[X-Plane] Adding airport layouts and signage

Daddy O
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:32 am

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Daddy O »

I used overlays for mine.

Kieth, the problem you are having is not with OpenSceneryX, it is with my maps. Instead of building dozens of airports individually, each with 40 or 50mb of attached scenery, I built all of Socal in one file (sharing the same custom scenery) and all of Norcal in another. They also rely heavily on opensceneryX, but the problem you are having is Xplanes trying to open all of Socal at once. I have been testing the maps with multiple computers and my main box handles it fine, but the sub boxes...not so well.

My plan is to break up the airports into individual files (since hard drive space is relatively cheap these days) and re-release all of those airports. The real work has already been done, I just have to move them to seperate folders.

No reason that the signage cannot be added as scenery in Overlay Editor. It is a lot easier than using WED. You only need one sign, then just photoshop yourself new paint for each sign. It has been on my list for a while, it is just a really long list.
Daddy O
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:32 am

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Daddy O »

Take a good look at Sacramento-Mather field that I posted recently. I really had to add a lot of custom asphalt to make that one right. There was another airport we ran a beta out of that was missing an entire runway. That one is included in my scenery pack as well, forget which it was though.

But lack of signage is kind of a PITA. Sometimes at night I switch my right-side view to local map when I am on the ground so I can taxi properly. I figure it is not really cheating since most of the newer glass panels actually switch to ground mode and do the same thing for you. Besides, Xplane makes it impossible to discern dirt from asphalt in the dark, even with night vision on.
Christian Mears
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:40 pm

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Christian Mears »

Couldn't we simply update the texture files with better ones?

Also, I've done a bit of work in WED and would be happy to help. Honestly, I think it may be a good idea to start a new sticky for this, listing the known airports still requiring work. Shawn, Adam, or whomever can have mod rights to it and update it as projects are done, whether one of us does it or somebody else in the XP community. There's already a thread in the X-Plane.org forum, but I find that to be almost worthless now after so many hundred posts.

-Chris
Daddy O
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:32 am

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Daddy O »

So I am a little confused here. People want proper signage, but not scenery?

I have almost finished cutting up the scenery packs into individual airport downloads so they will not crash your system. On the next pass I was going to add taxiway markers (as soon as I create the custom object and skins.)

Or someone could do it in WED, where the feature is built in. Is there a way to merge the two? Keep in mind that there are about 977 airports in the PRK.
Shawn Goldsworthy
Posts: 514
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Shawn Goldsworthy »

i think the ultimate goal was to have the scenery in the default X-Plane database with proper taxiway layouts and signage. The default format is the one that WED spits out.

Adam, your scenery packs are great but they won't see the default airport data packaged with X-Plane.

So, for those pilots flying on PilotEdge that do not have your scenery installed and are running the default data, having accurate taxiway/ signage for them is key.
Shawn Goldsworthy
PilotEdge ATCS
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Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

FWIW, if it's gonna take longer to update the full scenery objects than just the taxiways and signage, I'll take latter first anyday. It's all about being in the air after all, so hangars don't concern me much :)
Keith Smith
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:38 pm
Location: Pompton Plains, NJ
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Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Keith Smith »

My preference would be to have the accurate signage built into the native apt.dat. Xplane already has textures for signage, so there should not be a need to build those from scratch.

Over and above that, custom scenery with buildings is great as an optional add-on.
Ben Anello
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:10 pm

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Ben Anello »

Okay, Salinas (KSNS) up in Norcal was my home airport when I was in high school so I'm working on that one with WED. Just worrying about the taxiways and signage. I'll let you know when I have it completed.

BA
Daddy O
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:32 am

Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Daddy O »

I can host the new WED files on my sigte if you want. Lemme know. You build the WED file, and I'll build the scenery.
Keith Smith
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:38 pm
Location: Pompton Plains, NJ
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Re: Adding airport layouts and signage

Post by Keith Smith »

Ultimately, the new data should be submitted to Robin Peel (data.x-plane.com). He will roll it into the master database which is then distributed to the global x-plane community.

Prior to it being included in the next database update, making it available for download on Adam's site would be great. Thanks for the offer, Adam.
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