C172 over Oahu, Hawaii

[ZK-Brock]

Hi guys
Since joining these forums, I haven't really flown outside NZ much at all...to break the cycle I downloaded the BlueSkyScenery Oahu Photoreal scenery. It was made for FS9 but it works in FSX. The plan was to fly around the island, starting at Honolulu Intl and finishing at a military airfield, with the coolio ICAO code of XBEL. We'll land at about 5 different fields around the island, all withing about 10-15nm of eachother. Unfortunately none of our atlases had any detailed images of Hawaii, so I can't really tell you any names of the places


Our wings for today, courtesy of ARNZ


Departing PHNL



Approaching our first stop for touch and go.










The photoreal makes the mountains seem much more"mountainous"



This area was my favourite part of the island.


I was far too high on the approach, so I decided to go around and carry on to the next aerodrome. The runway blends in nicely here, better than the other fields anyway.


Cruising along


IMO, the turquoise water spoiled the whole scenery


This is XBEL. It's an abandoned military field. You can see how the AFCAD doesnt quite match up to the photo.



Just to make me feel like a mountain man ( ) I took these pics, from atop a mountain.





I think that this scenery would have been better in FS9 - the way FSX did the water and the AFCADs of the various airports made it a little crappy sometimes. There are some very good screenshots of this sceneryon the Flightsim.com forums though, if you want to have a geeze B)

Brock B)

[ardypilot]

I considered downloading the package, but the photoreal colours look a little wrong IMO, and I can now see the AFCAD's need a lot of work. If your looking for a mountainus island scenery, I would go for the payware 'FLIGHTCORSE - BASE PACK' from FranceVFR. You can have it with or without autogen which is great for FPS, and the results are stunning.


BTW, love that FSX 172. Looks so much better than the FS9 one

[ZK-Brock]

I'm gonna have to agree with you about the colours. But it might be my setup- have a look at the folowing, with the same setup:
Here.

[ardypilot]

Thanks for the link Brock, but it still looks rather fake for me. I may by biast towards FranceVFR's product because I have been using many of them and loving thier high quality scenery for years. Bear in mind that their textures are from aerial photos where as I expect the Hawaii stuff is from a satelittle and differs in quality.

[ZK-Brock]

Yeah, I'm going to delete the scenery. I don't think I'll be drawn back to Oahu by it or anything. But I haven't given up on the whole expanding my sim horizons thing. Expect Greece soon.

[JonARNZ]

Lets also remember the texture resolution possibilities with X, well see some amazing hi-res scenery come forth soon enough, I'm picking Hawaii will be sooner rather than later due to the mesh possibilities.

[brownbox]

wow, that looks good. I should see if I can find soem of those places in Test Drive Unlimited, seeing as the whole game is based on this island, with accurate textures and scenery

[lowellyerex]

Lets also remember the texture resolution possibilities with X, well see some amazing hi-res scenery come forth soon enough, I'm picking Hawaii will be sooner rather than later due to the mesh possibilities.

There is already a payware photoreal Oahu from MegaScenery.

Looks great, but the price is a bit steep at US$15 for just the one island.

[ZK-Brock]

That looks like good scenery - but I cant imagine many people buying it (Probably Oahuan Simmers only).

Looking over these screenshots, I realise now that they're pretty cr@p - especially the way the turquoise water looks next to the land (apart from screens 11 and 12, it looks pretty good there).

[ardypilot]

That mega scenery stuff looks awesome, especially the way the coastline blends with the sea in the preview screenshots linked by lowellyerex- I want those water textures!!!

The only problem is the shadows on the mountainsides- this is a problem with all photoreal scenerys. The sim casts shadows of its own at different angles throughout the day, so unless you are flying at exactly the same time that the texture was photographed, you get a really fake looking effect on your landscape. This was a major issue with FranceVFR La Reunion Island which I have installed. France VFR got it right with Corica though- they must have photographed those textures on a cloudy day or something- it works wonders

[Charl]

That mega scenery stuff looks awesome, especially the way the coastline blends with the sea in the preview screenshots linked by lowellyerex- I want those water textures!!!

You do want those sea textures, alright.
You certainly don't want every bit of water, ponds, rivers etc to look just the same however!
Wonder if FSX has a set of waterclass features available?

[ardypilot]

WOW, Amazing shot Charl, I didn't know you had that addon!

Is that FS9 or FSX?

[Alex]

The water looks like FSX to me.

Alex

[ZK-Brock]

And to me.

BTW, who was the cheeky mod that changed the topic description?

[Alex]

Lol, wasn't me mate.

Alex

[ardypilot]

who was the cheeky mod that changed the topic description?

Hey Brock- it was me. Just making it comply with the new additon to the uploading images guide: "*** First and fore mostly, please remember to keep your shots based on NZ! *** If you want to post a screenshot topic about another country, please write "Non NZ" in the 'Topic Description' box when uploading it."

[Snowman]

Lets also remember the texture resolution possibilities with X, well see some amazing hi-res scenery come forth soon enough, I'm picking Hawaii will be sooner rather than later due to the mesh possibilities.

There is already a payware photoreal Oahu from MegaScenery.

Looks great, but the price is a bit steep at US$15 for just the one island.

I have to agree with lowellyerex. The MegaCITY Hawaii scenery is awesome !!
Particularly when you add Bill Melichar's incredibly beautiful Honolulu International Airport scenery to it, and the DBWsim Design Hickam Air Force Base as well (right beside Honolulu Intl.).

Lawrie.