Oahu HD beta

[TX-ScubaSteve]

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)

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

[TX-Kingsnake]

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

[TX-ScubaSteve]

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, and the other is the web page of the racing league I'm a part of: http://www.gliderracing.com/pub/.

[TX-Kingsnake]

Should you ever find where you put Condor...

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. 

[TX-EcoDragon]

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.

[TX-Kingsnake]

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.

[TX-Kingsnake]

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

[TX-EcoDragon]

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!

[TX-Kingsnake]

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.

[TX-Kingsnake]

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.

[TX-ScubaSteve]

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

[TX-Kingsnake]

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.   

[TX-ScubaSteve]

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?

[TX-Kingsnake]

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.

[TX-ScubaSteve]

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