Vancouver International Airport for FS2004 - 4.1 (complete version) August 2004/April 2005.
This version is a compilation of four files CYVR4.zip; CYVR41.zip; CYVR4fix.zip: CYVR4com.zip into one zip package
This Vancouver International Airport scenery is based on my FS2002 version (CYVR3.1 - FlightSim Developers Award in March 2003), which had over 11,000 downloads at AVSIM and FlightSim. It retains my original terminal buildings of version 3.1 as well as the changes in upgrade 3.11, which made it compatible with FS2004.
However, this version has moved the entire airport so that the runways coincide with the default ones, which will allow VATSIM fliers to use this scenery for their on-line flying. The taxiway layout in the Microsoft default FS2004 is not portrayed correctly, particularly on the north side, and my layout has been based on aerial photographs and engineering plans provided by engineering staff at the airport. Control tower coordinates in this version are within 60 ft of the real control tower coordinates.
This new version is stand-alone with many new additions and changes, and previous versions of my Vancouver scenery should either be disabled or removed. I do not know whether this version will function in FS2002 since I no longer have it, and I will consequently not be offering any support for FS2002.
1. All runways, taxiways and aprons have been created with AFCAD2.21 (thx fellow Canuck - Lee Swordy!), which displays centre and edge lines as well as lighting, and incorporate the navigation aids; I have reduced the vast apron expanse to the east of the terminal, and the aprons there now better reflect their real life situation including their associated aviation buildings. The AFCAD AF2 file is therefore an integral part of my Vancouver scenery folder.
2. I have placed all runway and taxiway signs (using "CreateSigns" by Vladimer Svoboda) - no small task with the large number of intersections at CYVR, and it involved at least 3 "computer" days, but it creates a lot more interest. Vancouver in fact is quite a large and complicated airport when you start to work on it in detail!
3. I have added the freight buildings for FedEx, Purolator and the new UPS building (to the north of 26R with its own taxiway) plus several other aviation buildings to the east. These are not authentic models but I have tried to make them representative in terms of size, shape and colour, essentially in their correct location, and with signs where appropriate.
4. In honour of my own 767 flight there in March 2004, I have added the Air Canada flight simulator building just south of and adjacent to the large Air Canada hanger to the north east.
5. I have re-created Sea Island in the Fraser River delta (upon which CYVR is located), and its adjacent river channels, with Ground2k. This is necessary since the MS default Fraser River shoreline does not coincide with the real shoreline. But more importantly there is some very interesting scenery under preparation by a local designer, of the entire Fraser River from its mouth to Hope, including the Burrard Inlet. My Sea Island and adjacent river channels have been designed to fit with this new Fraser River scenery. This has necessitated redesigning the bridges accessing Sea Island which comprise the Arthur Lang, Dinsmore, Number 2 Road, and Oak Street bridges. (I dont quite know how the ship just east of Sea Island is going to get under the low MS bridges to make it into the Strait of Georgia but it does in real life!!). I have included roadways inside and outside of the airfield area, including those connecting to the bridges. I have also added some autogen to represent the community of Burkeville, just east of the airport on Sea Island. I have also added a representation of the Iona Sewage Treatment Plant and its 4km outfall pipe. Plus the Point Atkinson lighthouse and a couple of ships along the north shore of the Burrard Inlet, in an overflow mooring area east of Caulfeild Cove, and just below where I live.
6. This scenery includes the Flying Beaver Pub on the banks of the Fraser River at the South terminal. I go there nearly every month for a pub lunch with some fellow-retirees. Anyone passing through CYVR with time to spare should take a taxi over there great grub and great beer, and you can watch lots of float plane activity!
Installation
It is difficult anticipating everyones installation needs. If very few addon sceneries are to be used, I think loading their textures and bgl files into the Addon Scenery texture and scenery folders respectively would suffice, but I have never tried this approach since it means all the bgl files for various sceneries could be mixed together as would their textures, making it difficult to un-install any sceneries that you didnt like.
If you have several addon sceneries as many do, my personal preference would be establish a separate directory system and keep this away from the FS2004 folder and preferably in another partition and\or drive, (mainly for security reasons). I did a HowTo article at FlightSim several years ago on How To Avoid Scenery.cfg Problems at:
http://www.SurClaro/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/scen.htm
That article was initially addressed at the scenery.cfg file in FS2000 which some of you will remember could be very flakey. However, the article included a discussion on my scenery library filing system and the principles still apply. This has stood me in good stead right through FS2004, moving up to each version of FS almost seamlessly. For a large scenery library I have found this system to offer both flexibility and convenience since it means you only load the sceneries applicable to the region you are going to fly in, which reduces the loading time. But more importantly, it keeps your scenery files in a tidy and rational framework.
When you unzip the download, you will find two folders Vancouver and Sea Island.
Put the Vancouver and Sea Island folders as-is into your own addon scenery location. As noted above, the AFCAD AF2 file has become an integral part of my scenery, so remove any other AFCADS for CYVR that you may have, otherwise you could experience computer crashes of FS9.
Import the Vancouver and Sea Island sceneries into the scenery library of FS9 as normal and make sure that the Sea Island scenery is layered below my Vancouver.
Known Issues
I hope frame rates do not become an issue for you. There is quite a bit more detail than with my version 3.1 but the two biggest frame rate hogs are usually AI traffic density and the weather density. If you still have fps troubles, things may improve if you selectively remove some of the bgl files in the scenery folder, eg the ships, the taxiway signs, the Iona sewer outfall, but of course this will mean a loss in detail.
The textures at the west and east ends (with the logos) of the largest Air Canada hanger appear and disappear sporadically. I dont know why and I have multi-checked my texture files and they appear okay. They are in extended bmp format and I have even tried converting them to DXT format without success. If any designers have an answer, please drop me an e-mail. As a work-around, if you zoom right in at the building then strike back-space, the textures will very often pop out.
The white of the radar dome is a default texture file - 0jobia002b2hw1 and from this I have created a night file called 0jobia002b2hw1_LM, but it seems very bright at night and I have been unable to subdue it. If you do not like the brightness at night just remove the file 0jobia002b2hw1_LM
Common Textures
I have included all the textures I have created as well as for the third party design macros, where used. However for any serious simmer involved with addon sceneries, I would recommend they include all the Airport, ASD2.1, VOD and Nova series of textures in the main FS9 Texture folder anyway, and those used in my own texture folder where duplicated in the main texture folder, can be removed if space is a problem. The best source is the "must have" files library at SurClaro but they can also be found and downloaded from SurClaro.com by doing a search. Alternatively, below are the URLs where you can get these directly, but the sites sometimes need a bit of searching in order to locate them:
Many others have produced scenery in the Vancouver area, and these enhance and complement my Vancouver Airport scenery, and make for a dramatic flying experience in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia:
* High-resolution 76-m (LOD9) Terrain Mesh of the Lower Mainland of Southern British Columbia (bcmesh9c.zip) by Holger Sandmann
* High-resolution Terrain Mesh for Vancouver Island by FSGenesis/Justin Tyme (freeware demo) at http://www.fsgenesis.net (this extends to Vancouver and pulls in The Lions overlooking Capilano Lake on the North Shore). In fact I would go after the whole West Coast scenery by FSGenesis its free, it is a large download, in excess of 100MB, but you can pick and choose what regions you want.
* Vancouver area and Fraser River landclass for fs2004 by Jesse Wheeler
* Landclass definitions for the Fraser Valley, including Vancouver, Hope, Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton by Russel Dirks
* Vancouver Harbour Update for FS2002 by Ted Griggs
* The Alex Fraser Bridge for FS2004 by David Christian.
These are all available at SurClaro and\or SurClaro.com except for the Vancouver Island mesh, which you must get directly from the FSGenesis site
Credits
Engineering staff at Vancouver International Airport
Manfred Moldenhauer for SCASM without which none of this would be possible
Pascal Meziat, Brian McWilliams and Tom Hiscox for AIRPORT 3.0, without which none of this would be possible, and for their constant stream of innovations
Rafael Garcia Sanchez for his innovative program NovaSim which creates all sorts of objects and macros
Matthias Bruckner for Easy Object Designer which allowed me to create the buildings
Martin Wright for the Tview Image Manager which allowed me to view directories of thumbnail images including those in DXT format, as well as his bmp2000 and DXT programs which allowed me to manipulate the textures for my custom buildings.
Lee Swordy, fellow Canuck, for his brilliant AFCAD and Traffic Tools programs, probably the most important contribution for FS2k2/4 simmers.
ASD2.1 for its freighter macros (original author Peter Jacobson) which I converted to API.
Vladimer Svoboda for CreatSigns.
Christian Fumey for Ground2K and DefArea.
Paavo Pihelgas for ExcBuilder.
Andrej Urosevic for his macros of a fire station and fire trucks
Bob Langendorfer and Jorge Pagano for their ship macros
I hope I have not omitted any names, if so it was inadvertent and I proffer my apologies
My beta testers Roy Barnes, David Christian, Holger Sandmann, Neil Trainer and Jesse Wheeler
Last but not least, Microsoft who has created the base for this incredible and fascinating (and addictive!!) hobby
Copyright and Distribution
This scenery is released as Freeware. As freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the following conditions,
The archive must be distributed without modification to the contents of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files added, removed or modified is prohibited. The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another archive without the prior permission of the author is prohibited. No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive. The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive must be respected.
