FSX Military AI and scenery

[WarHorse47]

Now that I've been enjoying FSX for the last few days, I want to start looking for some addon scenery in the Pacific Northwest.

The first thing I'm looking at are the military fields like McChord AFB (now call Joint Base Lewis McChord or JBLM), Whidbey Island NAS, and Fairchild AFB.

I see that there are some scenery improvements by Jim Cook found over at Flightsim.com. His addons are using the Just Flight's Military Plus Packs for AI additions.

I know there are a lot of military buffs in the FSX forums, so what are your thoughts? Anything else I should look at?

Thanks in advance

[assassinezzio]

First things first, the orbx scenery for the pacific northwest is an excellent start:running:

[assassinezzio]

NAS Whidbey Island scenery can be found here: http://simviation.com/1/browse-Scenery-63-0

[teeboy]

For FS9 but work very well in FSX - http:\\www.militaryaiworks.com (http://www.militaryaiworks.com)

Some airfields need exclude files for autogen, if you browse their forums they have an FSX support area.

And its freeware :jump:

[WarHorse47]

Thanks for all the responses.

I've been researching the ORBX FTX scenery for the PNW. Looks impressive. They mention improvements to over 400 airports, but there is no definitive list so I really cannot tell if that includes the military fields or not. My FS9 install has addon scenery for McChord, Whidbey NAS, Gray AAF, and Fairchild as well as addons for Tacoma Narrows, Bremerton and several other USCG stations which is what I would like to see for FSX.

I'll try the Whidbey NAS from Simviation. Unfortunately its a 30 minute download for me, so I'll have to download it when time permits.

With my FS9 install, I have MyTraffic 2004 for both commercial and military AI traffic in addition to any AI packages that come with scenery addons like Duxford. For FSX I'm looking at JustFlight's Traffic 360 as compared to MyTraffic 2013. Any comments on any of these packages?

Thanks in advance

[Felixthreeone]

For FS9 but work very well in FSX - http:\\www.militaryaiworks.com (http://www.militaryaiworks.com)

Some airfields need exclude files for autogen, if you browse their forums they have an FSX support area.

And its freeware :jump:

+1....what he said is the best advice for military AI in FSX. Well, if you want it to be as realistic and accurate as possible, anyway...yeah yeah I Know i am biased lol

[gman5250]

Definitely ORBX Pacific Northwest. Once you have the package you can use their assets to enhance any FSX airport. Example: Tipella CBB7 with added landscape using ORBX's bgl. files.

FSX CBB7
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ORBX with my mods
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[Navy Chief]

NAS Whidbey Island....a most beautiful base. I've not lived in a more scenic place than Whidbey.

Loved that place!

NC

[Hanimichal]

Definitely ORBX Pacific Northwest. Once you have the package you can use their assets to enhance any FSX airport. Example: Tipella CBB7 with added landscape using ORBX's bgl. files.

FSX CBB7
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ORBX with my mods
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where I can learn how to do that?

[gman5250]

where I can learn how to do that?

The scenery is very straight forward. I use AFX and Instant Scenery 2 to do the work. It's all drag and drop working in FSX. I like it because I can locate over any spot and landscape. It's like painting in 3D.

If you have ORBX the bgl files load into the IS2 menu and you can use their great vegetation for the soft folliage, grasses etc.
Working in this format you can use any airport over photoreal scenery. I use Blue Sky Scenery for my local area KBIH & KMMH. The combined satellite images and scenery files really work for me.

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I keep two versions of any airport. One is for beauty shots, but it will crush frame rates in anything but a high end system. The second version is "lite". The scenery looks very natural, but the rates don't suffer. Awesome stuff. I'll post up an album on my page.

I've been modeling all my own hangars, buildings etc. so my local airports are almost photoreal accurate.
Message me for more info...

If there's interest in this technique, I'd be glad to start a thread. Don't want to hijack this one...
Gman

[WarHorse47]

+1....what he said is the best advice for military AI in FSX. Well, if you want it to be as realistic and accurate as possible, anyway...yeah yeah I Know i am biased lolI agree, and yes you are biased lol.:jump:

I have several MAIW packages in my FS9 install. My FS9 McChord scenery is by John Stinstrom with the MAIW C-17 package so I can fly my Area 51 C-17 and other a/c in and out. This is in addition to my MyTraffic 2004 install.

I downloaded the MAIW FSX install instructions and may give it a shot - all 19 steps. Again, I wanted to start with the scenery addon then the AI aircraft. I downloaded and installed the Duxford FSX scenery and everything went smoothly with the two *.exe files.

Because I also fly into several other non-military airports, I was intrigued by the Justflight package as it has civil, commercial and military for all airports.

[jetstreamsky]

The scenery is very straight forward. I use AFX and Instant Scenery 2

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If there's interest in this technique, I'd be glad to start a thread. Don't want to hijack this one...
Gman

Yes I would like to know a lot more on this subject, the choice of software, how you merge in photoscenery, how runway textures are applied, alignment of it all, etc. There's so many places that could benefit from this approach.

[Navy Chief]

Wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of online training for scenery mods like this? For that matter, training on other things like AI. It would be SO helpful to be able to go step by step, with someone who knows how to do all this?

Just thinking out loud is all:jump:

NC

[WarHorse47]

I'm with you, Chief.

After years (and I do mean YEARS) of tinkering with FS9, it seems I have to start all over again with FSX.

[Felixthreeone]

I will help you guys in any way that I can. If I know one thing in fs, it is AI, and particularly military AI. Regarding the McChord AFB install, I would pass on the scenery from John Stinstrom and instead mod the ORBX PNW ADE file for the base. I believe I already did this, pm me if you are interested. It allows full integration of the maiw C-17's with the orbx existing scenery, which blends well. I also did a mod for Fairchild AFB to accommodate the recently released KC-135's there.

[gman5250]

Yes I would like to know a lot more on this subject, the choice of software, how you merge in photoscenery, how runway textures are applied, alignment of it all, etc. There's so many places that could benefit from this approach.


I'm opening a thread for anyone interested in these techniques. I am by no means a "master", but I will be happy to contribute in any way I can.
Specifically, I can show step by step how I have used ORBX and other scenery libraries to create natural landscapes over photoreal scenery. This also works with Ultimate Terrain. In fact I use UT North America Roads and Lighting over my Blue Sky Scenery photoreal to produce moving traffic and realistic lighting. Look for the information to start appearing on my page shortly. Please feel free to message me with any questions or suggestions.

Using these tricks along with the contributions of the other talented contributors on this site will enable us to create some ultra realistic environments at any airport.

Gman

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[jetstreamsky]

I started by downloading the demos of AFX, Airport Studio and Instant Scenery from Flight1, I'm already sold on the Airport studio as you work inside FSX as does IS2, the AFX is very similar to ADE, but it has integration with Airport Studio, so I guess its best to work all in the same suite of software.

Where is your page Gman?

Cheers

Allan

[gman5250]

I started by downloading the demos of AFX, Airport Studio and Instant Scenery from Flight1, I'm already sold on the Airport studio as you work inside FSX as does IS2, the AFX is very similar to ADE, but it has integration with Airport Studio, so I guess its best to work all in the same suite of software.

Where is your page Gman?

Cheers

Allan


Here's the link to my page...I'm opening the blog now. Also will post albums on my page.
http://sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/member.php?105727-********

[gman5250]

I've opened the scenery design thread here:
http://sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?76317-Photoreal-Scenery-Vegetation-AI-for-FSX

Looking forward to sharing info.