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FS2004 Tokelau Islands - Complete Scenery

Leo2789

Leo2789

Resource contributor
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portugal
Hello,

As I mentoined in the thread 'I'm working on scenery... (2018)', I am developing scenery for the Tokelau Islands, which geographically includes 4 atolls: 3 compromising the nation of Tokelau itself - which is a dependent territory of New Zealand - and 1 which is Swains Island, part of American Samoa. The 3 atolls of Tokelau are located roughly 600 km north of American Samoa, with Swains island located midway.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Tokelau_Islands.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau

In the default scenery of FS2004 only Swains island is represented (and badly), with the 3 other atolls being nothing more than shallow banks (there is simply a shallow water WaterClass in each location of the 3), with the only piece of land being a small circular island at the rough center of the island nation which contains an NDB.
This is my first scenery created, apart from AFCADS I made in the past, so it took me a while to get the workflow started, since I had to learn a lot of stuff regarding Sbuilder.
The scenery is quite basic, in the sense that there's no photoreal textures or custom objects, but is very detailed!
It consists essentially of:
- Almost all islands from each atoll placed in their correct geographical location (with the use of google maps in SbuilderX), as well as respective coastlines. Only some minor reef banks were left out.
- Detailed LandClass (LC) & WaterClass (WC) for all 4 atolls, with villages represented
- Fictional airstrips in all 4 atolls (since there aren't any in the real world - all transportation to and from the islands is by boat)
- Some scenery objects (all default FS9) scattered throughout the islands to give the scenery a less desolate appearance, such as fishing boats, piers, huts, and the tiny village on swains island, as well as the abandoned mansion of the ancestors of the owners of Swains Island

So far, the first 2 points written above have been completed, and I plan on having the last 2 remaining done at the latest by tomorrow!

And now some pictures of what's done so far! Enjoy! ;)

Leonardo

Atafu.PNG

Atafu Atoll

Fakaofo.PNG

Fakaofo Atoll

Nukunonu.PNG

Nukunonu Atoll

Swains Island.PNG

Swains Island

Atafu_aerial.PNG

Atafu flyby

Fakaofo_aerial.PNG

Fakaofo flyby
 
Very informative Wikipedia article.

"With the fourth smallest population of any sovereign state or dependency on Earth, Tokelau is a leader in renewable energy, being the first 100% solar powered nation in the world."

Eat that, industrialized countries!


Oh, by the way...the article also states that transportation is also available by floatplane, so a water runway per atoll and a pier is all you'll need.
 
Why on earth are you making such a beautiful place with dull landclass textures? Photoreal coming?
 
I agree with Bjoern. This would be a really interesting place to explore in FS9 so please do add some facilities for float plane operations! Really good work Leonardo.

Greg
 
Hey Herectic,

Yea, I was also surprised to see those statistics about energy in Tokelau! Though with only ~1,500 pop it’s not that hard to achieve I guess :p
I was thinking about including the solar panels each island had in the scenery, but I don’t believe there are solar panels in any of the default FS9 obj libraries :(

I actually forgot about that seaplane part!
But since I am almost finished with the airstrips, and I was planning on including a jetty on the shore of the airstrips which aren’t on the same island as the respective villages anyways, I’ll just add a water runway to each ;)
Thanks for the input and the time to comment!

Leonardo
 
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Hey mikced,

Unfortunately no, as I don’t like photoreal textures much :/
I kinda like the landclass appearance, only thing that I don’t like is how sparse the autogen is but thats FS9 limitations :/

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Leonardo
 
Hey gaputz,

Yea like I said in my earlier post, jettys and water runways in addition to the land airstrips coming up! ;)

Thanks for the input!

Leonardo
 
Hey everybody!

I just finished the airstrips/water runways! Only thing missing now is the objects, including the piers/jetties for the water parking of the water runways ;)

In the meantime feast yourselves on more pictures of the project (2 of the airstrips & all 4 airfield diagrams) :)

Leonardo

Nukunonu_airstrip.PNG

Nukunonu Airstrip

Swains_Airstrip.PNG

Swains Island Airstrip


Airfield Diagrams:

Atafu_diagram.PNG

Atafu

Fakaofo_diagram.PNG

Fakaofo

Nukunonu_diagram.PNG

Nukunonu

Swains_diagram.PNG

Swains Island
 
That does look interesting.

Did you load real world weather for a test and check the (assumed prevailing) wind direction?
Short airstrips can be a death trap when coupled with frequent crosswinds, so I'd factor wind into the placement and runway orientation.
 
Hey Bjoern,

I didn't actually load real world weather, but I did look up on the internet what are the prevailing winds in the region, and they seem to be essentially easterly, ranging from NE to SE.
Considering this, and also considering the strict lack of space these islands have, together with the fact that I think the airstrips should be the closest to the villages as possible/practical, I came up with these orientations & locations!
I also tested landings in all airstrips with a 10kt 90º crosswind, and although it takes a good pair of hands, it's feasible haha :p The real danger here imo is the length of the airstrips: the shortest is 700m and the lognest is 884m.
I did my test with the default Caravan Amphib, and you could probably land something a bit bigger with STOL capabilites like a Twin Otter; but anything bigger than that, it better be a float/seaplane :laughing:
Will test with real world weather settings though, thanks for the input! ;)

Leonardo
 
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Still got feelings of FS2002 appearance when I see your pictures... Photoreal Terrain would have given that project the needed touch...
But I'm looking forward to it, how it looks when finished...
 
Hey Airbasil,

I know photoreal is popular with a lot of people, but not with me :p
I hope to have this finished today!
Thanks for your comment!

Leonardo
 
To the photoreal people: Try to find night and seasonal images for a remote pacific atoll.
 
Hey everyone!

The scenery is almost done!
I did indeed plan on making the scenery using only default objects, but since there weren't any houses, canoes, and variations of piers/jetties, I decided to use some addon libraries. But don't worry they're all freeware and available on avsim, flightsim and the likes; and to those who never installed a 3rd party scenery library, it's pretty straightforward so no worries ;)
The part that is completely finished so far is Swains Island, so I'll post some pictures of it below :)
Although I've included a pier on the ocean-side of the island, this is the only of the 4 atolls that doesn't have a water runway (as you could see in my earlier update post), since it's not exactly orthodox to land your seaplane in the chopping waters of the Pacific :laughing:. But nothing is stopping you from trying though! The pier is also to emulate the real world location of the small landing area for ships visiting the island. But fret not if you'd like to start up in the water, since the airfield of Swains includes a 'Dock' parking spot on the island's lagoon, complete with an adjacent wooden jetty! ;)

Check it out:

Swains_dock_lagoon.PNG

Dock parking in Swains' lagoon next to the village

Swains_mansion.PNG

The old dilapidated 'mansion' of the Jennings family; owners of the island

Swains_village.PNG

Taulaga, the tiny village of Swains island, the airstrip and ocean pier. The lagoon's pier is also visible on the right

Swains_parking.PNG

Sole parking spot adjacent to the airstrip. Village is visible on top of the hill


Leonardo
 
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And finally Nukunonu Atoll done!!
The project is now complete!
Only thing missing is the pdf documentation, which I'll have ready in an hour or so. Then I'll upload the scenery both to avsim and flightsim. Hopefully it might be available for download today, at the latest tomorrow!

Last pictures:

Nukunonu_airstrip.PNG

Nukunonu Dock parking; aistrip in the background

Nukunonu_village.PNG

Nukunonu village
 
The scenery has just been uploaded to Avsim & FlightSim libraries!

It will probably only be available tomorrow, but I'll mention here when I notice it's on either ;)

Leonardo
 
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