Afrika Korps scenery?

[roger-wilco-66]

That would be outstanding Mark.
As for reference, ideally Madanin, then north to Sfax, in Tunisia, the area in between these across to the Algiers border. If you can go bigger and even into Algiers, that would be great, but I know that depends on data and file sizes.

BTW I have a

Type 97 Chi-Ha Shinhoto tank, some japanese soldiers and an artillery set if you want it for the Solomons.

Michael, I'll check the mesh and come back!

As for the tank, great stuff, I'll be happy to use it. Thanks for the offer. I wanted to expand my own static model work toward the japanese side, but have not done so yet due to time limitations. I also have a toyota truck and that small japanese jeep in the pipeline. Moreover, I still have not found a practicable way to model bipeds in 3dsmax without spending weeks on a single object. Oh well. I guess modeling humans belongs to the upper league of 3d modeling.


Cheers,
Mark

[roger-wilco-66]

Hi Michael,

would that cover the area (poly) ? If yes, I can produce it, ETA by the middle of next week!



Cheers,
Mark

[stovall]

Mark, I am having some fun with this myself. A mesh of the detailed area would be great to have. The downloaded mesh from simviation is ok but your mesh would be fantastic. I speak from experience here. Count me in.

[MCDesigns]

Hi Michael,

would that cover the area (poly) ? If yes, I can produce it, ETA by the middle of next week!



Cheers,
Mark

Actually Mark, the area you mapped out is where the current bases are, but the area with the larger photoreal and where i plan to move them to is in this image. The area surrounded in yellow is the minimum area needed, bigger, especially north-western into Algiers would be better. Thanks again!!




BTW Mark, watched your video in the P3D forum, WOW, great stuff!!

[roger-wilco-66]

Thanks Michael.
I'll see that the mesh cutout matches or exceeds your image!

Cheers,
Mark

[roger-wilco-66]

OK, here we go.
I expanded the area up to Algier / Tunis and along the coast into Lybia a fair bit. It is roughly 2000 km square / 254425 sq km. Should be enough for flying some lengthy missions :-) I snooped around and found no anomalies. The lower image (height exaggerated) is the area where the coast bends to the north, it seems geologically interesting - looks like an ancient flow valley that starts in a lake system farther inland and shaped the landscape toward the coast.

If you give the GO!, Michael, I'll resample it into a BGL.

Cheers,
Mark

[Francois]

Wow !!! This is going to be good ! :-)

[huub vink]

Thanks for all your efforts guys. This will be great!

Huub

[roger-wilco-66]

I just noticed that there's even a future scenery update in the mesh. The Palegian Islands are also covered, Lampedusa, Linosa, Lamione and the fabulous Pantelleria. All valuable Axis assets during the war.
Malta is outside though, but it would be easy to add.

Cheers,
Mark

[stovall]

Oh please add Malta, Mark. A great place to fly the Ju-87 and Spitfire. Looking good.

[roger-wilco-66]

OK, Tom, did it. The mesh for Malta is included :-)

Cheers,
Mark

[MCDesigns]

LOL, there you go Mark, give the people what they want, LOL Fantastic job on the mesh, thanks so much.

Well it looks like Rommel, will be well represented in FSX, so it's a good thing you are adding Malta. Here are a few more objects, got a few more on the list and I can focus entirely on the scenery.




I get so side tracked testing the scenery. I made the other Willys with the .50 cal drivable and with FSRecorder had 4 tracks tooling around the Allied base and then did 3 tracks of the A2A P-40 doing fly overs and man it was something to experience from the ground and the air. I will place all the static aircraft in a separate bgl in the hopes someone will find/make some AI WWll aircraft and do some AI for this scenery once released.

[MCDesigns]

Getting closer, LOL. Mark (as usual) has done an outstanding job on the mesh, very detailed and even makes the default textures look good.
Was testing the main allied base in Tunis and took a pic, couldn't resist running it thru a PSD filter, LOL.



The jeep is drivable, but it's mainly for scenery testing at this point, but it will be included.

[Francois]

LOVE your objects !! Great stuff !! It will take me only 10 years to come up with one........ Oh, and I can throw away the beginnings of my Sherman now ....

[huub vink]

Great stuff again Michael! The US base looks very nice.

Cheers,
Huub

[Stickshaker]

I'm really looking forward to this!

[ZsoltB]

+ 1

[MCDesigns]

Thanks guys, appreciate the support.

I just finished placing all the objects on the main Axis base. As it stands, we have amazing mesh from Mark that covers most of Tunisia and the islands. You have 2 main airfields, one Allied, one Axis in central/northern Tunisia and you have 2 desert bases, one Allied, one Axis more southern. All 4 have photoreal textures under them, the larger bases have a pretty big area and it will blend fairly well with the "default" around it, but with Marks mesh, there is lots of detail, so it's kinda hard to see when it starts and stops even without the blends. I know Mark is trying some things also to enhance the landscape and experience further. I have left to finish the photoreal, blends and night textures and autogen and that part will be done.

I have also included 2 convoys along roads for both Allied and Axis, one each pulled over, the other each with some destroyed vehicles and burning fires. If I can figure out a shell explosion effect, I will do a tank/artillery battle scenery, but that relies on the effects or it's just a bunch of tanks in a pasture, LOL.

Also the static aircraft are in a separate BGL, in the hopes someone makes some low poly AI warbirds and some flightplans. I use FSRecorder, but would love actual AI.

I have made saved flights in the default cessna in a parking spot at each airfield that willl give you a good scenic view of the scenery when you start your flight. From that starting point you can change planes and create your own saved flight scenario.

Since there are 2 ways to experience scenery, by ground and by air, I have tried to take into account both POVS, Granted with the detail in my objects, the ground perspective has a few more pros, but with the photoreal and my artistic licenses on the base grounds, I feel the air perspective is pretty viable also. So far I have made about 70 unique, fairly detailed objects for this scenery and performance is great, so users can always add more if they want. Average object poly count is around 6k each, with the ones around/over 10k having LODS. Drawcall is minimal with most vehicles having 2, one for glass. Textures are quality though, I always start with 2048x2048, users can always resize if needed.

Here is a quick fly-over of the main Axis airfield. You can see in the forefront the off loading area where the soldier is standing watch on Rommel's Storch, LOL., With the tank area behind it and in the back is the airfield. There are also Pak-40 spots as well as Flak 88 batteries. No autogen here yet, but will be added.

[stovall]

Oh yes!!!! Thanks Michael.

[Butcherbird17]

Man that's really looking good Michael. As for AI, John Young has a few ww2 a/c that could be used for both sides.

Axis
Ju-52
Hispano Buchon (could stand in until some true E, F and early G model AI 109's are made)

Allied
C-47
B-25D (comes with the J model package)
Hurricane
Spitfire MkVb

These could populate the airfields until more period AI a/c become available. All come with paintkits and could be
painted up in period markings, just need a painter with some time on his/her hands. All are native FSX models.

Joe

[MCDesigns]

Nice call Joe. Just searched flightsim.com and saw the files, now just need someone to create an AFCAD (once released) and some flightplans and then get some of these painted up nice and weathered and sand blown, LOL. I was watching a video from a B-25 group in Africa and it showed the wear and tear the sand had on the planes and the paintjobs.

Really surprised none has come out with an easier app for generating ai flightplans, especially for vehicles also using simconnect. With all the little apps we have for FS, a simple interface to define a route and then select the simobject or objects and then create that track.

[WarHorse47]

Time to this project. Looking forward to seeing the latest developments.

[huub vink]

To be honest I was wondering if there was any update as well. However I didn't dare to ask as I didn't want to look greedy......

Mean while I'm still preparing to explore this scenery. As you know I have a weak spot for the aircraft of the bad-boys......

Cheers,
Huub

[MCDesigns]

Is that a Macchi Huub? If so, where?

Thanks for the interest guys. I had to do some work on a commercial project for another community and I got a little sidetracked with my modern military one I am working on also, but it's coming. i am finishing up the photoreal parts and trying to figure out how to package it since some parts are rather big in file size. Mark has some things he is working on for it, but he is in Austria right now, so no FS till he gets back. Then I will have him beta and hopefully then it will be ready.

[huub vink]

Thanks for the update Michael! Sometimes its difficult to remain patient

The aircraft is indeed the beautiful Macchi MC.202 Folgore. It is the FS9 model done by Pietro Zazzetta & Manuele Villa, which works fine in FSX as well. When my memory is still correct I only changed the cockpit window textures and the prop spin textures.

You can find them here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ion-Pack-I-zip

and the second package here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...tid=6&id=13707 (download link)

and finally the Veltro can be found here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...hound)-MVG-zip

Cheers,
Huub