Nantucket

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!

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…

Work on Nantucket continues! There was a brief slow-down on actual modeling this past month while I switched modeling tools from an old version of 3DS Max to an open-source tool called Blender. I’m happy with Blender’s capabilities; it’s faster to use, very powerful, and now that I’ve gotten used to it, quite efficient.

The most exciting part of any project for me is the start of texturing, dressing up all the bare meshes with the clothing that gives them character. Here are a few shots of the US Post Office, with some outlying buildings nearby, and the t-hangar. Next up, the cargo ramp!

Post Office, front

Post office, rear with outbuildings

T-Hangar

T-Hangar electrical panel details

The first official iBlueYonder release will take us back to the coast of New England – or just off it, actually. As a follow-up to our popular Plum Island scenery, we’re happy to announce that we’ve set our sights on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The one-time whaling center of the US is now a quaint vacation getaway that boasts a surprisingly large, capable airport.

Hundred Dollar Burger: Nantucket will include the islands of Nantucket, Tuckernuck, and Muskeget in 5-season photo-real terrain with autogen, along with a detailed rendition of Nantucket Memorial Airport (KACK). We’ll be posting more dev shots very soon. To get us kicked off, here’s a sneak peek at the main KACK terminal in the 3D modeling program (naked, with no textures just yet)…