93 replies to this topic

[one.one.six]

sarge, on May 20 2006, 04:02 PM, said:

spartan.one.one.six, on May 20 2006, 06:31 PM, said:

Looking Nice Sarge.

Cant wait for Clark Field.

  It's coming .... but first I gotta finish Loring, Otis, and Plattsburgh.  Just did some more mods:

1.  (If you look at the AFCAD screenshot on pg 1, 9th post from the top)  Changed the three eastern most parking slots labelled "M003" to two spots, and added a three-bay tanker maintenance hangar in that location.  The middle and south bays are taxi-in (and that's where the two spots are) and the north bay has closed doors.

2.  The SW (base ops) ramp now has a three-bay maintenance hangar (middle bay partially closed).  Each side of the hangar has two C-9A/C-9C parking spots and one parking spot for AF-1/AF-2.  Working on the general fighter maintenance hangar in that area just off of the taxiway.

3.  Roads have been layed in around the bomb dumb, and from the bomb dump to the B-52 alert "Christmas Tree," with a branch off to a point coinciding with the  middle taxiway between the two runways.

To do yet:

1.  Structures on the pad between the base ops ramp and the fighter alert pad (three hardened aircraft shelters already on the fighter pad).

2.  Munitions route from the "Christmas Tree" to the fighter alert pad.

3.  Bulk fuel storage area behind the fighter alert pad.

4.  Munitions storage igloos, support structures, and fenceline in the bomb dump.

5.  Create the CERT area east of Rwy 01R/19L (Loring was the only base with a bombing range -- training munitions only -- actually on the base).

6.  Find a way to get rid of a persistent autogen power transmission tower between Rwy 01L and the parallel taxiway on the south end.

Otis ANGB is also coming along and will be released simultaneously with Loring.  (Otis' 102nd Fighter Interceptor Wing provided the F-15's for alert duty at Loring.)

Some of the texturing on the buildings isn't 100% accurate, but it's close.  Layout and positioning is as accurate as the aerial photos from the 1980's allow, which is pretty close to real-world locations.

(And Clark will be near 100% accurate.  After four years there, I can even get the positioning of the hill near the old Top Hat club with the WWII Japanese caves and bunkers in the right location.  The Cope Thunder ramp will be there along with the T-39 ramp, Medevac ramp and the Hq 13AF building.   )

If you cant get it done by like August, i can try to go there and get some pics.

Going to Asia...mostly the Philippines.

[RoniisH]

That's really nice! looking very good sarge

[IBtheSarge]

spartan.one.one.six, on May 21 2006, 01:42 AM, said:

If you cant get it done by like August, i can try to go there and get some pics.

Going to Asia...mostly the Philippines.

Loring/Otis will probably release end of June; Plattsburgh will probably release mid-/late August.  Can really use the pics if there's anything left of Clark besides volcanic ash and mud.  Especially if there's anything left of the Combat Sage area, and at least one shot of the old WWII housing complex near the Golf Course and O'Club (if there's any still standing).  The duplexes I can do from memory.

[IBtheSarge]

RoniisH, on May 21 2006, 03:57 AM, said:

That's really nice! looking very good sarge

Thanks     Taking my time with this one; doing Pease with a high degree of historical accuracy taught me a lesson.  Not only is Pease the most functional I've done, but the accuracy thing was a lesson of its own.  Anticipate KLIZ v3.0 release date sometime mid- to late-June (Otis ANGB MA will come with it).

[IBtheSarge]

SW ramp (operations and transient):



On each side (north and south) of the big hangar are parking spots for the C-9A (medevac), C-9C (VIP transport), and AF-1/AF-2.  The C-9's are the outer spots and the Presidental aircraft are centered on the hangar.  The hangar in front of the C-9 spots are taxi-in; the AF-1/AF-2 spots are not.  The 8-bay taxi-in hangar adjacent to the taxiway are trainer maintenance and parking (T-1, T-37, T-38, T-39).

The large hangar in the center of the shot is the cargo flow-thru maintenance hangar.  Also creeping into the shot is the northern most portion of the (simulated) base infrastructure.

One down, six to go.  Next is the main fighter maintenance hangar (on the extension that disappears out of the picture to the left of the large ramp), and then the parking spots and associated facilities on the fighter ramp (not shown in this shot).

[IBtheSarge]

Winter at Loring, the fighter area:



Main base completed (except for getting rid of one pesky, persistent autogen between Rwy 01L/19R and parallel taxiway Bravo):



The bomb dump is next, then the CERT range to the right of Rwy 01R/19L, then all the taxiway/runway signs ..... and it'll be time for Beta testing.

Edited by sarge, 23 May 2006 - 03:13 AM.

[usaf_atc_mike]

Looks GREAT! Can't wait to download it.  

[IBtheSarge]

usaf_atc_mike, on May 23 2006, 03:02 PM, said:

Looks GREAT! Can't wait to download it. 

(Dang it!!!!!  Thought I put a reply up for you, but guess I didn't.  Sucks to be this old, ya know? )

Just completed the CERT range, but it didn't turn out the way I thought it would.  I've got small craters (training munitions) all over a 1,500' x 350' strip; but the way FS9 presents the terrain, you have to strain to distinguish the craters from the random dark spots in the terrain.  There's over 40 craters in that strip, but I had to really concentrate to look for the pattern I had placed.  Can't fix that without making it look REALLY artificial and, consequently, unacceptable.

That leaves the bomb dump and the runway/taxiway signs .... and then Beta testing to find the glitches and bugs.  Oh, and that power transmission tower has to be gotten rid of, too.

That AK package of yours has me salivating .... it's going to be a premier addition to my FS9, with Dave O'Brien's repaints of the AK active and ANG birds.  Keep on truckin', Mike!  

[TechnicolorYawn]

sarge, on May 24 2006, 05:13 AM, said:

....it didn't turn out the way I thought it would.  I've got small craters (training munitions) all over a 1,500' x 350' strip; but the way FS9 presents the terrain, you have to strain to distinguish the craters from the random dark spots in the terrain.  There's over 40 craters in that strip, but I had to really concentrate to look for the pattern I had placed.

Could you not alter the landclass to one with slightly smoother textures? Or even make a cutom landclass using the default texture as a base. Find the ground texture that FS is putting there, load it into a Paint package, and remove the more severe dark patches, and use that as the landclass - that way, it would still look similar to the surrounding terrain, but your craters would show up more.

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on May 24 2006, 02:52 AM, said:

Could you not alter the landclass to one with slightly smoother textures? Or even make a cutom landclass using the default texture as a base. Find the ground texture that FS is putting there, load it into a Paint package, and remove the more severe dark patches, and use that as the landclass - that way, it would still look similar to the surrounding terrain, but your craters would show up more.

Hmmmmm .... ya got me thinking now.  And here is where the thought process is going:

Instead of reworking an entire landclass cell, why not create a "platform" 1500x350, say 0.12 ft thick, with a customized terrain texture that will be slightly different from the actual terrain it's on, and then place the craters on that?

I can see two advantages:

1.  Don't have to rework five different terrain textures (spring, summer, fall, winter, hard winter).

2.  Only one placement call ... the combined "platform" and craters, vs. 40+ calls to place 40+ craters.

Rip it up TCY and tell me what I've not considered.  The CERT range was a key feature of Loring, along with the massive storage capacity of the bomb dump.  If the CERT can be represented, it would go a long way towards accuracy of the scenery.

[IBtheSarge]

Disregard previous post .... think I've found the solution:

1.  Make a platform 20w x 20d x 0.12h
2.  Remove left, right, front, back, bottom polygons (leaving indices in place)
3.  Texture with bomb crater on transparent background
4.  Make a frame 500w x 2000d x 0.12h
5.  Place one copy of the bomb crater
6.  Copy/paste additional copies of the crater at various locations within the frame
7.  Even though dislocated, join/snape to scale all craters
8.  Delete the frame, leaving the multiple craters in place
9.  Save As, then export as MDL and place, centered on a predetermined lat/lon

Any holes in that method?

[IBtheSarge]

Best I've been able to get so far .... look dead on the nose and northward; you should be able to pick out a pattern of the craters:







Trying to figure out if I want to fence the area, or create a berm around it.  Since the CERT range was limited to training munitions, a simple fence would have served to define it; however, where munitions are concerned (even training ordnance), berms were the general rule.  Dirt is cheaper than chain link.  

[IBtheSarge]

BUFF in the box, berms on east and west side of the CERT zone:

[IBtheSarge]

Laying out the road network in the bomb dump:



2/3 complete; need a minor adjustment to the exclude zone.  Soon as the road network is complete, placement of the munitions igloos and support structures can commence.

Edited by sarge, 27 May 2006 - 04:57 PM.

[IBtheSarge]

One problem down ..... that persistent power transmission tower that would not go away, regardless of what exclude zone I tried, flatten zone, terrain replacement ... nothing worked.  Me mate in Oz recommended a program called DefArea (available on AVSIM).  A cross-check with the terrain_sdk revealed that streams and power line corridors share the same type of code in the autogen footprint for a LOD8 cell.  All I had to do was start FS9 and taxi so my aircraft was centered on the first tower, start DefArea, select "rivers" in DefArea, click "Pause" then click "Next", taxi to each of the other towers in turn (doing the "Pause" "Next" at each one), then clicking "End" at the last one.  The program auto-generated a BGL file which I placed in the KLIZ/Scenery directory.  Exited FS9, re-started FS9 and:



No more tower in the infield, nor along what used to be the footprinted power line corridor in that particular LOD8 cell.  Handy tool, definitely recommended.

Bomb dump road network now 80% complete.  Followed by placement of the weapons storage area structures and facilities, then the taxiway/runway signs, and Beta testing.  End of June release date is do-able.  Otis ANGB will be only an improved BGL file with parking spaces for the 102nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron in order to make sure of the KLIZ release date.  An "enhanced" KFMH will be developed later when I get into the (formerly) TAC bases.

[TechnicolorYawn]

Aha! That tool is exactly what I need for LPMA I too have a set of irritatingly persitant power-lines that I need to get rid of.

I love all that road network - its impressive that its all done in AFCAD

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on May 30 2006, 05:27 PM, said:

Aha! That tool is exactly what I need for LPMA I too have a set of irritatingly persitant power-lines that I need to get rid of.

defarea20.zip in the AVSIM file library, by Christian Fumey

TechnicolorYawn, on May 30 2006, 05:27 PM, said:

I love all that road network - its impressive that its all done in AFCAD

I have to do it that way, TCY; I'll be the first to admit that I just don't have the terrain manipulation skills you do.  I'd almost give up a limb if I could have half your talent in that area.      Actually, there's no need for an elaborate effort for the bomb dump; shouldn't be anyone taxiing around over there.  It's eye-candy for aerial views, plus the 3D structures to be seen at a distance.  If it was going to be routinely accessible via taxiways or closer proximity to the main base, then I'd have to do something different with it.

Added Info:  Just found out something; there's a line in the ReadMe.txt that comes with DefArea that says the output file must NOT be placed in a folder that has a "Texture" sub-folder.  There's a glitch in FS9 somewhere that results in a memory leak -- and eventual crash of FS9.  Here's what I did:

FS9/AddOn Scenery/KLIZ - Loring AFB ME (for the main scenery design files)
FS9/AddOn Scenery/KLIZ - Loring AFB ME/Scenery (for all the BGLs)
FS9/AddOn Scenery/KLIZ - Loring AFB ME/Texture (for the object textures)
FS9/AddOn Scenery/KLIZ - Loring DefArea
FS9/AddOn Scenery/KLIZ - Loring DefArea/Scenery (for the DefArea output BGL)

Both KLIZ - Loring AFB ME and KLIZ - Loring DefArea have to be added to the Scenery Library; but doing it that way makes everything easy to find if the scenery needs to be unloaded later on, or updates are issued and need to go in the right folder.

Edited by sarge, 30 May 2006 - 11:04 PM.

[one.one.six]

Sarge: I got word that i can go to Clark, but im not sure well get to see the airfield before sundown because we are going to Dagupan for the day. Im going on the 19th, a day after we arrive from NRT. Leaving SFO on the 17th and coming back on the 7th.

I can be a beta tester when Clark comes around.

[IBtheSarge]

SitRep on the Loring AFB weapons storage area:



34 munitions storage igloos (with conditional pre-sets so the terrain covering changes as the seasons change), 9 maintenance/shop/build-up facilities, 11 vehicles (more to be added), several stacks of dunnage for weapons build-up.  FPS remains 28.9 except during severely inclement weather when it drops as low as 20.8 depending on whether it's just rain or a blizzard.  Even moved farther east so the display contained the bomb dump and all the structures on the NW bomber/tanker ramp on the main base .... same FPS results.

Have a collection of military vehicles in MDL format that will be placed in/around the bomb dump as well as on the main base and at the alert pads.  Still have to decide whether to enclose the bomb dump with earthen berms, chainlink fencing, both, or nothing.

Next segment of work will be the taxiway/runway signs.

[IBtheSarge]

one.one.six, on Jun 6 2006, 12:55 AM, said:

Sarge: I got word that i can go to Clark, but im not sure well get to see the airfield before sundown because we are going to Dagupan for the day. Im going on the 19th, a day after we arrive from NRT. Leaving SFO on the 17th and coming back on the 7th.

I can be a beta tester when Clark comes around.

Even if you get to see the airfield, with the ash and LaHarre deposits from Pinatubo you probably wouldn't get any useful shots for FS9 design.  From what I've been able to glean from contacts and info around the web, there has been "some" clean-up but what's there now is NOTHING like what Clark used to be like.

If you can get some usable shots, fine; if not, no need to press hard with the razor when you're shaving.     It's not that critical.  Have a good trip.  If you're offered the chance, take a flight to Baguio and be sure to get a window seat.  The shots you should be able to get on approach and departure will serve you well as HARD EVIDENCE that you're telling the truth when you describe it to someone else later.