Nantucket

Every once in a while, I still get that wow factor from flight simming. You know the feeling; where just for a moment, you forget all about software, tweaks, and settings and are just… there. Lately, I’ve had a whole bunch of those moments. Granted, using an Oculus Rift VR headset has provided a whole slew of them. But the other component is Prepar3D v.3.3. People, if you are fence-sitting about Prepar3D at all, let me nudge you off that fence. This sim is nothing short of amazing, especially from a graphics perspective.

All this is a fancy run-up to something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and that’s provide some new screenshots of Nantucket Memorial Airport (KACK) – this time in P3D. In addition to the modeling and textures, look at the tree shadows now! We finally have those available, as well as dynamic reflections on the glass, bump maps and specular highlights on ground polys, and some really beautiful HDR lighting.

Okay, I’ll shut up now and let the pictures do the talking.

Hallelujah! Finally, after dinking around with it for weeks, I’ve basically completed the main terminal at Nantucket Memorial Airport. I say basically, because even as I watched this batch of screenshots rendering, I realized that there were a few things I meant to fix and/or add before the final. Maybe we need an ice bucket challenge to fight perfectionism.

At any rate, here are a few renders of the terminal from Blender. They’re a bit darker and more contrasty than the final object will be in the sim, but you can get an idea of how it’ll look. This is far and away the most complex single building I’ve made for a scenery project to date.

The end of terminal modeling is also the light at the end of the tunnel for modeling the airport in general, as there are only the fire station, fuel farm, and a few small assorting buildings left to complete. Compared to this beast, they’ll be a walk in the park.

The modeling of the north side of the field is nearly complete! I’ve been dialing in a group of buildings, including the checkerboard “Nantucket” hangar. Next stop: the main terminal.

More textures!

I’m enjoying this project. Can you tell?

Work continues on Nantucket. This morning’s fun was adding the deck and railings to the Harbor Heating Oil Co. building, next door to the gas station I posted about recently. Build, clone, array, copy, paste, weld… being a 3D modeler is a glamorous life! #dontbejealous

I hate posting screenshots of untextured models. The poly pushers are always interested, but I wouldn’t blame everyone else for giving a massive “meh” to a monochrome shot that’s predominantly middle gray. Here’s a follow up with the gas pump models textured, and a preview of a night lighting system I’m working on for KACK as well. They’re still not in-sim, but at least these shots have some color!

Do you sometimes wonder why it takes me so long to create a scenery? I know I do. It makes me nuts. Every time I finish an airport, I think to myself, hey, that wasn’t so hard! Why don’t I do more of these? This is not that time with Nantucket.

This is the time where I start delving deeply into some far-flung corner of the airport, obsessing over what’s okay to leave out vs. what’s absolutely vital to put in, with a sprinkling of “wouldn’t it be cool if…” Case in point: there’s a gas station next to Nantucket airport, clearly visible from an apron as you taxi to the cargo hangars. Technically, it’s not part of the airport, but it’s adjacent enough that it would look weird not to include it.

Here’s where I get caught up in a modeling sinkhole, however. Where does the detail end? I just spent an hour or so creating the gas pumps, down to the hoses and pump nozzles, which are details that you wouldn’t be able to see from the cockpit. If I leave them out though, I just know some intrepid screenshooter will position themselves by pump #4 and snap away, exposing the fraud of (gasp!) handle-less pumps. What’s worse, even if nobody ever goes there, I’ll know they’re missing. So in the handles go. And with every slightly curvy, complex model I build, it’ll take twice that time to UV map it and do the textures.

I’m writing this for myself, as much as you. Just a reminder when I get bogged down in details that it will eventually be worth it. Also, note to self: hurry up!

I feel lucky today for two reasons. The first is that Arno Gerretsen is still active in the FS world after all these years, and continues to provide tools and insight that push the boundaries of scenery design forward. The second is that, as part of his tests into customizing autogen, he’s chosen Nantucket as his test subject.

He has made some breakthroughs lately regarding things like custom roof types for AGN houses (adding dormers, for instance). I’ve been providing some graphical support to the effort by creating custom textures that more closely mimic the Nantucket “look” than anything in the default FSX.

It’s still early days, but the research and customization is already starting to pay off. Here’s a good example – notice in particular the new styles of roof! Yes, there are glitches and some weird-looking buildings still, but they’ll get ironed out. Roofs!

If you ship a package to or from Nantucket via UPS, at some point it passes through this terminal…