Hi Mage
Those are excellent pictures.
I also just visited AUH airport. There are some major changes on the construction side of the airport.
If you need any help in modelling, i have some experience in that.
Also how much are you done with this project ?
Dubai Update?
those screens are pretty good indeed !
remember tho, at the end, it s not just based on the number of details, adding those custom vehicules/car moving around the airports like Fly Tampa does for their product is very relevant. it brings life to the scenery. stuff moving are important to the eyes.
From the screenshot i have seen, i would just add a few well drawn roads, add a few vehicules moving, some AutoGen, and you r good to go
remember tho, at the end, it s not just based on the number of details, adding those custom vehicules/car moving around the airports like Fly Tampa does for their product is very relevant. it brings life to the scenery. stuff moving are important to the eyes.
From the screenshot i have seen, i would just add a few well drawn roads, add a few vehicules moving, some AutoGen, and you r good to go
Still a lot to go. There are expansions at ADAT (ex-Gamco) that involve new hangars/aprons and an expansion apron near ADAT that will have about 20 aircraft bays, and significant rework in that area. There's little modelling left to do, its just optimising things for frames and such. There won't be any animations - lack of time. Well, there's an SSR rotating and a "running rabbit" lead-in strobe, but that's all. Much of what remains to do (apart from the rejig at ADAT) involved some detailing and re-texturing (as better ones become available - we get images from someone that passes through the airport very often, and with the fact that a lot of passenger transfers are in buses at the moment, it means there are some useful images available in the airside regions that passengers would otherwise seldom see). The ground textures also have to be revisited (mainly gate markings), and with the new aprons there are also taxiway sign changes to do.
MM is doing all the modelling, for a variety of reasons, although there will be a beta testing team of 3 (already chosen) to raise bug reports. The need to collaborate creates an overhead that MM avoids by keeping everything in-house (literally) - plus he's not online so collaborating is even harder. Presently the modelling tasks that remain are the approach lighting, about 3 more vehicle types, the new tower under construction, ground signage, new VDGS for the new apron, and the new ADAT hangar that we have a concept for - but not much else.
So although the scenery looks "done" there are a lot of little things left to do. Its easy to make something look 80% complete with only 20% of the effort - its the smaller touches that take the time.
Additionally, with the changes of the runway designators it means that the ILS approaches also need to be rewritten and tested - and that's a drawn-out process (and with nothing to see after it is done). I know MM doesn't want to release, then patch, patch and patch again, so he wants to make it solid to begin with (because after it is done he's going to walk away!).
There will be a lot of vehicles and apron clutter, but they will be optional (separate BGL) for people whose computers are like mine! Even so, the buildings are LOD modelled and fine details (like 3D Arabic signage where the letters are modelled) have strict visibility limits so that they don't kill the frames. Fortunately the aprons are separated by buildings and so vanishing jetways at T1 can't be seen from the cargo apron nearby. In fact that's another aspect of the testing - whether pop-up objects are well enough concealed.
I have a fairly recent test version (because I'm involved with the AFCAD and a few other areas) and the frames are 10+ across the cluttered part of T1/T3 and higher everywhere else, usually in the 20s. Since my system is a P4-2.6GHZ with 2GB main memory and an Nvidia 6800GT with 128MB memory, it isn't exactly state-of the art, so the frames I get are probably on the lower side of most potential users.
The main problem is this new apron area - what types of lighting are used, what do the VDGS assemblies look like (there are different types at AUH), and how it is going to be marked off and used. If anything delays the release date it'll be finalising the details of this area so that it is as realistic as it can be - given that this is a part-time project.
MM is doing all the modelling, for a variety of reasons, although there will be a beta testing team of 3 (already chosen) to raise bug reports. The need to collaborate creates an overhead that MM avoids by keeping everything in-house (literally) - plus he's not online so collaborating is even harder. Presently the modelling tasks that remain are the approach lighting, about 3 more vehicle types, the new tower under construction, ground signage, new VDGS for the new apron, and the new ADAT hangar that we have a concept for - but not much else.
So although the scenery looks "done" there are a lot of little things left to do. Its easy to make something look 80% complete with only 20% of the effort - its the smaller touches that take the time.
Additionally, with the changes of the runway designators it means that the ILS approaches also need to be rewritten and tested - and that's a drawn-out process (and with nothing to see after it is done). I know MM doesn't want to release, then patch, patch and patch again, so he wants to make it solid to begin with (because after it is done he's going to walk away!).
There will be a lot of vehicles and apron clutter, but they will be optional (separate BGL) for people whose computers are like mine! Even so, the buildings are LOD modelled and fine details (like 3D Arabic signage where the letters are modelled) have strict visibility limits so that they don't kill the frames. Fortunately the aprons are separated by buildings and so vanishing jetways at T1 can't be seen from the cargo apron nearby. In fact that's another aspect of the testing - whether pop-up objects are well enough concealed.
I have a fairly recent test version (because I'm involved with the AFCAD and a few other areas) and the frames are 10+ across the cluttered part of T1/T3 and higher everywhere else, usually in the 20s. Since my system is a P4-2.6GHZ with 2GB main memory and an Nvidia 6800GT with 128MB memory, it isn't exactly state-of the art, so the frames I get are probably on the lower side of most potential users.
The main problem is this new apron area - what types of lighting are used, what do the VDGS assemblies look like (there are different types at AUH), and how it is going to be marked off and used. If anything delays the release date it'll be finalising the details of this area so that it is as realistic as it can be - given that this is a part-time project.
Dear Mage,
if you want I can make a Website for your Great Abu Dhabi Airport Scenery.
I have already made some websites for example http://allamaiqbalairport.net.tc/
Please tell me your E-Mail Adress or Messanger Adress(via PM)
if you want I can make a Website for your Great Abu Dhabi Airport Scenery.
I have already made some websites for example http://allamaiqbalairport.net.tc/
Please tell me your E-Mail Adress or Messanger Adress(via PM)
Hi Hamad -
I mentioned your message to MM and he doesn't want a website made for the scenery. He just wants to release it with no fanfares or fuss.
Its also nearly complete. Hangar 6 has pushed out the schedule somewhat (it adds about 20 items to the to-do list, two of which affect me - taxisigns and Afcad), but adding effort at this late stage would just push it out even further. I think when the release comes, the readme will explain why so few people could be involved in the development.
Thanks for your offer though, it was appreciated.
I mentioned your message to MM and he doesn't want a website made for the scenery. He just wants to release it with no fanfares or fuss.
Its also nearly complete. Hangar 6 has pushed out the schedule somewhat (it adds about 20 items to the to-do list, two of which affect me - taxisigns and Afcad), but adding effort at this late stage would just push it out even further. I think when the release comes, the readme will explain why so few people could be involved in the development.
Thanks for your offer though, it was appreciated.
As it happens, MM sent me some pictures recently (they have to come via cellphone, so the sizes are limited).
A380 (at a correct A380 gate at T3) and some pallet carts spead out on the apron at T1. There's a lot of apron clutter at AUH which MM is trying to reproduce without killing frames. Unfortunately the T3 isn't hollow-looking, the night textures are outside only.
T1 dawn overview with T3 beyond. A default FS building sits behind the T3 - masquerading as a multi-storey parkade. This is currently under construction, not even on Google Maps yet!
T3 overall view with a couple of A380s. MM set up a simple FP getting them shuttling between Al Ain and AUH because he needs to test their behaviour on the airport and how AFCAD handles them. Presently they're landing on the southerly runway, but in real life they may only land on the northern runway. The southern runway has had shoulders built along it so maybe the A380s will use it (subject to width/ingestion limitations and "excursion" safeguards).
Apron 4 with a new (presently featureless) ADAT hangar (hangar 6) beyond the brown hangar (in which the Qatar A300 burned out a couple of years back - wreck presently featured on Google Maps satellite images). The new dedicated Etihad hangar (curved roof at right, in front of the Amiri area) is also in place. The early groundworks for that can be seen on Google Maps, but it is now structurally complete. Apron 4 expands the airport with up to 18 stands (if all a/c are narrowbodies), but MM has set it up as 9 narrow stands (northern rank) and 5 heavy stands (not A380, on the southern rank). He may or may not put in the infrastructure for the narrowbodies on the southern stands - that would mean 9 redundant sets of apron markings, VDGS systems and stand numberings. But it would be more realistic.
The only category F taxiways in that area go from the runway down to ADAT hangar 1 (the big silver A380 hangar) - the A380 is presently the only category F aircraft flying - so we're looking at ways to stop A380s taxying where they shouldn't go. AUH has only stands 308 and 309, plus the ADAT area near hangar 1 available for A380s. Apparently 2 stands in the Amiri area are also suitable, but AFAIK there are no category F taxiways to that part of the airport right now. There are often An-124s parked over near Amiri. The northern stands there seem to be used as cargo overflow.
The Hangar 6 is a guess as to what it will finally look like. Presently none of us has seen any images that show what the architecture will be. MM will make it as a separate BGL so that when the final version is put together it can just replace what's there with a very small download (1 BGL and 1 bitmap).
Unfortunately in making apron 4, those distinctive open aircraft shelters at ADAT will be demolished, so only early (pre-release) versions of the scenery featured them.
We're looking at ways of getting ADAT/Gamco to feature more aircraft. Generally the more interesting planes at AUH are parked there - Thomas Cook/MyTravel, RAF, Onur Air, RAK Airlines, Transaero and others all have maintenance contracts with ADAT and their planes are regular visitors. It would be a nice touch for AI flightplanners to send excess aircraft to Abu Dhabi, but since that would be a lot to expect, for AI fans we might put together a FP package that puts versions of existing repaints in there for maintenance with a parking code of GAMC. It looks silly to have nothing there at all, as it does presently.
There are also regular trooping flights for Afghanistan staging through (eg Alitalia A321s) but they're harder to simulate since when that Altalia plane isn't at AUH it has to be somewhere else.
The package will also come with AI helicopters for Abu Dhabi aviation, and they use taxiway F (eastern) for takeoff and landing, with almost all approaches from the south.
As with his other sceneries, MM is making the vehicles optional (there are lots and they make a difference to framerates), and to some extent the detail slider should help remove some objects on slower computers. Obviously it'll be best to have the slider on "extremely dense"!
A380 (at a correct A380 gate at T3) and some pallet carts spead out on the apron at T1. There's a lot of apron clutter at AUH which MM is trying to reproduce without killing frames. Unfortunately the T3 isn't hollow-looking, the night textures are outside only.
T1 dawn overview with T3 beyond. A default FS building sits behind the T3 - masquerading as a multi-storey parkade. This is currently under construction, not even on Google Maps yet!
T3 overall view with a couple of A380s. MM set up a simple FP getting them shuttling between Al Ain and AUH because he needs to test their behaviour on the airport and how AFCAD handles them. Presently they're landing on the southerly runway, but in real life they may only land on the northern runway. The southern runway has had shoulders built along it so maybe the A380s will use it (subject to width/ingestion limitations and "excursion" safeguards).
Apron 4 with a new (presently featureless) ADAT hangar (hangar 6) beyond the brown hangar (in which the Qatar A300 burned out a couple of years back - wreck presently featured on Google Maps satellite images). The new dedicated Etihad hangar (curved roof at right, in front of the Amiri area) is also in place. The early groundworks for that can be seen on Google Maps, but it is now structurally complete. Apron 4 expands the airport with up to 18 stands (if all a/c are narrowbodies), but MM has set it up as 9 narrow stands (northern rank) and 5 heavy stands (not A380, on the southern rank). He may or may not put in the infrastructure for the narrowbodies on the southern stands - that would mean 9 redundant sets of apron markings, VDGS systems and stand numberings. But it would be more realistic.
The only category F taxiways in that area go from the runway down to ADAT hangar 1 (the big silver A380 hangar) - the A380 is presently the only category F aircraft flying - so we're looking at ways to stop A380s taxying where they shouldn't go. AUH has only stands 308 and 309, plus the ADAT area near hangar 1 available for A380s. Apparently 2 stands in the Amiri area are also suitable, but AFAIK there are no category F taxiways to that part of the airport right now. There are often An-124s parked over near Amiri. The northern stands there seem to be used as cargo overflow.
The Hangar 6 is a guess as to what it will finally look like. Presently none of us has seen any images that show what the architecture will be. MM will make it as a separate BGL so that when the final version is put together it can just replace what's there with a very small download (1 BGL and 1 bitmap).
Unfortunately in making apron 4, those distinctive open aircraft shelters at ADAT will be demolished, so only early (pre-release) versions of the scenery featured them.
We're looking at ways of getting ADAT/Gamco to feature more aircraft. Generally the more interesting planes at AUH are parked there - Thomas Cook/MyTravel, RAF, Onur Air, RAK Airlines, Transaero and others all have maintenance contracts with ADAT and their planes are regular visitors. It would be a nice touch for AI flightplanners to send excess aircraft to Abu Dhabi, but since that would be a lot to expect, for AI fans we might put together a FP package that puts versions of existing repaints in there for maintenance with a parking code of GAMC. It looks silly to have nothing there at all, as it does presently.
There are also regular trooping flights for Afghanistan staging through (eg Alitalia A321s) but they're harder to simulate since when that Altalia plane isn't at AUH it has to be somewhere else.
The package will also come with AI helicopters for Abu Dhabi aviation, and they use taxiway F (eastern) for takeoff and landing, with almost all approaches from the south.
As with his other sceneries, MM is making the vehicles optional (there are lots and they make a difference to framerates), and to some extent the detail slider should help remove some objects on slower computers. Obviously it'll be best to have the slider on "extremely dense"!
The scenery is nearer to completion, but is still at least a couple of months out. MM's actually a businessman with a lot of calls on his time, and the scenery is just fitted in here and there when the time and the interest is there. Presently he's in England on business and isn't working on it at all. Other weeks he'll have the spare time and sometimes a lot gets done.
Theres no attempt to model the city, although we're hoping that a landclass will be available to remodel the coast in particular. There'll also be a KML file for people who want to use Maps2BGL to create their own photoscenery. The new tower is there, and the midfield terminal is made up as building works. Someone else will be taking the scenery on from there (maybe as commercial, and MM is appointing a company to look after copyright matters to cover that possibility).
The second runway's also there, and I'm hoping Jim Vile might be able to rewrite the ILS approaches because the runway designators have changed.
Note that its a long "drive" from the second runway and it makes AI flightplans a bit time-critical because they can take a long time to reach their gate (affects their arrival-departure window). I presently have 2x Etihad AI A380s operating in to check out their bahaviour, so it should work accurately in that regard too.
Theres no attempt to model the city, although we're hoping that a landclass will be available to remodel the coast in particular. There'll also be a KML file for people who want to use Maps2BGL to create their own photoscenery. The new tower is there, and the midfield terminal is made up as building works. Someone else will be taking the scenery on from there (maybe as commercial, and MM is appointing a company to look after copyright matters to cover that possibility).
The second runway's also there, and I'm hoping Jim Vile might be able to rewrite the ILS approaches because the runway designators have changed.
Note that its a long "drive" from the second runway and it makes AI flightplans a bit time-critical because they can take a long time to reach their gate (affects their arrival-departure window). I presently have 2x Etihad AI A380s operating in to check out their bahaviour, so it should work accurately in that regard too.
I noticed that someone, Hamad, has put a posting on a PIA flightsim site about this Abu Dhabi scenery. I think whoever it was, was jumping the gun. I heard this week that the designer (which you must remember isn't me!) is handing the project over to someone else because he no longer has the time to finish it. He has a list of to-do items that is too long to fit into his life (he's a businessman/musician).
This means that there is no guarantee anymore that it will be a freeware release, because I don't know what the other person has decided to do with it. Although MM has taken it a long way, from June it will no longer be his project, but someone else's. They are already looking at replacing the freeware library objects that the scenery uses (eg Gerrish Gray trees) or getting permission to use some other library objects, so its my guess that it may become a low-price commercial scenery along the lines of the Blueprint things (price-wise) but considerably more detailed. Also, if anybody is still expecting that airport photo - they will also be disappointed because the scenery hasn't used that for over 9 months. It reverted to AFCAD ground last summer.
I was recently given a new version of the scenery and it looks quite good even without the photo, but its not in the league of Martin/FlyTampa's scenery by a long way, mainly I think because it has been worked on in tiny bits of spare time.
This means that there is no guarantee anymore that it will be a freeware release, because I don't know what the other person has decided to do with it. Although MM has taken it a long way, from June it will no longer be his project, but someone else's. They are already looking at replacing the freeware library objects that the scenery uses (eg Gerrish Gray trees) or getting permission to use some other library objects, so its my guess that it may become a low-price commercial scenery along the lines of the Blueprint things (price-wise) but considerably more detailed. Also, if anybody is still expecting that airport photo - they will also be disappointed because the scenery hasn't used that for over 9 months. It reverted to AFCAD ground last summer.
I was recently given a new version of the scenery and it looks quite good even without the photo, but its not in the league of Martin/FlyTampa's scenery by a long way, mainly I think because it has been worked on in tiny bits of spare time.
Hi Mage ...
I was really looking forward to Martin's scenery. They were really an excellent job well done.
In the past 7-8 months i have taken a strong interest in making sceneries myself for hobby sake.
I have made a small Abu Dhabi scenery for personal use.
Anyway Mage if its alrite to martin and you guys, can i help out. I am not looking for any pay. Anything that keeps this project alive.
For personal use, i am working on two projects. Abu DHabi and Singapore. But when i learned abt Martin's scenery i put a halt on Abu Dhabi project.
Again i am not looking for pay. This is only for sake of aviation hobby.
As you can see its very much incomplete.
please pm me or send me an email if you need anything else.
My email is bilal.asifkhan@gmail.com
I was really looking forward to Martin's scenery. They were really an excellent job well done.
In the past 7-8 months i have taken a strong interest in making sceneries myself for hobby sake.
I have made a small Abu Dhabi scenery for personal use.
Anyway Mage if its alrite to martin and you guys, can i help out. I am not looking for any pay. Anything that keeps this project alive.
For personal use, i am working on two projects. Abu DHabi and Singapore. But when i learned abt Martin's scenery i put a halt on Abu Dhabi project.
Again i am not looking for pay. This is only for sake of aviation hobby.
As you can see its very much incomplete.
please pm me or send me an email if you need anything else.
My email is bilal.asifkhan@gmail.com