Military AI Works

Stevo and I are pleased to announce the release of our Duxford scenery for FS9 and FSX. More details over at ACG (http://www.airfieldconstructiongroup.org/drupal/).

While I have been fine with scenery design for over 15 years, I have always fought shy of building aircraft. However Duxford rather forced the issue, especially for the static exhibits. I'm really glad I decided to give Stevo a hand with those because it wasn't long before I got hooked sufficiently to want to make an aircraft fly. I couldn't resist since then and with much learning and development over 12 months, I have been able to produce 20 low poly/multi-LOD historic AI aircraft for the scenery packs. Each set is modelled with the appropriate FS9 and FSX code. Here are some screen shots with an emphasis on the AI:













Both packages are at flightsim.com and Avsim and have normal day and air show options within them.

Just wanted to say thank you to all the people who helped me with the AI journey.

John (and Stevo)

Well done John and Steve, Fantastic work as always, It's guys like yourselves that stimulate growth in our hobby and to make mere mortals like myself to have a go. Love the aircraft John looks the part, Late last night I was just sitting watching the Spitfire taxi past that wonderful scenery, just like being there. Well done
Regards
Tim

Haven't downloaded it yet but what about those screenshots....WOW! attention to detail really is amazing well done!!


John.

Many many thanks to the ACG team for putting this one together; it really is payware-quality scenery and has been most welcome, especially with the AI content as well

Holy...

I can't imagine how many hours/days/weeks of work have gone into this. Well done indeed!

Hi,

Thanks for the comments guys,

@Tirithon, if you'd like some info, we started the project in Feb 2010 and it was initially going to be a payware product to determine if it was viable, but due to various delays from various external sources, licencing etc (a lot of time was spent just waiting, months in fact) we decided it wasnt for us so in the end we decided to give it for free as usual to save the hassle.

what I learnt from it is payware is only viable if it can be done within in a few months (not years as Duxford has taken) and probably by a larger team of people to get it done and out as quickly as possible otherwise the work and time put in wouldnt be worth the investment back.

I wouldnt try it again put it that way

I would estimate at least 2000 hours for me (Stevo must have done something similar) but in addition to the chucks of the scenery I built, that would also include learning how to make AI aircraft and producing the ones in the packages. It's been a great experience though. I have always been a Lark in my working life, commuting to London early to avoid the rush. I never really got out of the habit of getting up early now that I am retired and those couple of hours between 6am and 8am when the house is quiet, is absolutely magic for me when I can concentrate on the detail. I design at other times of the day too, but I'm all washed out usually by 7pm. Stevo on the other hand is an Owl because there have been times when I have been booting up my PC at the crack of dawn, while he is just shutting down after being up most of the night working on some aspect of Duxford or developing a new idea. I know that from the time stamps on e-mails of course. It's largely true to say I think that Duxford has been worked on around the clock.

I found working on AI aircraft quite intesive, particularly FSX prop jobs because of all the animation tagging involved. It's also quite challenging switching between FS9 scenery, FSX scenery, FS9 aircraft and FSX aircraft because the Gmax procedures are different.

What has been so nice with this scenery is that users in really good numbers are acknowledging the work. Usually from past experience, 99.6% just download without saying anything. This time, the responses are definitely confirming that it was all worth while. Thank you all for your kind comments.

John

Personally I do not comment your sceneries just because I have no words to explain how much I appreciate your works.

Thanks a lot for another awesome job.

Giorgio

Fantastic job done !!

Not receiving any kind words from users downloading your great scenery doesn't mean it's not appreciated, on the contrary ! Your sceneries and the other sceneries being developed at ACG are amongst the best sceneries available !! Lot's of detail, realism and eye candy and still easy on the FRS !!

Thank you for another masterpiece !!

Great work John and Steve.

Never been to an airshow at Duxford - until now.

Well done guys.

I'm speechless! Well done!

Thank you!

Applause!!!! This is gorgeous. Great!!

As far as I'm concerned, it's the benchmark for scenery, freeware or payware for that matter. You guys always set the bar very high and give the rest of us designers something to strive for. Job well done.

Well done again from me also

I have never yet seen a bad scenery from you guys and this
one looks just as impressive as previous offerings.

Hopefully it will come off my ToDo list tomorrow (real life permitting)

Keep up the good work

Regards

Wow , excellent work guys.I simply love the air show traffic there.About scenery no comment.It will be good to see more retro paints for some of this birds,sabres,spitfires etc...

Thank you very much for your work !!! It's stunning to say the least.....all of the ACG scenery

Great work ! Beautiful ! Thank you, this will probably be as close to Duxford as I will ever get.

John
I'll echo all of the above and more !! Best scenery AND fun since the MAIW Nellis package.
Cheers