Pacific Fjords - Can we expect scenery features?

[CBris]

For those of us old enough to remember Misty Fjords    I would like to ask if anyone is planning "improving" the FTX offering by creating micro-sceneries for the scenery?

You know - Eddystone Rock, for instance. I found the FTX one easy enough, but compared the the Misty realistic one, this one is just a rock.

But generally - the little Misty addons that made the area so much fun to interact with - all thos little hidden strips and the like...

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Chris,

good question. I do hope too that we'll see a bunch of add-ons for PFJ in the future. I remember when Misty Fjords for FS9 was first released we got quite a bit of criticism that we didn't provide much enhancements to airports, seaplane bases, etc. But then this "avalanche" of third-party add-ons started rolling which turned Misty into a free-for-all playground 

Anyway, I can start by posting what we have planned for a service pack for PFJ:

* all local US Forest Service cabins with new custom models by Bill Womack (currently we have six cabins placed with Bill's "bobbing" mooring buoys and skiff but the cabins themselves are default model stand-ins)

* floatplane dock and helipad near Shoal Cove MORAN station

* full coverage of marine lights and lighthouses (currently we've got SE Alaska and Portland Channel included)

* a bunch more road and railroad bridges

* obviously, any bug fixes requested by users

Then, of course, we have Russ White working on PAKT as a full-detail airport add-on, a la Darrington and Concrete, along with photoreal coverage and custom objects for Ketchikan.

Cheers, Holger

[Iain Emms]

Now then chaps that does sound very nice indeed,

cheers

Iain

[Rob Abernathy]

""Then, of course, we have Russ White working on PAKT as a full-detail airport add-on, a la Darrington and Concrete, along with photoreal coverage and custom objects for Ketchikan.

Cheers, Holger""

This is great news!  I was wondering why there weren't any smallish boats in the little harbor near the cruise ships.  I was just in Ketchikan in June of this year and will eagerly await this scenery......as with all of them. 

[Bill Womack]

My first ever scenery project was located in the PFJ area - the small Antelope Trail Ranch strip. I've thought about reworking it to Orbx standards, but that's about all I've done so far - think about it. 

[alexf]

I would love to see Antelope Trail Ranch in PFJ. It was my base in that area for years. Loved your work with it, especially the little dock and cove down on the water. Go for it. We'll buy it!

[Tom Brooks]

Bill W., I have a question or a hopeful response in that I want to reconstruct Sullivan Bay, and a few other camps in the area, which is located east of Port Alice.  It is a community made up of float houses and I was wondering, do you have anything like this or can you give me instructions (guidelines in measurements) and I can fiddle around with gmax and design houses. 

Thanks

Tom Brooks

[Bill Womack]

Sorry, I'm not all that familiar with floating homes. We've got several communities of them here in Portland, but I haven't spent much time studying them. My best advice is to find a few examples and photograph them for reference material.

[Jayturf]

float houses are just houses on a dock.  They basically just look like a house on the water

[Wildbird]

Hi Chris,

good question. I do hope too that we'll see a bunch of add-ons for PFJ in the future. I remember when Misty Fjords for FS9 was first released we got quite a bit of criticism that we didn't provide much enhancements to airports, seaplane bases, etc. But then this "avalanche" of third-party add-ons started rolling which turned Misty into a free-for-all playground 

Anyway, I can start by posting what we have planned for a service pack for PFJ:

* all local US Forest Service cabins with new custom models by Bill Womack (currently we have six cabins placed with Bill's "bobbing" mooring buoys and skiff but the cabins themselves are default model stand-ins)

* floatplane dock and helipad near Shoal Cove MORAN station

* full coverage of marine lights and lighthouses (currently we've got SE Alaska and Portland Channel included)

* a bunch more road and railroad bridges

* obviously, any bug fixes requested by users

Then, of course, we have Russ White working on PAKT as a full-detail airport add-on, a la Darrington and Concrete, along with photoreal coverage and custom objects for Ketchikan.

Cheers, Holger

That's great news! I love the cabins in Tongass, just flying by maps and trying to find them. Great fun. 

It might be a bit early to ask, but will PAKT include the nearby float plane bases too? Taxiing up and down the ramp at 9C0 is a very rough experience right now. 

[ba43]

Well, I have a red face.

I spent several hours yesterday creating some add on scenery for several cabins in the Misty Fjords area of PFJ. These use default and "Woody's objects for the cabins. I completed Helm Bay, Helm Creek, McDonald Lake, Hugh Smith lake, Fish Creek, Blind Pass, Alava Bay and Pleanty Cutthroat are done.

However, I don't think it would be a good idea to put these out when Bills working hard on a official package that will use custom objects and Bills quality workmanship. So, all that work I did was for naught but that's okay because we have a better option coming that will complete the cabin picture.

Maybe we should have a forum area similar to what Misty Moorings had where you can announce what scenery projects any third party developers are planning to work on. This would be great for anybody that plans to make a scenery area that might conflict with a planned ORBX release, or other third party developers plans.

Kind of eliminates the duplicates and conflicts if we had a venue for discussion to track these potential issues. I know ORBX doesn't really want to have people like me putting out scenery enhancements that are made to fit in their scenery areas because of the lack of testing, quality control, troubleshooting, etc.

But the big draw of the Misty Moorings and Tongass Wild communities was the third party scenery that people created for use in the Misty/Tongass Fjords scenery packages. It still is what drives me to work on my little offerings.

I hope to continue this type of hobby but any negatives, duplicates and conflicts need to be avoided.

Thanks for letting me ramble a bit,

Brad

[Argharg]

Hello,

I dont have misty but I just installed and tried PF and must say that I like it. Question, if I buy/install misty, will the zone covered profit from the orbx autogen or do they have their own?

I really wish you guy would make an effort to improve performance around 1S2 which is very a dog on my system for whatever reason.

Etien

[ShawnG]

Misty is an old FS9 product that Pacific Fjords is a replacement for... I suppose you meant FSAddon's Tongass Fjords X?  if so,  it does benefit from the ORBX Trees as long as the FTX is set to north america.  textures I do not believe are the same,  but trust me, you won't notice the difference.  Tongass is always a recommended purchase. 

1S2 is a serious drag on my system as well even with all the configurator buttons unchecked.  not sure why,  Nearby Concrete is fantastic on frames.

I wish I could contribute at some level as well,  Indeed one of the great things about Misty were all the user made addons.  some were real,  some were fictional, but they definitely helped with the Immersion factor.  OZx, I'm sure will have some scenery available, they tend to stick with things that actually exist though.    It really would be nice to have some sort of "clubhouse"  for the NA stuff where we can swap paints, sceneries, and info.  just like the old Misty Moorings and Tongass Fjords sites.

[Argharg]

I meant tongass Fjords X indeed.

Yes something is very wrong with 1S2, the scene isnt so complex (this is NOT manathan) in principle. So, somewhere a texture is screwed up, or a model is over detailled, in any case they never tested it on my 8800 GTX video card with 756Meg.

Thx for your prompt answer.

Etien

[alexf]

Brad, the equivalent of the old Misty Moorings and other freeware support communities is OZx (http://aussiex.org/forum/). That is the official venue for free non-ORBx addons to FTX sceneries. You should talk to them. They have a good community going.

[ba43]

I love OZX!! I'm well aware of the fine artisans there. They are even kind enough to host my third party additions there.

I must be missing the area where third party contributors can announce their intentions at.

Brad

[ShawnG]

Brad's current scenery projects are hosted at OZx,  so he's aware    I really like OZx as well, it just doesn't have the sort of focus on one area like the misty moorings site did.  Diplomatically I will say that OZx is more of an organized entity when it comes to airports, whereas MM was more anarchic.  with all the positives and negatives that each approach entails.

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi guys,

sorry if I made other people's efforts redundant with my announcement. PFJ hasn't been out yet for a week so I thought that you would still be enjoying what we created  Originally, I wasn't even going to announce the planned SP1 additions until a while later but I'm glad now that I did.

All of the websites that sprang up after the release of the mentioned FS9 titles - Misty Moorings, Tongass Wild, Vancouver Landings, etc. - were set up by enthusiastic users. Thus, if you prefer not to work with OZx or a VA but want some form of coordination and coordination that's probably the way to go with PNW/PFJ/NRM as well.

Cheers, Holger

[Dexter Dog]

My first ever scenery project was located in the PFJ area - the small Antelope Trail Ranch strip. I've thought about reworking it to Orbx standards, but that's about all I've done so far - think about it. 

Think harder!