthony:

After watching Arno's video I realize it is just a simplification of the information I had already read in Adrian Woods blog.

In his blog Adrian says "Also make sure that each object is referencing a single texture sheet." This results in a single draw call, which to date all of my objects do. This is why I was questioning you about the fps hit when using 3 sheets for your hanger.

Regards, Mike Mann