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Now Here's an Idea! (Read 1251 times)
Dec 30th, 2003 at 12:05pm
RollerBall   Ex Member

 
Since MS published the new scenery SDK I've been messing around dropping new objects around the UK. Here are a few which are either just additional eye-candy or add objects that have been missed or plain 'change' what's there (eg green fields to industrial).

Oil refinery on Teesside (it's not green fields there!)
...

'ICI' Billingham (same comment!)
...

'ICI' works at dusk
...

Carrier (landable) off Portsmouth
...

Supertanker and ferry, Solent
...

Cruise liner, Southampton Water
...

Orford Ness Nuclear P/Station
...

I've also added things like rigs (off Norfolk and Spurn Head) which unfortunately aren't landable because of an MS programming error, and other stuff

Now here's the point.

The objects are all standard MS library objects - no customising or specials. One person could spend a lifetime doing what I've been doing OR a whole load of guys who are interested could SHARE THE PROJECT.

This is possible because it's ALL DONE BY SIMPLE CODING.

So.....if someone places loads of boats in the UK Lake District, if they send me their code I can just paste it onto mine - and so on.

Pretty soon we end up with a file that has THOUSANDS of additional objects in it. At regular intervals I would then upload the updated file to the download area so everyone could enjoy it.

There would have to be a few rules - eg every file I received would have to have a list of all the objects it contained with lats and longs, and we might have to agree on scaling, because not everything his best at a scale of 1 (eg my ships are at 2.5 and 3).

And if you see my pics, you can include some great effects - like the 'ICI' smoke and the Orford steam.

What do you think?

If people think it's a good idea I'll publish a 'How To' guide. It's easy and fun, especially if you haven't done any scenery design before. Great way to get into it.

AND while we're doing the UK maybe some other groups might like to do Australia, W. Europe etc etc.

The potential for improving the sim is HUGE

Wink

BTW

This is FS9 ONLY
 
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Reply #1 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 12:20pm

bm   Offline
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I think this a great Idea! Our FS world will soon be packed with little bits and bobs!

I must admit I havent played around with this yet as Ive been busy doing bristol Airport when Ive had time. But once Ive finnished I can't think of anything better than to improve FS. Undertaking an airport to design is a big project but tinkering away at something like this would be perfect in between. Perhaps dividing it into South-east, South-west etc would be a good Idea.

If you made a little tutorial on how to do it Im sure I would be very inclined to do something. Great Idea, Im sure it will go down very well!
 
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Reply #2 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 12:57pm

KnightStryker   Offline
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Great idea! I would be very interested in helping but know nothing of scenery design. I am a quick learner thou so if you make that tute ill try my best to help.
So much for M$ saying "as real as it gets" they should say, "as real as we are gonna make it, if you want as real as it gets go to SimV and get it."

LOL

Kevin
 
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Reply #3 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 3:36pm
RollerBall   Ex Member

 
Smiley

Hi Bird and Kevin. Bit more info.

No need to know anything about scenery design or program coding. The code used is 'standard' supplied by Microsoft - no need to know what it means or how it works. I don't.

Every object has a unique ID called a GUID which is 32 characters long BUT they're in a spreadsheet so you copy and paste - not retype.

You have to get from a map (or by slewing in the sim) the position of an object in lat and long. Usually an object is at ground or sea level (0 altitude) or at a point above eg a smokestack might be 150 (metres) above ground level. And you have to give it a heading to get it to point in the right direction.

That's all - you just paste these 4 or 5 bits of data into the code for each object and in 2 seconds they are there in the sim.

The list of objects is pretty big - airport vehicles, ships and boats, chimneys, poles, masts, bridges, shopping malls, school buildings, barns, refineries, power gen plants, nuclear plants, oil rig, water towers, control towers (for your favourite local airfield Wink ), icebergs, space shuttle launching pads (!) - etc etc

In a short time if a few guys were involved and objects were placed fairly accurately (even if they didn't exactly match the real landmarks), VFR flying would be in a different dimension with the ability to fly 'from the map' by landmarks.

Imagine that!

Grin
 
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Reply #4 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 3:48pm

BFMF   Offline
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All default objects? how about the effects?
 
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Reply #5 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 5:04pm
RollerBall   Ex Member

 
Quote:
All default objects? how about the effects?



Smiley
Yep

Effects are scenery objects.

The cloud of steam above my power station is a new effect I did because the default fx_Steam1 and 2 are too small.

I tried putting fx_ngafalls_sml on the tower but it was just too big (but very impressive!)
 
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Reply #6 - Dec 30th, 2003 at 5:21pm

BFMF   Offline
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I never was able to grasp creating fx files, although adding effects to scenery objects is quite easy once you know how
 
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Reply #7 - Jan 2nd, 2004 at 12:12pm

pete   Offline
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Roger - a fantastic idea. You know I've always held the notion that FS is an evolution - slowly creating  a VR world like nothing else. It's why I got into this in the 1st place.  - & I've often wondered whether an cumulative database could be held where different folk could contribute to the same file - thereby building & adding scenery as time goes on. Ideally these would be forward compatible though we never know what MS will do next with code & open architecture - as we found out to our majority disappointment in CFS3. Bits here - bits there - people would create their towns & roads. Beach resorts, ports. An amazing potential. If there is anything I could do in the way of promotion or hosting just let me know.

I would think that once a few things are done to get the ball rolling (  Wink ) - once a few people know about it it could start to grow & perhaps become a reality!!??
 
Think Global. It's the world we live in.
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Reply #8 - Jan 2nd, 2004 at 12:43pm

bm   Offline
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Is there any sort of Map that could be used as sort of a standard? I unfortunately (in this respect) am not old enough to have a good knolwedge of industrial heartlands etc so most things would be a complete guess really. Perhaps the mutimap arial photos would give a good enough idea?
 
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Reply #9 - Jan 2nd, 2004 at 1:07pm

Katahu   Offline
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This is great.

Once I have understood the SDK, I'll be able to properly update the Miami scenery. I can't believe M$ made Miami look so dull.

In real-life, the Port of Miami has plenty of ships going in and out. In the Biscayne Bay area, there are plenty of small boats floating around. And in Key Biscayne, there are nice house that the rich folk live in.

But in FS, M$ just took all that away by just adding a dull scenery. Angry
 
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Reply #10 - Jan 3rd, 2004 at 5:00pm

BFMF   Offline
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So how do we put these objects into the scenery?
 
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Reply #11 - Jan 3rd, 2004 at 6:29pm
RollerBall   Ex Member

 
Smiley

Hiya all. Just popped in Saturday night UK time.

Can't do anything right now - I'll explain more tomorrow (Sunday) if Mrs RollerBall can't find too many 'important' jobs for me to do  Smiley

All the other married guys out there will know EXACTLY how it is for Sundays!

ie what are you doing up there all by yourself on your computer - you know this is the only day all the family gets a chance to be together Cheesy

Roger
 
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Reply #12 - Jan 3rd, 2004 at 6:48pm

xFLAMESx   Offline
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Is the scenery SDK freeware or payware?

If freeware, where can I find it?  ???
 
Honours :&&Freeware Screenshot Competition Winner, June 2009
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Reply #13 - Jan 4th, 2004 at 1:16pm

bm   Offline
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Here you are flames, here is the origional post with a link:

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=scn;action=display;num=107...
 
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Reply #14 - Jan 5th, 2004 at 2:22pm
RollerBall   Ex Member

 
Hi all

Just a quick update. Haven't had time to do a 'tute' yet as I'm working on something that could be rather interesting if it works. Something no one has done before I think.

Anyway, let you know more as soon as I can but I'm having to do a LOT of exploratory work with the new SDK.

Roger
 
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