Hokitika/NZHK Prepar3d v3/4 installer coming
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:51 pmI've mentioned already that my old Hokitika is due an update for Prepar3d v3 and v4. The existing installer was for FSX/P3Dv2 only. Just a few things to be sorted, which I'll list here in case anyone has some feedback...
Just a few changes to the actual scenery, including the addition of SODE support for windsocks, and some actual P3D ground polys.
One other change which I'm not 100% sure about -- I've incorporated some custom autogen, similar to what I used for Dunedin. This means that you'd need to install the Autogen Config Merger tool. When I released Dunedin I said that this tool -- and SODE -- will become a major part of future scenery. Hokitika seemed like a good place to start with a freeware scenery. I was considering offering an alternative set of autogen, default only, but really the default doesn't really suit the West Coast at all. However Orbx NZSI does include its own custom NZ autogen. Note that I can't use any of this if it is a new vegetation class, but if I stuck to default autogen, you would see Orbx's updated default textures. I'm not keen on this, but anyone with a real problem with this has a week or so to change my mind....
Today I bought and installed FTX NZSI in Prepar3d v3, just to test upcoming scenery releases. I've done a quick video of Hokitika in P3Dv3 with NZSI installed, although I only fly over Godzone scenery. It works ok with the Orbx scenery, but there are a few issues with the river elevation, as usual with Orbx.
The one other new 'feature' for freeware will be add-on.xml support. This has been an ongoing headache, as my Subscription beta testers have very firm ideas of how this should be used. This is the main hold-up for v4 installers for the Subscription. My original plan was to create a simple add-on.xml for each 'product', whether freeware or payware, but it seems that people want less add-on.xml files, with more addons per file. Getting a clean, reliable way to control this is tricky for someone like me without great coding skills, but I'm getting there!
A quick circuit over Hoki in Prepar3d v3
I've used the default FSX Bell, as this is handy for testing scenery:) It's been a while since I've used P3Dv3, but I was pleasantly surprised that it still looks and performs great.
Just a few changes to the actual scenery, including the addition of SODE support for windsocks, and some actual P3D ground polys.
One other change which I'm not 100% sure about -- I've incorporated some custom autogen, similar to what I used for Dunedin. This means that you'd need to install the Autogen Config Merger tool. When I released Dunedin I said that this tool -- and SODE -- will become a major part of future scenery. Hokitika seemed like a good place to start with a freeware scenery. I was considering offering an alternative set of autogen, default only, but really the default doesn't really suit the West Coast at all. However Orbx NZSI does include its own custom NZ autogen. Note that I can't use any of this if it is a new vegetation class, but if I stuck to default autogen, you would see Orbx's updated default textures. I'm not keen on this, but anyone with a real problem with this has a week or so to change my mind....
Today I bought and installed FTX NZSI in Prepar3d v3, just to test upcoming scenery releases. I've done a quick video of Hokitika in P3Dv3 with NZSI installed, although I only fly over Godzone scenery. It works ok with the Orbx scenery, but there are a few issues with the river elevation, as usual with Orbx.
The one other new 'feature' for freeware will be add-on.xml support. This has been an ongoing headache, as my Subscription beta testers have very firm ideas of how this should be used. This is the main hold-up for v4 installers for the Subscription. My original plan was to create a simple add-on.xml for each 'product', whether freeware or payware, but it seems that people want less add-on.xml files, with more addons per file. Getting a clean, reliable way to control this is tricky for someone like me without great coding skills, but I'm getting there!
A quick circuit over Hoki in Prepar3d v3
I've used the default FSX Bell, as this is handy for testing scenery:) It's been a while since I've used P3Dv3, but I was pleasantly surprised that it still looks and performs great.
