using WED

[Keith Smith]

Adam,

My primary concern is getting accurate taxiways and signage for towered airports within the coverage area. That way, we can issue taxi instructions, and pilots can comply.

Those airports should then be submitted to Robin Peel (maintainer of the master airport database for X-Plane) so they will become part of the stock airport database and will eventually trickle out to the entire XP community.

Secondary to that would be adding buildings and static aircraft.

I don't have a beta schedule ahead of time, I post it when I can leading up to each beta. I am hoping we won't be in the beta phase for much longer.

Thanks for breaking up the scenery into smaller, bite-size chunks. My 2GB machine is doing better with the new format (more packages, each with fewer airports).

[Shawn Goldsworthy]

Terra Server is no longer Terra Server. It has a new name and a new website, so it doesn't work with WED anymore and the X-Plane gods haven't updated WED in a LONG time. This is going to make it a real pain in the ass tracing out airports. I used to take Google Earth screenshots and line them up with Terra Server to place them accurately and then trace the Google Earth shots. I'm going to have to come up with a new method I guess.

[Alex Stjepanovic]

You could add images literally *onto* GoogleEarth. I guess if you were to take a shot off of terraserver then smack it on top of GoogleEarth's terrain imagery with some transparency, it would give you the best of both worlds.

It's under Add->Image Overlay. Pretty simple to use.

[Daddy O]

I was using the overlay option. That is actually how Austin did LOWI, with a real nice overlay, then the WED file on top of that, and the custom scenery on top of that. I use a lot of LOWI scenery when I build airports. Stuff like the parking lots full of vehicles are really handy.

I will likely use the overlay photos to get the tarmac right, then place the buildings, then yank the overlay image out. I was actually thinking it would be really easy if I used an actual airport chart and traced it in WED. Then I would not have to keep referring to charts to find out which taxiway I am signing, etc.

[Eugene Zaporozhets]

I've been looking for some info on WED, and this page http://wiki.x-plane.com/Airport_Customization offers an interesting alternative to terraserver images. The Seamless server (link http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.htm) referenced in that article lets you download TIF images with coordinates embedded, so after picking an overlay image in WED, it's automatically aligned at the correct location. I just tried out a TIF image of PSP, which worked out fine.

[Christian Mears]

Yes, the USGS website is definitely a handy resource. If anyone is using a GIS application to work with the orthophotos, pretty much every state I've worked with has a GIS data clearinghouse that provides imagery and various informational layers that are sometimes even more informative and useful than what you find on the USGS site.

[Eugene Zaporozhets]

I'm curious, what's everyone's preference about taxiway centerline lights in Xplane? I've been trying to track them in GoogleEarth for the airports I'm making, and it seems most of them don't have centerline lights, so I haven't been adding any. Taxiing in Xplane at night without centerline lights, though, is very difficult. I'm kind of struggling between mapping the taxiways accurately or spamming centerline lights everywhere just for the sake of being able to survive a night taxi.

Real world people out there, is diving into nothingness a normal sensation while taxiing at night, or is it just Xplane?

[Keith Smith]

Taxiway centerline lighting is incredibly rare at anything other than a large airport, at least in my experience. Yes, it is normal for it to be tricky to taxi at night.

You look ahead and aim towards a target, or you use the unlit centerline markings from the ambient light created by the taxi or landing light.

Go for accuracy in the modeling.

[Peter Grey]

I agree with KS on all counts.

[Eugene Zaporozhets]

Cool, thanks!