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NZMF - The Jewel in the Crown


Adam Banks

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Almost any view of Milford Sound is quintessentially New Zealand. If ORBX could model only one area in this incredibly varied country, it'd have to be here.

Before installing NZMF, I was careful to re-acquaint myself with FSX + NZSI as it was. Pretty stunning - and you'd have thought hard to improve on (not forgetting what an awful mess basic FSX makes of this area).

So what do you get for your money? In a word: *ATMOSPHERE*. Lots of it. All that additional detail - not just the buildings and people - but all the new colouring and textures place you very firmly in this magical scenery.

I installed the new NZSI patch immediately prior to NZMF, so really can't tell which add-on is responsible for the overall improvement in "look and feel", but I suppose it's academic. Using both together, the result is stunning.

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I'm sure this forum will be swamped by screenshots - and quite rightly so. These four of mine are "quickies" just to give the ORBX crew an instant "pat on the back" for all their meticulous and hard work. Treat yourselves to a late Christmas present. It's worth it!

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So what do you get for your money? In a word: *ATMOSPHERE*. Lots of it. All that additional detail - not just the buildings and people - but all the new colouring and textures place you very firmly in this magical scenery.

Hi Adam, I am glad you like our newest production!

Cheers

Andreas

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Hi Adam, I am glad you like our newest production!

*Like*???? I LOVE it :-) Congratulations to all.

Being a designer (and developer) myself, I know you can't always deliver a 100% solution every single time (everyone has their "off days") but ORBX NZMF isn't one of those ;)

The New Zealand landscape is unique - and has a flavour all of its own. Any FSX scenery can be criticised for fine detail (you simply can't place every individual house, tree or rock) ... but I think it's more important to capture the general feel (shape and colour) of the geological features and vegetation. NZ isn't about *cities*, so I think (lucky for you!) they're not quite so important to get 100% accurate. Both NZSI and NZMF conjure up a wonderfully accurate representation of what the whole area *feels* like.

It's not quite so obvious in NZNI (as the landscape is less dramatic) but the overall "feel" is correct, IMHO.

Enough verbals ... thanks for your kind comments folks ... now back to Milford and creating more screenshots!

Adam.

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Leaving my self open here to all sorts of diabolical threats. Only one constructive critism I can make is that the waterfall just out of the airfield on the right heading towards the ocean does'nt actually flow, just mist rising upwards. Not allowed to mention other scenery but there is a huge waterfall in Venezuala that a freeware developer has flowing downwards as well as the mist raising. Just a suggestion if possible.

Always one mongrel about!!!! but as I have posted elsewhere in the forum an absolute gem of a scenery.

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Leaving my self open here to all sorts of diabolical threats. Only one constructive critism I can make is that the waterfall just out of the airfield on the right heading towards the ocean does'nt actually flow

Well - I hope you don't get shouted down! Perfectly valid point - particularly as there a quite a few spectacular falls in that area! I must admit, I was hoping/expecting them to flow myself ;). Let's hope it gets added to the list for SP1!
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Great pics and thank you very much for the kind words, Adam :) . We are glad you enjoy the scenery.

Yeah, i mentioned in another topic that this is a photo real waterfall texture which follows the curved terrain. I tried many approaches to animate it but frankly said, it looked very... wrong. If you have a straight vertical drop, an effect works usually quiet well. But that's not the case at Milford Sound. I'll see if i can get something working, but i can't promise for now.

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Yeah, i mentioned in another topic that this is a photo real waterfall texture which follows the curved terrain. I tried many approaches to animate it but frankly said, it looked very... wrong. If you have a straight vertical drop, an effect works usually quiet well. But that's not the case at Milford Sound. I'll see if i can get something working, but i can't promise for now.

It pays to complain, LOL!

Thanks for the feedback, Heiko ... always great to hear from the devs! I'm glad you used your judgement on the fall(s). Sometimes things can look just "tacky" - and I'd rather have your photoreal version than something that lowers the tone/quality of the whole add-on ;)

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Here are some pics so people can compare basic NZSI with NZSI+NZMF. By no means exhaustive (it's just around NZMF itself). Old NZSI is always in the top half, with the new NZMF version below it. As it's a simple comparison to get a rough idea, none of these shots show the (wonderful) *new* airfields.

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@boetie ... thanks! More on the way, when my real weather clears up a bit ;)

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