NZWN announced by Flightbeam

[AhunterG]

Flightbeam have announced NZWN Wellington and previewed some WIP shots of the Airport! The goal is for a 2018 release.

https://www.facebook.com/35681170771246 ... 961801521/

Supposedly NZAA will be to follow some time after.

Exciting time for NZ flightsim with all of the major airports being worked on currently!

Andrew

[Radar88]

The Flightbeam New Project Screen Shots of Wellington International Terminal Rock looking good as a WIP over on Air DailyX news site.

NZWN Wellington International The Rock of Middle Earth

Hope they include the New Airways NZ leaning Control Tower New 'leaning tower of Rongotai' is eye-catching marvel

[toprob]

Well, things are certainly picking up for NZ simmers! In a very short time we've gone from not much to choose from, to even more than one version of at least one airport. It gives me a few options for Real NZ NZWN -- not sure if Flightbeam's NZCH fits into their announcement a year ago that they will go x64-only (so just Prepar3d v4 at the moment), so mine could be 32 bit only, although that does go against my plans to always support the 'current' sims. More likely mine will be a 'budget' release. I've certainly gone too far to shelve it now.

Mir is a real artist, looking at his screenshots. Looking forward to seeing some more shots, he has said it'll include a larger area.

So going into 2019 we could have NZWN, NZAA, NZCH, plus the current NZDN. Takes some of the pressure off, that's for sure, so I might be sticking with smaller projects after NZWN. It'd be great to get back to two releases a year, along with whatever the resurgence of NZ brings along from others.

[jpreou]

The smaller airfields definitely need attention. NZ is such a great VFR location.

[AhunterG]

It certainly is picking up, I have even seen whisperings over on the ORBX forums of a Great Barrier Island (mullti airport/field) project by the developer of NZWR.

As for Real NZ NZWN, could you do something with it to compliment FlightBeam's NZWN? I guess double ups of airports in the Oceania region are somewhat rare, possibly non-existent at a payware level. Would it be the right move to double up? Could it be more worthwhile to bring say Paraparaumu or Tauranga across to payware? There is a big gap between NZAA and NZWN.

It is great that another dev is doing some of the heavy lifting with bringing these airports into the sim. I'm sure it'll help with narrowing down your project list, as it is you have plenty on your plate without having to worry about the big Int airports.

Andrew

[toprob]

As for Real NZ NZWN, could you do something with it to compliment FlightBeam's NZWN? I guess double ups of airports in the Oceania region are somewhat rare, possibly non-existent at a payware level. Would it be the right move to double up? Could it be more worthwhile to bring say Paraparaumu or Tauranga across to payware? There is a big gap between NZAA and NZWN.

Andrew

I will finish the airport, there has just been too much work done to walk away from it. The 'gap' you mention is a real issue, I know, and it is something which I'd love to get onto. I've had too many false starts on projects due to my previous health issues, and it has been difficult to get back to 'normal' production. My plan until now has hinged on the old subscription areas -- get all the airports done in each area, so that the Wellington region would include Paraparaumu and Masterton, for instance. But I am coming around to the understanding that smaller stand-alone projects are a lot more manageable. I'd love to redo Tauranga and Rotorua at some stage.
When I started the Southern Lakes scenery, I did get a call from Orbx who were worried that I'd include Queenstown. We came to an agreement that we wouldn't double-up on anything, but then promptly (ok, a while later...) announced the NI airports, which included two of mine. So obviously nobody except me worries about this sort of thing, which makes life a lot easier!

I've now changed the pic on my site's slider so it's not so obvious that it's NZWN:)

Mir has now released a quick video of NZWN, not showing anything different from the photos, but certainly lovely-looking when it moves! He has carefully excluded any surrounding hills, so that's something to look forward to -- he mentioned the 'Peninsula', but I wonder if it'll include the city...

EDIT: one thing I meant to mention, I have been thinking that I could adapt my NZWN for X-plane, which would at least make use of some of the work I've done, but it would take a bit more work than developing it for dual sims from scratch. I've been trying to do that with NZCH, not sure if I've got the procedure exactly correct yet, but at least I'm working towards it.

[officercrockey]

Interesting, I thought your NZWN hasn't stated at all yet and I was quite happy about the announcement of Flightbeam. It certainly makes no sense, to compete with him, as he has a quite good marketing and the quality speaks for itself also. But yeah, X-Planers should be very happy about a great NZWN. My personal opinion is also, that a one-man show developer can't realistically develop for four different platforms (If you count FSX, P3Dv1-3 as one) at the same time with free upgrades. So somehow you have to find a way out of that promise

Also a bummer to read about the NZQN story. I would really hope for another up to date version, as I was never fully satisfied with the orbx version. As soon as NZAA, NZWN and NZCH are out, NZQN will have the last place in terms of the major airports.

Although I am a big NZ fan and would probably buy almost all airports there, I am not quite sure about the financial success of some smaller airports. Even now I can't visit all the airports in the region regularly, some airports of the subscription I haven't visited at all yet.

If I relied on the financial success of a scenery, I probably would look into other countries as well. There are quite a few untouched areas out there.

[toprob]

All your points are valid, but...
The reasons why I make scenery haven't changed at all since the early days, if we want any NZ scenery then someone has to do it despite the limited market. I don't expect to make as much money as I did in employment, but I do try and survive:) Contract work helps a lot, and a lot of that is outside NZ, but for my own projects, there's not much allure going outside NZ. I'm actually more of a fan of NZ than I am of flightsim or aviation....

Wellington has kind of worked out over time, since I now have two kids living there. I don't expect mine to 'compete' with Mir's, but I don't want it to just disappear either.

I've never made a promise to develop for all the sims, just to explore the possibility of multi-sim development. Already FSW has become a non-starter, and the market viability for any of the others is still way up in the air. But just making a start could lead to something bigger, not least of which is the chance to show people that making scenery can be fun! Here we are with a lot of years behind us, and only now do we see some real movement in NZ development, so things happen eventually. Sims like X-plane and Aerofly just need a kick in the pants to make them a viable NZ alternative.

It is good to look back at the early stages talking to people who are interested in giving it a go, and although most drop out, sometimes they don't.

NZAA wouldn't be in development if it wasn't for a keen NZer who made a start. Mir picked this up, and although it has had some holdups, I'm confident it will happen. And I don't know what led Mir to NZWN, but I'm sure that his involvement with NZAA was a big factor. (Plus I'd think that he would have been very interested in the fact that NZ data is so easily available and generously licensed.)

Making smaller airports does make some sense, in that they don't take as long to build. If I can do two smaller airports a year, compared to however long it takes for a big one, then the sheer perception of good coverage could help a lot. Like back in the old days of FS2002/4, when I completed both Tauranga and Rotorua in quick succession.

[NZ255]

Id say it was the data, yeah.
So did Mir pick up after Mike with AA?

[toprob]

No, I won't mention any names, as I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to go public, but he is a member here...

[Radar88]

Amir's Flightbeam Interview with FSElite from last weekends Las Vegas Flight Sim Expo 2018

His announcement regarding NZWN and NZAA from 5:20 - 7:40

FSElite: Flight Sim Expo 2018 | Flightbeam Interview

[Charl]

"Wellington: still part of NZ"
Heh... I couldn't stop looking at that hyped little interviewer feller, man he needed to be someplace else, all the time