Basic VFR Landmarks for X-Plane

[Calvin Waterbury]

I have removed the file due to the number of errors it was generating in the "log.txt" file.

I was provoked by a part of a discussion about the VFR aspects of X-Plane. I am just beginning to learn how to make scenery and I have given this topic some thought. I think I can make facsimiles of the landmarks, but time will tell. I believe it would be a long-term project to try and VFR-ify X-Plane, but as I work through it in my mind I have some questions. For instance...

• Would a stadium, golf course, etc. really be that helpful without the surroundings?
• Since real world architecture is very unique would things like differences in colors, shapes, designs of the generic models (which would not look exactly like the original) be acceptable or would you look out the window, see the generic "stadium" object and be miffed because it is blue and gray as opposed to the real red and green?
• Would the inconsistencies between a "stadium," etc. and the default ground textures be acceptable?
• Would a "stretched" stadium object be acceptable as a "race track?"

Keep in mind any sceneries I can concoct would be based on library objects. I am no where near able to produce custom 3D objects.

Are there any other considerations?

[Disclaimer - I am only working in X-Plane 9.70 at present, but I believe XP10 has backward compatibility for basic objects. I don't own XP10, so I don't know for sure.]

[Cyrus]

Thanks for picking this up, Calvin. I'll be following this thread too

[Calvin Waterbury]

Thanks for picking this up, Calvin. I'll be following this thread too

You're welcome. What are your thoughts on the above listed caveats?

[ChristophPreinfalk]

If you want to create objects like stadium with the purpose of adding landmarks for VFR flying, I wouldn't at all worry about those caveats. I would love it if those landmarks would be there, even if they don't look like the real deal. As long as there's a stadium, it would be already a big improvement for VFR.

[Calvin Waterbury]

Well then I will concentrate on large VFR objects like stadiums, race tracks and golf courses. I'm guessing these would be the most useful and easiest to accomplish. Any other reasonable landmark suggestions?

[Why do I have the feeling my scenery skills are fixing to be enlarged. ]

[Calvin Waterbury]

Also, what airport pairs (or areas) in ZLA would y'all like to see first? There is A LOT of possibilities with a project like this, so your help would be appreciated.

@Keith - it seems to be easier for me to do design work than fly right now, especially on the network. Just thought you would like to know why I've been off the network.

[JN_]

X-Plane auto-generates a lot of objects based on land-class data. I would avoid duplicating the effort for things which X-Plane may eventually generate automatically. For example, if there is a land-class representing golf courses, then X-Plane may automatically do those at some point in the future. Ditto for things like towers. Might be a good idea to get some feedback from Laminar about what they intend to implement, if possible.

The nice thing about their approach is that is scales very well, because they can use existing data and avoid creating content manually. If there is publicly available data of some other type that they're not already using or intend to use, it could be useful to generate scenery from this data. This approach definitely requires some technical skills though.

[Jeff N]

This is an awesome idea. The only VFR reporting points I know of for X-Plane are "Four Stacks" between KWHP and KBUR, and the Queen Mary/Port of Long Beach scenery add-ons, both found on x-plane.org.

My take on the individual caveats in bold:

[*]Would a stadium, golf course, etc. really be that helpful without the surroundings?[/*]

Yes, at least for those of us using orthophoto scenery of the LA/SoCal area, I think it would blend in nicely.

[*]Since real world architecture is very unique would things like differences in colors, shapes, designs of the generic models (which would not look exactly like the original) be acceptable or would you look out the window, see the generic "stadium" object and be miffed because it is blue and gray as opposed to the real red and green?[/*]

I don't think exact coloration is a huge concern.

[*]Would the inconsistencies between a "stadium," etc. and the default ground textures be acceptable?[/*]

Again, when used in conjunction with the great orthophoto packages available on x-plane.org, this is a non-issue.

[*]Would a "stretched" stadium object be acceptable as a "race track?"[/*]

Hard to say without seeing the final product.

[Calvin Waterbury]

The file mentioned in this post, etc. is no longer available. The text of this post was left intact to maintain the continuity of the thread.

Thank you for the tips and comments.

Here is my first try at a landmark (attached in OP). Depart KEMT to the north @ DER turn right 030 and fly for 1:45 - 2:15. Look for oval with blue and white tents in the middle. 030 will fly you right over the track, so you may want to deviate to the right some to allow seeing off your left nose.

You will notice the track is north of I-210 instead of south where it ought to be. I tried very hard to make sure the track is in the right place, so I'm guessing X-Plane's location of I-210 is too far to the south which brings up another question...

Would you prefer to have the track "moved" south of the improperly positioned I-210 or leave it where it ought to be at present.

FYI - Place unzipped folder in your "Custom Scenery" folder.

[Disclaimer - I am operating from newbie assumptions and my methods of plotting scenery consist of using GoogleEarth, a dry-erase marker which I plot points on my screen and match with the layout in Overlay Editor. Please be kind.]

Your comments are most welcome!

[arb65912]

Hi Calvin, I love the idea and would be very happy to see the the landmarks depicted on chart but I realize how much work it would be and how much time would be needed to populate SoCal.
If you want to do it , I would be happy to add it to existing scenery. Thank you, AJ