Anyone Used Golden Wings 3 Scenery?

[Devildog73]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with their scenery modification?

It looks like fantastic scenery textures.

I already have FSGenesis mesh installed in at least one of my FS9 installs and like it. I am just wondering if I want to go back in time with GW3?

I am an avid CFS2er, so I have several vintage combat aircraft for 2004. Is it worth the extra install and modification?

[Mick]

I think it's well worth it. But then, I have hundreds of vintage aircraft, not just "several." That suggests that you might not be all that interested in old planes, so maybe it wouldn't be worth it to you...

On the other hand, the installation is pretty quick and easy; you just run the CD-ROMs much like you did originally, with a couple small modifications to the procedure. So it's not like it would be a big investment of your time and effort.

And maybe a nice Golden Age environment would get you more interested in the old planes.

[SgtT]

I do most of my flying in GW3 I love the old vintage airframes. I spend most of my time looking for new aircraft to fly. There are some great locations to fly from.

T.

[SSI01]

It's first-rate scenery. From my experience you see more of certain building types than you do in FS9. Be prepared for some uncertainty about facilities and runways at airports, some are gone altogether (like Atlanta Hartsfield - even the precursor airport isn't there, just a residential area) others have taxiways missing (like Hunter Army Airfield, Chicago Midway or Willow Run Airport near Detroit - major B-24 production hub in WWII, I thought maybe a large apron would be there to hold the production until they took off from the adjacent runways which are still there - it's just grass near the runways). What would be nice is an add-on that would allow the GPS to remove airports missing in GW3 and show you what's remaining.

[Mick]

...others have taxiways missing...

I don't know if this is quite the same issue you found, but there is a fix file for taxiways that show up black. It should be available along with the main GW3 downloads. Otherwise, check the GW forum at The Old Hangar. This issue showed up within a couple days of the release of GW3 so it will be right near the beginning of the forum threads. If you still can't find the fix, send me a PM and I'll see if I can find my backup copy and send you a copy of it.

[burcham8]

Hello,

I've enjoyed having GW3 for using Mick's early biplane repaints. I have a GW3 install and one for Silver Wings (so I can use all of CalClassics planes and sceneries). I am planning to make a default FS9 install for later jets.

If this isn't too far afield, here is how I have my aircraft folders loaded (and how I plan to for modern jets):
GW3 -- 1903-1946
Silver Wings -- 1935-1965 (there's a bit of overlap, but DC-3s went way into the modern era; nothing in the file newer than a 727)
Modern Era -- 1960 -- (again, a bit of overlap, but early 707's and DC-8's DID overlap this time frame)

Marc Burcham

[Devildog73]

Thanks guys,
And actually, I like the older prop jobs better than jets, especially commercial airlines jets. Generally, if I am in a hurry or flying around just for fun from point A to point B, I fly in a military fighter with external tanks. Oh for a KC135 and ability to hook up for some fuel in FS2004!

I like to fly low and slow through mountains and valleys. I like taking off from Meigs Field in Chicago, which BTW, Golden Wings 3 omitted. Perhaps Meigs was not built yet? But I usually fly a Piper Cub or Cesna 150 off Meigs and just look around Chicago for awhile before flying around my home State of Illinois and down-State to my home town. (In FS2004 I don't have to deal with license plates made by former Governors).......

In any case, I did go ahead and install GW3. Where can I get the Silver Wings?

Obio, I did what your free FS2004 addons document suggested. What a difference! Thanks buddy! All of those scenery enhancements worked quite nicely. Illinois farm country actually looks like Illinois farm country from 5000ft.

Now if we could just get CFS2 looking like that!

[SgtT]

Silverwings is over at Simvation: http://www.simviation.com/fs2004scenery70.htm also check out The Old Hangar: http://theoldhangar.adventureasylum.com/

T.

[Mick]

As for missing airports, Golden Wings removes quite a few airports that didn't exist in the Golden Age. Meigs is one; it opened in 1948. There are others, mostly larger airports. If Bill and Lynn had tried to remove every anachronistic airport, the project never would have been completed.

The idea was that users would get rid of the anachronistic airports in areas they're familiar with, and post their files on the usual download sites for others to use. Some of that happened, but not that much.

Something to consider is that the airports you'd want to remove depends on the time frame you want your GW to represent. Straight from the box it seems to represent the world in the period just before WW2. The farther back you want to go, the more airports you'd want to get rid of. If you went back to the days of the Wright Brothers you'd have no airports at all.

You may notice that most of the GW changes are in the United States. Some work was done in Europe, but not that much.

If you check the Old Hangar downloads you'll find a lot of really neat Golden Age airport sceneries to add to your GW installation, including some for Europe, especially England:

http://theoldhangar.adventureasylum.com/

There are also a number of Golden Age sceneries here at SOH, especially for the WW2 era but some for earlier as well.