X-Plane 10 New Zealand Pro – PREVIEW
I wanted to share some first preview screenshots of my upcoming “X-Plane 10 New Zealand Pro” scenery. All screenshots come in pairs, with before-after comparison (I recommend to browse trough them one-by-one at picasa, as this way you should see the differences more easily)… so you can see for yourself what its (and what its not) all about by following this link:
- X-Plane 10 New Zealand Pro – PREVIEW
(some of the pictures have 3rd party scenery included, which I have named in the picture captions … all of those you can download freely at x-plane.org)
From X-Plane 10 New Zealand Pro – PREVIEW
Some background on the scenery. First of all – before someone ask – there is no OpenStreetmap data in there! Its all based on data from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), combined with – tuned – LCDB2 landclass data (almost the same as in the default Global Scenery, but with some improvements) and “classic” (90m) elevation data .
Highlights are:
- High resolution scenery mesh (similar to my HD Mesh series – but even a little bit higher res), which not only improves elevation detail but also the detail of the landclass representation (for example thats why you see much more, tiny forest patches in some of the pictures)
- much more detailed water (especially the rivers, which took two weeks to have it integrated in the scenery base data)
- detailed road / train network (LINZ has a better overall coverage than OSM) and power lines (differentiated by large, pylon based and smaller power pole types)
- a lot of extra 3D clutter like:
- real tree lines (in NZ, the so called shelter belts)
- single tree positions(yes, LINZ has a lot of that)
- lots of real building point data (which are represented with some self made, simple, new 3D objects) … usually generic buildings, but also some special types like small schools, little churches, sub stations, radar domes etc.
- some new terrain types (moraines, river beds, mines … with new ground textures –> thanks to Albert Laubi!)
What might surprise some is, that most of the scenery artwork is still “default” (like most of the ground textures, forest definitions, city autogen) …. But with the many improvements from above, it gets some new life.
And the best thing last: I will stay true to my previous “principles”, and release this a donation ware (which effectively means: its for free, and you might donate if you like it)!
Estimated release date : if all goes well (and I have no more new, cool ideas or find really bad issues) somewhere in November, or in the “worst case” December.