North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

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vnks
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North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by vnks » Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:24 am

Hi,

I have a first version of the scenery for North East New York, USA on condor-club. It's slightly larger than the version for Condor 1, and covers most of the turnpoints for Wurtsboro (a couple of outermost ones are missing). It's photorealistic, with a treemap over the entire area. Texture resolution varies - it's 32k over Wurtsboro, 16k/8k over most turnpoints and 2k everywhere else. Wurtsboro area is the most detailed, with water and modeled runways / hangars.

It's only got a few airports, so let me know if you want any added. I'm sure there are other issues. I have the next version in progress, with updates around Blairstown, and 16k textures around all turnpoints. I'm also removing 32k textures as they take up a lot of space and are really hard to work with (does make landings look really nice in VR though). If you have any suggestions on what else should be fixed, let me know and I'll what I can do. Adding water is difficult since it involves manual work, the rest is generated with various scripts so some things could be easy to fix.

ebkollgaard
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by ebkollgaard » Sat Apr 20, 2019 4:51 am

Hi Vnks,
Thank you very much for the North-east New York scenery. I loaded it and flew to the Oneonta airport which happens to be located immediately next to the farm where I grew up. I landed at the field even though it is not a Condor strip. Has a tree right in at the start of the strip you have to dodge. It would be nice to have either Oneonta or Sidney made into usable airfields as it takes a while to fly there from Wurtsboro.
Thanks again,
Eric

jstodaro
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by jstodaro » Tue Jul 16, 2019 1:36 am

Hi Vnks,

Thank you! ..Wow! ..your Wurtsboro landscape for Condor2 is absolutely breathtaking! and, it looks like the real deal, too! ... In fact, my home in Rhinebeck NY is just a short drive away from Wurstboro Airport. And what's more, New York's Valley Soaring Club (of which I am a member) -- based out of Randall Airport (100 Airport Rd, Middletown, NY 10940) in 'Middletown' (one of your turnpoints) -- is just a short 12-mile soaring flight south from Wurtsboro Airport, and I must admit...I really do look forward to landing there (i.e. Middletown's Randall Airport) whenever I'm soaring or practicing using Condor2 (I just wish it looked as photo-realistic as your awesome Wurtsboro Airport), because, it allows me to work on my landings, which I do in real-life on weekends (weather permitting) along with other students and members of our VSC.

REQUEST:
Please add Randall Airport to your Middletown turnpoint -- home of New York's Valley Soaring Club -- to your beautifully modeled and incredibly realistic-looking North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos) scenery. I'd sure love to be able to demo it (using Condor2 on the big screen) at our next VSC Annual Meeting and Safety Seminar.

Well, thanks again, Vnks, for bringing me back to Condor...after a long 12-month hiatus from Condor2 due to unavailability of Condor2 landscapes for the Northeast US.

By the way, I'd be more than happy to make a generous donation to you or anyone else who decides to accept this challenge of creating for us (VSC) the photo-realistic scenery for the Randall Airport area.

Joe Todaro
My rig: iBuyPower BB953 Gaming Desktop | i7-8700K 3.7GHz | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA RTX 2080 8GB| Win10 64-bit | Asus 27'' 165Hz Gaming Monitor | Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Flight Pack (stick, throttle, pedals) | Oculus Rift-S | Condor 2.1 | X-Plane 11

vnks
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by vnks » Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:00 pm

Hi Joe,

You're welcome, and I'm glad you're finding the scenery useful. I have the next version in progress, though it's mostly changes around Blairstown area and requested tweaks like additional airports / more coverage, but it's going pretty slow since it's the summer.

What do you mean by "adding Randal Airport"? I do have it in the scenery as an airport, though I called it "Middletown" - you can take off and land there. If you mean modeling runways and buildings, that's a very time consuming process unfortunately, and it's unlikely that I'll ever have the time for that. There are some Youtube tutorials on how to do this with Blender though, so if you have someone in your club interested in doing it I can point you to them and incorporate the models into the scenery.

jstodaro
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by jstodaro » Tue Jul 23, 2019 4:34 pm

Hi Vnks,

Thanks for the exciting news on your next version! ... Um, I'll just have to get out and visit that Blairstown area one of these days. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your summer, it really is important..

OK, and as for what I meant in my original REQUEST (which was quite vague I admit) when I said "Please add Randall Airport", the following I hope will help clarify:
  • I like the idea of calling the airport "Middletown" instead of "Randall" (good for pilots, as it clearly tells a distinct location).<br/>
  • Absolutely, I know I can take off and land at Middletown (however, the entire area gradually becomes flat as a pancake beginning at about 1,000 feet AGL - entry point of the downwind leg of our landing pattern).
  • And what I meant to say instead of "modeling runways and buildings" is: Please transform our small "Middletown" airport located along I-84 (actually it's a gliderport, with its 1 runway, 2 long red barn-like buildings, etc) from a 2D (flat-as-a-pancake) area to a 3D area (just like what I see every time I fly in and out of your photorealistic "Wurtsboro" airport, which is gorgeous!!! ... and is what I look forward to be proudly exclaiming about our future 3D version of your "Middletown" airport).
    Here's a Google Earth screenshot of our local Middletown area:
    Google Earth - Middletown Airport - from Joe Todaro to Vnks 7-23-19.jpg
  • Actually, I wouldn't mind implementing the above 3D buildings, runway, gliders, etc. myself, if I only knew how, that is ... hmm, if there were only a getting-started for dummies manual available, I could probably do this myself. (NOTE: a couple years ago I created my first texture-based landscape of New York's Hudson Valley Region (including Middletown) but I lost interest and gave up on the project when it became clear to me that there just weren't enough OSM attributes data available to cover the Northeastern United States in order to provide 100% coverage of any landscape, not even 40% coverage!)
  • Note that I'm actually excited about getting this Middletown area upgraded to 3D scenery with the hope that it will motivate the members of my Valley Soaring Club to try-out the NEW Condor Version 2.0.7 -- (along with it's amazingly realistic scenery, e.g. Wurtsboro, Middletown, Blairstown, etc) -- and my plan is to do this while giving a "live demo" at our next annual [VSC Meeting and Safety Seminar] using my own new equipment - for example, my:
    • gaming desktop (with its awesome Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU);
    • gaming monitor (Asus 27-inch IPS 165Hz-refresh rate);
    • VR googles (Oculus Rift S) ...
    ..for all to try out..
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My rig: iBuyPower BB953 Gaming Desktop | i7-8700K 3.7GHz | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA RTX 2080 8GB| Win10 64-bit | Asus 27'' 165Hz Gaming Monitor | Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Flight Pack (stick, throttle, pedals) | Oculus Rift-S | Condor 2.1 | X-Plane 11

jstodaro
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by jstodaro » Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:20 pm


Hey Vnks,

BAD NEWS! When I went to start learning how to use Blender via watching the following beginner-type YouTube tutorials:
  • Part 1 - The User Interface
  • Part 2 - Basics of Moving, Scaling, Rotating
  • Part 3 - Basic modelling in Edit Mode
  • Part 4 - Understanding Material Nodes
  • Part 5 - Modelling a coffee cup
  • Part 6 - Texturing a wooden table
  • Part 7 - Using Particles to make sprinkles
  • Part 8 - Lighting the scene
  • Part 9 - Rendering and Compositing

Sadly, :( and to my dismay, I discovered that they're ALL GONE!!! (see attachment) ..i.e. they've all been removed for the following reason that one user gave: "Video have been deleted because Blender has been upgraded to 2.8 and is completely different from the Blender version of the videos used."

Did you ever hear of anything so ridiculous?! .. no regard for the Condor community...no backward compatibility concerns...no support...no nothing!!! :oops: Why am I not surprised. :lol: Anyway....

Your thoughts please - any other ideas?

Well, at least I was willing to try.. :?

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Thanks anyway Vnks!
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My rig: iBuyPower BB953 Gaming Desktop | i7-8700K 3.7GHz | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA RTX 2080 8GB| Win10 64-bit | Asus 27'' 165Hz Gaming Monitor | Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Flight Pack (stick, throttle, pedals) | Oculus Rift-S | Condor 2.1 | X-Plane 11

Xavier
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by Xavier » Fri Jul 26, 2019 8:18 am

Hi Jstodaro,

Learning Blender is hard and sometime boring. A lot of Condor object's makers had began one year ago to learn Blender and they stopped few months after.

If you want to make Airports and static objects use Wings 3D. That is more than enough.

Wings 3D is easy to learn because at any time you are directed by the Information Line (Bottom line), and the selected element are indicated in the Status Bar (Upper line in the "Geometry window".

Many topic in this forum, can direct you.

Many videos are available on the Web.
*****- Xavier - (XDL - VR FAN) *****

jstodaro
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by jstodaro » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:35 pm


Thank you, Xavier! :D

I really appreciate the heads-up on Blender, also the excellent advice to use Wings 3D, instead, for creation of static 3D objects like hangers, buildings, parked cars, planes and gliders, etc at airports.

I look forward to getting started watching the videos and getting ideas from forums...sounds like it could be fun!

My rig: iBuyPower BB953 Gaming Desktop | i7-8700K 3.7GHz | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA RTX 2080 8GB| Win10 64-bit | Asus 27'' 165Hz Gaming Monitor | Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Flight Pack (stick, throttle, pedals) | Oculus Rift-S | Condor 2.1 | X-Plane 11

ebkollgaard
Posts: 64
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by ebkollgaard » Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:19 am

Hi Vnks,
I would like to ask if you could put the Oneonta Municipal airport on your Wurtsboro scenery. It would be the only airstrip for the Northwest corner of the scenery area. I try to fly to the area from Wurtsboro but it takes a long time, at least a couple hours, when I am successful. I am intertested in flying in the area of Oneonta since I was brought up on a farm located just a half mile from the airport.

I thought about trying to learn enough about Wings3D to build just the runway myself but I'm too old to learn new programming. For your information the field is at 1763 fT (537m) elevation and the asphalt runway is 4280ft (1280m) by 75 ft (23m). The coordinates are 42 degrees 31' 29" N and 75 degrees 03' 52" W.
Thank you,
Eric

vnks
Posts: 41
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Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by vnks » Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:10 pm

Hi everyone,

My apologies for missing the recent posts in here. I have a new version of the scenery out, which should have all the requested updates. It's also a little larger, and has a thermal map.

jstodaro, it's possible that the first version was missing trees around Middletown, which would make everything look flat. I did check that the update has trees in the area, so hopefully that fixes it.

Let me know if you run into any issues. I'm happy to include additional airport details, if someone models them using the guide at http://www.condorsoaring.com/wp-content ... _en_10.pdf . It's the most time-consuming part of the process, unfortunately.

vnks
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:12 pm

Re: North-east New York Scenery for Condor 2 (Wurtsboro/Blairstown, Catskills & Poconos)

Post by vnks » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:01 pm

Hi everyone,

There's an update to the scenery available at condor-club.eu. This version has tree and water maps generated with Machine Learning / Computer Vision, so tree placement is much more accurate. Detected water bodies are re-textured with GregHart1965's tiles, which I darkened a bit to match the area. I also added all public airports - they're not leveled so you may not be able to actually take off from them, but air starts would definitely work.

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