Help with backdating AFCADs

[darrenvox]

ok interesting

[bensplanes]

Not too much since the last post regarding MCO, but there has been some work done outside of painting lively characters on the side of robust trijets. I'll break it down into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 


The Good

Taxi2Gate included SODE jetways with their scenery, meaning I get the chance to modify their textures for the jetway logos and keep the nice functionality of them. This presents it's own set of challenges, like how I can only really edit the logos that are modelled in the scenery. I cannot add unique logos to the United, USAir, and NWA gates, for example, because they all borrow the same texture. However, the Delta ones are a different story...



Someone send the Orlando Airport Authority my regards for making Airside 4 so simple. Despite the issue of some gates being unable to have unique logos, there is a semi-accurate option of just slapping all the other ones with the MCO airport logo, which was present on some of the equipment during the time period. 



A keen eye will notice that the textures may not align well- this will be fixed by release. The logos on the airport vehicles will also be removed in favor of that lovely immersion. 

Another advantage of SODE jetways is how they are loaded into the simulator. On legacy sceneries that use jetways that have basic functionality (CTRL + J) the jetways often come in a single BGL. SODE objects work differently in the sense that they load in through an .xml file, meaning I can eliminate individual jetways. This is massively helpful since some of the modern day gates have jetways that didn't exist back in the day.



The Bad

Working on a new scenery brings it's own challenges, mainly with objects and other airport buildings that simply didn't exist during the time period. This problem is best represented by the new airside, Airside 2, the New Runway, and the Control Tower.



Runway 17L/35R did not exist in the late 90's. Removing functionality is simple, just needing a quick click and delete in ADE, however, I cannot remove it from the scenery visually. Thankfully, not a very glaring issue.



This is Airside 2, which was finished in 2000, and cannot be removed from the scenery. It's model (like the Control tower and the JetBlue hangar inbetween the 17s) are embedded in the bgl that includes the other airsides and the main terminal, meaning it's removal would be bad news for the whole joint. Work can be done- the SODE thing from earlier lets me remove all the jetways from it, and the pavement of Airside 2's apron was finished by 1999. 



The Ugly! 

Now for the bad stuff. Here's the most pressing issue: 



This is Terminal C. It's just about to open as of this post and completely out of place for my purposes. Oddly, unlike the other terminals, the bgl file (if I recall correctly) is independent of other ones, meaning I can snap it out of the simulator with a little bit of MCX nuance. The apron remains- better than nothing.



In the foreground you will see the new control tower, it was finished in 2002. Not much I can do about this one. (bgl file, linked to airsides, yaddy yadda) I will use a stock library tower in order to imitate the old one. (background) 



What's next?

A goal of mine is to be pretty transparent of the progress of this project and the limitations it faces, which is a reason for updates instead of just radio silence until a download link magically appears. As of now I cannot give a release date, I simply work on this too inconsistently to know. Despite that, here is a rough to-do list:

• Ramp Parking/Assignments
• Object Editing/Removal
• Other platforms
  
  

I've always been fond of accessibility when it comes to the FS world, which is why I previously promised to bring this project to as many users as I could among the platforms. The FSX version of the Taxi2Gate scenery technically works better for the late 90's since it doesn't feature the eyesore that is modern progress. I foresee limitations with it, mainly regarding to the jetways and other related things, but it should work just fine. FS9 is an uncertainty, I still have no access to the platform or related scenery product. 

The initial MCO release will likely include just the P3D and FSX versions of the scenery, kitted out with an instruction manual and a perhaps a witty disclaimer. 


It's not very quick, but trust me, the ball is rolling.