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MSFS Bear Island for MSFS

Rotornut44

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635
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us-florida
This scenery is now available from emeraldscenerydesign.com and flightsim.to! Check out the official release thread on the MSFS forums:

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From the maker of the acclaimed Bear Island v2 (Redux) comes Bear Island v2 Redux, Redux for MSFS...

OK.. So, I'm going to need to work on the naming structure a bit, but I can deal with that later. :)

I have started my native conversion of Bear Island for MSFS. The scenery is planned to follow the layout of the original scenery for FSX and P3D. However there will likely be some differences, depending on what I can achieve with the SDK. To start, the imagery is the same, however it has now been upscaled from 30cm to 15cm (LOD20) using AI software. All of the features handled by SODE on the other platforms will hopefully show up sooner or later. I'm hoping many of these features will appear in the first version, but as I have yet to look into the dynamic possibilities of MSFS, I am unsure.

Luckily MSFS and FSX use roughly the same XML structure for object placement, so bulk importing objects has been a breeze. I have noticed though, that object rotation is 180* off in MSFS. So, instead of adding or subtracting 180 from hundreds of individual values, I have opted to just rotate the models 180* in Model Converter X while converting the object libraries.

So far, I have placed the 15cm imagery. Of course, this still needs a bit of work done to it. I have also imported all of the buildings and vegetation, however I am currently running into a small issue with that, as I can not get the shadows on the objects to disable, which gives them a funky look. I have raised the question over at the MSFS forums, so hopefully this will be figure out soon and I can proceed.

More details coming in the (hopefully) near future!

Microsoft Flight Simulator Screenshot 2021.01.10 - 13.59.10.59.png
 
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Rotornut44

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I have pretty much been idle on this project for over a week now due to some difficulties in getting the vegetation to look correct. After some digging, I finally concluded that Assume Vertical Normal not being utilized by MSFS was likely at fault. Trying for a week (Off and on, of course) to fix the issue in Blender, I finally gave in and threw a post up in the Model Converter X section earlier today. Arno, the master himself, had the issue solved in less than a hour. Quite frankly, I'm not sure where the development community would be without him.. Thanks again, if you're reading this, Arno!

With that issue solved, it's time to move ahead and make some more progress! At least, until the next snag in the road. But hey, you solve enough issues and at some point you will run out of issues to solve (Or, at least, obvious ones ;)).

The next step will be converting the rest of the object libraries used in the project, and getting the remaining object placement XML decompiled, compliant, and inputted into the project. Looking good already, but don't let it fool you! There is still a lot of work to be done.. :)

bear_island_florida_msfs_wip_1.jpg


bear_island_florida_msfs_wip_2.jpg
 

Cédrice

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359
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france
I have pretty much been idle on this project for over a week now due to some difficulties in getting the vegetation to look correct. After some digging, I finally concluded that Assume Vertical Normal not being utilized by MSFS was likely at fault. Trying for a week (Off and on, of course) to fix the issue in Blender, I finally gave in and threw a post up in the Model Converter X section earlier today. Arno, the master himself, had the issue solved in less than a hour. Quite frankly, I'm not sure where the development community would be without him.. Thanks again, if you're reading this, Arno!
There is no Assume Vertical ? in Blender2MSFS toolkit
 

Rotornut44

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us-florida
There is no Assume Vertical ? in Blender2MSFS toolkit
Not that I have seen. But Blender's layout is still messy to me, so I could have overlooked it. I opted to use Model Converter X since these models were all made in a different program and were already in MDL format. Plus its easier to maintain backwards compatibility for FSX and P3D if need be.
 

Rotornut44

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635
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us-florida
All library objects used in the Bear Island scenery have been converted and are now added to the scenery! However, this does not currently include any of the models previously handled by SODE.

As well a just those libraries used in this scenery, I am also making progress on converting all of the libraries. This will (hopefully) make the next project go a little faster. Although, next up for conversion is the rest of the vegetation models I have made over the years. And there are a lot of models.. o_O

Next step on Bear Island will be going back to the terrain. It's time to get the satellite imagery squared away and, possibly, better optimized.

bear_island_florida_msfs_wip_3.jpg
 

Rotornut44

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us-florida
OK. This one has been on the backburner for quite a while. When I first announced this scenery and started to bring it over from P3D, the sim's SDK was not mature enough to migrate it how I wanted to. Now, fast forward over a year later, with a few more projects completed, tons of new experience, and a completely new toolset and workflow, I believe it's finally time to get this one knocked out.

Over the last two days I have been working on the main dock house model, bringing it over to Blender and cleaning up the mess that Sketchup left behind. On the old model, pretty much all of the detail was painted on. Now, almost the entire model has been completely reworked, adding in a lot more detail.

Modeling on this building is pretty much complete. As I get time over the next few days, I will be working on getting it painted up in Substance, and then, on to the hangar!

bi_msfs_1.PNG
bi_msfs_2.PNG
 

Rotornut44

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After being busy with work, followed immediately by getting sick, I finally caught a break and found a day to get back to work on Bear Island. Since the last post, I was able to finish off the remaining details in the model.

Today, I brought the model into Substance and worked on getting all of the PBR materials in place. I have painted it close to how the original model was done. However, the materials obviously had to be changed for PBR. I have also added some more aging and grunge into the materials as it has been several years now since the release of v2.0 for FSX & P3D. I figured this would add a cool time progression aspect to it. (Though, I kept it somewhat subtle, as it hasn't been that long) :)

Note: These are renders in Substance using 4K textures. The final model will use 8K!

bi_shack_render1.jpg

bi_shack_render2.jpg
 

Rotornut44

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FINALLY.. a worthy update.

I have been taking advantage of my available time the last few days. I got the hangar stripped down, rebuilt, and painted up in Substance. Much like I did for the dock house, I have painted the hangar to be similar to that of the FSX/P3D version. The overall model has been improved with better wood framing detail inside. It features an environmental occluder to keep the grass and rain droplets from coming through the model, as well as a collider on the floor to make it solid. I have also added a parking spawn inside of the hangar, opting not to include a static aircraft in this version.

I have also finished out the dock house, fixing a couple issues I found with the model and textures. I used the windshield glass material for the windows so that rain droplets will form on it during those nasty weather days.

With all major modeling now complete, it's time to start bringing the scenery all together. Today, I also made some adjustments to the aerial imagery, as well as included a new 2-meter Digital Elevation Model to give the mostly flat island, at least, a little definition. Besides that, I have began tweaking on vegetation placement around the scenery.

There is still a ton of work to be done here, but I'm finally starting to make some good progress. And for those who have been waiting patiently for it, here's a round of in-sim screenshots showing off the new models!

bi_wip2_1.jpg
bi_wip2_2.jpg
bi_wip2_3.jpg
bi_wip2_4.jpg
 

Ronald

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974
This Bear Island looks lovely Rotornut44! Keep'm coming those screenshots

Question: How did you create the awesome level of detail in those tiny yellow flowers (and other vegetation-types) which are spread accros the Bear Island?
 

Rotornut44

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635
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us-florida
Question: How did you create the awesome level of detail in those tiny yellow flowers (and other vegetation-types) which are spread accros the Bear Island?
It's just an HD texture using the cross-plane technique, with varying plane sizes and angles. :)
 

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Ronald

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Aha! thanks Chris, it looks great (and instantly reminds me of playing Battlefield3 as [Recon], sneaking through the bushes on the Armoured Shield map)
 

Rotornut44

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635
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us-florida
Bear Island is on short final! These will likely be the final shots before release.

Those of you that flew this scenery in FSX or P3D will notice that it's layout is very similar. There are a few areas which have seen improvements, but I should also note that some elements are a bit more dumbed down than in FSX & P3D. One big area of immersion that will be missing at launch is the addition of the custom ambient sounds that were in the original scenery. Some of these sounds are no longer needed with MSFS' built-in ambient, however key sounds like the summer Cicadas and croaking Frogs cannot be added at this time due to limitations with MSFS. I do hope I will be able to add these back in the future!

Luckily, I was at least able to bring back dynamic rain puddles and "The Frog" who really likes the rain. *hint hint* Though, without his croaking, you'll have to know where to look to find em'.

Along with building out the scenery, I also made some time to overhaul the old rock models throughout the scenery as well as the flipped row boat. The rock models have been cleaned up and have received new 4K PBR textures. The row boat was originally modeled to be low poly, but not with the best practices. So, I have cleaned up it's mesh, slightly reducing the poly count, but drastically cutting the vertex count.

This doesn't really do a lot for MSFS, but hey, at least I know it's done right.

Stay tuned. Hoping to have things wrapped up tomorrow! That could possibly mean a same-day release if all goes well!

esd_bear_island_msfs_r1.jpg

esd_bear_island_msfs_r6.jpg
 

Rotornut44

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635
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us-florida
I'm excited to announce that Bear Island is now available to download from my website and flightsim.to! I want to than all of you that followed this project and waited patiently for it to be done.
You can check out the official thread (linked below) on the MSFS forums for more details and download links. You can also follow that thread to get updated any time I release an update for the scenery. :)

 

Ronald

Resource contributor
Messages
974
Congratulations Chris with this release of your MSFS2020 version of Bear Island. I've taken a look at the screenshots I must say:
You definitely have put a lot of love and details into this scenery, including that frog-on-the-rocks at the last slide :) <ribbit>
 
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