• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FSX:SE US Flight obstacle Data

Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
Hi!

I got tired of flying in the USA and not seeing any windmills, masts etc. So I created the Flight obstacle Data scenery from the FAA source data.

The towers,windmills and smoke stacks are in their correct height above ground. The markings and lights are as good as I figured out of the data.

So... let's look at Seattle... I had to verify this at first, hard to believe that there are high towers in the city area. And so be it, the capitol hill masts. :cool:
Seattle_1.jpg


Then I looked to the left... and sure enough. Again 3 towers, as in real life. :)

Seattle_2.jpg


There are over 14000 objects placed in the USA, and some in Mexico, Caribbean, Bahamas and in Pacific.
I created some custom models (towers and smoke stacks), otherwise default library objects for time being.

There are surely problems with this.... the data is not necessarily accurate for example on colors of the masts, but we'll see.
I also noticed that the data includes towers in the big city downtown areas. That means towers that are actually buildings, and are now replaced with a antenna tower. I didn't figure out an easy solution yet, I was searching some "downtown" data so I could filter out the objects on those areas.

Most likely this works the same way in P3D. (I don't own it, I can't verify it)

Check it out!
US_Flight_obstacle_data_V1.2

EDIT
The link updated for the version 1.2
 
Last edited:
jencas

jencas

Messages
410
Country
germany
Sounds excellent! Can these obstables be disabled by region for those guys who have some OrbX regions installed?
 
Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
jencas said:
Sounds excellent! Can these obstables be disabled by region for those guys who have some OrbX regions installed?
Click to expand...

Not at the moment. Masts and smoke stacks remove other objects if there happens to be any in the same spot.
 
B

bar_rodoy

Messages
269
Wow! How did you created that for the entire US? Did you use ScenProc? Is there any chance to use your objects in my scenery?
 
Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
bar_rodoy said:
Wow! How did you created that for the entire US? Did you use ScenProc? Is there any chance to use your objects in my scenery?
Click to expand...

Yes, ScenProc rules! I have previously done similar scenery for Finland, and used ScenProc to other kind of things too, so that was actually the easy part. More time goes to modelling and fixing the data in QGIS.
What objects would you need?
 
B

bar_rodoy

Messages
269
Tatu said:
Yes, ScenProc rules! I have previously done similar scenery for Finland, and used ScenProc to other kind of things too, so that was actually the easy part. More time goes to modelling and fixing the data in QGIS.
What objects would you need?
Click to expand...
Cell towers and masts.
 
Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
And version 1.1 of this scenery has some fixes and changes. :)

First, I added a scenery configurator and now you can easily switch off Flight obstacles if you have ORBX regions installed. The same with Oil rigs if you have another scenery that includes better models.
Just click on the boxes next to the regions you have installed.
Config.JPG


Otherwise I fixed one smoke stack model and created two smoke stack models with red and white markings.
Added Solar panels
Removed masts lower than 20m and fixed the markings for the lower masts.
Removed tower objects from the biggest cities where there is suppose to be buildings. (Most likely there are still left models in wrong places)

Remember to remove at least the contents of the Scenery folder of the previous installation before copying the new one in there. The Effects are the same as in V1. No need to copy them over.

US Flight Obstacle Data V1.1
 
G

gfxpilot

Resource contributor
Messages
370
Country
unitedkingdom
Great team work guys. Well done Tatu. This is an issue which is missing in so many flight sim areas and yet, they add a whole new life to the experiance. I'm currently working on St Denis Reunion. Fs X has mountains to sea shore yet no hillside buildings , surrounding AP industrial stacks, telephony stacks tv transmitters and the obligatory tower cranes not to mention the high mast yachts on the approach to rw 31. So seeing others starting input this deluge eye candy as well as additional pilot alert items is great. Well done
 
Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
It has been kind of complicated to understand the US obstacle light system, but I studied some FAA documents and I think I get it now. So I changed the lighting of the towers (masts) and some smoke stacks to reflect the real world better. At least I hope so.
Now the masts have red lights, high and medium strobe lights or dual high/medium/red lights. Or none of those lights. :) Thats how the lights are categorised and placed in the sim from the obstacle data.

Some minor adjustments as well, and we have a version 1.2.

* Delete previous install Scenery folder, otherwise you can just overwrite all the other files and folders.
* There are more effects now for the lighting, so make sure you remember install the effect files too.

US Flight Obstacle Data Version 1.2
 
Tatu

Tatu

Messages
101
Country
finland
I did some more research.... we need more Wind turbine models.... :) (And this scenery just got out of hand....)
Blender render, I think it will translate to sim good enough.
Vestas_V17.jpg
 
Lan Chen

Lan Chen

Messages
252
Country
china
Good job Tatu, the only thing I consider is that is it hit FPS too much? Or can I lower the density of obstacles in the setting to improve the performance?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top