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P3D v2 Colorado Springs Airport (KCOS)

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UnitedExpress4180

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us-colorado
After years of flying in and out of the default version of KCOS in the simulator and hating the way it looked, I decided the time has come for me to dust off the SDK and see what I could do to bring it up to snuff. After a few days, things are coming along (albeit slowly).

Some very early work in-sim:

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Getting close to the look I want for the 35R. Just need to add the rest of the markings.
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A look at one of the few spots on the airport grounds where all the different kind of edge pavement can be seen together. Taxiway center lines have materials applied but have yet to be mapped. Still not satisfied with the two asphalt textures yet either.
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The runway looks pretty decent at night as well. The little details really pop out when lit by the landing lights.
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One more shot, same location as above.
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In order to take advantage of the latest tech/features, I've decided to make this native to P3D v2, though because I'm converting it with an old version of ModelConverterX it may or may not work in FSX, but I won't be testing it for that as I no longer have FSX on my system. Hopefully I'll have more to share tomorrow. Let me know what you think!
 
As a former resident of the Springs, I'll be watching this one with interest, as I have been hoping to one day have a COS scenery. Good luck! Looking good so far.

Todd
 
Hello again!
Took a couple of days to get some minor issues sorted out, then was able to get back to work. Here's some of the latest additions (it's not much, but it's something):

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Some minor tweaks to the runway textures. I tried some new texturing techniques for higher visual fidelity, and increased the visibility of the runway grooves. I also added the rest of the markings to this runway, however I haven't even touched 35L or 31. Nevertheless, 35R is getting pretty close to what I'm aiming for. Next on the to-do list here is to create the skidmarks, as well as redo the existing groundpoly dirt effects (the textures I have for that aren't quite doing it for me).
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After going crazy with groundpoly work, I decided to start on some of the buildings. Introducing: the main terminal! So far the modeling for this building is maybe 25-30% done. I still need to add various nooks and crannies, as well as the windows and interior, which will be physically modeled. I'm projecting that even with the level of detail I have planned, it will probably be quite easy on the system as it's a much smaller and less complex building than in most major sceneries. And either way, I'm not expecting more than maybe 1,500 polys on this piece. As it is, I'm still under 700.
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And finally, a quick render from the East face of the terminal, taken directly from 3DS max.
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On my immediate agenda:
-Finish modeling the main terminal and the annex
-Fix terrain flattening (current flatten is too big and is messing with the terrain in front of the terminal entrance)
-Split up the taxiway ground poly and rework the base textures
-Rework and finish texturing edge pavement and taxi lines
-Finish AFCAD work
-Find out why my P3D has a blue tint.
On the horizon:
-Model jetways
-Texture main terminal/annex
-Make ground texture night map (currently it glows in the dark), add blend mask

Cheers!
 
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Spent the better part of this morning working on the terminal a bit more. I was able to add more of the windows on the top of the main concourse as well as a few roof details, and I have begun work on the annex on the east side of the ramp. You'll notice that the majority of the work has been on the west face of the concourse, where I have added windows and changed a few things in the basic building design to fix a few details I initially missed in my references.

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Obviously, not a whole lot of progress to be seen on this side, but the main façade is certainly becoming recognizable...at least, if you've been here before, that is :p
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And finally, an environment render that I thought looked cool, so I figured it might be worth showing :).
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Wow, you've captured the terminal building perfectly. The runway details are spot on.

I want to encourage both you and Ryan (who is doing KAPA) on your projects. It's easy to get discouraged or burned out. Don't set an artificial deadline that you can't keep. Make your development goals short term and achievable, then add more goals as you check the others off your list. Don't feel bad if you just have to walk away for a few days or weeks even. Both of you are doing amazing work. Thank you for sharing with us as you make progress.

Cheers,

Todd
 
Today I did some pretty major surgery on the front entrance. I've added the front covered walkway (at least, part of it anyway), and did a little bit of detailing above the front door.

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Another thing I did was rework part of the main terminal. In just the last few months, COS apparently completed a minor expansion of to the concourse, something which is recent enough that it did not show up on the most recent satellite imagery. Were it not for some browsing around in Google Earth, I probably wouldn't have discovered this until well after I'd finished with the project.

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You'll notice I've also (finally) added in the windows on the east face of the building, in addition to (what I believe to be) a loading area for baggage tugs. Unfortunately, I had to take some artistic license here, since there are only a handful of photos of the ramp area that I could find online, and all of them were taken from inside the concourse, so there wasn't anything particularly useful. Initially I had considered modeling a full (albeit basic) interior for this loading area, but decided against it as I already have a lot left to do as it is. Plus it didn't help that I saw I was at ~2,000 polys for the building, which is well over what I was shooting for, and I still haven't even gotten down to the fine detail work yet.

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2,000 is no biggie! The roof alone on my Queen Alia project is 150,000 polys itself! Which is about 1/2 the total amount of polys in the WHOLE scenery, because its shape is so complex. So I wouldn't start worrying yet!
 
150,000? Dang! I would have thought the simulator would be brought to its knees with that many polys. Guess that shows how (in)experienced I am :rolleyes:. You wouldn't happen to have a picture of that by chance?
 
This looks really great and I love the idea of these front range airports having spent a little time there in the early '80s. I would agree that 2000 polys is no problem for a model of this complexity, I've got a GA fueling installation that goes over 16,000 polys and consumes 6 texture sheets (which was ridiculous of course, but it looks nice :) ). Beautiful work, I'll be watching this progress for sure!
 
Thank you! I appreciate that! I'm in colorado as well so its good to see it getting some attention... sometime in the future I would like to do KBJC, as I live right in between KBJC and KDEN so I go there regularly to watch the aircraft, and it'd be nice to have a good version for fsx as well!
 
I know that sign and logo over the front door well. The terminal is coming together very nicely. I have a couple of friends who are Sky West pilots and could ask them to get pics of the terminal face if you'd like.

Todd
 
Any shots of the terminal would be helpful (since I couldn't find even one online), but if possible, I need a photo or two of the underpass that runs beneath the concourse (left side of the last photo I posted) as well as the cargo/baggage area (or at least, I think it's a cargo area, but I couldn't tell from the references. Right side of photo). Then of course any shots of the gate area/ramp markings would be useful (for example, some of the parking spaces - at least, the last time I was there - have spots marked for where certain models of aircraft should park at the gate). Other than that, I could definitely use a few shots of the southwest area of the terminal (near the ramp's parking lot at the foot of the hill). Those are the areas that are obscured by shadows or blocked by terrain/structures in the satellite imagery, so any shots of them at all would be great since, as it stands now, I haven't got a clue as to what those areas actually look like.
 
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If you're on Facebook, you might give the Colorado Aviation Photographers FB group a shout for reference photos. Several of us on there are simmers and a few live around COS and no doubt would be happy to get you some reference material.

Really looking forward to seeing the final product. I fly to and around COS every so often while working on my Instrument Rating.
 
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