John Bosch Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 You blokes have created some quality stuff here! I'd just like to add my thanks to the long list of thanks. I'd also like to say high to everybody. I'm new to the Microsoft side of flight sims. I've been flying sims for years (mostly IL-2 in quite secluded corners among people who want real missions, not giant online furballs), but have rarely ventured into the civilian side. I must say I'm enjoying it! I do have a question though. I did a flight I have always wanted to do between my current home town of Canberra and where I grew up in Broken Hill. Now I know that BH is just outside the AU Blue boundary and I expected it to look pretty ordinary out there (and it does). However, the Menindee lakes area and all across the plains stretching east is inside the area. Some of it is even inside the Landclass'ed green bits in the AU Blue readme. This area is one of grey-clay river flood plains and dry semi-arid desert. AU Blue has it as east-coast styled green fields and pastures. Also, the Darling river doesn't even exist around the Menindee area but there are a bunch of lakes around the place (and around Ivanhoe) that haven't seen water in decades but are lovely blue in FSX. Even the area around West Wyalong to Hilston area, which is 'farmland', should be much browner than it is. Is this likely to change at some stage? Maybe with the release of AU Red? I'm not complaining at what we have already. It is simply briliant. I'm just curious if we'll ever be able to fly out into the outback and see its red-brown desolate beauty. Or perhaps my settings are too vibrant or something and I'm not seeing AU Blue as I should? \ Oh, I do have a couple of small terrain issues that I can post a screenshot of this evening. I found lake out that way (I jotted down the coords) that has roads running right across the lake. My betting is its one of those normally dry lakes I mentioned above. Lastly, when I fly over the mountains west of Canberra I get a horizontal line half way up most of the mountains. Below the line is nicely atmospheric faded scenery but above it is raw unfaded scenery. it's like the fading only foes to about a 1000 metres or so and some of the mountains stick out above it. Again, I can post a screenshot tonight if you don't get what I'm saying. Has anybody else seen anyhting like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hi Wirraway, Thank you for you friendly comments they are much appreciated and we would appreciate the screenies and coords so we can pinpoint the eventual glitch you may have encountered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Meiklejohn Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 G'day Wirraway Is this likely to change at some stage? Yes; In the manual you can identify the areas of blue that have not been customised. You are most likely seeing the base landclass. The team is currently working on AU_Green but when we get a few spare moments we go back and fill in a few more blanks on the canvas of Australia. We do have some limitations though with a limited 'palette' of textures that makes it impossible to 'paint' some landscapes. As you have suggested, when AU_Red is released we will hopefully have some more 'crossover' textures to help us define that western landscape more accurately. I found lake out that way (I jotted down the coords) that has roads running right across the lake. My betting is its one of those normally dry lakes I mentioned above. Again, you are correct in your surmise that this would be a dry lake. We have two issues that are difficult to work around here - 1. The hydrology database that forms a part of the base FSX installation doesn't have the ability to distinguish intermittent watercourses/lakes etc. It is either wet or dry. Causes big problems for us in outback areas (even non outback rivers that are normally a series of waterholes, such as the Murrumbidgee are a problem). 2. The roads database we have used, whilst containing significantly better road data than the base FSX offering, includes many tracks, walking trails, old mining roads etc. We have increased the number of textures to try to display the different grades of roads correctly, however in the case of roads crossing saltpans etc they tend to stick out. Lastly, when I fly over the mountains west of Canberra I get a horizontal line half way up most of the mountains. Below the line is nicely atmospheric faded scenery but above it is raw unfaded scenery. it's like the fading only foes to about a 1000 metres or so and some of the mountains stick out above it. This is the FSX representation of haze. Goto your weather settings and setup a custom scheme in 'user defined weather' 'advanced weather'; adjust visibility tops to 99999 (base of course is 0) and set to your preference of 20, 30, 40 miles. I find a bit of cloud helps as well, try 2 - 5 oktas at 6000 - 12000ft. If you have a grunty computer you can use cumulus, otherwise set to stratus which doesn't hit the frames so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Thanks for the info Bazzam. I can understand that there must be lots of limitations in what can be done. Being a software engineer myself I know your pain. Although, we're usually creating it for you graphics people . Thanks also for the info on the FSX haze thing. I'll fix that up tonight, if I get the chance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Thanks for the tip on the haze.. it has been bugging me for some time, but I thought it was just a programming glitch.. seeing the haze as flat as a table top at 4000 ft was one of the reasons for my not flying FSX as much as I would like to..you fixed it... thanks heaps.. magic..Teecee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Screenshot of the lake with roads ... Coordinates are S32° 45.74' E142° 57.57'. Altitude was 9542 feet and the shot is taken looking north. Taking a quick look at google earth it looks a lot like it's meant to be a dry lake bed. It occured to me on the way home that there is a lake much closer to home that suffers the same issue ... Lake george just north of Canberra hasn't had water in it for more years than I remember but FSX has it brimming full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Harris Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 fixed it for you *cough*Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Hee, hee ... you'd never have known there was a lake there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Sandmann Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi guys, we're working on a system to make water bodies seasonal, which would allow us to make use of the "non-perennial" classification in our source data. Stay tuned... Also, we will revamp and enhance the road system, particularly the non-paved roads and the dry/wet division. The reason we're holding back with this is because we want to find out what other conflicts (or opportunities) present themselves during work on regions GREEN and RED. That way we can be consistent and don't have to do this more than once. Cheers, Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 I have some alpha shots from Holger which I'll post soon regarding the dry/wet transitions. Very exciting developments indeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 26, 2008 Author Share Posted June 26, 2008 I saw them. They are very good. I'm in awe of what you guys are doings with this sim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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