FS2004 Old OMSJ Scenery Update

[Jordansim]

Hi All,

I have been recently learning how to develop sceneries and starting small. I took a small Airport in the UAE called Sharjah International Airport. it is mainly the hub of Air Arabia.

This scenery was developed by Matthew Ministry who made some sceneries for FS9 back in the day. I am starting small first with creating, editing and updated AFCADs first!

But, I have a small problem, since I only edited the AFCAD. I am having some issues with the buildings in the scenery. I didn't change or delete any of the files, so clearly there is no Alignment. Thus, I would appreciate anyones help to possible help me/guide me on either how to move the files to line it with my latest AFCAD which I based off google maps and line up the parking spaces and terminal buildings? Or if someone has a tutorial on how to do it and or give it a go yourself?

I'd appreciate anyones help!

Thanks
Jordansim

 

[Airbasil]

Maaaan... there's still lots of work to be done!! I still wonder, why people send unfinished files to Avsim before fixing all the problems with it... even Emmanuel Mwandosia does that... and providing lots of following updates afterwards...
Why not finishing the Scenery completely and fixing all the problems and Issues within it, before sending it to participate? Doesn't make sense...

However, I just downloaded the Scenery and will take a look at it.. maybe i can give you some hints on what to fix or what's to rework again on.

Sharjah has actually lots of fails and failures... the following ones just for example...

Personally,I think sharjah needs a complete overhaul with a nice ground poly and things
(Fences, Lightpoles and Buildings and even some Aprons and taxiways) really needed to be moved and or placed at the right place...

But have your own look at it... one thing I did, was to remove your added Apron bituminious Surface around the runway and added some gravel to it, so it would match better with the surrounding sands of Dubai...

And here the mentioned failures of the Standart Scenery which where the buildings, lightpoles, fences and or aprons and taxiways need to be moved and or replaced to the correct positions...
you might test it with runway12 object placer to move the buildings and aprons to the right positions... hope that helps...

Taxiways and holding points and or the light poles and busses / cars need to be removed..
Definitely a fail on the taxiways which are going straight through the parking positions and or light poles and even a bus stands on the taxiway...
and the taxiway ends up in a Truck and a Building. Same here... two taxiways which allmost end up into the new building.

Aand here we go straight into the Building... Same here... ground cars onto the old taxiway which leads directly over the new holding / Gate position... and old taxiway leads through the fence to the tower... can't imagine that there have been parking spaces near the tower... Even here the apron crosses the fence and even trees on the apron... which should be impossible...

Final Thoughts: I do think, that you should do the Airport from scratch! without taking notes of the old allready existing Sharjah Scenery...
because relying on an old existing scenery, ends up in a real big and chaotic mess most times... as you can see... so, do your own! I am sure, it will end up better...

 

[belal]

Hi,

I have collected photos of OMSJ to attempt and recreate it from scratch for P3D but I’m just a beginner as well and learning curve is steep so hard to stay motivated.

Can we also get someone to possibly fix his amazing Abu Dhabi which is more realistic than the payware one but the scenery is not aligned properly as well! Does anyone know if Mathew is still active somewhere?

 

[Airbasil]

For now, I do rely on the old incl. afcad which doesn't give me the second taxiway though, but doesn't look that messy... only some minor parking spaces / taxiways still needed to be aligned correctly...

 

[Jordansim]

Hi,

I have collected photos of OMSJ to attempt and recreate it from scratch for P3D but I’m just a beginner as well and learning curve is steep so hard to stay motivated.

Can we also get someone to possibly fix his amazing Abu Dhabi which is more realistic than the payware one but the scenery is not aligned properly as well! Does anyone know if Mathew is still active somewhere?

Hi, I have no idea to be honest. As I mentioned before as well, I am new to scenery development so it is kind of a learning experience for me at this stage. I am reading into some websites on how to replace objects and scenery models. Its going to be a long one. But after time, it will be achievable.

Please let me know if you are willing to share info and pics about Sharjah OMSJ.

 

[Leo2789]

Hi All,

I have been recently learning how to develop sceneries and starting small. I took a small Airport in the UAE called Sharjah International Airport. it is mainly the hub of Air Arabia.

This scenery was developed by Matthew Ministry who made some sceneries for FS9 back in the day. I am starting small first with creating, editing and updated AFCADs first!

But, I have a small problem, since I only edited the AFCAD. I am having some issues with the buildings in the scenery. I didn't change or delete any of the files, so clearly there is no Alignment. Thus, I would appreciate anyones help to possible help me/guide me on either how to move the files to line it with my latest AFCAD which I based off google maps and line up the parking spaces and terminal buildings? Or if someone has a tutorial on how to do it and or give it a go yourself?

I'd appreciate anyones help!

P.S my file is already available for download here ---->https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=209627

Thanks
Jordansim

Hey @Jordansim and welcome to the community!
Still a few of us resisting here on FS2004!!

My first advice to you would be to drop the AFCAD program and start using/learning ADE which you can get here: http://www.scruffyduck.org/downloads/4584110854
Plus there's a whole sub-forum dedicated to it here, and the author of the program is a Senior Staff on these forums, always helping out anyone who needs it regarding ADE

ADE is essentially an overhauled, much more up to date, and efficient AFCAD editor, where you can do all you could with AFCAD, with the added options of adding library objects (such as buildings and airport vehicles as the oens you see in that scenery you wanted to remake), removing objects from stock airports, adding flattens, and quite a few more things.

I know you mean to update an older scenery by another designer, but unless he used only stock object libraries (which I doubt given some of the objects I see in @Airbasil 's screenshots), you would have to track which libraries he used and add them to ADE's Library object manager (something for you to read up on later); plus if you didn't do it already, you would have to ask his permission to update his scenery!

But for starters, I would suggest you try using ADE to do simple edits to airports, as a way to experiment and explore the program, and since you're so keen on making a better scenery of OMSJ, I would suggest, after installing ADE, that you load up OMSJ from the stock airports list and see for yourself the default objects showing up, and edit those, as well as the airport as you would in AFCAD

Many tutorials can be found on scruffyduck's website, as well as FSdeveloper wiki: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Plus Google is always your friend!

Getting started with scenery development looks like a steep hill to climb at first, I've been there myself But fortunately people here are very helpful and I have learned so much in this forum, I am sure you will too; all you need to have is the will to do so! If you have doubts with particular 'operations' regarding scenery design, specifically with ADE, try doing a search of the forums; I'm sure you will find 99% of your queries in this begginer's phase are alreay answered somewhere around here
But if you can't find a satisfactory answer to them, try re-reading the manuals; if still no joy then feel free to post in the relevant sub-forum your doubt, and someone will no doubt come to 'your rescue' soon!

Best of luck with your endeavors in scenery design and once more welcome to the community!

Cheers

 

[Airbasil]

Hey @JordansimI know you mean to update an older scenery by another designer, but unless he used only stock object libraries (which I doubt given some of the objects I see in @Airbasil 's screenshots), you would have to track which libraries he used and add them to ADE's Library object manager (something for you to read up on later); plus if you didn't do it already, you would have to ask his permission to update his scenery!

I have allready checked that with ADE but ADE doesn't find any used Libraries... and doing an Exclude rectangle to exclude Generic Buildings, does nothing for now... so these Buildings have been added by the Developper of the old Scenery... those are not Generic Buildings, nor Buildings from any libraries... those buildings have been added and locked to the scenery on purpose somehow... and i can't unlock those with ADE itself... somehow needs other BGL's or GMAX or BGLComp to retrieve those buildings... and to unlock and delete those buildings from the Scenery.

But as you allready mentioned:

But for starters, I would suggest you try using ADE to do simple edits to airports, as a way to experiment and explore the program, and since you're so keen on making a better scenery of OMSJ, I would suggest, after installing ADE, that you load up OMSJ from the stock airports list and see for yourself the default objects showing up, and edit those, as well as the airport as you would in AFCAD

I would suggest the same! which means, starting to develop a full new Scenery from Scratch. That may be better than using an old scenery from another developer.

 

[Jordansim]

Hey @Jordansim and welcome to the community!
Still a few of us resisting here on FS2004!!

My first advice to you would be to drop the AFCAD program and start using/learning ADE which you can get here: http://www.scruffyduck.org/downloads/4584110854
Plus there's a whole sub-forum dedicated to it here, and the author of the program is a Senior Staff on these forums, always helping out anyone who needs it regarding ADE

ADE is essentially an overhauled, much more up to date, and efficient AFCAD editor, where you can do all you could with AFCAD, with the added options of adding library objects (such as buildings and airport vehicles as the oens you see in that scenery you wanted to remake), removing objects from stock airports, adding flattens, and quite a few more things.

I know you mean to update an older scenery by another designer, but unless he used only stock object libraries (which I doubt given some of the objects I see in @Airbasil 's screenshots), you would have to track which libraries he used and add them to ADE's Library object manager (something for you to read up on later); plus if you didn't do it already, you would have to ask his permission to update his scenery!

But for starters, I would suggest you try using ADE to do simple edits to airports, as a way to experiment and explore the program, and since you're so keen on making a better scenery of OMSJ, I would suggest, after installing ADE, that you load up OMSJ from the stock airports list and see for yourself the default objects showing up, and edit those, as well as the airport as you would in AFCAD

Many tutorials can be found on scruffyduck's website, as well as FSdeveloper wiki: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Plus Google is always your friend!

Getting started with scenery development looks like a steep hill to climb at first, I've been there myself But fortunately people here are very helpful and I have learned so much in this forum, I am sure you will too; all you need to have is the will to do so! If you have doubts with particular 'operations' regarding scenery design, specifically with ADE, try doing a search of the forums; I'm sure you will find 99% of your queries in this begginer's phase are alreay answered somewhere around here
But if you can't find a satisfactory answer to them, try re-reading the manuals; if still no joy then feel free to post in the relevant sub-forum your doubt, and someone will no doubt come to 'your rescue' soon!

Best of luck with your endeavors in scenery design and once more welcome to the community!

Cheers

@Leo2789 Thanks for your kind message. I really do apprecaite a nice and supporting welcome!

I am using ADE to be exact, I am using the latest version. That is how I built the latest AFCAD which I had some issues with only with the parking spots. I couldn't find any contact details for Matthew, but many people via the Library have posted updates to his sceneries etc.

If you would like to work together and maybe sometime try and sort out such small issues, please do let me know via PM. We can plan something out and maybe update this scenery after we try to establish contact with Matthew. I purposefully didnt delete any files from the orginal scenery and I only updated the AFCAD of the airport using ADE basing it off Google Maps.

OMSJ is a nice airport to make, obviously everything to be made in high quality requires time, effort and expeirence. I'll need some time to figure that out.

Thanks for the advice and support, I am sure that reassuring messages and support like yours makes me want to give it a shot in making something happen, others, not so much as it happens alot (too much jabber and not a lot of action on other peoples end, which doesnt turn out to be nice) which pushes developers in general away from making their scenery projects not compatible with FS9.

Awaiting your reply
Take Care
Jordansim

 

[Airbasil]

@Jordansim
Just in case, you wanted to restart from scratch, your afcad is somehow off to a good start... I just compiled it with all airline codes and accurate Airline gate Assignements.
And then removed the Scenery so that I just have the Afcad in the Sim. Now all Buildings have gone... if you want to try to model your own Buildings and Terminals, try to use BLENDER or GMAX for that.

This is how it looks without the buildings and Scenery around (notice: that I have converted the bituminious Surface, to Dirt. So that it looks a bit more realistic).
Playing around with that Dirt thing, is somehow funny... as long as we don't have a photoreal ground poly or some other interesting stuff...

 

[Leo2789]

@Leo2789 Thanks for your kind message. I really do apprecaite a nice and supporting welcome!

I am using ADE to be exact, I am using the latest version. That is how I built the latest AFCAD which I had some issues with only with the parking spots. I couldn't find any contact details for Matthew, but many people via the Library have posted updates to his sceneries etc.

Well if that's the case then you're off to a good start!
If you want to just update Matthew's scenery, and not renew the buildings yourself, then my suggestion would be to read up on how to place library objects with ADE and how to use the program's 'Library Object Manager' to add libraries to its database.
Because in order for you to be able to move around the objects & buildings Matthew added, you first need to have the relevant libraries indexed in ADE's database (assuming the author used actual library objects and not added the models directly to the project!!), so that it recognizes what object that is, and not just show a black box (as I'm sure you must see a ton of those). I noticed for instance that the yellow buses are from the default libraries so you should see those displaying correctly on ADE (as yellow squares/rectangles) no? Try moving around those to locations you want them at as an experiment Also if you'd prefer and @Airbasil agrees, try using his updated AFCAD and move around the objects from there!

If you would like to work together and maybe sometime try and sort out such small issues, please do let me know via PM. We can plan something out and maybe update this scenery after we try to establish contact with Matthew. I purposefully didnt delete any files from the orginal scenery and I only updated the AFCAD of the airport using ADE basing it off Google Maps.

OMSJ is a nice airport to make, obviously everything to be made in high quality requires time, effort and expeirence. I'll need some time to figure that out.

At the moment I'm very busy with 'life', plus I have an ongoing mega sceery project going on that I'm working on solo! But I'll download that scenery and check it out to see what's up when I get some time, and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction or help out with small issues you might have if I have said time, just PM me whenever and I'll try my best to help

Thanks for the advice and support, I am sure that reassuring messages and support like yours makes me want to give it a shot in making something happen, others, not so much as it happens alot (too much jabber and not a lot of action on other peoples end, which doesn't turn out to be nice) which pushes developers in general away from making their scenery projects not compatible with FS9.

Awaiting your reply
Take Care
Jordansim

You're welcome!

Yes of course there are 'downers' everywhere, but the community here is usually very positive and helpful, so you're in the right place!

Cheers