After the full low down of what 2019 looks to be for Orbx, developer Russell Linn took to the forums to go into the detail about their next project: KSUN Friedman Memorial Airport. It’s worth remembering that this was one of the Prepar3D V4 exclusive airports John mentioned yesterday during the stream. Russell mentioned that whilst they did take full advantage of many of P3Dv4’s new tools, PBR won’t be a feature in this particular project.
The first thing Russell wanted to make clear was the size of the coverage area.
As you can see from the markers, the airport itself is just one tiny section of the complete coverage area that comes with the package. In total, there is 715KM2 of 60cm/px photoreal imagery around the airport and within the valley itself. This means that even flying low and slow will still yield some impressive visuals. Team mate Greg Jones has worked on ensuring that it’s colour matched and edited to the simulator for the most immersive experience. Further to KSUN Friedman Memorial Airport being covered, the team has also included 1ID5 Lukes Wood River Medical Center Heliport for people to explore.
Continuing on from their experiences at Turbulent Designs of creating highly detailed products, Russ White has crafted a range of buildings, vegetation and more all in high definition textures. In addition, custom buildings have been crafted between the airport and the autogen. These custom buildings have been designed to give the user a feeling of flying around urban and industrial areas.
When it comes to the use of P3Dv4 features, the airport will enable users to experience dynamic seasonal textures using native scripting.
This means the ground and airport will interact with the variance in weather or season. Look at the screenshot above to see what it does.
In addition to that, the whole airport and area has been modelled as a mesh, meaning that the airport will feature sloped runways and varying levels in terrain. Furthermore, oil, puddles and ice will reflect any nearby night lighting.
It will be released soon, as the airport has just entered beta testing. Once released, it will be on sale from OrbxDirect for AUD $32.95 (approx. USD $24.35 / €21 / £18.50). We’ll of course inform you when the product has been released.
