Takitimu...

[toprob]

That reminds me, seeing Ian's screenshots. Following some beta testing, it became obvious that this scenery really requires at least one airport completed before it is released. I tend to use saved flights to find my way around, rather than take off from one of the airfields every time I test the scenery, but the testers found it a bit disconcerting that the starting airports are a bit -- defaulty -- and tend to detract from the scenery.

This will delay the release a bit, how much I just don't know, but we should still be talking a few weeks.

[pilotgallagher01]

Awesome Can't wait Rob

[Moriarty]

I also am standing in line for a cd.

I cant get enthused with the default at all. I have all the goodies for FS9, upgraded, if that is the correct word for FSX,
but after Rob's scenery........... Put it away until his new offerings are out.

B.

[happytraveller]

I for one certainly do not mind paying for a CD, as you cannot expect people to work for free, so if it means paying a few dollars for a CD then I will consider it money well spent. If you have spent money and time making this scenery then it is only fair that you should make some money back out of it so I am happy to buy this and other RealNZ scenery discs.

smooth landings.

[Gorlin]

absolutely awesome!

I prefere the download version. As I am living in Europe and just bought the FSX-Bundle of Godzone it takes quite a while for the shipping.
But however I would not mind paying for the download!

[toprob]

Bear in mind that I originally mentioned a CD version of this scenery simply because the file size made it tricky to upload to the file libraries like Avsim. Since it was easy enough to split the upload into manageable sections, this won't really be necessary now.

However it does raise the question of whether anyone would benefit from a compilation of my freeware scenery on CD? I have assumed that downloading these files (which are not that large, by today's standards) would not be a problem for anyone, but I do occasionally get a request from someone with limited internet access.

I'd have to charge for this, but probably not more that NZ$12.

[Bandit]

I for one would love to get a CD with them all on Rob.

Happy to pay for it. $12.00 seems very reasonable.

[pilotgallagher01]

Awesome

So when roughly will this be ready??

[MurrayH]

QUOTE (toprob @ Jan 16 2009, 03:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, Murray -- and others who have requested a CD version when available. I have now decided to simply cut the area into 3 (subject to beta testing), and I'll now release it in 3 parts on Avsim. (They require files less than 100MB.) Since this meant reducing the compression to 85%, rather than 70%, I don't think anyone would notice the difference from the uncompressed version. (This is very like JPEG compression -- 85% quality is generally considered good enough for most displays.) However, I will test this further and see if there is any appreciable difference.

I'll still offer a CD version, but the download won't be quite the poor relation that it was originally -- you may not get much benefit from the uncompressed version.

I see that Takitimu is available on Avsim. Thanks Robin. Are you still offering an uncompressed version on CD? If so, I am still interested. If you are going to package this with your next airport release, I am happy to wait until then.

[toprob]

QUOTE (MurrayH @ Apr 8 2009, 07:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see that Takitimu is available on Avsim. Thanks Robin. Are you still offering an uncompressed version on CD? If so, I am still interested. If you are going to package this with your next airport release, I am happy to wait until then.

I'm putting together a disc-based compilation of all my freeware at the moment. It will include Takitimu, but it may be the same as the Avsim download, as I've done some quick testing and I can't see any difference between uncompressed and 85% compression, which is what I've used here. There was certainly a noticeable difference when I compressed it to fit under 200MB, which is why I was concerned that the quality would be compromised.

The compression is very similar to JPEG compression -- and the values tend to work the same. When compressing a photo, for instance, 85% is considered high quality, and would only be considered too much compression if there were subtle skin tones or gradients such as skies. Around 75% you start to see typical JPEG artifacts -- around sharp lines -- and below 70% you get obvious deterioration and blocking.

Since the aerial scenery does not have any subtle blends, only the sharp areas are of concern, and at 85% compression you don't see any of the sharp line artifacts.

Plus, uncompressed Takitimu is just under a gigabyte:)