by Neil Hill, Lynnwood, WA
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With the availability of a new program by Israel Roth and Seev Kahn, Rwy12 I can now do a project that I had in mind since the FS2000, the bringing to life FS airports. It always bothered me to make a nice landing at an airport and then look around and find..... nothing, maybe a plane here and there but often nothing, no life, nada, zilch.
This download is for those who would like to see signs of activity at places they visit in the FS world. I have chosen the northwest corner of Washington state, specifically the area to be covered by the soon to be released "Pacific Northwest Megascenery", since I live just north of Seattle. You wont have to get the Megascenery to enjoy these airport changes however, I just used it as the coverage area as Ive already got it on order. There are 50+ airports represented in the files, the bigger ones have there own .BGL's the smaller lumped into two .BGLs, Small Airports N & S (of Seattle).
Every airport covered (except the few grass runways I didn't do) has people, planes (primarily light A/C), cars (well actually car as only one is in the data base of Rwy12 objects that can be placed), people, some trucks and did I mention people (yes, and one belly dancer my 6 year old granddaughter made me put in, see if you can find her).
I had a few simple rules: 1) Stay with the stock MS airports (my only concession is to using the excellent Boeing package boeingpkg.zip, available at AVSIM, by Mike Magner, which includes upgrades for Seatac, Renton, Boeing Fld, and Paine Fld, I recommend it). 2) Have the scenery placements make real world sense, ie: no jets at small airports, people on the runway, etc. I used the Northwestern Airports Pilots Guide and AirNav website to see the real world layout of airports wherever possible, as I was doing the upgrading to keep to reality as close as possible (within what MS provided). 3) Avoid placements where AI planes will park. I even loaded the airports with AI planes and lined up my planes with them so planes are not helter skelter over the parking area so they will look OK with or without AI planes present. 4) Add people at every airport, and cars and trucks in reasonable places. People are standing by planes, vehicles, building doors, etc. I average around 25+ placements per larger airport and 10 to 15 at the smaller ones but the objects seem very frame rate friendly so shouldnt cause much of a frame rate hit. I didnt super load details so this should keep frame rates friendly also. Oh, and by the way, I added ferrys to all the Puget Sound Ferry routes for a little local flavor
This is my first effort at enhancing scenery and I am learning as I go, therefore you may find a goof (or two), hopefully Ill get better. The area covered is very large, 30,000 square miles with over 50 airports which is quite an undertaking (for a novice) but I hope you enjoy this version and it makes the FS airports a lot more friendly for you. If this is popular I will go south and do a similar one for Northern California Megascenery, and perhaps, if Im not burned out, one for Southern California Megascenery, both of which I have.
INSTALLATION-
Unzip the files into whatever location you use for unziping files, I use one called unzipped. You will find three folders 1) PNW Arpts_Rwy12 2) scenery and 3) texture, along with this readme and a DIZ file.
1) Move the contents of the scenery folder into the scenery folder within the FS9, Addon Scenery folder. Do not overwrite newer existing files of the same name.
2) Move the contents of the texture folder into the texture folder within the FS9, Addon Scenery folder. Do not overwrite newer existing files of the same name.
3) Place the PNW Arpts _Rwy12, folder into the FS9, Addon Scenery folder. Leave the folder intact, it contains the scenery folder where the 39 .BGLs reside.
Then start FS9, some files will be updated, and then at the Settings screen click SETTINGS, click Scenery Library , click Add Area open the Addon Scenery folder and click on PNW Arpts _Rwy12 and then OK. That will activate the PNW Arpts _Rwy12 in FS9
Restart FS9, wait for FS9 to rebuild its database, and then go to any of the larger airports in the Seattle area to see the difference (you may have to look around a bit as I put the added objects, primarily light A/C, in their proper place on the airports so you will have to go there to see them).
If you have some very detailed scenerys, like Emma field, Bremerton, etc either make them a lower number (higher priority) in the scenery list or if I have them as a separate file just delete my .bgl of the airport.
UN-INSTALLATION-
Remove the relevant files from the scenery and texture folders within the Addon Scenery folder. Remove the PNW Arpts _Rwy12 folder from the Addon Scenery folder, and finally delete PNW Arpts _Rwy12 from the FS9 Scenery library areas.
Acknowledgements -
My special thanks to Israel Roth and Seev Kahn for putting together and allowing use the Rwy12 Object Placer program and inclusion of the objects from their Objects Library in my upload . It is very easy to use (verified by the fact that even I can use it) and its free (they even encourage distribution of files made with their product). The program can be downloaded from AVSIM, search for rwy12_v1.zip. Their new Web site for the Rwy12 product: www.rwy12.com/portal.
Also to Pete Dowson for his FSUIPC which establishes the link between FS 2004 and Object Placer.
