>>> YOU WILL NEED LAGO FSE (PAYWARE) from www.lagosim.com <<<
>>> This scenery is designed to fit FSGenesis 38.2m Mesh <<<
If you do not wish to install the entire West Coast Mesh package, the following file is relevant to this area - fsg_dem38m_uswc_pointconception.zip - available at SurClaro.com.
See notes below regarding the suggested Vertex setting for the Mesh.
WHERE'S BODEGA BAY, AND WHY DID I DO IT?
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Bodega Bay is a small cove on the California coast north of San Francisco. It's on the Sonoma coast north of Point Reyes and Tornales Bay, west of Santa Rosa. On a map it looks as if Bodega and Tornales formed opposite ends of a now-eroded sandbar along the coast.
A fan of old movies, particularly those by Alfred Hitchcock, would probably know it as the setting for Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds", depicting a sudden and dramatic attacks by flocks of birds of diverse types. The film was based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier and starred Australian actor Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren (also in Hitchcock's movie, "Marnie", alongside young Sean Connery), Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and young Veronica Cartwright (who more recently was a gust star in several episodes of "The X-files" on TV).
Since I enjoy movies and flight sim, I was pleased to find the default coast for Bodega Bay looked quite recognisably like the location in the movie. I began trying to capture a little of "The Birds", using Lago FSE.
I found some interesting things whilst researching this small project. One was that the schoolhouse used for a major scene in the movie really exists, and became a "Birds" museum. The town still finds itself attracting tourists who want to see where it all "happened". And, ironically, the spit of land across the bay is a bird sanctuary.
THIS SCENERY
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Bodega Bay in reality is not the Bodega Bay of the movie. Granted, it's in the same geographical location, but Hitch liked more control than he got on location filming. Not all of the action was filmed up the coast from Los Angeles, and some that was went to screen as a mix of location shots and hand-painted matts which changed the look of the town. That gave me a problem for a moment, but only a moment. I decided that if Hitch could use such artistic licence, I would too.
I have represented Bodega Bay by placing the dock structures in the right spot according to photos and maps on the web, but also with a view to capturing the atmosphere of the movie (there is, I think, a small marina which I omitted, north of the dock but I am fairly happy with it otherwise). The farm house across the bay and its jetty, where much of the action occurred, was set up for the movie using an existing house on location. I have added that, and placed electricity/phone poles along the road leading north. In that direction and a little inland (north of the bay) I have added the neighbouring farm, where the farmer was killed by the birds.
The schoolhouse looks roughly right - though its location is simply one which fitted with the lay of the land in FS. I have included improvised playground apparatus and a bench beside the road, essential if you know the movie. Had to replace the sinister scores of ravens with a handful of parrots though - blame the Monty Python in me, and Lago for not doing ravens.
The main street of town is nothing to do with either reality or the movie, I just filled it in a little. Couldn't leave out the petrol station.
There are birds everywhere, but mostly over the farm and the schoolhouse. In the interests of equal opportunity I have even included a small group of geese and a token turkey - which you'll have to find. For some reason Hitch did not include turkeys in the movie.
The FSE sounds make the atmosphere, and I have included them; but I remember the early days of FSE, when missing sounds could crash FS. Check that you have the following files in your LAGO/Common/Sounds folder;
If any are missing you may need the FSE service packs from the Lago site, plus perhaps other sound packs from around the web (sorry, can't recall where I got mine, though I searched via "Google" and followed leads at Lago-related forums.) Alternatively, simply don't use my sounds. It's a small task to add sounds from whatever sound library you happen to have and better than having the whole lot crash and wondering why. The Lago .SC files can also be opened in notepad and I suspect, but have not had time to test, that you could simply paste an equvalent sound name over one you don't have, then save.
The AFCAD by David Marshall is named ------- drum roll please ------ AF2_KBOD.bgl. Location - Bodega Bay, California! This is a water location only. It will show up on your Map and in your Go to Airport Menu.
It includes a NDB Navaid called "Birdy" - tune your AFD to 394.0 - The range is approximately 50.5 miles. (Dave is not sure, but the transmitter is probably housed in the belfry of the old school house).
INSTALLATION
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Unzip to a temporary folder.
This package comprises three types of scenery;
1. FSE scenery, which is most of the package, and which won't work if you don't have Lago FSE - so there's not much point in continuing if you don't, though you should still get workable landclass and some default MS boats.
2. Landclass - which I did to slightly reshape the default town to fit the movie a little better, and to make the spit of land enclosing the bay more like the dunes shown in the movie. This requires no special extra software to work.
3. Rwy12 (Runway 12) objects - all boats in the bay and all default FS objects. It should work, even if you don't have the freeware Rwy12 program.
The scenery should unzip into folders. If so, drop the "LAGO" folder straight into your main FS9 folder. Say "yes" to overwrite - unless by freakish coincidence you have other Lago files called "JB_BodegaBay.**".
If it doesn't fall into folders for some reason, put JB_BodegaBay.SE2 into LAGO/FSE/Data and JB_BodegaBay.SC2 into LAGO/Common/Sounds.
The landclass could be put into any active landclass scenery folder (except I suspect it's best to avoid using one containing landclass for the same area - no one seems dead sure about this). You can create a special folder if you wish (e.g. Bodega_LC/scenery). NB - do not add a "texture" folder.
Place the AFCAD (AF2_KBOD.bgl) wherever you prefer to put your AFCADs. Addon scenery / scenery would be fine. I have a special AFCAD folder (Addon scenery / AFCAD / scenery) but any active scenery folder should be as good as any other.
And finally, Bodega_boats.BGL (from the "Bodega Rwy 12" folder) goes into Addon scenery/scenery in FS9. I haven't tried it elsewhere but it may work in any active scenery folder (including landclass since it requires no special textures).
[ You could theoretically put the AFCAD, Bodega_boats.bgl and even the landclass in one scenery folder (since no texture folder is needed). There are some reservations about this as the scenery library levels for landclass work in the opposite way to other sceneries, so if you want to depart from my suggestions above, arrange your files according to your own expertise. ]
NOTE: Lago FSE objects don't adjust their positions automatically to ground level like default scenery objects do. For this scenery to work with minimal fuss, you will need to have the FSGenesis mesh installed (either the current payware or earlier freeware by FSG / Justin Tyme) and, ideally, set your terrain mesh vertex level in your FS9.cfg to 21.
For details on finding and editing FS9.cfg refer to David "Opa" Marshall's "Tips & Tricks - Issue 3" - file names tips_and_tricks_iii.zip (at AVSIM) or tpstriii.zip (at SurClaro).
If you don't have a compatible mesh but are familiar with FSE you may need to adjust the levels of some objects up or down.
And at last ...
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Thanks to David "Opa" Marshall for saving me some work and providing the AFCAD creating the Bodega water dock and NDB.
This is freeware. I doubt anyone could make money from it but if you paid for it somebody is scamming...
And - if you enjoy either Hitchcock movies or simply flying California, try Ron Ezra's California Mission sceneries to see if you get "Vertigo" ;). They are quite beautiful, and while they also use Lago FSE for some of their enhancements, also stand alone well enough without it. So far he has designed Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, and San Luis Rey Missions (sbarbm1.zip, sjcapm1.zip, slreym1.zip).
