KCUI Chippewa Co International Airport

[tgycgijoes]

The airport is complete but I have to create the terminal and other buildings custom in Sketchup and place them. I tried FSX default buildings from the library but they just don't hack it. When I went to Google Map and "drove" down the roads, they were not even close. I have to do some real interpolation for the terminal though. I grabbed every possible photo I could so I will give it my best effort. The airport is created from all Google Earth screenshots so it's really interesting. You'll see what I mean when I release it here. Now onto Sketchup and the terminal as the first one.

[gray eagle]

The airport is complete but I have to create the terminal and other buildings custom in Sketchup and place them. I tried FSX default buildings from the library but they just don't hack it. When I went to Google Map and "drove" down the roads, they were not even close. I have to do some real interpolation for the terminal though. I grabbed every possible photo I could so I will give it my best effort. The airport is created from all Google Earth screenshots so it's really interesting. You'll see what I mean when I release it here. Now onto Sketchup and the terminal as the first one.

Richard,
The scenery airports all sound great but I have to ask how hard would it be to add dynamic lighting to any hangers that may be a part of the airport. Now and then, I see some dynamic lighting
that will illuminate any aircraft that are parked in the hanger. That would be a nice feature to add to any scenery with hangers. Just a thought.

[falcon409]

Richard,
The scenery airports all sound great but I have to ask how hard would it be to add dynamic lighting to any hangers that may be a part of the airport. Now and then, I see some dynamic lighting
that will illuminate any aircraft that are parked in the hanger. That would be a nice feature to add to any scenery with hangers. Just a thought.

Dynamic lighting, as far as I know is only for P3D (not sure what version it was introduced in though). Lighting can be added that would illuminate the ground in the hangar but not the aircraft.

[tgycgijoes]

Dynamic lighting, as far as I know is only for P3D (not sure what version it was introduced in though). Lighting can be added that would illuminate the ground in the hangar but not the aircraft.

I wanted to have dynamic lighting at my gate at NAAS Corry Field and even though you can attach an "spotlight" effect in MDCx it only works in P3D V4x according to Arno who I wrote and asked why it was not working. I may try something with FSXlights and see if one of those big spotlights can be added into the inside of a "One-click Hanger". The worst that will happen is like Corry it just won't work. I know we can do ramp lights to illuminate outside on the aprons. I would love to light up inside the terminal too at night.

[tgycgijoes]

I spent yesterday and today up til now (my hands and wrist are tired) on constructing the terminal. Here is a screenshot in Sketchup of it so far I call Stage 1.
It was built in four pieces: basic terminal building, the roof of the terminal, the covering over the I believe water heaters and the air conditioners and the roof for the covering. I learned how to do that overhanging roof with the eaves and soffits. It is covered with seamed metal roofing in the exact blue color I copied from the jpeg in Photoshop. Here are two shots: Sketchup and Google>

[tgycgijoes]

It is about 75% complete after working on it all day today with much success, thank you Lord for all the inspiration. Here are two screenshots still in Sketchup 2016 because its not yet complete with the back to complete which is the apron side.

[tgycgijoes]

The crew worked for half day today Christmas Eve (I paid them for the whole day, LOL) and accomplished completely the first skylight. Here is a photo of it.
And if I haven't had a chance to wish you yet, Merry Christmas. Off to the Candlelight Service at Church.

[Greenhouse357]

Looks good! Merry Christmas!

[tgycgijoes]

Looks good! Merry Christmas!

Had to wait up til now to put out the gifts under the tree so I worked on a little bit more on the apron (back) side. Now its time as it says: "Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap are settling down for a long winter's nap" There's clatter outside but its the folks with fireworks left over from the Fourth...only in North Carolina (from an Illinois migrant) so...Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

[downwind]

"but its the folks with fireworks left over from the Fourth" made me laugh. Thanks for the holiday cheer.

[tgycgijoes]

Well, the gifts have all been passed out and everyone loves theirs including me: Andes, Herseys and Kitkats plus a SUPER new jogging suit. Now waiting to get ready for the holiday party in a little while with 20 friends but I had a chance to get the apron side of the terminal done. I did the custom jetway last week wating to add it. It is unique to KCIU. I am trying to with a lot of help requested animate it in SODE. Have a great day today, and remember that "He's the real reason for the season." Merry Christmas and God bless ya'all.

[tgycgijoes]

Right now I'm very disgusted with FSX and the terminal. It is beautiful as you can see in Sketchup; it's just fine in MDCX but all kinds of parts are missing when I compile it and upload it to ADEX. I've tried three times and now I am just going to back away. I thought it was a repainting issue so I painted every white part because I found out that MDCX doesn't always compile white or unpainted Sketchup parts. No luck. So for now this is on hold.

[tgycgijoes]

Well, I posted over at FSDeveloper for some help and got a nice reply suggesting to check for reverse faces. Well, I did not have reversed faces but I DID have untextured inside faces which were making some of the parts disappear. I spent that last couple of hours as best as I could to fix them and I have I believe a terminal that is not too bad. It is not as nice as I would like it to be and I said that over at FSD and gave him the latest Sketchup version to check out and see if he can help make it better. When I am satisfied that it's as good as it gets, I'll post some shots here and move onto the last two hangers. I KNOW that with "One Click Hanger" they will not be a nightmare like this architectural monstrosity has been.

[tgycgijoes]

Well, after two days of trying to illuminate the inside of the GA hanger here and lots of frustration with light splash attempts with no success, Tom Gibson suggested that I create night time textures for the hanger. Google gave me Al Heline's tutorial for Building Night Textures which I created in Corel Paintshop Pro and then added them in Model Converter X. Here are the results.

[falcon409]

Remember, any time you tile a texture and then use that same texture to illuminate at night it also "tiles" the light effect. For the interior, if you can make the interior walls one texture and add a "wash" effect it can give the illusion of being lit by ceiling lights. The same with the concrete floor. Make a night texture (black on a separate layer) and using the eraser tool (feathered) you can place large "spots" on the floor as well.

[tgycgijoes]

Remember, any time you tile a texture and then use that same texture to illuminate at night it also "tiles" the light effect. For the interior, if you can make the interior walls one texture and add a "wash" effect it can give the illusion of being lit by ceiling lights. The same with the concrete floor. Make a night texture (black on a separate layer) and using the eraser tool (feathered) you can place large "spots" on the floor as well.

The walls outside and interior are all one texture as created by "One-click" so that won't work. As you can see, "blue metal" is the beams and rafters that are illuminated. I will open up the "concrete" in Photoshop and try adding a black layer and try the erasure process. Then I will look at the "blue metal" in Photoshop and see if I can do something with that too. This was a first effort that was a successful illumination at all and I thank you for the suggestions. Happy New Year.

[gray eagle]

Been watching your progress with this and it looks very nice. I wonder if the lighted hanger will illuminate any parked aircraft inside? I've seen other lighted hangers not
able to do so.

Well, after two days of trying to illuminate the inside of the GA hanger here and lots of frustration with light splash attempts with no success, Tom Gibson suggested that I create night time textures for the hanger. Google gave me Al Heline's tutorial for Building Night Textures which I created in Corel Paintshop Pro and then added them in Model Converter X. Here are the results.

[tgycgijoes]

I am providing a link here for KCIU for everyone to try it and give me any suggestions. I am I believe at it to say its a beta test now. It should be fps friendly and I am anxious to know what versions of P3D it works in. There are all DDS textures and nothing is a "port-over", its all either FSX default or custom built. It also includes a modified night textures from Falcon 409's suggestions. I think it looks better than the shot above too. Let me know with a post at Bowl Game Halftimes LOL!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/f5hlo...wa+Co.zip/file

[gray eagle]

Some screen grabs from P3D V4.5 -

At dusk.



At night. No Dynamic lighting or illumination of the aircraft.

[tgycgijoes]

Why is there a difference? I would think that the hanger would illuminate the aircraft in either dusk or night. I will try and put an aircraft into mine in FSX and see if I get the same results tomorrow. I have also updated the terminal which I will give a download to the new version as well. Thank you for the shots.

[gray eagle]

Here is interesting video on adding dynamic lights however, it mentions P3DV4 using MCX. Perhaps same methods can be used for your sim or you
may of already done this with your airport.

[tgycgijoes]

I tried to add the spotlights with MCX and they did not show up when doing NAAS Corry Field. They do not work in any other sims besides P3D V4.5 or later according to Arno. Its a new thing in P3D late versions but does not work in either earlier P3D or FSX because of the programming. Thanks anyway. I am going to see about approaching this as I did the hanger and see how that works. Posts later.

[tgycgijoes]

I have stretched my skills to the limit trying to finish this. Here are two screenshots of the terminal day and night. I am satisfied with all the doors and windows but no matter what I watched/tried I was unable to untile the texture for the "billboards". I am providing the mediafire link to my final version. I hope you can enjoy all the work that went into it.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/aebma...%2529.zip/file

[tgycgijoes]

I am going to redo the night texture for the airport sign over the canopy instead of the "baby spots" look it has now. I am going to try the same technique that I did with Manistee with a texture of the sign and then create an LM of it so that it looks nice not "silly". More later here.

[tgycgijoes]

Now that I know how to do this, it only took me 1/2 the time that it did last night and achieved I think good results. Much better than that flash bulb effect before. Here are a couple screen shots and a download link to the new airport.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/2337c..._2022.zip/file