The next 'Real New Zealand' project

[toprob]

This is something which has been on the 'books' for a long, long time. Those of you who go all the way back to the early days of Godzone might remember the Taieri Valley and the little airport with the art deco NAC hangar. I've always wanted to redo this part of NZ, I've just been waiting on some really nice aerial images, including a high resolution image of NZDN. These are now available, and I've been pottering away on this for a while now. I didn't really have plans to announce it until it was a bit further along, but I've already had to make it known to some local folk so that our projects didn't clash.

This will be a real gem, if I say so myself, think 'Real NZ Nelson' but with much better aerial imagery.

Some quick info:

• This is not part of the Subscription, it'll be a 'Real New Zealand' full release;
• It'll include the Taieri Basin, a really nice NZDN Regional Airport, the Taieri Airport, Dunedin City and the Harbour;
• This is my idea on 'non-photoscenery', in that it only includes the Basin, the City and the harbour/Peninsula
• I have hinted at this before, as a 'gift' for subscribers, although not released as part of the subscription. At the moment I've shelved this idea, frankly because I'm broke;
• However this could still happen, but I wouldn't bet on it;
• (now that should cover my **s...)
• This won't affect any further Subscription releases, the slowing down of the Subscription release schedule is entirely due to poor sales/lack of funds;
• I'll announce this here, to make it clear that it is separate from the Subscription;
• I'm still relying on Subscription sales as my sole income, so yes, you can still buy a Subscription!
• In fact if 10 of you reading this now go straight to the Subscription site and buy one, I'll be back to NZDN on the next grabaseat...
  

These shots are full-sized, if you want to click into them...

[Ian Warren]

Now this is a great area to be redone .. adds to the primary four point base off the intro to the NACs 737 , F-27s and Viscounts ..

[Naki]

very nice....you are going to hate me asking you this but will it sit okay with Orbx


Edit: just realised there will be two airports....never been there in real life but this will be a must get for me...do you take payment on preorders....?

[emfrat]

Rob, put me down for one, please...

[Splitpin]

Robo man .....

[Ian Warren]

I think between Dunedin , Wanaka , Tekapo , and a few choice spots in between .. Timaru across to the West Coast the country really is getting smaller.

[emfrat]

the country really is getting smaller.

It's all this global warming, y'know...the drought has caused all the fibres in my clothes to shrink, and things that fitted me handsomely 20 years ago no longer fit

[Ian Warren]

Mike , I did a flight this morning , doing a test so required maps , great thing is getting the country and actually recognizing points of reference ... the thing that truly knocks it is the photo-real scenery .. add a few clouds .. and the rest is

[deeknow]

Great stuff Robin, a huge hole in the virtual landscape and well overdue. I'll certainly be buying this !!!

[toprob]

very nice....you are going to hate me asking you this but ....

On the contrary, one thing about this project is that it is the proper size to let the simmers determine the direction it takes... by that I mean whether it's worthwhile including blended seasonal textures (normally not a good idea with huge photosceneries), whether to blend to more than one base (given that my customers are pretty evenly split) and even whether it's worthwhile doing a version without the photoscenery to try and grab a few new customers.

There are some things happening behind the scenes at FSDeveloper.com which will mean that mixing and matching features will be a lot easier, and it may be that this is the first local scenery which takes advantage of this.

However initially it'll be aimed firmly at my existing customer base, and since 53% of you use FTX NZ it'll be compatible. Thanks for asking.

One thing which helps me to do this work is that I know that if I am happy with my progress, then others will be as well, and as I said this is shaping up to be a gem. Dunedin is a bit of a poor relation in a lot of respects, but this will show it in a new light.

As I'm having to change my direction constantly at the moment, I won't be asking for pre-payments, but if anyone is thinking of investing in a keen developer, get in touch. One thing I know is that there's not much money to be made, if any, but I really, really want to keep doing this.

[cowpatz]

Looks great Rob,

Count me in.

[NZ255]

Nice one Rob, looking good.

Knowing NZDN like the back of my hand, I'll keep you honest

[MichaelBasler]

While I've never been in this part of your country, you can count me in as long as it's NZSI compatible.

As a side note: It took me a long time to re-install P3D2.5 given all the addons I own. I am still a bit hesitant re-adding the Photo Subscription because of one issue: There is no deinstaller (as far as I know). If memory serves me right, at least some parts of the subscription modify files of the default simulator, and I don't want to engage into the next re-install... not really.

I know, ORBX doesn't provide deinstallers either (their answer once was "because we're cowboys"...). Pretty much the only aspect I dislike about their sceneries, but usually you can get rid of most of their products quite easy.

Would you dare to provide a deinstaller to the subscription at a certain point?

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

[omitchell]

There is already a great DUD available as freeware compatible with all sceneries. However it's it's not Rob's quality. So I would definitely support this project. If your doing an Ocean departure out of DUD you often go over the city and what Rob proposes would add so much to this., and to the whole area in general. I really look forward to this..

PS Rob, can you contact me Re: my last subscription payment date? I still haven't heard...

[AdrianPetford]

This is absolutely brilliant news for me. I've long hoped for a high quality Dunedin as flying from the airport over the city and along the peninsula is one of my most regular flights, echoing an amazing day I had touring there by car a few years ago. There's the Taieri Gorge Railway route as well.

When you say it includes the city, harbour and peninsula are you going to be modelling specific buildings like Larnach castle and the railway station?

Definite day one purchase for me, no doubt about it. The credit card is armed, just let me know when!

[toprob]

...

When you say it includes the city, harbour and peninsula are you going to be modelling specific buildings like Larnach castle and the railway station?

...

Cheers, Ade. I mentioned that I'd hinted at NZDN before, in the post 'Godzone Subscription coming to an end'. What I actually said was:

Don't get me wrong, I will still make scenery, and I have a lot of things planned -- the subscription may eventually include at least 6, maybe more custom airports, plus I have been working on a secret scenery which hopefully will be a 'gift' to subscribers later this year -- a regional airport, a nearby airfield, and even a... oops, nearly gave it away. It will be on a high quality, medium sized photoscenery, just because I can't help myself, and it may well be on sale to non-subscribers sometime this year.

The 'even a...' bit was meant to be 'even a castle', but since there's only one in NZ, it would've been obvious:) So yeah, it'll include the local landmarks.

As I've said, though, I may not be giving this to subscribers, at some stage I need to pull my head in and put the business on a more solid footing.

[AdrianPetford]

...
Cheers, Ade. I mentioned that I'd hinted at NZDN before, in the post 'Godzone Subscription coming to an end'. What I actually said was:

Don't get me wrong, I will still make scenery, and I have a lot of things planned -- the subscription may eventually include at least 6, maybe more custom airports, plus I have been working on a secret scenery which hopefully will be a 'gift' to subscribers later this year -- a regional airport, a nearby airfield, and even a... oops, nearly gave it away. It will be on a high quality, medium sized photoscenery, just because I can't help myself, and it may well be on sale to non-subscribers sometime this year.

The 'even a...' bit was meant to be 'even a castle', but since there's only one in NZ, it would've been obvious:) So yeah, it'll include the local landmarks.

Heh heh... I thought the "even a..." was going to be "museum", i.e. Marlborough but this is even better, particularly as Doug has done Marlborough now as well.

The screenshots look superb, this is going to be amazing in P3D.

[jpreou]

I'm in...

[toprob]

Would you dare to provide a deinstaller to the subscription at a certain point?

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

A big issue with the Subscription is that most areas are continually updated, so there is no simple way to take a 'snapshot' to put back. It isn't really that developers are cowboys that they don't supply uninstallers, it's just that the process of updating and adding bits and pieces over time can mean that an installer has its own dangers -- so a commitment to Orbx or Godzone needs to be given some thought, that's for sure. But really if I create an installer which sniffs though looking for and changes Orbx files, while not having any control of any changes from Orbx, a simple uninstall could make a horrible mess. So the only effective uninstall is to start over.

I have been working on a kind of uber-control panel, which will let you switch everything which the installers affect, but really the problem isn't with default files being changed, it's other conflicting scenery files, and only some of these are included in the installers, others just need to be manually tracked down, and a lot of subscribers have to do this.

Not a lot of default files are changed -- and normally those that are do have some way to reverse the changes. The only one I can think of is the Subscription Native Bush textures, just running the installer again lets you choose to put the original textures back. However a lot of Orbx files are disabled. These mean that there is a process to uninstall or reinstall Godzone, but really you are better off controlling this yourself, with my help.

[Kiwia1spad]

I am down for NZDN.. if you want any pics of buildings etc around NZTI let me know, im a local and can get out there to take some pics for your buildings
Also for local buildings, you cant forget Forsyth Barr Stadium...

Spadman