Hi all,

EDIT: Go get it!!!

http://www.flightsimstore.com/advanced_sea...or+ywol+or+ybas

...Downloading now! 3GB of scenery

Cheers,

Kelvin

Great to see some enthusiasm Kelvin, but did you need to create two threads????

No I didn't :-) Sorry, fell over my own two feet while posting and starting the NZSI download. A little too excited I guess :-P



Oh cr@p, now i've made a real mess, can't delete the previous thread, and I renamed it, arrgghhhhh. Admin, some help over here! need one of these deleted.

...Thanks for removing the duplicate thread Admin. Will go slowly next time and try not to fumble.

Deep breath Kelvin, slow deep breaths

I'm in my happy place now!

Hi Kelvin

Any ideas how these fit in with our existing sceneries + VLC? Is it just a matter of re-ordering them, or disabling them?

Also - I have ORBX/FTX Australia - does it use/need any of those textures?

$44 NZ ... hmmmm ...

I dont have any NZ add ons but I was thinking about it. This raises an interesting question. There are a few now but none are dirt cheap. They all look good value but quite expensive for all of them together so I will have some research to do on whichi I might tackle first.

No doubt it won't take too long to figure that out. I can take some educated guesses about my own scenery, but I'm not at all sure how it will work with those who want to use NZSI but retain VLC for the North Island.

Have fun!

Hmm Christmas present for girlfriend or fancy addon for me? Bummer, damned conscience. Well just VLC for me then but to
be honest, I'm not complaining

Hi Adam,

(EDITED POST)
Haven't had much time to play yet because I finished the download at 9:45pm last night. I will try and play but if i see any weird stuff happening, i'll just stick to ORBX. I am going to pull up google earth and check how the landclass weighs up. You can still have VLC installed which would work for the North Island anyway.
Cheers,

Kelvin

VLCGodzone Ashburton compatbility with FTX NZSI
http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/400...-with-ftx-nzsi/

VLCGodzone Kaikoura compatbility with FTX NZSI
http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/401...-with-ftx-nzsi/

Cheers, Eddy, you're doing a great job.

Thanks Robin. Glad to help out.

Heres VLC with Aime Leclercq's free textures





Here's VLC with Aime Leclercq's free textures

Some how I really do not think Eddy was trying get in a organ measurement contest but just giving a HU on how to get Godzone airports into NZSI.

I gather that!!! just trying to compare between the 2 before forking out lots of dollars. Or are we breaking Orbx copy right rules by doing this.

Sorry bud, post came over a bit blunter than it should have been..

Cant see how one could breach a copy write, its a screen grab, would be along the lines of Nikon suing someone for displaying a photo.

from the locals perspective

is this worth getting?

I'm a local, and I'll give my initial opinion, even though I do sell a 'competing' product -- Vector Land Class -- through my website...

Going from default FSX to NZSI is a huge improvement, of course. Going via VLC to NZSI is the tricky bit, where both have strengths, and both have weaknesses. So there are three groups of people that this is aimed at -- those who have used Vector Land Class for a while, those who have lived in the South Island, that those who both live here and use VLC:)

Summer in NZSI is lovely -- I live in Lyttelton, so this was the first place I checked. Most of my initial flights were via saved flights, which are designed to show off various areas of NZ, and Lyttelton is one of these, because anyone who visits me has automatically been to Lyttelton... Flying over NZSI Banks Peninsula in summer is great. This isn't the same in the other months, because I no longer get that instant recognition that I'm looking for. The other seasons just go too green, and I don't mean a nice green.

The trouble, I think, relates to how the seasonal texture are produced. Most aerial photos in New Zealand are flown in December/January, which is the beginning of summer, so of course they represent that time of the year perfectly. In reality, though, this is more a spring/summer look, the real summer in similar areas and landclasses is a lot drier. Banks Peninsula at the moment is at its greenest, which isn't very green at all, but this usually just lasts a few weeks while the grasses are sprouting. Think of tussock, the natural colour is far from green, although in the early spring it does get some green growth.

So to create the other seasons, simply greening them up doesn't work well for many landclasses in NZ, for a few reasons. The result is that there is a lot less seasonal variation in New Zealand than in other parts of the world. Here, green farmland is kept pretty much the same throughout the year with the help of irrigation. In the winter everything here dies so there is almost no green at all. In native areas there's less variation -- these just stay green all year.

One solution for NZ scenery developers is to reduce the number of seasons for some landclasses in NZ, and flip summer and winter for a few. I think that Christian Stock did something similar for FS2004 topo, and VLC works this way as well.

But using NZSI in summer, as I said, is great. Banks Peninsula looks great, and I love the Akaroa lighthouse, which is one of the many accurate lighthouses provided. Further south the summer is great as well, but the greens are just as jarring in the other seasons. Marlborough is another area which is really well represented in summer. However I was disappointed with the West Coast overall. There is plenty I've yet to explore in the South Island, so this is still early days.

Speaking of Akaroa and early days, I'm aware that a lot of small towns are missing due to a bug in this release. Hokitika township doesn't exist, the northern side of Greymouth is missing, and Akaroa township isn't there. I understand that this will be fixed, so some locals might want to wait until this is released.

I won't comment too much on the 'flow' features, I know that people love these, and they are all there -- this was my first Orbx scenery, so I haven't seen these before, the wavy grass and the people walking about airports. Great ambiance from a distance, kind of corny up close. I've yet to see a sheep...

One of the strengths of Orbx scenery is the vegetation, and there's plenty here. I was expecting something a bit more NZ, though -- the vegetation is very generic, although attractive enough. One feature of Orbx scenery is the lack of any real variation in trees, which gives a nice tidy effect, but doesn't look right in New Zealand cites, for instance. From ground-level the little airfields are beautiful with the dense tree backdrops. I was most interested in the rural airfields, of course, as these have the most scope to represent the real South Island, and these are all customised to a nice level, not too overdone -- the developers didn't feel the need to cram in hundreds of objects into an airfield which is in reality just a couple of hangars, a water tank, and some wire fencing to keep the sheep out...

Some issues which I've noticed:

The textures overall are very, very dark, so dark in fact that using them with my normal ENBseries settings makes them go almost completely black. This also means that they don't blend well with any existing photoscenery, not just mine but all of them. I had my FSX looking brilliant with recent atmospheric improvements, but I would really need to rethink these if I was to use NZSI permanently. Orbx has suggested that developers redo photoscenery to match, but this doesn't make sense to me -- I don't think that over-adjusting aerial images gives good photoscenery.

The shelterbelts were of interest to a lot of locals, mainly because this was something which some didn't like in VLC. Orbx has dealt with these a completely different way, as I knew they would, but they haven't managed to get them to work 100% either. They are made up of rows of cross-plane 'blocks', which together make a hedgerow, and this is great in that it allows a nice shelterbelt to follow the contours of the land. Unfortunately they only really work when autogen is set to super-dense, overwise they turn into single boxes in a row. They do say that autogen should be set this way, but for some of us this just isn't possible.

For any photoscenery which uses autogen, there will be issues, as installing Orbx NZSI seems to damage some autogen textures, giving a picture of eaves where roofs should be. Weird, but maybe fixable.

Thanks for the in-depth "review", Rob - much appreciated.

I've bought a couple of ORBX products in the past (FTX Australia and YSCB) and have been generally impressed - though I've only just now been able to see the sceneries in all their glory since I upgraded my PC. I thought it'd be "cheesy", but I actually quite like the people-flow thing. Certainly, their attention to detail in airport design is staggering - and their control panels work well.

I may just treat myself to this one - particularly as you also have it, and we have you around to comment on any NZSI/VLC/RealNZ mis-matches

I'm still going to support any "local" efforts in making our FS NZ "as real as it gets".

cheers,

sorry about the 1st message its the damn auto correct on the Iphone

Ive seen some pics around the traps, there is some very bright green textures, is that right?

im not having much luck with the orbx website at the mo so i cant look at the preview shots

OK ... here's my "take" on NZSI. A bit of a mixed bag, really, but overall I think it's very good.

Airports first: Many - otherwise untouched - NZ airfields have been given the ORBX "facelift". I can't say how realistic they are, as I've never been to any of them ... but do do look pretty (and *busy*).

However - our home-grown talent sometimetimes just can't be bettered, so ... here's Nelson (NZSI first):



Followed by Robin's offering (with ORBX eye-candy though - which I hadn't turned off). I forgot to turn off real weather as well



Here's the inevitable NZMF shots:


In the long grass (no snakes here, ya boo hiss neener neener)


Quite busy!






Nice rock textures ...

Here's Dunedin ...



Maybe this is the green that some people are finding too strong ...


Over the city ...

Now on to Christchurch ...








But we have a problem with Woodbourne and Omaka (not shown):






At this stage, I'm not entirely sure about the layering order - between NZSI and VLC. ORBX suggests NZSI higher than VLC (but they would, wouldn't they ). The problems at NZWB occurred with every combination of higher/lower/enabled/disabled so I don't know what's going on here.

Note: All these pics were taken with Oceania textures enabled and with VLC still present, but below NZSI, except for the 2nd pic (Nelson) where I just shunted Rob's scenery above.

North Island (as you might expect) was largely unaffected - and didn't look *that* different, using ORBX autogen and trees - though I haven't really had time to test that out yet. I'm no expert, so unsure about quite how to get all these add-ons to live together happily - but at first sight, they seem *roughly* compatible.

So ... is it worth it? IMHO - yes. I can live with the (apparent) "green-ness". After all, NZ is pretty green most of the year round. The additional airfields certainly appear to give value - and there seem to be lots of details added in the scenery here and there. I've yet to test-fly it over any mountains.

Dear Adamski,

thanks a lot for your valuable report. I bought NZSI, but will probably only install it over X-mas. Great to know it works with VLC for the NI in principle and thanks for your hints on layering. I bought and installed nearly all previous Godzone/VLC scenery, so I still expect some fine tuning to be necessary.

I've never had an opportunity to visit your beautiful country (may remain a dreams for the rest of my life), but I can enjoy (virtual) flying there, at least.

Regards, Michael

Haha they would....but only because it would be a waste of money if you didn't! Putting it in a higher priority just means you will see Orbx in the Sth Island rather than VLC

A lot of work in that report Adam, but no sale here Im sorry. Cant comment on the other airports.....but CHC looks odd, mainly the tower and its placement...i cant quite pick it. I'll be out there in about an hours time, so i snap a few pics and check it out.

Well done....but i cant feel my wallet twitching at all

Thanks for that, Adam. I've posted details of how to 'fix' Real NZ Nelson for use with NZSI -- and Doug has taken care of Real NZ Marlborough airports in the same thread. I think the issue you have is that these particular airports have been re-elevated by both Orbx and Godzone, so both have files in Scenery/World/Scenery which affect the elevations. These can be missed when turning off scenery folders.

You've mentioned the Orbx eye-candy at Nelson, but you don't have any Real NZ eye-candy! This usually means you haven't installed the required VLC libraries.

('Forgot to turn off real weather' in Nelson -- there's a very tasteless joke in there somewhere....)

Actually, NZSI does a great job around Dunedin, especially the city and harbour. Your shots look very summery, it's really just the other seasons where I find the greens over-powering. I've been exploring a bit over the weekend, but every time I start a flight in an area I know, I end up switching the season to summer.

It is not just in summer that the greens are overpowering. Not only are some places far too green, but also a strange shade of green at all. I have tried flights around Wanaka and Tekapo, and experimented with different seasons, but for me, they were all FAR too green. It just is not like that in summer/autumn. I wonder how Orbx could get it so wrong. Even some of the mountains have a green tinge. I hope that they offer a fix for this later, as it is annoying when flying around to be surrounded by a surreal green.

Smooth landings.

I see what you mean by been very green. I was just checking some Wanaka shots on the Orbx forums which showed the area very green...green like the Waikato when its in the middle of a very wet month.

When I've been to Wanaka its brown and dusty. I was there twice in Autumn. Maybe its green sometime in the year in Central Otago?

Do the Orbx Central Otago textures actually get brown at any time over the seasons?

Sad to say that the green in the Orbx NZSI is almost the same at Wanaka in summer and autumn, and is very much off what it should be. Same thing applies to Tekapo/Twizel and the Macenzie area. Not only is it too green, but it also a strange shade of green.

RealNZ Southern Lakes got the colours right, Orbx has got them wrong. Badly wrong.

smooth landings.

Oh dear!...I will wait then and see whether any patches come out...and see what NZQN and NZNI look like first and whether all of Mike's and Robin's payware gets patched to NZSI and NZNI. Looks like I might be waiting for while as I understand it NZNI is not due until mid next year........in the meantime I keep will enjoying VLC...indeed if VLC keeps improving I might never make the plunge.

Thanks Rob. Timmo suggested looking for the dupes as well, so that'll be my first step.

UPDATE: *Yes* that's fixed it! AF2_NZOM.bgl and AF2_NZWB.bgl were indeed the culprits. Many thanks!!!

I may just have to create 2 little batch files to enable/disable these 2 (rather like the ORBX configurator).

I do have Godzone eye candy (VLC Libraries) installed/active (it certainly looked OK before I installed NZSI!) - but I suspect NZSI took priority in that instance, as I only moved the Godzone layer above NZSI.

So far, I've only tested in the current season - so will see what happens in [our] winter, re the greens.

Actually, yes. You can't really fault it in summer:



And in winter, it would be great if the green saturation were just pulled back about 5%.



Although this screenshot actually 'sells' the scenery really well, it does illustrate another issue -- the summer version is a nice summer day, without ENBseries, but it doesn't look like a nice day -- it it just a little too dark. Turning on ENB I get a gloomy mess, which didn't warrant a screenshot.

Get above the green valleys, and it is freakily good:



A comparison between VLC and Orbx -- VLC has ENB turned on, Orbx is off, but the VLC is nice and bright. Both are great!

Orbx:


VLC:




Be careful what you wish for -- I don't think the continual chant of 'more green! more green!' since FSX was first released has helped here.

A slight shift of the tonal range, and as I said, 5% less saturation, and it would be killer!

Ok thats better....still will wait a (long) while and see how it pans out

ok i took the plunge

so far not good

I was banned from their forums for the remarks i made here and no longer allowed support and not looking good for a refund

this is what im facing, I have no autogen, reading on other forums its got something to do AS Antarctica and im not thinking its install correctly

I keep getting this, which is weird as its staring me in the face as I type



any ideas? I think i have a better chance convincing pope to join the KKK than any support from them

Hmm open Windows Explorer and check that file it is looking for is actually there?- If not, search for it. If you can't find it, try a reinstall.

Wow, what a nuisance. The NZFF admin have decided that Orbx support issues can't be dealt with here, for a number of reasons. Mainly, we don't want to be seen as the place to come if you don't have legitimate access to Orbx support via their forum (e.g. pirates), but we didn't take into account the fact that legitimate customers might not have access to their support. There must be a way, if you gave them your money.

Failing that, if anyone can help via a PM to jeansy, then go for it.

The only exception here is issues with compatibility of existing airports and scenery in New Zealand. Orbx don't allow mentioning other scenery products in their forum, which means that you can't talk about existing products by name. I suspect this is behind their decision here, in response to Adamski's query.

(Sorry, link requires an account with Orbx's forum to view.)

you making fun of me

If any wants to land at Murchison NZMR use a chopper as the NZSI version is utter cr@p there are 3 to 4 ft mounds and holes in the main runway also if you fly back up the Buller river from just passed Owen river and right through to Lake Station you will see a few small settlements on the side of hills with high rise buildings that have sprung up out of nowhere even a look in Google Earth would have let them see that no such settlements exist.
If you have the VLC Lake Station NZLE installed you will needs the following two files altered the .bgl needs to be changed to .off
Lake Station NZLE

VLC_Airfields Scenery
NZLE_ADEX_VLC_CVX.off

ORBX FTX_NZSI_05_SCENERY
ADE_FTX_NZSI_NZLE_objects.off

Worth a check -- do you have the VLC South Island airfield pack installed? That has NZLE, so you would need to deal with the duplication there.

I think I had that as well at some stage. I was re-installing my FTX AU SP4 at the same time. I went round in circles for a while, but a 2nd time install (same parameters as the first) seemed to cure it.

Interesting, I have a smooth as NZMR runway and no hi-rise settlement on the Buller. So I think NZSI version is not to bad at all.

Not too sure what time of day your shot is, Pete, but is does seem to show that I'm not the only one getting dark textures.

I've spent some time editing my ENBSeries settings to get something which works with Orbx, but it still is very dark. Here's a shot showing the transition from Real NZ Nelson to FTX NZSI...



Doug -- sorry, I misread your post, I didn't realise you had already done the work to fix the duplicate elevations.

Currently there are texture issues as well that serve the North Island and many off the third party photo real addons from Real-New Zealand , Auckland/ Wellington / Paraparaumu and from FScreations.org ,s Hamilton / Taupo and many freeware in the works such as Wanganui heck the list go's on , affects cause a change in roof texture ie: Gables on the roof and the housing being turned into so to speak'little corner shop dairies' with a horrible blue and yellow housing texture with signage .

Large portion off these areas i have worked on ' years off AGNing ' and found a solution in replacing the roof texture call 'Gable Roof Texture Fix' from ORBX and the housing textures from Mike , FSCreatations.org file name 'Oceania_ANG_textures , course over at Mikes site .

Since i autogened most these areas found this problem away,s occurred after ORBX released the Australian scenery which in turn affected New Zealand . Other area that have premier New Zealand third party scenery is also affected , this will change with modifying textures so to suit all party,s . I have no answer for Antarctic X as dont have it yet .

I'm yet still to view other areas , Christchurch New Zealand photoreal is currently in the build , this a freeware that mesh,s nicely with the ORBX NZSI but will have this very problem , many other South Island scenery is currently being address to bring it all back in line with what us Kiwis are use to .

They are all third party design and its a case off mixing , adding and fixing but to make it simple for all to enjoy .

Rob my shot was taken just off post dawn so yeah I was pretty much in the shadows, also have shade running. Most of the time the texture brightness is pretty good.
On a note I did stop using ENB when I started with shade.

QUOTE (dbcunnz @ Dec 19 2011,5:05 PM) *
If any wants to land at Murchison NZMR use a chopper as the NZSI version is utter cr@p there are 3 to 4 ft mounds and holes in the main runway also if you fly back up the Buller river from just passed Owen river and right through to Lake Station you will see a few small settlements on the side of hills with high rise buildings that have sprung up out of nowhere even a look in Google Earth would have let them see that no such settlements exist.


Here are some pics showing the very uneven ground at NZMR also some pics showing Google images and the NZSI Villages that have suddenly sprung up out of nowhere.

Murchison airfield


ORBX NZSI Settlements or Villages that don't exist
First pic Google and the ORBX NZSI about halfway between Owen River and Owen Junction
Second pic at Harleys Rock Google and the ORBX NZSI aprox seven KM east of Kawatiri Junction


First pic Google and the ORBX NZSI just off Lake Rotoiti end of Lake Station airfield
Second pic Google and the ORBX NZSI Is Lake Rotoiti showing the village in Google that NZSI has omitted to add.


ORBX NZSI has a village at Top House and a couple more in the Upper Wairau valley that do not exist.

Blimey, Doug - some of these phantom villages are *towns*

Maybe ORBX have access to planning applications!

There is no Orbx NZSI showing in your shots Doug