Who am I?
If you’ve spent even a minute or two reading my blog posts, you might get the idea that I have a bit of an obsession with aviation and computer-based flight simulation. I’ve been designing and developing addons for Microsoft’s marvelous Flight Simulator series for a few years now, and the experience has only heightened my interest in the arena.
In fact, as a direct consequence of my simulated flying, I began training a couple of years ago for my real world pilot’s license. So far, I’ve racked up about 50 hours in a Cessna 172, and were it not for the fickle fall/winter weather in Portland, would probably have my slip of plastic by now. It’s my hope to climb back into the cockpit soon and get ‘er done.
In addition to winged pursuits, I’m also a writer. My second novel, Last Thursday, is in development. Now if I could just find an extra 12 hours in every day...
{ 68 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Bill…. followed your link on your signature at SW-lab. Great stuff here…. actually had me chuckling out loud a time or two. I’ll be back from time to time to say hello and see what’s happening.
Best of luck,
Steve
Hi Bill,….
Just to say hello and …. thank You for the amazing creations that you made … together with Holger …. !!!
Its nice that you have med Holger (and fam) …. he he … I enjoy every day the “packages” in FS ….. !!!
))
Best regards from Belgium (EBAW)
Heli
Hi,
just seeing this,nice stufff
Shamir
cool blog. i learned of it through the banner in one of your posts on S.F.N.
i look forward to trying some of your stuff.
Hi! I share your interest
Hi Bill,
Would you be interested in a link exchange with our blog over at FlightSimX (http://www.flightsimx.co.uk)?
Mark
I just added a link to FlightsimX to my other FS blogs listing. Consider it done, Mark!
Bill
Bill- Bob here. I’m in Oregon city area… neighborhood of the Carver Bridge. I see Sidney Schwartz is in Beaverton. Would like to meet you two sometime. Just started learning FSDS a few months ago. Having fun and learning much. My stuff is primarily on Avsim under author name Robert Lacy.
I’ve posted a number of questions on fsdeveloper. Many have helped out tremendously.
Me- Substitute teacher- Portland, 62 yrs old, fish and fly fish, golf (just got the slice out of my drives… putting went south! Wife and I have chickens, ducks, a 3 geese. Me in a nutshell. Bob
Hang in there….you might enjoy my new book…
Thanks
T
Your book looks great, Mr. Reece! I loved the photos on your site as well. That’s MY kind of flying
.,
Hello, i’m intrested to made a very good video of this island when you are ready??
If you want you can see some my videos! Thanks
http://vimeo.com/mhimhi/videos
The scenery is looking great Bill. Just wanted to thank you again for the advice about the shadow issue from the other night. What made you go so far east this time? I thought you were a west coaster?
Dan
Thanks, Dan. Here’s the backstory on my New England scenery building: my wife is an artist, and for the past couple of years we’ve been attending the National Encaustic Painting Conference in June in Beverly, Massachusetts. This year, I had some time to kill and was driving around looking for trouble to get into when I happened upon the Beverly airport. It was such a great little field that I asked the airport manager if I could photograph it for an FS project. Then I went to the Web and asked some FS fans who lived in Mass. if they knew of any other good candidates for sim scenery, and a guy who lives in Newburyport mentioned Plum Island. I cruised up there and sure enough, it was a small airport just loaded with character–exactly what I love to model. So I took some shots there too. I started out with Plum Island instead of Beverly because it was smaller, and I really need to move on to Emma Field soon. After Emma’s done, I’ll probably go back and do Beverly, too. If we keep going to this conference every year, I’ll probably add a couple of New England fields at each trip.
Hi Bill, congrats on the release mate, grabbing this now
Hi Bill. Thanks for all your time and effort. I was really excited to read that you intend to do Emma Field. I am d/l Plum Island right now while I am typing this. Thanks and congrats. BTW any idea when Emma will be released? Best wishes from the UK
Hi Glynn. Thanks for the kudos, and for getting Plum Island! As for Emma, it’s a bit early in the process to talk release dates. Plum Island taught me a valuable lesson, though; it pays to keep the public updated about development. As we build out Emma for FSX, I’ll be sure to post progress shots.
Howdy Bill. Just wanted to stop in and say HELLO from Gresham Oregon. Thanks for the blog. It is nice to see people dedicated to their hobby as much as yourself. Many thanks, from myself and all the bush flyers around the world, whether they be virtual or not.
You’ve raised the bar for what is possible in FS! Microsoft should thank YOU for making it as real as it gets! Keep on keeping on.
Hi Bill.
I’m trying to create a flight sim bloggers network and would like to see if you’re interested.
This post provides all the details – http://www.flightsimx.co.uk/announcements/lets-build-the-ultimate-flight-sim-bloggers-network/
Dear Bill,
We are interested in posting our site on your links page. Our site is Fly Away Simulation and can be found at http://flyawaysimulation.com
We would of course offer a link back to your site in return.
Let me know your thoughts.
Best Regards,
Ryan
hello bill,
my name is kyle or better known as blazefox2
i am interested in your tongass fjords x and would be privileged to do a promotional video for your scenery please feel free to contact me via email at jafuba@yahoo.com so we can discuss the details i am not well known so price will be next to nothing i have seen the screenshots you have put out for it and it looks suburb i would be honored to do a video for you
sincerly,
~Kyle~
hello bill
my name conghoang
I have read the article Creating High-Detail Polygons FS’s Ground, and I do not understand step 3, he can guide the step 3 is not? thanks
@conhoang — I’m sorry, but I need to know what it is you don’t understand in order to be able to help you. Saying you don’t understand Step 3 is not enough for me to go on.
I do not understand this step you edit on photoshop like? the red
http://s681.photobucket.com/albums/vv175/sieunhancatbui/?action=view¤t=picture071.jpg
@conghoang — The red areas are masked with an alpha channel to make them transparent in FSX. Are you using Photoshop? If so, go to the layers pallette and choose the “channels” tab. There should be four channels already — RGB, Red, Green, and Blue. Add a new channel and paint the areas where you want the texture to be transparent black, and use white for areas that will remain opaque.
I follow your way and was successful, thank you very much and wish you happiness. ^^
Aloha Bill,
Excellent FS info! Keep them coming.
PS: Would you like to consider adding my little blog to your blog links?
Thanks!
Edward “GlowWorm”
Bill,
Thank you for your part in developing Tongrass X. Your talents and passion for this hobby has allowed so many of us to have endless hours of enjoyment for a hobby we equally enjoy.
Respectfully
Gary Rackliffe
And thanks right back at you, Gary. Without sim enthusiasts, there’d be no point in developing.
Hi Bill,
Your ground poly tutorial was a real inspiration, many thanks.
My pleasure, Piran. I’m glad it helped.
Hi bill
I want to ask about heading in makemdl FS2002
Runway heading of 107.2 but when I put in FS2004 only 107. So how to fix?
@conghoang – MakeMDL seems to only recognize full degree increments. If you put in fractions of a degree, it just rounds them off. My solution is to rotate the runway by .2 degrees in Gmax before exporting, then export to 107 degrees.
Hill spotlope
I happened to read this article on the Fergo http://www.fsdeveloper.com / forum and there are no satisfactory answer to fix this problem.
I used GMax polygons (using the FS2002 method and asm tweaking) for the ground of my airport (FS2004), and because of this, all the lights from the AFCAD are gone. What is the best way to add the apron/taxi lighting when I use this method?
And for the runway, I’ll have to put all the approach lights manually?
Hy vọng bạn giúp đỡ
We hope you help!!!
@conghoang – Sorry, but if you use the Gmax poly technique, you’ll have to place your lights manually. Because of the way the Gmax polys overlay the native light effects, there’s no way around it. I create my taxiway and runway lights as individual models with attached light effects, then place them manually. It’s laborious, but it works.
Thank you for help, I will follow your paths
Great information found here. I thoroughly enjoy your Fanboy Friday reviews. Also enjoyed your recent podcast interview on FSBreak.
Thanks for your contributions to the FS community. Keep them coming!
Bill, Check out the web site which includes the blog and a host of other info.
Thanks, Alex! That site must be new, or else I missed it. Wonder what it would take to get a link to the FSX version of Plum Island added to the list?
Alex,
I have been trying to find Bush Flying related scenery for FSX. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks , your blog is great.
Ben, my favorite bush sceneries are in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and Australia. If you’re looking for payware, Tongass Fjords X is by far the best Alaska scenery (true, even though I’m biased), and Orbx did a fantastic PNW add-on called FTX NA Blue (http://www.fullterrain.com). There’s tons of great freeware bush scenery for Australia too, mainly available on the AussieX website.
Hi: Just wanted to thank you for the black panel for the Carenado 172…Looks great! Any chance of some high def panels for some other Carenado planes? Thanks for all of your hard work…
Steve
You’re welcome, Steve. I’d be happy to do other high-res panels, but I only had source photos for the 172, as it’s the plane I trained in.
Hey Bill, as a resident of the Portland area, I just wanted to extend my thanks for your brilliant work on 7S3. I hear that you are also working on PDX which is great news. It’s nice to have someone with your talents bringing us HD airports and repaints specific to this region. Thanks again!
Thanks, Dontay. PDX is going to be a big job – by far the largest project I’ve ever undertaken – but I’m stoked to get it going. Ever since moving to FSX, I’ve missed having a high-quality KPDX. I thin we all got spoiled with the brilliant FlightZone02 package in FS9.
I’m also working on some more New England sceneries. In fact, I’m in Massachusetts right now, doing photography and research for more Hundred Dollar Burger airports. Sometimes it’s nice to get a change of scenery.
Hey Bill,
Found you while looking for the black panel on the 172. Like you, flight simming prompted me to take lessons towards my PPL, and I happen to be training in a 172M. Although your panel repaint has a lot fewer scratches and scuffmarks than what I look at each flight (and better-functioning instrument lights), this will be a welcome modification. If all goes well, I should be doing my first solo within a week or so!
-Chris
Texas
Good luck with your solo, Chris! I’ll never forget mine. And yeah, that Carenado 172 has significantly better gauge lighting than a real 172M. I remember my night flights as fairly hairy ordeals, due in no small part to the barely functioning gauge lighting. Those Skyhawks just keep on ticking, don’t they?
Bill, i am a novice at taking stock FSX airports and transforming them into more lifelike airports. I have been using ADE 1.47 for some time and released about 15 airports on Avsim. I want to learn Gmax and also how to add Ariel photos to blend the airports the way you do with your fine examples. i was wondering if you would ever considering writing up a tutorial on how you go about such things. i know there are a lot of them out there but they seems to only focus on one area and some are much better then others. my two biggest areas i want to learn are how to blend in the airport boundary with the rest of the scenery so it does not stick out most airports do in FSX and using custom textures in Gmax or some other 3d building program. next best option for me- can you point me in the right direction of what you think are the best places to learn these skills. i do not mind teaching myself with the proper materials but i am looking for a great resource to start out with.
thank you very much for your time, Kyle
Hi Kyle,
The reason you don’t see more high-quality tutorials is that they’re very time-consuming to produce. I’ve done a few over the years, most recently on airport ground poly creation and Gmax building texturing. As time permits, I’d love to do more. Maybe if I can get this “making a living” monkey off my back, I can devote more time to explaining what I do. In the meantime, there’s a lot of valuable information out there if you know where to look. I assume you’ve already visited the TurboSquid forums to learn more about Gmax? It’s one of the best collections of modeling knowledge around. And of course, there’s always FSDeveloper.com.
Hi Bill.
I think you next airport should be Beverly Municipal Airport. I’ve been waiting for a KBVY scenery add-on for years!
Hi! I live down in Newburyport MA near Plum Island. I have bought your scenery for plum island 2B2 and I love it!!! You did an amazing job! Also, I am training in Piper Warriors in real life at Beverly Municipal Airport KBVY. I was really hoping and wondering if you can make a scenery package for it just like you did for 2B2. I also have a friend, and he trains there too! Both of us would LOVE if you made scenery for KBVY. Thank you so much!!!!
I think a beverly airport add-on would be great!!
Hi Bill! Great scenery you have going on! I am a huge fan of Plum Island! I live only 10 Minutes away! Also, I was wondering if you had any plans in your future to build scenery for Beverly Municipal Airport in Beverly Massachusetts? (KBVY).
Let me know,
thanks
Ben
Hello Bill from a fellow Portlander. Is there a way to get in touch with you via PM or email?
Cheers
Hi Jim. I just emailed you w/my contact info.
Bill
Bill,
I have been given permission to photograph all the building from the ramp side of my local airport, KEWB in Massachusetts. I was wondering if you had any advice for how these pictures should be taken to get the best use of of them for 3D modeling. Also i still have that clam bake offer for you the next time you make it to Massachusetts.
kyle
Hi Kyle,
It’s always best to photograph buildings from all sides, as straight-on as possible, in order to get the best views for modeling and texturing. When that’s not possible due to another building or object getting in the way, get as close as you can to straight. And document the airport in wide-angle, too, getting three-quarter views of the building and objects and showing how they relate to one another. You’ll find that helpful when trying to remember how everything goes together.
thanks,
Bill
Thanks for the information. I am still waiting for the final approval date but i look forward to trying out your suggestions.
Hello Bill…
I was looking for some freeware repaints for my Carenado aircraft as I am planning on a new video (Cushman Meadows will be part of it actually), and there I have found your website..
That’s one interesting place to wile away the time and I have certainly found what I ve been looking for …
Thanks for your great work, and please keep em coming..!
Alex
ateh-one
Flight Sim Video Productions
hey Bill!
thanks for the comment on my picture blog, i was actually SHOCKED to see a commentat all since i never had the guts to make the URL public and just gave it to one or two friends who are not into flightsimming. and then to find a comment from the actual developer. wow! i am curious on how you found it? googling for cushman meadows? hehe.
my system is really at the far low end of what is acceptable for FSX. amd athlon 64 x2 dual core 5600+ (2,81ghz), 3,5GB RAM, 512MB nvidia gforce 9800gtx+, normal HDD. winXP sp3 32-bit.
keeping the low specs in mind, i am able to still enjoy flying pretty much even with relatively high “eye candy” settings.. rex2, pnw, dense autogen, devent amount of clouds…the FPS are always around somewhere between 18-35 depending on the location. the biggest problem with additional scenery on top of that is that my system gives up on loading textures. even with the default PNW scenery my systems has trouble keeping the textures sharp, but since i usually fly the accusim cub and dodosim 206 i am low and sloooooooow.
around cushman the FPS is around 14-19 (after reducing some details – still enjoyable) but the sheer load of extra textures make the ground go blurry as soon as you look over your shoulder.
i will try to combine some FPS limiting tricks someone mentioned on the FTX boards which should probably speed up texture loading a tiny bit.. but it is really my system pushed to its limits.
i am just glad that i can enjoy it at all… thankyou for cushman meadows!
wow.. too long for a comment? sorry!
with best regards,
deci
Hi Deci,
It’s a little thing called Google alerts
Given your system specs, I guess it’s not surprising that you’re having slower frame rates. What you quoted sounds pretty realistic for a system like that. Anyway, enjoy.
Bill
Hi there! I was wondering if you could share the dimensions of your cockpit that you built a little while back. I just got a bunch of panels and want a permanent desk to install them in to. If you could email those to me that would be great.
Thanks,
Alex