What would you like in a scenery?

[Wittpilot]

With the release of our Grimes (I74) scenery, my brother & I are considering another project. My question is this; what would YOU, the pilot, like to see in a freeware scenery release? Let us know. I think our goal is to create fairly accurate depictions of real airports that we can muster and still keep it free for the world to use. Is there something lacking in scenery out there that you would like to see? Grimes featured some custom open hangars which I know for us, was a must. For us we would like to stay local to us, as we can use actual photos for the textures. Almost all the textures used for Grimes were derived from actual photographs that yours truly took on a chilly fall day. I think there were about 300 photographs in total.

Let us know!!!

-witt

[Tom Clayton]

A KGSO with leveled out cargo ramp and usable taxiway "E" - along with the rest of the taxiways designated correctly. The stock terminal and other buildings are good enough as-is. But... If you wanted to construct a more accurate FedEx hub and HondJet factory, I'd pay a few bucks for that. There's already one payware KGSO, but the dev's rep and the screenshots advertised tell me to steer clear of it.

[DennyA]

Well, if you'd like to stay local, I'd sure love Wright-Patterson AFB! But you'd probably need a friend on base..

But just think of the fun in sourcing all those 3D static airplane for the outdoor exhibits at the museum!

On a completely different front, the quality of your first airport was fantastic. I'd love to see what you learned put into a tutorial that covers the processes you used -- modeling and texture creation, etc! The airports I've done have just used stock and 3P library objects, and I'd love to be able to learn to create models of the quality y'all did.

[Wittpilot]

Well, if you'd like to stay local, I'd sure love Wright-Patterson AFB! But you'd probably need a friend on base..

But just think of the fun in sourcing all those 3D static airplane for the outdoor exhibits at the museum!

On a completely different front, the quality of your first airport was fantastic. I'd love to see what you learned put into a tutorial that covers the processes you used -- modeling and texture creation, etc! The airports I've done have just used stock and 3P library objects, and I'd love to be able to learn to create models of the quality y'all did.

So my brother spent a good amount of time learning through trial and error how to build everything up in Blender. Then once it as built in Blender, began the process of putting it in the game, which had a whole new learning curve. I think he definitely learned quite a bit putting this scenery together. As Spring nears, I will have to go out and take some photos of the airport and you folks can compare! ha! If you are local DennyA, we are possibly looking at doing Red Stewart in Waynesville if you know where that is.

-witt

[Daube]

I'm a little bit late to the party. Just discovered your recently-released scenery and I am very impressed with it.
If I understand correctly, you are looking for suggestions regarding the various elements that we (simmers) are looking for in a scenery, right ?
From my point of view, the scenery you have released recently pretty much nailed it, honestly.
I will nevertheless try to compile a small list of criteria which, in my eyes, are especially important in general for sceneries:

1- A good photoscenery for the round. On flightsim.to we othen see some nice sceneries placed over fake unified greeen ground. I believe it is important to get accurate ground imagery underneath a scenery/airport/airfield etc... This is especially true for military airfields, which are often blurred out in Bing Maps.

2- Custom buildings: you did that already. Some airfields/scenery can be recognized easily because this or that building is so typical. Please continue to model custom buildings or other custom details to make a scenery more accurate.

3- Parking spots and hangars: Hangars are cool. Parking spots inside open hangars are double-cool Would be nice if a few open hangars would be present on your sceneries. They don't need to be animated. Open 24/7 is good enough

4- Vegetation: an accurate vegetation is sometimes important for the "consistency" of the scenery. Nothing is worse than seeing a bunch of trees on the ground imagery, without any actual 3D autogen trees on it. Same goes for trees which are out of shape or out of place.

5- Obstacles: airfields/airports often have various obstacles that have great influence on their outlooks. I'm thinking about artificial walls (made out of mud/sandbags or such), or other things that prevent a plane from rolling straight through the place. This is also an important part of the visual signature of an airplace I think.

That's all I have in mind right now.

[K5083]

I would love to see other airports with real-life vintage/warbird activity done with the same attention and care that you put into Grimes. Top of my list would be Chino KCNO which has never been done properly in any sim. But I know it's a bigger and more complex airport than Grimes, and it must be very hard to do these airports without someone local to make sure where everything is and capture the textures. I'd volunteer, but I live on the wrong coast (in so many ways ...).

For a smaller project in your region, what about Waco Field (1WF) near Troy? That is not even an airport in MSFS yet, it has a few basic buildings, a Waco museum, and would be fun to fly the YMF off of. Might be a cute thing to hone your already impressive airport building skills.

August

[gedm]

Well, I'm not one to make many requests, but I'd like to see an accurate depiction of the Virginia Beach Airport and home of the Military Aviation Museum. It would be a great place to park warbirds in sim.

[Wittpilot]

I'm a little bit late to the party. Just discovered your recently-released scenery and I am very impressed with it.
If I understand correctly, you are looking for suggestions regarding the various elements that we (simmers) are looking for in a scenery, right ?
From my point of view, the scenery you have released recently pretty much nailed it, honestly.
I will nevertheless try to compile a small list of criteria which, in my eyes, are especially important in general for sceneries:

1- A good photoscenery for the round. On flightsim.to we othen see some nice sceneries placed over fake unified greeen ground. I believe it is important to get accurate ground imagery underneath a scenery/airport/airfield etc... This is especially true for military airfields, which are often blurred out in Bing Maps.

2- Custom buildings: you did that already. Some airfields/scenery can be recognized easily because this or that building is so typical. Please continue to model custom buildings or other custom details to make a scenery more accurate.

3- Parking spots and hangars: Hangars are cool. Parking spots inside open hangars are double-cool Would be nice if a few open hangars would be present on your sceneries. They don't need to be animated. Open 24/7 is good enough

4- Vegetation: an accurate vegetation is sometimes important for the "consistency" of the scenery. Nothing is worse than seeing a bunch of trees on the ground imagery, without any actual 3D autogen trees on it. Same goes for trees which are out of shape or out of place.

5- Obstacles: airfields/airports often have various obstacles that have great influence on their outlooks. I'm thinking about artificial walls (made out of mud/sandbags or such), or other things that prevent a plane from rolling straight through the place. This is also an important part of the visual signature of an airplace I think.

That's all I have in mind right now.

1- Absolutely agree. Especially if we go forward with Red Stewart Airfield, as it is an all grass strip. One of the busiest grass strips in the US I can imagine. It is a great airport to fly into, the grass strip is 3100ft by 150ft wide.

2- That's our goal!

3- Done and done! You know what I wish we had in this sim? The ability that A2A built in to tow your airplane out of the hangar. I thought that was a really neat little add-on they had if you started inside the hangar!!

4- Definitely not something that I thought of for sure! Good insight

5- Agreed!

Thanks!!!

[Wittpilot]

I would love to see other airports with real-life vintage/warbird activity done with the same attention and care that you put into Grimes. Top of my list would be Chino KCNO which has never been done properly in any sim. But I know it's a bigger and more complex airport than Grimes, and it must be very hard to do these airports without someone local to make sure where everything is and capture the textures. I'd volunteer, but I live on the wrong coast (in so many ways ...).

For a smaller project in your region, what about Waco Field (1WF) near Troy? That is not even an airport in MSFS yet, it has a few basic buildings, a Waco museum, and would be fun to fly the YMF off of. Might be a cute thing to hone your already impressive airport building skills.

August

Troy would be a great idea. I'm only about 30 min from the airport and there is only a couple of buildings. Plus the RC airfield that shares the same space. We have actually flown into there in our Cub. It would be fun to put some of the obstructions in there. Lots of trees on one side, buildings and wires on the other. Plus some high towers nearby.

Photo from a few years ago flying up there in the morning.
Thanks!

[Wittpilot]

Well, I'm not one to make many requests, but I'd like to see an accurate depiction of the Virginia Beach Airport and home of the Military Aviation Museum. It would be a great place to park warbirds in sim.

I whole heatedly agree. I think that would be a brilliant airport to do.

[Wittpilot]

A KGSO with leveled out cargo ramp and usable taxiway "E" - along with the rest of the taxiways designated correctly. The stock terminal and other buildings are good enough as-is. But... If you wanted to construct a more accurate FedEx hub and HondJet factory, I'd pay a few bucks for that. There's already one payware KGSO, but the dev's rep and the screenshots advertised tell me to steer clear of it.

Well Tom, we may take some to build up to that large of an airport . But I would be curious now that he finished the first scenery how much design time decreases with the next one.

[Tom Clayton]

Honestly, if all that was done was leveling out the cargo ramp and making taxiway E useable, I'd be happy. I'd be very happy if the only custom buildings were the FedEx depot and HondaJet plant. Do the whole thing, and I'll buy the first round!


Here's a short clip I did several months ago to include with a Zendesk report:

[Bushpounder]

KROA needs a remake BADLY!!!!!!

Don BP