Sakishima-Gunto is now released!

[MaskRider]

Hi Guys,

I have been slowly but surely making progress on a Sakishima-Gunto project. Sakishima-Gunto is the name of the island chain southwest of Okinawa, between the NE coast of Formosa and Okinawa, where the Japanese flew Kamikaze raids against American shipping during the invasion of Okinawa. Both Ishigaki-Shima and Miyako-Jima had airfields from which the Japanese flew Kamikaze missions. I built these islands over the top of Rhumba's mesh but I believe they might still work equally well with the stock. I started way off to the west with Yonaguni-Jima just to refresh my memory about how to do this stuff. Then I kinda swapped back and forth between Yaeyama-Retto and Miyako-Retto leaving the two islands of Minna-Jima and Tarama-Jima for last. I am about to wrap on everything but those two islands. Just put what should be the finishing touches on the large harbors at Ishigaki-Shima and Miyako-Jima. Pretty much have the land an water class where i want them. Here are a few of screenshots: an overview map; a pair showing a top down and low angle view of Ishigaki-Shima and it's harbor and a pair showing a top-down and low-angle of Miyako-Jima and it's harbor.

Top down of Ishigaki-Shima

low-angle view of Ishigaki harbor along with Ishigaki and Ishigaki-Miyara airfields in the distance.

[MaskRider]

Top down view of Miyako-Jima Island

Low-Angle view of Miyako-Jima-Hirara Harbor with Hirara, Nobara and Sukama airfields in the distance

[miccasharon]

Cool!

Looking forward to fly around these island near future.

[UncleTgt]

Oh this is gonna be so good! Glad to see someone still in the construction game ...

[The B24 Guy]

Really looks good MR.
Can't wait to fly around your scenery masterpiece.

Regards,
B24Guy

[Worthless]

Wonderful pics MR. What a great new addition to the PTO.

[Captain Kurt]

I second all of the above!

[miamieagle]

Great addition!


Thank you

[Cody Coyote]

MaskRider you're just the best. Next best thing to being there is flying your sceneries.

[MaskRider]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! Guess I better stop coming by to check for replies so's I don't go getting my head all swollen-up!

WRT "does DD73 know?". I am hoping that seeing this thread might give hims some happy thoughts. I am not sure if he really needs this project to carry on his work but I it will be there waiting for him- sometime in the short-term future- in case he wants to use it.

His Operation Iceberg project is what got me interested in Sakishima-Gunto. Its a very cool little group of islands with all sorts of what I call little harborlets. Tucked all around here and there- mainly to handle all of the ferry traffic e between the islands. So, it is a very target-rich environment.

MR

PS There are some more screenies in My Album section. Many of them are on the dark-ish side as i like to take them later in the day when shadows cause the terrain to stand out a little more. But they are still discernible.

[Rami]

Hey guys,

Jodi (Lee's wife) informed me that he had a heart attack on Monday and had surgery on Monday and Tuesday to set him on the path back to health. He is expected to make a full recovery.

MaskRider, he would be thrilled with your work!

[Devildog73]

MaskRider,

I am thrilled at your work on the islands!

My cardiologist wants me to limit my sitting time and become more active, so I will be installing your scenery and slowly working on the finishing touches for BPF.

Looking great. I cannot wait to get them installed and look around in the BPF.
DD73

[MaskRider]

Well, it's coming along. Details. Details.

Among other things, I spent the last couple of weeks: getting all of the little harborlets finished up; fitting roads to ground textures; renaming and consolidating bgls so that the scenery is better organized and runs more efficiently in CFS2. Tons of other extra little details to keep track of and poull together: NDB lists; runway entries; updating the N-SOUPAC way-points for use ACS/GPS; creating a massive number of flying-boat menu-entry start-points in all harbors and harborlets dotting the Sakishima-Gunto landscape; etc.. Tons of little niggling details that I am sure many could happily live with out but which I just can't ignore- they keep awake at night! Seriously! Hehe.

ANYWAY. I've finally turned my attention to doing detailed blended-ground-poly versions of the key airfields on Isjhigaki-Shima and Miyako-Jima. Up until now they have simply been place-holder runways laid on top of place-holder G2K-generated VTP1 polys. However, most of the key airfields had substantial dispersal/taxiway areas attached- something not easily reproduced in G2K. So, back to FSSC and the ol' blended ground texture methods. First out of the block is the three runway airfield at Hirara.

Probably near to releasing a beta version. But don't anyone sit down and start holding breaths just yet.

Here are a few recent screenies:

[MaskRider]

A couple more views:

[Rami]

MaskRider,

Outstanding work!

[UncleTgt]

MR, you are such a tease

Now when do we get to try our hand at keeping those airfields shut?

[MaskRider]

Miyako-Jima airfields:

[UncleTgt]

Ok, I'm sold...

[MaskRider]

Hehe!

I'd say these airfields are just about presentable. Spent some time tonight redoing the ground poly textures- dirtying them up a bit. Making the joint look lived in. Probably should add a few more bits and pieces- potted plants or such.

[kelticheart]

Hi MR,

I only have four words.....

....and it's not my fault either that I cannot say more than the above!!!!.... ;-)

Thank you!
KH

[MaskRider]

Hi guys!

I am pulling together all of the little bits and pieces of this project and preparing to release it. I am trying to make sure that the install is a easy as poss, especially as regards the scenery objects included in the pack. I have a layout/GSL that I think covers everything very nicely. However, there is one issue. In among all of the little ports and harbors included in the scenery I have placed numerous ships. Most of them are Usio's.

The list includes the following:

JMK Fubuki
JMK Landing Ship1
JMK Yaku
JMK T-14
JMK Uzuki
JMK Kumano
JMK Mutsuki
JMK Daihatsu
JMK Suzuya

All others are ship-objects that have been included in other MR scenery projects.

Here's the question(s). Should I:
1. Swap-out the Usio ships for misc. stock ships? This would make it an easier install and would probably improve frame rates somewhat since Usio's ships tend to be a tad heavier in detail than the stock.
2. Leave everything as is and just include the list of ships needed both here and in the scenery pack readme?
3. Provide 3 GSLs. One that has everything as is. One that swaps-out Usio's ships for stock. One that includes no ships at all?

I will of course include the full layout file so that everyone can edit as they see fit. I am leaning toward No.3.

Since my last post in the "Sakishima-Gunto Screenshots" thread I completely redid the ground texture s at the airfields. I never could find a decent image of what the dispersal areas looked like at either of the Ishigaki-Shima airfields, so I left them as is with a G2K generated VTP1-7 poly underlying the runway and apron areas. If I run across a image of the dispersal areas I will happily make the change sometime.

I attach a map of the Miyako-Retto half of the scenery. Its shows all of the places where menu entry start points are located. They are mostly water (Flying Boat (FB) start points with the rest being start point scattered around the various airfields There are 8 airfields included in the entire pack. I understand that water entry start point can be problematic depending upon which AC one is using, I have found that Nakajima A6M2N "Rufe" fighter Floatplane for CFS2 by Gerald Lindell seems to give consistently good results as do several others.



And a few others showing places on the map:

Cheers!

[skylane]

Hello Maskrider!
These pictures look fantastic!
As for the GSL, I would suggest Option 3! If the scenery is used in missions, I prefer to be able to place the ships myself in MB.
Also, I think, if the ships are part of the GSL they don´t sink when hit.

Thanks for your great work!

Wolfgang

[Allen]

Skipping ships would be best as skylane pointed out GSL ships don't sink...

[MaskRider]

Skylane, Allen,

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I agree. number three is by far the best way to go and that is what I will do.

It will likely still take another day or so. Maybe before the weekend is out. But I make no promises.

Until then, a few more screenshots:

Until later,
Chris

[Rami]

Chris,

I look at those pics and just think about how this is what I aspire to reach for when I do harbors, but I don't quite reach your level. Thanks for giving me something to shoot for, and reminding me to never get too full of myself.

I hereby bow to the master! Great work!