I'm just putting the finishing touches to my RAF Marham scenery for FS9 and FSX, over at the Airfield Construction Group (http://www.airfieldconstructiongroup.org/) before releasing for Beta testing. Both versions of the scenery use the wonderful MAIW Tornado GR4 pack. I know there is a version of Marham included but this one is far more detailed and indeed the author of the original (Ian - Rocket 26) has kindly contributed a few new models. Here's a few screen shots of the AI:













My intention is to direct users to the MAIW GR4 package which can be used directly for the FS9 scenery (after removing the duplicated AFCAD file). For the FSX version, users can do the same with the addition of Martin's canopy fix download at The Owls's Nest. The only complication at the moment are the flight plans. I have converted these to FSX for my testing but I need to seek permission to include them in the scenery package to save users the trouble. According to the package manual, the ownership of the flightplans is as follows:

Flightplans:
•UKmil AI (EGTE) Original Plans
•Gary Barker update and modifications

The UKmil reference is not the Dave (Gaffer) organisation but I don't have a link to the person I need to contact. Could anyone help please? If Gary should see this post, may I please ask his permission to include his bit of the work on the flight plans? Perhaps he could point me to the original author?

Nearly there after about 1500 hours of work. Just need the OK for the flightplans please.

John (ACG)

Wow John that looks amazing, I am truly astounded. Probably the most detailed RAF Scenery Ive ever seen mate, you should all be very proud of your work.

Nick

John
Just brill!

There is no problems with using any of my work and I will be proud to have it associated with such scenery.
As far as the UKmil (I was a member myself) is concerned there is also no problems as all the material was gifted to MAIW when the organisation closed down.

Cheers

Gary

Very nice indeed. A massive amount of detail. You should be very proud of what you have created. I can`t wait for it to be released.

John, that's fantastic mate. As someone who used to be based there I'll look forward to making use of it. Thanks for your hard work.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Gary, thanks especially for permission to include the converted traffic files. That will prevent a lot of e-mails from people trying to use the FS9 ones in FSX and wondering why they can't see the AI.

Nick, yes it is a detailed scenery in similar complexity to either of the Bentwaters or Woodbridge airfields that Ian (wait till you see the detail in his WIP Coningsby) and I produced a few months back and it uses the same techniques to keep the frame rates high. Just out of interest, I did my flight tests yesterday and here's the chart that's going in the manual:



Probably very few people run FSX with every possible setting set to maximum, but I did it yesterday with Marham and it ran like silk.

I'll post a heads up here when the scenery is ready for download.

John

Good stats, shows that you guys have a great handle on how to produce some of the best scenery available for FS there is, anywhere in the world. Well done you should be very proud.

Nick

Hello John,

Here Zsolt from Hungary,

Very GREAT work!
I look forward to the release!
How many have yet to sleep?

Many many thanks!

Regards,

Zsolt

John any idea how it runs on a "normal" system, LOL? You've got quite the test rig there!!

Looks amazing either way!

Very, Very Nice! And your attention to detail is Impecable!

Can't be sure Mike until the Beta testers get their hands on it but I think the FS9 version won't be a problem at all and there is so much scope to use "sensible" settings in FSX that there shouldn't be a problem there either. Users can also remove 10 of the portable hangars if they want to (they are on the Google Earth image but they are not there now) plus a few other less important features like the glow sticks that mark the HAS site taxiways. You're welcome to be a Beta tester if you like. Do you have my e-mail address - it's in the documentation of any of my sceneries - so I can tell you how to get it when it's ready?

John

I might take you up on that at some point. Although right now, my main rig is on the floor in pieces as we are in the middle of home renovations. So that being said, if it'll be ready for beta soon, someone else should give it a close inspection.

I'm sure you'll have no shortage of volunteers from this site.....

Oh boy....the floodgates are sure to open on this one.....

I have been watching this with anticipation over at ACG, looks great.

I could run a few tests on both fs9 & fsx if the beta is ready

looking forward to this release, ACG's Bentwaters still amazes me.


cheers from Tobago

My Beta test team are now busily exploring Marham and feeding back comments. One issue has arisen with the FSX version and that concerns the Tornado GR4 AI package. I have asked users to download the FS9 version from MAIW and the canopy fix for FSX from Martin at the Owl's Nest. Because the MAIW package auto-installer points to "Aircraft" and not "Simobjects", as it rightly should for FS9, users need to install to a temporary folder and then manually transfer the files across to the right folders in FSX, having replaced the textures with those in Martin's fix. They also need to ignore Ian's earlier scenery of RAF Marham which is in the package, but they do need the MAIW Ranges as AI destinations. I have also advised removing the two MAIW Marham AFCAD files that are in the Ranges scenery area in case of conflict with my main AFCAD. They also need to ignore the flight plans as I already have your kind permission to include the FS9 plans converted to FSX format. These are placed automatically in FSX by the Marham auto-installer.

As you can see that makes for quite a complex installation. What is likely to complicate the issue further is that, judging from past experience, many users will have FS9 formatted traffic files in their FSX\scenery\world\scenery folder and that usually results in AI not showing at other locations. No matter how many times I provide warnings and check lists, users often ignore them and just keep repeating the package installation because they believe their inability to see the AI is due to an error there. The recommendation from my testers is that it would be far simpler if the AI package for the FSX version of Marham was included in my scenery package as an auto-install feature, with only the files needed and the canopy fix applied. I think they are right. That wouldn't negate the stray FS9 file problem, but it would cut the potential problem of non-appearing AI in half.

May I please make a request to the authors of the Tornado GR4 AI package and to Martin at the Owl's nest who made the FSX canopy fix to do that please? To be clear, that would include the aircraft, the canopy fix and the Ranges plus the converted flight plans that I already have.

I don't need to do that for the FS9 version AI. Many people already have the AI package and if by magic, scores of Tornado's just magically appear in the new Marham scenery. For those that don't, the MAIW auto-installer works fine so long as the inbulit earlier scenery is not enabled. I also don't want to risk over writing an existing package that has been modified by the user.

Would really appreciate your help on this one.

John
I don't have a problem with including the plans in your files if that is what you are asking?
The paints were done by Graham King, I assuming he would not have a problem.
I'm sure he will read this but if you are waiting just send him a PM


Gary

Thanks Garry. No I wasn't really enquiring about the flight plans as you have already kindly given me permission to include those. It was the GR4 aircraft and the paints/canopy fix plus the MAIW ranges that are in the FS9 package that I was interested in. I gather though that there could be a problem with the original ownership of the aircraft copyright itself and whether it can actually be transferred, however much MAIW would like to help. I would totally understand if that's the case.

Our Bentwaters and Woodbridge AI set up for FSX was bad enough even with a provided auto-installed package. Users would go round and round re-installing the package believing the reason they can't see the AI A-10s was due to the installation, when it's usually due to a rougue FS9 formatted traffic file they've unwittingly placed in their FSX world\scenery folder. Having a complex manual install of the AI package for FSX Marham probably won't help that so I'm just trying to minimise the risk of bad installation experiences for users and a lot of e-mails/posts from people who can't see the Marham traffic.

Sorry, I accidentally pressed "Submit" in the previous post (screen shot) before I added the text I wanted and I wasn't able to come back and edit it. It was to say that my scenery of RAF Marham (FS9 and FSX) is now complete and tested. Please feel free to pop over to The Airfield Construction Group and download:

http://airfieldconstructiongroup.org/fo ... m.php?f=27.

The links to the downloads are in the Modern Airfields/RAF Marham section after a simple registration.

John

Tried right now, click on "Download - RAF Marham FS9" but nothing happened.....

Giorgio

You might want to try with a different browser or something cos it worked fine for me.

Nick