Things are going okay right now... I did a lot of work on SweClass yesterday, if this continues I´ll have a first version ready in a couple of days. I´ve also started to put textures on the main terminal of ESMK, which looks good if I may say so, and the guys up north working on ESSX are doing a great work. Nice, to have some progress to report for a change. I was also interviewed by a regional radiostation last weekend, we´ll see what becomes of that chat!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
News. Oh news...
Hiya!
Again, almost an eternity passes between the postings of this source of information. Howcome? Well, If you do not have anything to say - keep quiet! Not a rule that many people pay any attention to, but I find it quite true.
Well, what´s new this time then? i thought I´d be writing about the progress of SweClass - there is progress, belive me! - but instead I´ll just share a thought on our hobby. How do you know that your hobby is more an obsession? Well, if you like me are willing to drive to a closed-for-the-weekend airport in rain and 10 degrees Celsius "heat" only to take pictures of the frontside of the terminal, then you´re really into it. Sure, your hands are shaking once you get home but what don´t you do to recreate an airport? :-)
More news. A project that I had almost abandoned has been revived thanks to another designer. ESSX which was planned to be a GeoRender-detailed airport turned out to hard to get photographs of, but a local resident made some work of his own. And bam - almost done!
Again, almost an eternity passes between the postings of this source of information. Howcome? Well, If you do not have anything to say - keep quiet! Not a rule that many people pay any attention to, but I find it quite true.
Well, what´s new this time then? i thought I´d be writing about the progress of SweClass - there is progress, belive me! - but instead I´ll just share a thought on our hobby. How do you know that your hobby is more an obsession? Well, if you like me are willing to drive to a closed-for-the-weekend airport in rain and 10 degrees Celsius "heat" only to take pictures of the frontside of the terminal, then you´re really into it. Sure, your hands are shaking once you get home but what don´t you do to recreate an airport? :-)
More news. A project that I had almost abandoned has been revived thanks to another designer. ESSX which was planned to be a GeoRender-detailed airport turned out to hard to get photographs of, but a local resident made some work of his own. And bam - almost done!
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Sweet sweet vacation!
Ahh, sweet summer vacation! 3 weeks of doing nothing, or at least that´s what I´m thinking about. But chores are due and some stuff just have to be done. I´m doing a display of FS2004 this autumn (September 17th) which requires some preparation. I´ve done a highly detailed VFR area to fly over, with the aid of shape-data this area is precise in the location of roads, railways, cities, waterbodies and such. Good enough to navigate over using ordinary maps, something that surely can´t be properly done using the default FS scenery. Even modern windmills are placed accuratly, and if we had a decent variation of real buildings to choose from, I could have placed every house where it should be!
This scenery will never be released to the public, however there are similar products available, only just not for Sweden. But if you happen to pass by on the 17th, drop by and see for yourself why FS can be used as a proper training aid for wannabe-pilots!
This scenery will never be released to the public, however there are similar products available, only just not for Sweden. But if you happen to pass by on the 17th, drop by and see for yourself why FS can be used as a proper training aid for wannabe-pilots!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Version one is dead, hail to version two!
Yes, you read that right! V1 came half through Sweden but no longer. New source material came up that made me decide that it is worth starting all over again. The difference between the old material and the new is of course that the new material is much more detailed.
Starting over have some advantages. Work with V1 was a learning process, and mistakes that where made in V1 are not repeated. The process with V2 is much more structured, easier to manage and much less frustrating.
Expect a preview release (or Beta if you prefer) quite soon. I´ve had some thoughts of releasing the result of V1 as a teaser - what do you think? Post a comment!
Starting over have some advantages. Work with V1 was a learning process, and mistakes that where made in V1 are not repeated. The process with V2 is much more structured, easier to manage and much less frustrating.
Expect a preview release (or Beta if you prefer) quite soon. I´ve had some thoughts of releasing the result of V1 as a teaser - what do you think? Post a comment!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Halfway through!
Long time nooo post. I´ve done other things, tuning into favourite records on new speakers (www.dynaudio.com, haha!!) for example. But I reached race mid-point last week, as SweClass reached up to Östersund. Yes, it´s far up north but still you actually have half of the country left!
As perhaps hinted elsewhere on the web I´ve scratched my head over some (minor?) problems. The FS landclasses are not always particulary well suited to Nordic terrain, last proof of this is the glacier landclasses that make out snow in the mountains. We do not have very much glaciers in the summertime, but how does one tell FS that? Well, I´ll have to find a way around that too. Those who wait for something good... you know. More info soon in the FS Nordic discussion.
Take care!
As perhaps hinted elsewhere on the web I´ve scratched my head over some (minor?) problems. The FS landclasses are not always particulary well suited to Nordic terrain, last proof of this is the glacier landclasses that make out snow in the mountains. We do not have very much glaciers in the summertime, but how does one tell FS that? Well, I´ll have to find a way around that too. Those who wait for something good... you know. More info soon in the FS Nordic discussion.
Take care!
Friday, May 13, 2005
Todays "news"
After having spent last Thursday - which is normally a good workday because at ÖSJ there is no web - demonstrating FS2004 to a bunch of crazy trainspotters, yesterday turned out to be creative.
SweClass is based on the world as it is created in FS2004, which means that every part of the country that is covered needs to be extracted. This means a fair deal of work using LWMViewer (thank you SO much Jim Keir!), loading files to be displayed, selecting & exporting as bitmap. Then these bitmaps need to be tampered with even more, but that´s my own story... Anyway, yesterday I basically extracted bitmaps so that all of Sweden is covered. This means, if you also take into account that the readme-file is planned and in development, that a V1 of SweClass should be available in not too long.
V1 means a version that is far from perfect. My hope is that users can help out in making their own "neighbourhood" better than it is from the beginning, mainly this is of interest in cities. We´ll see how the result turns out. As far as I can tell it at least will be better than the default LC!
SweClass is based on the world as it is created in FS2004, which means that every part of the country that is covered needs to be extracted. This means a fair deal of work using LWMViewer (thank you SO much Jim Keir!), loading files to be displayed, selecting & exporting as bitmap. Then these bitmaps need to be tampered with even more, but that´s my own story... Anyway, yesterday I basically extracted bitmaps so that all of Sweden is covered. This means, if you also take into account that the readme-file is planned and in development, that a V1 of SweClass should be available in not too long.
V1 means a version that is far from perfect. My hope is that users can help out in making their own "neighbourhood" better than it is from the beginning, mainly this is of interest in cities. We´ll see how the result turns out. As far as I can tell it at least will be better than the default LC!
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Status Quo
Sorry, nothing new to say. Have not had the time to do any "usefull" work last week, except for a display/demonstration of FS2004 to a bunch of trainspotters. Amusing!
Springs here, work sucks, blah blah the usual.
I´ll get back when I have anything to say (sorry Jenny!). Take care! :-)
Springs here, work sucks, blah blah the usual.
I´ll get back when I have anything to say (sorry Jenny!). Take care! :-)
Monday, April 25, 2005
SweClass
Just a few words on this project... FS2004 is a program happily devoid of all political boundraries, which is great in some ways, but it is not helping out when you want to place maps according to the Norwegian border. So hopefully the rest of the maps will be placed fairly accurate, but - as is the case with the rest of the country - do not expect inch-corrected placement of cities and forrests! SweClass is mainly a project aiming at enhancing Sweden a notch or two above the FS2004 default terrain. We will be trying to correct errors that might occur with airports due to the new landclass, and also major cities will be given more attention, but do not expect 100-people villages to be map-like!
Jari Varje, most talented designer working with the FISD-project, have launched a blog of his own - it looks a little more "FS" than mine, and will be a good read! Visit Jari´s logbook!
Jari Varje, most talented designer working with the FISD-project, have launched a blog of his own - it looks a little more "FS" than mine, and will be a good read! Visit Jari´s logbook!
Friday, April 22, 2005
Work in progress
Okidoki! What´s up right now? If you by chance have visited the Swedish Design Team (SDT) webpage, you might have a hunch of what we do. Being a group of grown-ups, time is limited due to the stupid thing called work - we all have to do some... Actual flying in the sim is rare these days, mostly you end up taking a short spin to check out if the latest development is working. But I´m not complaining, I wouldn´t do this if I didn´t think it was fun!
We have a bunch of projects going on. Years ago I learned using Gmax by recreating the local airfield ESMK (Everöd). An update of this scenery is long overdue, but work has begun. There are also updates coming to most of the published SDT projects, some are small, some large. The bridge between the mainland and the baltic island Öland is in the making, or rather, it is done but Scandinavian Roads & Waters threw a spanner in the works which requires additional work. It´ll be available sometime. :-)
ESSX is progressing nicely, but some more pics are needed. Can´t leave out half of the buildings!
SweClass, the coolest project ever, is growing rapidly. It is a landclass (not explained here!) covering all of Sweden. Ok, it´s a thing that will display cities, forests and such at the right place in FS 2004. It greatly enhances the experience of flying over Sweden.
What we all lack is feedback. The stuff I have released in my own name, as well as the things SDT have published, have generated almost no feedback whatsoever. Ok, it´s nice to hear great work from time to time, but what always is needed is someone who can tell what is wrong, not someone who´ll tell you that something is wrong. Come on you guys - write back! How else can we get better? I bet the payware-guys get a lot more feedback...
We have a bunch of projects going on. Years ago I learned using Gmax by recreating the local airfield ESMK (Everöd). An update of this scenery is long overdue, but work has begun. There are also updates coming to most of the published SDT projects, some are small, some large. The bridge between the mainland and the baltic island Öland is in the making, or rather, it is done but Scandinavian Roads & Waters threw a spanner in the works which requires additional work. It´ll be available sometime. :-)
ESSX is progressing nicely, but some more pics are needed. Can´t leave out half of the buildings!
SweClass, the coolest project ever, is growing rapidly. It is a landclass (not explained here!) covering all of Sweden. Ok, it´s a thing that will display cities, forests and such at the right place in FS 2004. It greatly enhances the experience of flying over Sweden.
What we all lack is feedback. The stuff I have released in my own name, as well as the things SDT have published, have generated almost no feedback whatsoever. Ok, it´s nice to hear great work from time to time, but what always is needed is someone who can tell what is wrong, not someone who´ll tell you that something is wrong. Come on you guys - write back! How else can we get better? I bet the payware-guys get a lot more feedback...
This is it, then!
Hi!
I´ve fallen into the trap of blogging obviously. Actually, I have no idea whatsoever of how many flightsim-related blogs there might be out there, or at least not with a nordic connection. Nevermind, here´s one more!
While working on creating all kinds of addons to Microsoft´s Flight Simulator I often stumble on things that are noteworthy. Perhaps this will be the place to publish my own comments on those. Mainly perhaps someone will find it interesting to read something regarding the stuff I create, like right now the SweClass-project. At least that´s what I´m focusing on. And of course, I took some time of to register this blog just to find out what the heck all the fuzz is about. He who cries loudest gets the most attention? AAARGH! :-)
/hans
I´ve fallen into the trap of blogging obviously. Actually, I have no idea whatsoever of how many flightsim-related blogs there might be out there, or at least not with a nordic connection. Nevermind, here´s one more!
While working on creating all kinds of addons to Microsoft´s Flight Simulator I often stumble on things that are noteworthy. Perhaps this will be the place to publish my own comments on those. Mainly perhaps someone will find it interesting to read something regarding the stuff I create, like right now the SweClass-project. At least that´s what I´m focusing on. And of course, I took some time of to register this blog just to find out what the heck all the fuzz is about. He who cries loudest gets the most attention? AAARGH! :-)
/hans
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
