New Zealand and X-Plane

An effort to collaborate all freeware New Zealand scenery addons. Discuss the creation and management of the project here.

Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:03 pm

Looking Brilliant Aaron , Ol Auckland would be most touched but least UN - touched airport on the New Zealand scenery calendar, got started then it stopped , got start again .. then .. X-plane tho Hmm .... be very interesting to hear from some X-plane NZFeerrrrrrs and reaction
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:36 am

Hey there guys can anyone point me towards information about how to place FSX scenery into x plane and how to go about aquirIng "permission "Am wondering if my system would handle my photoreal scenery by Robin Corn a lot better in x plane being 64bit than FSX?
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:43 am

I would not know were to start, they asked me well over a year ago with freeware photo real , I they where required to de-compile the scenery, been quite a few freeware leases but I can't say I have seen much in photo real released.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby toprob » Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:11 am

buzzard2008 wrote:Hey there guys can anyone point me towards information about how to place FSX scenery into x plane and how to go about aquirIng "permission "Am wondering if my system would handle my photoreal scenery by Robin Corn a lot better in x plane being 64bit than FSX?


I don't think that the conversion tools can cope with FSX photoscenery, I've converted FS2004-style photoscenery before, but never seen anything for FSX. This is a major limitation of the conversion process as far as my scenery is concerned, as it tends to rely on high resolution photoscenery.

I have given permission before for some people to try a conversion, it depends on the scenery, and what you plan to do with it. Distribution is another matter, or course.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:03 pm

Thanks Rob, will your scenery be compatible with Dovetail Games New major flightsim due our near the end of the year?
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:17 pm

Dovetail games/Steam FSX are just an extension from FSX so generally scenery would plop and go, its the aircraft that have a few issues.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:25 pm

Awesome cheers Ian, can't wait till it comes out!
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:33 pm

I was lucky to get the $5 dollar deal, never installed but from what I have seen its very much as usual with scenery, I think they are looking at making it more acceptable to the payware aircraft, most development aircraft groups are thinking about Steam FSX maybe what it is all about with the update.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby toprob » Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:39 pm

There hasn't been any information yet on the new sim's scenery formats, but I would suspect that none of my scenery will work without major alterations.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby kiwi_the_iwik » Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:35 pm

buzzard2008 wrote:Hey there guys can anyone point me towards information about how to place FSX scenery into x plane and how to go about aquirIng "permission "Am wondering if my system would handle my photoreal scenery by Robin Corn a lot better in x plane being 64bit than FSX?


Hi buzzard,

Obviously, the best way forward is to approach the authors directly and ask for permission. They often say yes, as it's another platform for others to enjoy and appreciate their hard work and efforts. Occasionally, the authors convert their FSX sceneries themselves (as it's a relatively easy process) and even sell them on the X-Plane Shop portal - although the majority of scenery designers release their work for others to freely use and be inspired by.

Many members from the X-Plane community have made successful conversions of FSX sceneries, using software written by Jonathan Harris (aka: Marginal). FS2XPlane converts the sceneries, and OverlayEditor edits and manipulates the objects and adds exclusion zones in the scenery package using a very straightforward GUI. These and other files he's created can be found on the X-Plane.org website or on the Github repository here: (https://github.com/Marginal?tab=repositories).

Laminar Research also released a free World Editor (WED) program, which is used to create and amend scenery packages in greater detail. With it, you can manipulate runways, ramp starts, ground textures, orthographic imagery and objects. It's a steep learning curve, but the results are outstanding...

It used to be that slower processors wouldn't deal with conversions very well, as the resultant files need to be optimised for X-Plane. However, faster processors can really chew through the files without issue now. It's still better to generate native X-Plane files rather than conversions, though - as redraws and FODs work better that way.

As for orthoimagery, Otho4XP is a program written by Oscar Pilote from the X-Plane community. It generates photo images that are overlayed on the landscape at pre-defined resolutions, and creates fantastic results. The file sizes themselves are very large, though...

And to top it all off, Tony's (tonywob) incredible OSM-adaptive software, World2XPlane, places buildings on their actual spots - giving an amazing sense of realism.

The bottom line is that there are those who have created some incredible work using all of the above tools. And once you get your head around the software, the created files offer a completely new dimension to your flying experience. There are plenty of tutorials online via Youtube which can provide detailed examples and answer any questions as well.

I hope all this info helps!
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:42 pm

Thankyou Kiwi I'll have a look at all this, am in the middle of upgrading my system, I'm not too computer savvy but will give the suggestions here a try
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby kiwi_the_iwik » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:19 pm

No problem, buzzard. I hope you're successful - do let me know how you get on...

Meanwhile, I'm still cracking on with my NZAA revamp - and have split my airport into multiple components in preparation for texturing (really NOT looking forward to that part, as I've got to get further proficient with Blender - given that it's excellent at that task).

In the meantime, I've added a few latest screen-grabs to show you my progress so far (providing views of the middle and end sections of the International Terminal, linked together, pre-texture...). The gates haven't been added - nor have the lighting towers. All those will be separate objects (as are the all the windows, making them easier to texture).

As always, all feedback and advice appreciated!

Cheers,


Aaron.


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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:41 am

Regard to texture, when I was building airport models, I always made texture sheets for and on each building area, this helped in the case you do get conflicts, other reason it is the textures that really take the time to do.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sat Oct 01, 2016 10:12 am

Heya kiwi do you have a link where I can download Ortho4xp? I've Google it but can't seem to find a download
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby kiwi_the_iwik » Sat Oct 01, 2016 10:35 am

Hi Buzzard

Here's a link to the X-Plane forum post:

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/fo ... -ortho4xp/

If you haven't already, you may have to register on the site first...

Cheers,


Aaron.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby Ian Warren » Sat Oct 01, 2016 10:46 am

A link to the forum, something I'll bookmark and have a look later myself.
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sat Oct 01, 2016 11:57 am

Cheers Kiwi, Registering helped ;-)
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:41 pm

Heya Kiwi have been trying to follow Oscar Pilote's instructions to a T but am stuck on a section, when it comes to dowloadin the first support package I go to exactly the same site but it has a different outlay than what he has on his computer. After he downloads it he ends up with two files that I dont as shown in the pics below, the first is two pics of the different layout and the second pic shows the files he has after downloading it that I dont dont, any help would be much appreciated as am keen to try this, I still can not open any open a couple of files including the main Ortho one

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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby kiwi_the_iwik » Sat Oct 08, 2016 11:02 am

Hi Buzzard,

Sorry for the delay in replying!

I take it that you've installed the latest version of Ortho4XP that Oscar has released (sitting in his Dropbox link at the bottom of his posts).

I've downloaded one of his versions fairly recently for Mac OS X, and it did an incredibly quick job of creating photo scenery. However, as you suggested, the setup can be quite convoluted.

There's installation documentation that comes along with the download which helps a lot - and I only really managed to get things working after studying a bunch of Youtube videos that he'd posted to talk through the installation process step-by-step. Importantly, you must install Python 2.7 and Python 3 in order for it to work, as it calls upon both languages to successfully create the photo scenery..

However, his latest version for the PC apparently has a much easier installation process, but this is something I haven't tried on my PC (as I do most of my work on the Mac). You can view his install procedure for V1.17 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrkoOhua80A

Hope this helps...

Cheers,


Aaron
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Re: New Zealand and X-Plane 10

Postby buzzard2008 » Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:09 pm

Thanks heaps Kiwi I'll look into it
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