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EGYM - Marham 2019

Let's hear all about the eye candy at those military bases.
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Jester945271
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EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by Jester945271 »

Good Morning all.

I am a huge fan of the ACG sceneries and packages and have EGYM RAF Marham amongst others. I was wondering whether there is an update for the scenery being looked at in light of the major renovations currently being conducted there to integrate the F-35 bedding in.
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John Young
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by John Young »

As the author of that scenery, it was always my intention to update it for F-35B operations. I did trawl the net a few months ago to see if I could find any photographs of the new structures, which I agree are extensive, but I found nothing really useful to model in 3-D. I need the shapes and appearances of all faces to do justice to the current accuracy in the unchanged buildings. On the plus side Google Earth now has many of the buildings visible and I can get the length and width dimensions from there.

I'm not sure there's anything available today that would help with the modelling - most of the published photos still look like a building site. Apart from that, it won't be a quick job. Even if I can get the shapes right for the new structures, there's a lot of work involved trying to fabricate the textures and the ground polygon and AFCAD will need extensive re-work.

It's probably a 6 month job if sufficient reference material should appear, but for the moment it's not looking like a good prospect unfortunately.

John
Jester945271
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by Jester945271 »

Hi John

I might be heading Norfolk way over the summer, whilst I highly doubt ill get on the base do you know if there would be a vantage point where I might get the photos you would find useful and what sort of thing you would need?
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John Young
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by John Young »

Unfortunately, you won't find much useful from the outside because of distance and trees. In this age of sensitivity I would not attempt an external photo-tour myself.

When I made the original ACG Marham I was lucky enough to have an ACG member who attended a Families Day and was able to take plenty of useful photos for me. Ideally, I would need a square on photo of each face of each new structure.

I did manage to get an invite to Marham on another occasion, but my host was involved in a Hawk ejection a few days before I was due to go and the visit was cancelled. Had it taken place, it was stipulated that I should not take photographs on the airfield. That was in the late Tornado era of course. F-35B security would be a whole new ball game now I would think.

John
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lowlevelRAF
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by lowlevelRAF »

I have made some F-35B shelters for Marham, I was looking at modding the base but going to contact you first John.
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Current projects: RAF Brize Norton, RAF Lossiemouth & RAF Odiham.
Complete: RAF Valley
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John Young
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by John Young »

Sorry and with the greatest respect, I really don't want people tackling this a bit at a time and ending up with a hotch potch of mods that don't gel with the detail and integrity of the present ACG scenery. As I've tried to explain above, Marham has been undergoing extensive building rework as you can see in this Google Earth image of 2018:

Image

There are two problems, firstly I just don't know how you can tell what those new buildings on the western HAS site look like at this point in time, never mind what's going on with the runway alterations and pads and the new buildings north of the runway. The second one is removing what's already there. The current buildings are not generally single models, they are integrated into single Gmax scenes to reduce the draw call and tvert counts.

When and if I eventually return to the project and I can see what I'm modelling, I'm anticipating a great deal of rework. I really don't know at this point whether I want to do that. I moved from scenery design to AI aircraft because the build times were just too long for me and I wanted more variety to keep me going. I may do it, but I don't want to be pinned down today.

If you want to try and mod the scenery for your own use that's fine, but I hope you will understand why I'm not prepared to give authority for piecemeal changes for wider use.

John
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lowlevelRAF
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Re: EGYM - Marham 2019

Post by lowlevelRAF »

Hi John,

Fully understand what you mean and no problem. I have already updated the AFCAD with the hover pads etc. I luckily managed to get on base in Jan 19 for the first Tornado Farewell event, so I got quite a few pictures as I was driving past. There has been alot more released in the public eye of the newer building, via various RAF/MoD new stories etc. I may still look at it, but I will only use it for my own use.

The new build work in the 13/9 Sqn HAS is for 617 Sqn. The large shelters and hanger to the East is 207 (R) Sqn OCU. I'm in a similar situation with Lossiemouth currently with all the work being done for the coming P8 Fleet.

Matt
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vAOC vRAF.net (On Vatsim)
Current projects: RAF Brize Norton, RAF Lossiemouth & RAF Odiham.
Complete: RAF Valley
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