Project All Purpose Surface Base

Mission_CDR

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I am working on creating another surface base (fictional)
what are some things that ya'll would like in it? What aircraft do ya'll most often use? I want it to be able to be used for any pupose, so just give me some ideas.
 

Tommy

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At least one big runway. The runway at habana is too narrow for the XR-5 or TX. VTOL pads, and a couple different sized launch towers. Maybe a spot for things that come with their own launch tower (I think Energia does, could be wrong).

Three good sized runways may be best, one at 90/270, one NW to SE and one SW to NE. Taxiways are a nice touch, as are hangars and a traffic control tower.

A rotating beacon perhaps, and a windsock. Never seen a real airport without those.
 

cr1

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A control tower and a rotating beacon/radar (as said before), fencing around the airport (for decoration), maybe passenger terminals, goods loading/unloading area, runway could be around 4km long, helicopter landing areas, and VOR stations.

These would be my suggestions for this new "Ultrabase", don't know if they are feasible...
 

wehaveaproblem

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All those things are certainly feasible and doable cr1, Wideawake International has many of them. Although I didn't bother with animated scenery, purely to remove the need for spacecraft3 vessels in scenario files.

Your idea, Mission_CDR, was essentially my pre-requesit for Ascension. So it would be nice to see another 'superbase' somewhere else on the planet - landing in the SOuth Atlantic doesnt suite everytone! ;)

good luck with this project.
 

unknown_orbiter

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Lot of legit-looking buildings. Custom signs for the areas/buildings/hangars. Add in some hidden stuff (tributes to O-F on ceiling of hangars etc...), some animated purposeful-looking machinery (possibly some loading machinery in loading hangars that can be controlled by user to lift cargo into bays). Some of this is advanced but I like to be wishful. Good luck! Any photoshop work that you need done, talk to me ;).
 

Mission_CDR

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I have already started so I will finish, my idea is to have three complexes (commercial space flight (delta glider), Rocket launch facility, and a cargo complex(for DGex, or other large space craft) all conected by hangrails that lead to a central location with roads leading up to it. Here is my proposal for the commercial spacecflight complex.

P.S. the fence, taxiways, VOR, landing pads, terminals, and launch pads are doable. I might include aircraft scenery too (planes and spacecraft at terminals).
 

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wehaveaproblem

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Ideas sound great Mission_CDR! One benefit of keeping your base 'smaller' is that you can increase the poly count of the buildings you do have without impeding on framerates, adding all that extra stuff I chose not to.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.
 

ar81

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The huge task if you build a city will be to add many, many buildings
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3089"]Alysimia city v0.1 (under construction)[/ame]
 

Mission_CDR

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Here is what section 1 of the airpost looks like (section 2 will use the same runways, it will just basically be a different spacecraft parking area) Please note that it is in earliy development. I still will add a tower, fence, maybe a wind sock, tetures, and "static" aircraft at the terminals. Any suggestions?
 

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wehaveaproblem

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looking good. Only thoughts are with regards to your taxi ways. At present, you only have one way on and one way off each runway, consider adding multiple junctions to join/leave the runways. Also, your taxiways at the moment run into the overrun zones of the runway texture, that area is not standard runway surface and shouldn't be taxied over (IRL). So if you care for such things, either extend the runways a smidge at either end, or bring in the taxiways a bit.

keep it coming.
 

Mission_CDR

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I am not done with the taxiways yey, I just like to post pics to let othwers know what is happening. Thanks, I didn't relize that about the runway overrun.:)
 

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If you want to see what real runway and taxiway markings look like, you browse the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual on-line. Airport signs and markings are in chapter 2.

The white chevrons indicate that the runway has a displaced threshold. The area marked with chevrons is not usable for landings, but is usable for take-offs. On reason for a displaced threshold is to ensure adequate clearance of buildings or other obstructions in line with the runway.

Areas which are not part of the runway are marked with yellow.
 

Mission_CDR

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Since I am not a good mesh maker, I will make simple "block terminals.

When you are making a custom texture, if you paint part of it black, does that part become invisble? I know this happens in FS9.
 

wehaveaproblem

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Not quite that simple I'm afraid, mission_cdr.

Transparency is handled by an alpha channel in the dds texture. Basically, along with your texture, you need a second alpha bmp that is black and white. The black areas will be transparent, the white area opaque, with shades of grey being between the two. If you use DXTBMP then you can simple import the alpha bmp after you import the texture bmp, then export the two, combined as a dds-5 format. The final dds will combine the two adding the transparency indicated by the alpha bmp.

However, I'm not actually sure if the default blocks can support alpha textures, I've not tried it. What they do support is night textures. All this requires is a second dds file of each texture with a "_n" suffix. eg. "mytex_n.dds". This second texture should be how the surface looks at night, with lights etc. Orbiter will auto-switch between day/night textures for you.
 
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