PHNL Development Thread

[Colin S]

Here are some of the pictures I took while flying around the very much incomplete PHNL today after finally getting X-Plane 10 to work... only 4 hours of messing with files and plugins before it would get past the loading screen. Finally I'm happy. I hope you guys are too.

 

 

 EDIT: Please check for a more recent post with the images originally found in this post.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Colin S

[ryancz]

Nice!

Glad everything's working now.

[scubajuan_new]

Impressive. Keep up the good work. I am now officially following this looking forward for its release. 

 

Edit.

 

I lived in Kauai for a few years and flew into PHNL several times, Would love to recreate my travels and perhaps use it as a stop over on my way to Australia and New Zealand to enjoy Chris K's australian airports and alpilots' New Zealand Pro.

Edited February 2, 2013 by scubajuan_new

[Colin S]

Impressive. Keep up the good work. I am now officially following this looking forward for its release. 

 

Edit.

 

I lived in Kauai for a few years and flew into PHNL several times, Would love to recreate my travels and perhaps use it as a stop over on my way to Australia and New Zealand to enjoy Chris K's australian airports and alpilots' New Zealand Pro.

 

After PHNL my goal is to model Kauai for VFR flying - in my opinion the most beautiful island in the world.

[scubajuan_new]

Awesome! It is a really beautiful place, no doubts about it. I did some real life flying in Kauai and spent countless hours simming VFR in the area. Racing down the Waimea canyon and enjoying the sunset along the Napali coast, following the roads and finding familiar places was a lot of fun. I am glad you were able to recover your data from your formatted drive dude, I have ben there and it really sucks.

 

Aloha

[Colin S]

News: February 3rd, 2013

 
So here it is: finally, after the data-loss fiasco, I have everything back, and it's working better than before. The only scenery that I have in my X-Plane folder is my own and that done by Aerobridge and Chris K (none of which interfere with mine). I spent a good 6 hours re-exporting orthophotos to cut down on size, the download will still be over 1GB. I have also decided that I will release a full Oahu scenery to go with this in the future because the default X-Plane scenery does not match what Hawaii really looks like, and that is truly visible in the pictures below. Hawaii may be green, but not 1997 Mazda 626 green. There is a lot of grey, yellow, brown... pretty much any colour. That shouldn't take long now that I have a good place to get square GeoTIFFS from, which will make it probably no more than a week long project and a month to put in coastal buildings. Without further ado, here are today's photos. Also there is a really crappy video made - my graphics card just can't handle PHNL and QuickTime recording at the same time very well. On average, with "Very High" graphics, I get between 20 and 30 FPS, and I have a 3.5 year old computer with a below average video card even for that time. Cheers! A demo will be released soon with only the southernmost runway included (the one on the islet).
 
VIDEOS:
 
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/jwJMtAxsSeQ?rel=0

PHOTOS:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2013 by Colin S

[Colin S]

News: February 4th, 2013

 
Got some taxi lines laid down during my spare at school when I couldn't have been studying due to the fact that people were throwing hacky-sacs around.
 
PICTURES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Colin S]

News: February 5th, 2013: OahuX Kickoff

 

You know what else is lacking from X-Plane? A good copy of Oahu. Freeware or payware. None of them impress me or utilize the full power of X-Plane and Oahu is such a beautiful place to fly. Only one picture of this so far. More can be read about this new project alongside PHNL at my webstite, pnws.weebly.com. I'd like to throw in that I get around 20fps constant with all this and I still have the crappy old computer.

 

PICTURES:

 

[Cameron]

It's been out for some time now: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/enhanced-island-oahu-p-67.html

[Colin S]

It's been out for some time now: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/enhanced-island-oahu-p-67.html

 

So here's why I don't like that:

 

( a ) It costs money. Frankly I can do a better job without being paid. And also you don't run the risk of losing something you paid for because your computer screwed up.

( b ) No properly placed forests.

( c ) No 3D buildings. Sorry, but for VFR, it's kind of nice to have a realistic world.

( d ) Low resolution.

( e ) Airports don't have the level of detail that I have as my standard in my scenery.

 

All in all, it's just not my thing. I want something everyone has the option of having, and something that will make flying in X-Plane amazing, not just more realistic.

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT: Ok, so you beat me on one count: there's a DVD option for that... but I still know for a fact that if people can get it free, they will take it free.

 

EDIT 2: And don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to create "competition" for your site or something, I'm totally against that. I'm not spiteful of payware or something, I just love being able to use my talent for freeware and giving. And plus I love Hawaii. However I did notice something on your website, be wary: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/includes/sts_templates/newxa/images/cloudless.jpg is copyright - belonging to Google, from what I know.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Colin S

[Cameron]

I don't believe that's freeware, sorry. I want this to be available to the masses and people who don't want to blow money on something that could disappear with the wave of a hand. That's my goal, that's why none of my stuff is payware.

 

You said "freeware or payware." This is why you have been linked.

 

Not sure what wave of a hand refers to, but I'd venture to say that freeware often disappears at a rapid rate compared to payware because there's little money stream funding the existence of the product/project.

 

Good luck on it, though!

 

Edit: You've changed your whole post....

 

The scenery we sell is by no means low res. In fact, one of the biggest comments we get on it is just how clear it really is! As our best selling scenery (by a large margin), I'd venture to guess most of your assessment in how people perceive the scenery is incorrect. Of course, it's all good and well if you feel you have higher standards and can take X-Plane to the next level...just remember that you can't take the sim down with it if you want that to happen.

 

The 3D buildings are easily overlaid on the imagery thanks to the free autogen download that was created for this scenery by Benny. 

 

I do look forward to what you have to offer, though. Performance will be the biggest test of time...something we are well known for up to this point. If you can pull all of that detail off without compromising performance you get a standing ovation from me.

 

EDIT 2: And don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to create "competition" for your site or something, I'm totally against that. I'm not spiteful of payware or something, I just love being able to use my talent for freeware and giving. And plus I love Hawaii. However I did notice something on your website, be wary: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/includes/sts_templates/newxa/images/cloudless.jpg is copyright - belonging to Google, from what I know.

No idea what you're talking about. All of our imagery is licensed and paid for. You'd be a fool to think we put something on the market that wasn't.

[Colin S]

 

You said "freeware or payware." This is why you have been linked.

 

Not sure what wave of a hand refers to, but I'd venture to say that freeware often disappears at a rapid rate compared to payware because there's little money stream funding the existence of the product/project.

 

Good luck on it, though!

 

Edit: You've changed your whole post....

 

The scenery we sell is by no means low res. In fact, one of the biggest comments we get on it is just how clear it really is! As our best selling scenery (by a large margin), I'd venture to guess most of your assessment in how people perceive the scenery is incorrect. Of course, it's all good and well if you fell you have higher standards and can take X-Plane to the next level...just remember that you can't take the sim down with it if you want that to happen.

 

The 3D buildings are easily overlaid on the imagery thanks to the free autogen download that was created for this scenery by Benny. 

 

I do look forward to what you have to offer, though. Performance will be the biggest test of time...something we are well known for up to this point. If you can pull all of that detail off without compromising performance you get a standing ovation from me.

 

No idea what you're talking about. All of our imagery is licensed and paid for. You'd be a fool to think we put something on the market that wasn't.

 

Cameron,

 

Secondly, "wave of a hand" was meant as a "you can do something without realizing it" (eg, my entire IA for the IB program was deleted from my computer with a wave of the hand).

 

Licensed and paid for? I'd like to see the credits for the little image of Oahu with the "no" symbol over it shown in your product page that you linked me.

 

Sarcasm isn't appreciated ("Standing Ovation").

 

If you want me to shut down the project, just tell me. I know it will probably suck. Obviously you're far better than me.

 

Cheers.

[Cameron]

 

Licensed and paid for? I'd like to see the credits for the little image of Oahu with the "no" symbol over it shown in your product page that you linked me.

Not sure what you mean. We are in no way distributing Google imagery. I believe you may be referring to TerraMetrics in the image, which is not owned, but licensed by Google. Jumping the gun doesn't work in your favor. If you feel something is amiss please consult those that you feel have their terms violated and we would be happy to clarify and show all licensing with them. Our obligation is not with you.

 

  

Sarcasm isn't appreciated ("Standing Ovation").

That wasn't sarcasm. I meant it.

 

 

  

If you want me to shut down the project, just tell me. I know it will probably suck. Obviously you're far better than me.

Why shut it down? So long as you love what you're doing then it shouldn't matter. Competition is healthy (even if this isn't competition), and given the performance of our product I'm in no way concerned. Bringing to light something I felt you may have been unaware of is a better way of putting it.

[Colin S]

Not sure what you mean. We are in no way distributing Google imagery. I believe you may be referring to Terra Metrics in the image, which is not owned, but licensed by Google. Jumping the gun doesn't work in your favor. If you feel something is amiss please consult those that you feel have their terms violated and we would be happy to clarify and show all licensing with them. Our obligation is not with you.

 

That wasn't sarcasm. I meant it.

 

 

Why shut it down? So long as you love what you're doing then it shouldn't matter. Competition is healthy (even if this isn't competition), and given the performance of our product I'm in no way concerned. Bringing to light something I felt you may have been unaware of is a better way of putting it.

 

Alright - I was just wondering. Thanks for the clarification on the image - and I gotta ask about the quote in your signature... who was that directed to? If it was you, it seems very well suited to his personality.

Anyways, let's see how this all works.

[Cameron]

...and I gotta ask about the quote in your signature... who was that directed to? If it was you, it seems very well suited to his personality.

 

Was directed at me. We were at a conference in France. I'd never met the guy, but that was his way of saying "hello."

[Colin S]

Was directed at me. We were at a conference in France. I'd never met the guy, but that was his way of saying "hello."

 

I don't usually judge people... but what could I expect?

[chris k]

Knock it off both of you.

Colin, Cameron is a level headed and sincere guy. He does mean well and truly does wish you the best of luck in your project.

Don't read into things that aren't there - or hidden meanings. Take it at face value - you'll notice the whole tone of this discussion changes.

We can all peacefully coexist in the ecosystem.

[Colin S]

OK folks - I need you opinion, yet again on Taxi Lines: Which of the following taxilines looks better? I like both of them, btu the black ones look funny from a distance. I don't want to go any further with development until I have a couple of opinions since I would have to go back through about 400 taxi lines and alter them. And that will be painful. So let me know soon please

 

EDIT: Also, how should I go about doing the taxiway surface signs (the runway indicators)? I can't use the normal OpenSceneryX ones because their layers don't conform to my scenery.

 

Edited March 2, 2013 by Colin S

[maple-syrup]

I prefer the ones that are not black... Mostly because you said they look strange from a distance. But that's just my opinion...

[Colin S]

I prefer the ones that are not black... Mostly because you said they look strange from a distance. But that's just my opinion...

 

Alright. Yeah, from more than 500 feet away, the yellow vanishes and the whole taxiline turns black.

[maple-syrup]

Ok then go with the normal yellow lines. Always go with the one that looks the best from all angles.

 

PS. This project is really turning into something!

[Colin S]

Ok then go with the normal yellow lines. Always go with the one that looks the best from all angles.

 

PS. This project is really turning into something!

 

So far it's grinding along at a disgustingly slow pace and extra hands would certainly help.

 

If anyone else is interested, I need some people who can do the following:

-AI Taxiway Layouts

-Normal Mapping

-3D Modelling for Airport Buildings (Until someone else builds me some airport buildings that are actually custom, I'm using included Default XP10 library objects).

[Colin S]

A call out to everyone: can someone explain why the following runway title is not accepted by WED?

 

08W/26W

 

These are the official designations of the southern sealane at PHNL.

[chris k]

L C AND R are the only ones recognized

 

"W" being "water" I assume?

[Colin S]

L C AND R are the only ones recognized

 

"W" being "water" I assume?

 

In the official FAA chart, it is listed as W. What do you recommend? I don't want to redesignate runway names, I'm trying to keep realism at a maximum level for this project (and it's working until now).