Hi guys,

Just thought I'd let you know I've uploaded a 'beta' version of my Oahu HD scenery onto condor club (http://www.condor-club.eu (http://www.condor-club.eu))

It's just a small map of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, using 30cm resolution aerial photographs, which I had to reduce to 1.41m resolution (due to the constraints of Nvidia's .dds texture compression format and Condor's sub-tile dimensions).

I'm going back to try to add a little more polish to it, and perhaps add trees and buildings around the airports at least.  Forests of "Condor trees" don't seem to blend well with photographs.

I'd like to include hi-rises for downtown Honolulu and Waikiki beach area... and throw in some guyed masts (like the two large VLF antennas used for submarine communication), but still trying to figure out how to make 3d objects that can be imported into Condor.

If any of you would like to check it out, and give me some suggestions as to how to improve it, I'd be grateful.

Thanks,

Steve

I need to reinstall it. Well I need to find where I put Condor.

Should you ever find where you put Condor... there's a couple new sites (less than a week old) where you can download scenery fast and free.

One is http://www.schwarzwald-falke.de/html/condor.php (http://www.schwarzwald-falke.de/html/condor.php), and the other is the web page of the racing league I'm a part of: http://www.gliderracing.com/pub/ (http://www.gliderracing.com/pub/).

I hoard data, I'm sure I have it on DVD but recently I think I bought ArmA 2 as the last digital download. It is worth it to wait 3 days to get a back up disk in the mail without restrictions on the number of times you can install. DCS BlackShark download had a restriction on the number of installs and I often reinstall an entire operating system. 

That's awsome steve, I might check it out this weekend. . .at least for a little bit. I actually need to contact the developers of Condor so this weekend I've already got Condor on the brain.

King, I think what you really need is your serial/CD-Key. . .you can then install it from any source as long as you have a legit key.

I backed up everything except the KEY, everything even the update. Where did we buy it from?

[edit] I found the receipt in my archives.

http://www.condor-club.eu/search/9/?action=search&name=&scenery=70&tp=-1&pz=-1&window=-1&wind=-2&soaringType=-1&environ=-1&difficult=-1&planeClass=-1&length=-1&timetofinish=-1&clouds=-1&season=-1&time=-1&startType=-1&knuckles=-1&team=-1&taskType=-1&challengeType=-1&orderBy=1 (http://www.condor-club.eu/search/9/?action=search&name=&scenery=70&tp=-1&pz=-1&window=-1&wind=-2&soaringType=-1&environ=-1&difficult=-1&planeClass=-1&length=-1&timetofinish=-1&clouds=-1&season=-1&time=-1&startType=-1&knuckles=-1&team=-1&taskType=-1&challengeType=-1&orderBy=1)

Those screenshots REALLY make me wanna fly on task on this map! We can put of the TX server running a couple tasks if you want Steve. It would be great to have TX server and TX map together you know?

If you can send me the tasks I should be able to get that setup for you despite being on the laptop!

http://www.condor-club.eu/ (http://www.condor-club.eu/)

Search for Oahu Beta and there are 3 tasks there but I haven't finished any of them. You can d/l tasks with free membership.

Two thumbs up for the Oahu scenery. I don't think it needs to be beta IMO. At times it can look like you are higher since there are no 3d buildings or trees. Otherwise it doesn't matter when you are up high.

I say Maui-Wowi.

Thanks Kingsnake.  Sounds like a nice idea Eco... sorry I only just now saw your responses.

Well, I'm finally finished updating it.  I'm going to create a few updated splash screens tomorrow, and have the 'full' version ready to upload to Condor Club this weekend.  I spent most of my time adjusting the color and blending the photographs with the surrounding ocean... of course, now that I see what I've done on a different computer with brighter monitors than my laptop, the blending doesn't look as great.

I've added buildings and trees now (mostly just around the airports).  The forest trees tend to be too tall, so I've included individual trees that I can control the size of... though I did throw in a couple small deciduous forests around a couple airports.  I've got skydivers to avoid at Dillingham and hang gliders to dodge near the south eastern point of the island.

Here's a link to one of the forum threads where I uploaded some screenshots...

http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10782&p=113986#p113986 (http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10782&p=113986#p113986)

I looked for the screen shots and read "You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
" Since I'm not going to register there anyway I have another thought. It is a good amount of work to map that and I like it better than what I have as a scenery add-on for FSX. I wonder if there would be a FSX version of your scenery. Yes, Hawaii has been done for FSX. There is an addon now for FSX called Cumulus and the link is some where at gozr.net/iocl anyway it is a nice ridge & thermal add on for FSX with well... enough about that. I think you should keep the work and could possible export it all to FSX.   

Yeah, I saw Gozr's link about the Cumulus add-on... interesting...  I don't have the slightest idea how to export textures to FSX... if you or someone here knows how and/or wants to, I could give you all the entire set all pieced together.  Then again, if we're going the FSX route, it should be able to handle 30cm resolution images right?  (Of course that would mean piecing all 800 pictures together again--as I reduced the resolution of each one from the original before assembling it too keep my computer from running out of memory--which happened anyway).

I guess there's no way to upload images here... just link to them, right?

Right. I don't know how to make scenery for FSX. Gozr is into it; the runways, textures, airport and object side of scenery design is his thing so you guys should get together.

MNS West is hosting Oahu HD tonight at 7pm PST.  You can download the scenery pretty fast from http://www.gliderracing.com (http://www.gliderracing.com), since downloads at condor-club.eu are limited at times.

I'm finally gonna try it!!!!
I've been wanting to fly Condor for ages, and I finally have a little time!!

Great work Steve, the screenies look sweet - it's downloading now!

A link to download? possible?

Wow Steve - I just flew around the Island for an hour or so - it's stunning! Really wonderful work, it's a bit like taking a vacation on Oahu!

I'd love it if you could send me the tasks you like on the island, I'll put some up maybe on the TX server again! This sim is still so much fun - I bet we could get Kingsnake in the air again too and generate some server vitality again. I keep thinking how Gunny would probably really enjoy the art of sailplane flight. . .but he's a Gunslinger afterall. . .and what use are guns in a sailplane??? What about the other TX'ers? Any takers?

:-D

I have some screenshots but I just need to figure out why my trees look like shit, they are fugly mustard brown. . .I think it's something on my end as I see this on other maps too. . .but yours is so pretty that it's really a shame to have these fugly trees on it.

Oh and GOZR, the link is posted on page one of this thread. . .

Post some pretty pictures please?

I been to Oahu....

S!

Gunny

Nope one says..
I stopped my downloadservice due to the fact that Condor Club has not enough donators.

The other
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

:(

This doesn't work?

 http://www.gliderracing.com/pub/ (http://www.gliderracing.com/pub/)

Here are some tasks for Steve's awesome scenery!

http://www.condor-club.eu/search/9/;jsessionid=37C5E62DB8DC59AADC350E9CF2F121ED?action=search&name=&scenery=78&tp=-1&pz=-1&window=-1&wind=-2&soaringType=-1&environ=-1&difficult=-1&planeClass=-1&length=-1&timetofinish=-1&clouds=-1&season=-1&time=-1&startType=-1&knuckles=-1&team=-1&taskType=-1&challengeType=-1&orderBy=0 (http://www.condor-club.eu/search/9/;jsessionid=37C5E62DB8DC59AADC350E9CF2F121ED?action=search&name=&scenery=78&tp=-1&pz=-1&window=-1&wind=-2&soaringType=-1&environ=-1&difficult=-1&planeClass=-1&length=-1&timetofinish=-1&clouds=-1&season=-1&time=-1&startType=-1&knuckles=-1&team=-1&taskType=-1&challengeType=-1&orderBy=0)

I can see the Oahu HD v1.0 by Flying Islander ..  is it that one ..?

Hi guys,

Obviously I've been AWOL way too long.

Thanks Eco for the comments.  Too bad about the shade the trees are rendered as... that's rather odd.

I see you've found the tasks on condor-club.eu for Oahu.  I think the one I uploaded there was one I had based on actual weather conditions back in the summer of 2009.

As for Gunny needing something to shoot at... there is a competition mode where you use "knuckles"--a virtual tail on each player that is rendered to look something like a knotted kite tail.  The idea is to slice off each other's "tails"... The more you cut off [with your wings?] the more points you get.  Kingsnake and I tried it out a couple years ago actually.  Was pretty interesting--talk about energy management in a sailplane dogfight!

Gozr: gliderracing.com is a free place to download scenery.  One advantage too, is that you can download some of the sceneries by bittorrent if you like. We've recently decided on MNS to only host scenery that is realistic and has at least some decent quality, and fits other standards that haven't been completely well defined yet... In any case, it's not a complete list of scenery that's available like you'll find on condor-club.eu.

Yes, that's the scenery Gozr: Oahu HD V1.0 by flying.islander.  I wasn't thinking when when I first signed up to read the forums on condorsoaring.com's site, and selected "flying.islander" as my username.  I've kept my 'heritage' though, by using my callsign for racing online, Competition ID (TXS), and the by line on the scenery's flash screen.  :P  Just the guy who manages the files on his server refers to me by my forum username, and the email address I use for the condor forums.

Just be aware that Condor uses DirectX7--which is unfortunate for a few reasons--one being that Nvidia doesn't fully support backwards compatibility with DX7 graphics in their Vista and Windows 7 drivers.  This means that if you're flying this scenery (the HD version), the sim will eventually crash--usually in 30 minutes or less.  If you fly very low, the sim takes longer to crash--and so chances are you'll crash the glider first.  Fly high, and you'll have only a few minutes....  Options: 1) download the Oahu V1.0 (MNS Version) instead (textures are half the resolution than the original--which of course makes things much grainier--but that's what I'm stuck with since 'upgrading' to windows 7 from XP); or 2)fly on a Windows XP machine; or 3)use an ATI card.

Gunny, here's some screenshots that I have on facebook--mostly just my flash screens... so, not exactly the best--might need to take some more screenshots when I get home.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633489&l=e68316905f&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633489&l=e68316905f&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633490&l=18f04bcdd7&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633490&l=18f04bcdd7&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633491&l=2c276d2a19&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633491&l=2c276d2a19&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633492&l=583e52ff65&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=633492&l=583e52ff65&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=591526&l=e4dde6d845&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=591526&l=e4dde6d845&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=591527&l=af4e69c3e6&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=591527&l=af4e69c3e6&id=1652433676)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7910&l=6368745866&id=1652433676 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7910&l=6368745866&id=1652433676)
The last picture shows where I was partially done with laying out the area around Pearl Harbor, and before color correcting the photos.

TX server going up shortly with Oahu task as I posted earlier. Kingsnake is on, I hear Steve is coming. . .

ScubaSteve, we're on TS3 now, IP: 69.56.198.2:9987

Knuckles would have been a great idea. Lets try that. Best add-on scenery I've seen. Beats FSX Hawaii add-on. Beats IL2 Pearl Harbor too.

Thanks Kingsnake.