Holger notes: “if you haven’t had a look at the latest edition of Sim Pilot Magazine yet you might want to do that. It includes a guided tour of several interesting locations in the Glacier Bay v2 coverage area:
Many thanks to author Andrew Underwood and publisher Christian Stock. “
Holger Sandmann, along with his team (Rainer Duda, Michael Eder, Scot Fraser, Manfred Herz, Jay Langham, Jon Patch, Larry Silsbee, and Jim Vile), has created what has become my favourite all-time scenery addon: Glacier Bay v2. Here’s the blurb from Holger:
Glacier Bay v2 is a complete replacement of the default FS2004 landscape and scenery of more than 90,000 square kilometers (36,000 sq miles) of Southeast Alaska and adjacent areas of Yukon and British Columbia. Landscape enhancements include high-resolution terrain mesh, detailed shorelines, rivers, lakes, and glaciers, and accurate land cover data with custom seasonal ground textures. Inland water bodies can be made to “freeze over” via an on/off switch. Other landmarks include the settlements of Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Yakutat, Atlin, and Carcross as well as road and railroad networks, cabins, lodges, and lighthouses. We modeled or enhanced 16 main airfields (plus one fictitious airstrip), 20 unlisted airstrips, 16 seaplane bases, and seven heliports. We’ve also included AI ship traffic in various locations as well as optional flightplans for GA and floatplane AI traffic. Glacier Bay v2 is fully compatible with other third-party add-ons, including terrain mesh (FSGlobal, FS Genesis, etc.), ground textures (Ground Environment, BEV, FScene, etc.), and landscape enhancements (Ultimate Terrain Canada/Alaska, Misty Fjords, Tongass Fjords, Freight Dogs). A configurator panel (requires .Net Framework!) allows users to set compatibility options and to choose levels of scenery detail. We provide an autoinstaller and detailed documentation with a sectional map of the coverage area and a list of weblinks to real-world information. For feedback and questions, please visit the Glacier Bay v2 support forum at http://forums.fsaddon.eu/viewforum.php?f=10. This project is a collaboration of nine FS developers from Germany, Austria, USA, and Canada, logging more than 1000 hours of work over the past 14 months. We acknowledge the kind support of FSAddon.com. However, this project is independent of any commercial product. Enjoy!
You can download from AVSIM in two parts:
Be sure to try the many flight scenarios provided, they’ll take you to magical places.
UPDATE: For those finding AVSIM a bit slow, try www.flightsim.com
With the completion of the night textures and the tying up of a few dozen loose ends, I’ve released Skagway to Holger for beta 2. There are still a few minor bugs. Here’s some screenshots.
Holger and I independently caught one FS9 bug we’d never noticed before: the MS generic storage tank model we used has a transparent alpha channel, and the assigned area of the night texture is black. Net result: they disappear at night! This would have been true for some of the tanks on the side of Burnaby Mountain in Vancouver+ Part 1 as well. Anyhow, the proposed fix will patch FS9 for everyone. (BTW MS fixed this in FSX)
EDIT: Here’s a hi-res bonus shot of looking off to the right on final approach on 02.
The Veendam at dusk.
Overview of the port facilities. For a hi-res version click here.
Veendam and Dawn Princess.
Container Yard (click here for hi-res version)
Sunny days in Skagway are not common in the summer … so these shots may be a bit more realistic. To ease into reality, we start with one sunny shot.
Next we see the Veendam … this shot is the only one not at native resolution: it’s been resampled from a larger screenshot and slightly sharpened.
Then Larry’s lovely marina behind the Veendam, which Holger has now populated with boats.
Yippee! The berths on the East shore have appeared!
An overview of the container yard.
And lastly, a little wobbly on the 20 approach coming out of the valley …
… and from the overview shot you can see also more docks have been completed. Although not the Eastern berths yet, Bill!
Also completed or nearly done:
Here’s a view of the harbour taking shape, and the PAGY apron. Note the cruise ship, the beginnings of the large berths, the floatplane, the container port, and the photoreal PAGY apron (that’s the only part of the PAGY maneouvering surfaces that’ll be photoreal). Also there’s a view of the PAGY terminal from the container port.
I do try and make things more complicated than they need to be … fortunately I had Bill Womack saying, “Ah, that’s how you’re going to do it? Sounds fine, but wouldn’t this be simpler?” (And nicer looking…)
Here’s a couple of early screenshots of the Temsco terminal. Much to do yet, but it’s starting to come together.
I’ve added to my duties on Glacier Bay: I’ll be doing some features of the City of Skagway. I’ll include some airport buildings, the bulk terminal, and cruise ship berths. Larry Silsbee will be doing the marina. Here’s the first couple of screenshots of the PAGY terminal building. We will be able to represent Skagway with some accuracy to the generous help from the Tlingit Regional Housing Authority in cooperation with the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development (Commerce). They have kindly supplied recent hi-resolution georeferenced orthophoto data (airphoto) for the area.
For example, I was able to measure the footprint and locate the building below with 1′ resolution and 2′ accuracy. I then added features and textures taken from photographs I took last summer.
I’ve posted some photos here. Overall it was a great cruise, we went on a floatplane trip from Ketchikan into the Misty Fjords area, including a landing on one of the Fjords. In Juneau we took a helicopter ride on to the Mendenhall Glacier, and from Skagway I travelled to my old stomping grounds of Carcross, Yukon.
