Default Airport Buildings

[Bomber_12th]

Here are some close-ups showing the quality and variety of some of the default airport buildings in this sim. These were all taken at my local airport, KSGS. Each building has its own normal maps (bump map detail) and specular and reflective qualities.

[Bomber_12th]

Default KSGS, watching a thunderstorm pass by.

[Greenhouse357]

John, what does Duxford and Fantasy of Flight look like?

[Bomber_12th]

John, what does Duxford and Fantasy of Flight look like?

Hi Bob,

Fantasy of Flight is within one of the large photogrammetry coverage locations, and the AI hasn't done much with it (at least yet) - normally, at all airports the ramps are replaced with vector-drawn textures so as to cover over the ground textures of the ramps. Because that hasn't been done with FoF, the aircraft that were parked outside at the time the aerials were made are 2D images on the ramps right now. The AI right now also doesn't have the capability to reproduce water towers yet, so the Fantasy of Flight water tower is also just a 2D image. Fun to fly over, but not good at ground level.

I would love to see Dimus' work on Fantasy of Flight brought into this sim.




Duxford I feel is acceptable as a default airport, though it needs some attention too in order to make it more accurate. All of the 3D objects in the sim are modeled by AI from the Bing Maps aerials, and unfortunately when the Bing aerials were made of Duxford there was a special event taking place at the time and a huge temporary tent-like structure was erected on the east-end ramp, where normally there isn't anything but open parking. The AI saw that in the images and reproduced it as a massive hangar structure. There is also another smaller building nearby that was also only temporary when the Bing aerials were taken. I have a feeling, however, that it shouldn't be very hard to rectify the issues using the developer airport tool.

[Sundog]

Hi John,

Nice shots. I've been flying around Alaska and just flew into PABI. Very undulating runways here (Cool!) and nice detailed buildings as you noted. BTW, have you seen power lines anywhere? I haven't seen any. Also, Eielson AFB is FUBAR. They're definitely going to have to fix that, along with the lakes between CYXY and PAFA (spire lakes and some bumpy/hilly rivers).

[jmbiii]

I know this is asking a lot - would someone snap a couple of pix of KLKU and KCHO in Virginia?

[ryanbatc]

I see a few hangar like structures but the default airport buildings are frequently residential type or warehouses....grrrrr. And the whole procedural taxiway naming is insane...a lot of airports don't even have control towers....grrrr

[Bomber_12th]

I know this is asking a lot - would someone snap a couple of pix of KLKU and KCHO in Virginia?

Not asking a lot at all, and I'd be happy to take some snapshots of any airports anyone is curious about seeing.

Here is KLKU. At this time it is still missing all of the airport buildings/hangars, so I am submitting a bug/feedback report to Zendesk to make sure MS/Asobo are aware of it so that the buildings/hangars should be added in one of the future updates.




Here is KCHO:

[Greenhouse357]

Thanks John, for taking the time for those shots. I see what you mean about the two fields, but everything around the areas look great!

[FlyingsCool]

KASH Boire Field NH and KMHT Manchester a couple minutes away?
I assume Brookline is in game?

[TuFun]

John checkout Davis-Monthan AFB and behold the bone yard.

[Bomber_12th]

KASH Boire Field




KMHT Manchester a couple minutes away?








NH16 Brookline

[Bomber_12th]

Following on Ted's advice, here are some shots from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan (photogrammetry models):

[Bomber_12th]

Some screenshots of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It's so cool that an airport like this is portrayed so accurately in a sim, straight out of the box.

[jmbiii]

Not asking a lot at all, and I'd be happy to take some snapshots of any airports anyone is curious about seeing.

Here is KLKU. At this time it is still missing all of the airport buildings/hangars, so I am submitting a bug/feedback report to Zendesk to make sure MS/Asobo are aware of it so that the buildings/hangars should be added in one of the future updates.

Man, thanks a bunch! Makes me even more looking forward to a new rig. I can see my house!

[K5083]

John,

How about Chino? We never got a decent KCNO scenery for FSX/P3D, how does it look in FS2020? I'd be happy if the museums etc were modeled, but satisfied if it just had period hangars in the right places rather than modern office blocks.

August

[Bomber_12th]

John,

How about Chino? We never got a decent KCNO scenery for FSX/P3D, how does it look in FS2020? I'd be happy if the museums etc were modeled, but satisfied if it just had period hangars in the right places rather than modern office blocks.

August

Hey August! Chino, overall, looks pretty good, but it is missing most of the Planes of Fame hangars and all of the colorful hangars behind the control tower (like the Allied Fighters hangar). It's also missing the executive hangars at the eastern-end. I'm going to send a report on the missing hangars to Zendesk. The area around Chino is photogrammetry, made from the highest resolution aerial imagery, so it looks spot on and extremely detailed. Unfortunately, though, the Santa Anna River is significantly flooded right now in the sim due to the rivers/stream/lakes data, so I am sending a report on that to Zendesk too. Flying over Lake Matthews, a common spot for air-to-air photography with the Chino warbirds, it is absolutely gorgeous.

[FlyingsCool]

KASH Boire Field




KMHT Manchester a couple minutes away?








NH16 Brookline

Thanks! After asking you for the pics, I said, screw, just get it. You know you're going to get it and might as well not wait. Except for the pond to the north which should be just swamp, Brookline looks AMAZINGLY accurate! The south end of KASH looks great, the north end needs some work (the hangars shouldn't be so tall), Manchester looks pretty good, and the surrounding areas of all these airports looks stunningly awesome. I flew into KAFN after cruising around Mt Monadnock, and it's exactly as I remember flying in an out of it (well, a little too much grounds people, haha, but I'll let that go ). This sim is stunning. The east side of Moosehead lake looks awesome, the west side of the south end could use some work.

But, overall, I felt like I was flying again (it's been at least 5 years since I've been up for real in the area, and nearly 20 since I've flown extensively. Planning to get up again soon, hopefully regularly). Despite the lack of planes I'd like to fly, as you've said, the ones that are there are good enough, (not to mention I was thisss close to buying a Cirrus back in 2001, and it could still be my next plane), and I really finally can fly in the sim and not keep thinking, "Oh, I've got to spruce this area up, add some landclass here", etc. I could just concentrate on flying... Yay!

(Oh, and my house is spot on, not white like mine, but the neighborhood, spot on )

[K5083]

Thanks for the Chino pics, John. That's pretty good, I guess. Needs work by someone who knows and appreciates the place. Same with Rhinebeck; the strip is fine, but the buildings need that Golden Age Simulations touch. The prison and stockyards around Chino look good; I can see the cows, and almost smell them.

I suppose it would have been too much to hope that the MS team would include a vintage buff who would make sure that the top vintage aircraft destinations were modeled. Maybe they will bring one on in the future. It would be nice to see our favorite haunts consistently represented, rather than rely on the uneven work of third parties.

August

[Tom Clayton]

I honestly don't think the rest of the FS world would generate enough interest in vintage for MS to invest in it. It'll likely be third-party dev's that tackle that.

[FlyingsCool]

I honestly don't think the rest of the FS world would generate enough interest in vintage for MS to invest in it. It'll likely be third-party dev's that tackle that.

That was my thought. If the hangars are Missing as opposed to just generic models, that tells me there are plans to add them in the future. That could be a third party developer or Asobo is modeling them themselves.

Planes of Fame and Fantasy of Flight are both associated with MS. I remember years ago visiting Fantasy of Flight, and they had a bunch of sims set up using CFS I'm pretty sure it was.

[Bomber_12th]

In continuing to report on any airports missing hangars/buildings (as I did throughout the alpha/beta), I have now today received auto-generated messages back from the dev team, with regard to all of the latest airport reports I've filed since the release of the sim, describing the free "World Updates" that will start to be released every 2-3 months. These will focus on specific regions at a time and the airports and cities within them, with further fine tuning, updates and more details. This will include injecting into each specific region at a time, all of the latest updates from the Bing data, new hand-modeled airports, new hand-modeled points of interest, and new challenges/missions.

I have noticed in some cities, like when I visited Gdansk in Poland, that some key landmarks are missing, even from the AI, which might very well suggest that they've already been removed form the AI in order to make way for hand-modeled versions at some point down the road.

[falcon409]

Amazing screenshots John. I do have one I'd be interested to see from the air. . .KGYI (North Texas Regional). It was Perrin AFB in the 60's and my last PCS base and is down the highway from my Apartment. Thanks for the great shots.

[Bomber_12th]

Here are some shots of KGYI. Unfortunately this one too is missing most of its buildings/hangars at this time.

[falcon409]

Thank you John.