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G'day everyone, 
 
Following on from Misha's announcement and major previews last weekend, it is clear that many of you are very excited for his upcoming Santa Barbara airport - as am I and the rest of the team. Whilst the beta team are in the midst of putting the scenery through it's paces, and with Misha working all kinds of crazy hours putting the final polish on the scenery, I thought I'd take a break from my own developing to take a few screenshots. I have long had a love for this corner of the US - the coastal scenery of mid/northern California is absolutely stunning; think destinations like Big Sur, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Arcata etc etc. Santa Barbara is the perfect example of this kind of scenery - a lovely beachside city, scattered with Spanish architecture and a Mediterranean climate, framed by the dramatic backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Rather than focusing on the primary features for this scenery (you should have a thorough read of Misha's topic for that kind of info), I thought I'd focus on some of the incidental details around the coverage area - the kind of details that we often don't make too much of a fuss about, but really sum up the essence and charm of projects such as this. 
 
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Seamless blending from the airport to surrounding scenery - a trademark feature of ORBX airports. Often overlooked, but something that involves a great deal of planning, consideration and careful implantation to ensure an immersive experience, a high level of detail and performance optimization. 
 
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Airside Detail - this is the business end of the an airport scenery, so no effort is spared to add a minutia of details. This particular area in front of the terminal gets special attention, as it will be the part of the airport that will be visible from your cockpit at the commencement/conclusion of all airline flights. The busy apron, the ground detailing, the diversity of vegetation in the gardenbed, it all comes together to really add to the immersion. 
 
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Non-airside detailing: again a huge amount of effort has gone into this aspect of the scenery. Quite often we get asked "why bother spending so much time on the carpark/POI/landside?" - a fair question. The answer is twofold; more often than not, the layout of the airport means that many non-airside features are visible when taxiing or parking your aircraft. Secondly, much as with the airport-blending shown above, it is important to create concentric circles of detail. Whilst not 100% as detailed as the airside, given these areas are very close by, it makes sense to keep the detail very high to ensure a seamless "detail transition". Case in point - if you look at the first screenshot in this thread, you will notice that the cars that are directly next to the fence (and therefore visible from an aircraft parked at the gate) are high-detail, whereas those further away (or partially hidden behind walls or buildings) are lower-fidelity. Again, these are some the design choices that are made at all points during the development process. 
 
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The hidden corners of the airport - despite not being as high-profile as the terminal apron, no expense has been spared for the lower-traffic sections of the airport. The tower precinct, FBOs, and GA hangars all include vast amounts of detail. 
 
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Some of you may know that I'm not traditionally a fan of interior modelling, however much like other stand-out ORBX terminals (MBS Intl and Meigs, just to name a few), the interior at SBA is pretty special. One of my favourite features is the mosiac artwork that complements the Spanish architecture; this is true-to-life and extends to the outside courtyard areas of the terminal too. 

 

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Unique runway artwork - a combination of original artwork for the overlays (no repeating/tiling runway base textures here) combined with ultra-HD detail and noise textures ensures a great visual experience both in the circuit/on-approach and on the ground. 

 

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POI, landmarks and features. Many of these, such as the University of California Santa Barbara, have already been documented. The majority though, are too small or trivial to mention, yet add to the scenery in many ways. Freeway overpasses, pier detailing, water fountains, industrial buildings, secondary shopping malls, and many others are peppered all throughout the scenery. 
 

And lastly, a few more shots from around the scenery. 

 

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And for those wondering about the flag Misha was asking about a few weeks ago: 

 

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Be sure to keep an eye out for more news and screenshots of Santa Barbara coming up this week :)
 
Cheers,
Jarrad
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Amazing work from Misha and great shots. Thank you Jarrad for showing some of the wide coverage and details included with this forthcoming jewel. The added details inside of the terminal are great additional areas to explore in airports of this size.

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Not only is this looking amazingly good, but also the amount of thought and planning that goes into a project like this is incredible. Thank you very much for showing this and explaining to us what considerations a scenery designer has to take into account in his work.

 

One question: what is a "noise texture"? :D

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Hi Lars,

 

If I can quickly answer,

Noise texture = semi-transparent Detail overlay.
Much like the global "Detail1.bmp" bump map semi-transparent texture, it creates a kind of busyness to the undelying texture.

You most likely use one already coarse, cracked, soft, fine,  or grass. This one is probably a custom HD semi-transparent bump map specifically for the areas Jarrad described.

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I really appreciate the work that goes into the surroundings as I love to explore with avatar, vehicles and boats as well.

I can't wait to do a stroll through UCSB's campus and a wild ride through the Santa Ynez mountains.

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2 hours ago, Jeff Gilmour said:

Hi Lars,

 

If I can quickly answer,

Noise texture = semi-transparent Detail overlay.
Much like the global "Detail1.bmp" bump map semi-transparent texture, it creates a kind of busyness to the undelying texture.

You most likely use one already coarse, cracked, soft, fine,  or grass. This one is probably a custom HD semi-transparent bump map specifically for the areas Jarrad described.

Thanks!

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Seeing this again, I'm looking for a good p3dv4 car to explore the area.  Also, I hope that the regional statics can be deactivated separate from the GA.  I'd like to park my crj and the likes next to the fence :)  ....Impeccable detail!!!!!! wow....I can't wait.

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Thanks so much guys!

 

1 hour ago, keino333 said:

Seeing this again, I'm looking for a good p3dv4 car to explore the area.  Also, I hope that the regional statics can be deactivated separate from the GA.  I'd like to park my crj and the likes next to the fence :)  ....Impeccable detail!!!!!! wow....I can't wait.

 

Yep, I kept that in mind, airliners, bizjets and GA aircraft each have a seperate option to enable/disable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would like to buy this airport but, it says it needs SoCal to run it. . I own SoCal but don't have it installed because It tends to drop a few

frames. (I fly the PMDG NGX exclusively) Must SoCal be installed to use Santa Barbara? I know its a dumb question.

 

Mike Stout

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