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FSX CYPW - Powell River Airport

T1nosky

T1nosky

Messages
35
Country
canada
Hi Everyone,

First off, just wanted to say that this site has helped me tremendously with tutorials and information to create airports within FSX. I'm still considered a "beginner" since I'm learning as I go. (Sometimes it takes days and multiple re-tries for a single item within the scenery).

As an avid Orbx PNW flyer, I though that the BC region was lacking. Since I love the area so much, I thought I'd create my own airports. I wanted to show my first scenery for FSX\P3D, CYPW - Powell River, British Columbia.

It's currently in the early stages as you can see. The reason for posting was mostly for getting tips, suggestions and any other information that would help me along the way. (It also gives me a reason to finish something I actually started).

Here are the list of programs I am currently using:

Photoshop CC
SbuilderX
ADE
ModelConverterX
Forest (Amazing Program BTW)
DXTbmp
GMAX

Thanks for the inspiration over the years. I'm excited to see how this develops.

Cheers,

CYPW 1.jpg CYPW 2.jpg CYPW 3.jpg
 
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A good start and a beautiful place which definetely needs an improved airport. I look forward to see the continuation of your project :)
 
A little update..

I am currently doing more work on the runway surface. Still have the overlay to complete. I also changed the contrast of the runway base texture to reflect the real world color. I hope to have all aprons\taxiway's and runway complete soon. Still learning lots from multiple resources.

Cheers,

CYPW 5.jpg CYPW 6.jpg
 
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KL791 said:
A good start and a beautiful place which definetely needs an improved airport. I look forward to see the continuation of your project :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words! Still lots of work to do.. Most of my time is learning techniques and a lot of trial and error. Hope this turns out into a destination for the community to enjoy.
 
Another update:

I've still been messing around with the Runway textures and layers. I'm trying to achieve a realistic feel. CYPW has an odd runway. It's asphalt but, looks more like concrete from a distance. Aprons have the base texture with no other layers added yet. That should come shortly.

After getting a little frustrated with the runway itself, I moved onto importing some of the 3D buildings in order to get a feel for the placement. Textures for all buildings are still in Photoshop and are undergoing some texturing.

Still lots to do but, i'm really enjoying it so far. If anyone has any suggestions on the runway surfaces, please let me know.

Cheers,

Capture 8.pngCapture 7.jpg
 
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Another update to end the weekend:

After going back and forth between my base runway texture, I've decided with a less "sharp" of an image. This makes the runway blend a little better. (Still have to add the cracks and such).

Over 7900 hand placed trees surrounding the airport. (No impact on FPS from what I can tell). AFCAD is completed but hidden for the time being. Fences are up surrounding the airport. I also went back to fix some of the base ground poly's. The blend-mask now looks a little bit better on the outskirts of the airfield.

Still lots to do. I'm hoping to get all ground poly's completed so I can move onto the 3D grass and vegetation. Texturing the buildings will be last.

Anyway, Wish you all a great week ahead.

Cheers,
CYPW 10.jpg CYPW 12.jpg CYPW 11.jpg
 
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Such a great initiative! Much like you iv'e found the BC area of Orbx to be lacking in detail airports. I much applaud your work so far, looks good! Looking forward to see more and when it's ready for release I'll be sure to download it.
 
Thanks for your comments!

I've recently been busy working the surroundings of the airport. I flattened two areas north of the road to correspond with real world layout. Still have to decide if I will go with real world layout or leave them full of trees. (Default fsx just had trees in that area). This will depend on performance.

I was contemplating leaving out the trailer park on the north east corner of the airfield but, it's part of the scenery when on approach to 27. It took my about 10 hours to get all the models properly set on the photo real scenery as well as texturing them. I decided to use the 3 or 4 most common house layouts. This saves performance since they utilize similar textures and poly's. There's a minimal performance impact while still having a semi-detailed trailer park. (Oh, and I added telephone poles and Street lights in the area!)

Some of the things to tackle next:

Apron\Taxiway details\taxi lines.
Placing auto-gen back in proper areas.
Texturing terminal buildings and hangars.
3D shrubs and grass (Still having issues getting this into the sim. If anyone can help me, would be appreciated).
Place some more houses in the area. (Custom)
Clean up terrain elevation in some small areas.
Add a little more Runway details (cracks)

Thanks for all your comments. Its coming along nicely. :)

CYPW 13.jpgCYPW 14.jpgCYPW 15.jpgCYPW 16.jpg
 
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A great start! Starting off brand new ground textures takes a LONG time to get right. Don't rush it, just keep tweaking until it looks right to you. Don't forget all the dirty marks which really gives the runway the look of realism.
 
dgpilot1 said:
A great start! Starting off brand new ground textures takes a LONG time to get right. Don't rush it, just keep tweaking until it looks right to you. Don't forget all the dirty marks which really gives the runway the look of realism.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mir. Still trying to work out the runway surface. Your right when you say it takes a long time to get right. Still re-working the textures daily until I get the desired effect i'm looking for. :)
 
Slight update:

Added some vegetation around the airport since I've taken a break from the runway\aprons. My own custom 3D taxi lights are showing up in the sim now. (Still not positioned yet). I will re-position them once I can get the night effects working properly. Still a lot of tweaking to do. Besides that, other vegetation and vehicles were added to the trailer park. Base image has also been tweaked, so the 3D houses blend better with the surroundings.

I still have much more to accomplish. I'm really enjoying making this scenery. I know it's not perfect but, it gives me a way to learn as I go along.

CYPW 17.jpg CYPW 18.jpg CYPW 19.jpg
 
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Tip: On those buildings where you can't make out the roof ridge lines, like the pink roofed long hangar in the foreground of the 2nd shot, go into polygon mode (gmax I mean), select all polygons, then scroll down on the right to "smoothing groups", hit the "clear all" button. Gmax automatically assigns these smoothing groups to your box primitive and when you raise up that center roof peak it always makes the roofs look rounded if you don't clear the smoothing. If you want to experiment make a 6-sided cylinder to play around with, you'll see how the smoothing is automatically applied to make the 6-sided cylinder look round, or the same cylinder with the smoothing cleared can then look like a hexagonal building with 6 sharp corners.

Keep up the good work.
Jim
 
Thanks for the tip, Jim!

I'll have to play around with the settings. I'll get to the buildings once everything else is completed. (The un-textured buildings are just for reference, currently).
 
A little update,

I finally got the runway surface I was looking for after completely re-doing my runway in gmax. There's no more overlap and is facing in a correct heading. Still need to add some wear and tear marks along the turnaround points and near the touchdown zones. I'll be starting on the aprons and taxiways next.

Also having a little trouble getting my runway edge lights to appear properly in the sim. Seems that they dissapear on certain angles. (As well as my airport perimeter fence).

It's a long weekend so i'm hoping to add a lot more in the coming days.

CYPW 20.jpg CYPW 21.jpg
 
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Good evening!

Some new things to add to this thread:

- Runway is almost complete.
- Added Tire skid marks on touchdown zones.
- Added new overlay
- updated all runway lines. (They were corrected for the real life counterpart).
- Started experimenting with grass.
- Custom taxiway lights were added.
- Custom runway end lights were added.
- Airport elevation changes. (Still need some adjustment but, will get most of that done later on).

Still haven't touched taxiway's or custom building textures yet.

Here are some more recent screenshots. Please, any suggestions or comments are welcome:

CYPW 20.jpg
CYPW 21.jpg
CYPW 22.jpg
 
Hi, may I ask how you created the "crack" files? What kind of brush is it? Thank you.
 
Severin said:
Hi, may I ask how you created the "crack" files? What kind of brush is it? Thank you.
Click to expand...

The cracks are created by a set of 3 to 4 different tiles in Photoshop. I then place them on different poly's over my runway in Gmax. The cracks are painted with a light brush with a darker grey color. Then I overlap it with a darker black with a smaller brush.

Cheers,
 
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