AirDailyX Exclusive! Interview with LHSimulatons.

A young development team whom I without a doubt believe is on their way to the top. The talent, the quality, the passion. These are clear in the projects they produce. I am very lucky to have the opportunity to get a very indepth look at what is driving this young team and what they are planning for the future. This is likely the most indepth interview here at AirDailyX and my very first interview as an editor here. So join me as I get to the bottom of what LHSimulations is all about and what makes them so good.

The Eastern perspective...


It's really amazing how in the early days of FS9, it was the Western European countries including the Scandinavian regions getting all the love. And to a certain extent they still do. European developers just seem to gravitate to those regions. As a result, Eastern European regions simply went untouched and seemingly ignored. 

We were lucky to get 2 great quality airports in the region brought to us by FlyTampa and an external developer from Aerosoft which yielded Vienna and Budapest respectively. Other than that, small freeware airports is all we had. Thus, many of us simply didn't venture into the East until a certain Polish development team came on the scene and showed us just how good life in the Eastern region can really be. So good in fact, we are seeing the quality of products that are coming from the East surpass the quality of products from the Western European counterparts.

Now whereas I did not go after LHSim's first release back in '08, I was totally amazed with the Debrecen scenery. The texturing, the detail, the objects, it was truly an impressive feat. From that point, I made it my mission to keep my eyes on these guys; then came Pecs Pogany. I think I have already said enough about my feelings of the Pecs scenery.

Well guess what folks?  It seems I am still in Hungary. Well, in the simulator at least. So I figured since I am still flying all around this lovely countryside, I might as well track down the people responsible for me being here in the first place. This morning I had a lovely flight in my F33A Bonanza from Pipis-Hegy (a nice airfield where I have been training my wife to fly) to Gyor-Per where I am currently out on the ramp sitting across from Mr. Sándor Tar of LHSimulations who showed up this morning in a Antonov AN2. Talk about an entrance.

D'Andre: Sándor, good morning and thank you for joining me today.

Sándor: We thank you for the opportunity.

D'Andre: You and the team have indeed been busy and I must say, I am very impressed with what you have done with the place here. Just looking around this lovely airport, it's quite clear you and the team have gained considerable experience in a relatively short period of time. What inspired you to get into flight simulation development and how long have you been doing it?

Sándor: Well to start, each of us has years of significant experience in flight simulation and some of us are members of IVAO  as well. (International Virtual Aviation Organization). One of the trends we have noticed is that a lot of nations have merged their resources to create realistic sceneries for their various countries. Simply put, we wanted to do the same by recruiting FS designers across a wide spectrum to create sceneries for Hungary.

D'Andre: What was your first experience in scenery design? What did you learn from it?

Sándor: Our very first project was the Sármellék scenery, which we started in 2008. We have learned all the basics like how to export the objects and placed them in FS. We also learned a lot about how to convert  things for FSX. The biggest learning experience for us was putting beauty in the details. So it is not enough to model the main buildings, we have to take care of the small tiny things as well which brings "life" into the scenery as well.

D'Andre: You know Sándor, I am glad you mentioned that because if it's one thing LHSim is becoming infamous for, it's the little details that really seem to bring out the life in your projects which brings me to my next question regarding your most recent project, Győr-Pér. Now bear with me here as I am estimating. I'd say it took a about a year to complete? What have you learned about the development processes. Do you think a future project similar in size would take the same amount of time?

Sándor: Firstly, No. No it did not take a year. We released our Pécs LHPP in February 2012 so the real work with Pér started that same month which meant we needed approximately 5 months to allow for the development process. And you have to keep in mind, in parallel we were working on a lot of other things too. With every project we take on, we continue to learn a few new things as we develop continuously. For example, in the new LHPR FSX version, we are implementing a new special feature which will animate the flags front of the main building, it looks really cool.

D'Andre: Wow! I can imagine that looks very cool. This is one of the things I personally admire about you and your team. It's not just about developing new sceneries, it's the innovation that goes with it. One feature I really loved about Győr-Pér was the glass work on the control tower and how you simulated glass reflection and the look of partially open blinds covering the windows. Will we see more of this technique in the future?

Sándor: Definitely. The first time we used interior modeled objects was at Debrecen with the main terminal, where you can see inside. You can see the same feature at Pécs-Pogány as well where the control tower, check-in, and waiting rooms are transparent. At Pér, we especially concentrated for this feature because the tower is very close to the apron thus it made sense to
model it very detailed. I also have to add that because we modeled such small airports, we could model much more detailed objects due to the fact that the total amount of polygons are still feasible for FS to draw with good performance. In case of our upcoming LHBP scenery, we will have to make some compromises due to the high number of individual objects that will be incorporated into the scenery.

D'Andre: I'll admit Sándor, the suspense of what your rendition of Budapest will look like is killing me. Now I'd, like to talk a bit about the team. From what I know, besides yourself, the members are: Boldizsár Fodor, Boldizsár Szily, István Bíró, Gábor Burján, and Péter Papics. What are their individual areas of expertise?

Sándor: The team's core is the 4 people whom you listed first. But some important names are still missing, like Tibor Kókai who is creating the amazing AI traffic pack, static aircraft, and the re-paints which are on our website. István Jankovics is also helping us a lot. For example, he created some of the wonderful cars you see at Pér. He is also our favorite beta tester because he does not miss anything. 

Gábor is military aviation fan, he suggested to go ahead with the Hungary Landmarks Pack and he did few models for it as well. Péter Papics is a name you may remember from a while back. He created the popular Hungary Mesh scenery a very long time ago. We contacted him and asked for permission to integrate his scenery to our landmark pack. He was very kind and approved it thus our fellow sim users won't have to deal with complexities of adding extra mesh sceneries.

There are still a lot of names I should mention who helped us with modeling, website design, people who contacted the airports on our behalf, and a few beta testers. I also have to add that all of us are doing this for a hobby. The team is consists of people aging from 25 to 60 and we live in different cities in Hungary, so we meet personally about 2-3 times a year.

D'Andre: It always amazes me on what goes on behind the curtain. So how exactly did you guys all come together to form what we now know as LHSimulations?

Sándor: Well for the most part, we all met on different Hungarian flight simulation forums. As I mentioned earlier, some of us are members of IVAO. I guess you could say, somehow the common goal brought us together. Especially when we opened the LHSimulations website. We basically welcome everybody into our forum to discuss any flight simulation related topics. The rest is history.

D'Andre: Now it seems you guys have a pretty clear grip on the platforms you support: FS9/FSX/X-PL. What does the future hold? Will you continue to support of FS9? Any plans to venture into P3D?

Sándor: The platforms we are supporting mainly are FS9 and FSX. We support XP due to the fact that it is relatively simple to convert sceneries for the X-Plane platform. We also created our own working method to easily create the scenery for FS9 and FSX in parallel. We are using some self-made programs to do this. As long as there is a right amount of demand for FS9 we will continue to support it. I also have to add that some of us are still using FS9 exclusively. FSX is only installed as a test bed at this point. I will say this: There will be a major change in the future. We are designing the two primary platforms in parallel but the main platform for designing is FS9. This is also the reason FSX is always following the FS9 version within a few weeks. 


In the near future, the main design platform will be FSX,  which means the next project will be released first for FSX. We were considering Prepare3D, but we assume there is not much demand for it yet. The time and effort we would need spend on P3D just isn't worth investment at this point. Maybe for LHBP, we will make one Prepare3D version to see how big the demand really is. If we do, then most likely P3D will be released and sold as a separate package.

D'Andre: And now on to the biggest topic everyone wants to know about: Liszt Ferenc. We have all seen those road signs. Have you started? What are you willing to say about this development?

Sándor: We have already made a few preparations, but at the moment we are busy with LHPR  for FSX. We have arranged a visit to the airport in August, which in turn will help us to create a very detailed and realistic scenery. It's also important to mention that at this time we have only planned to model the airport. The city of Budapest will not be included. What we will offer however, is the 3 platforms (FS9/FSX/XPL) in one package and maybe a separate pack for Prepair3D.

As you know there is a scenery for Liszt Ferenc (former Ferihegy) which is relatively accurate. The only problem with this scenery is the terrible FPS performance. We will do our best to create an optimized scenery. There are some new things which we will have to learn for LHBP, like animated jetways for example.

We also promised to the Hungarian flight simulator community to make a tribute for our flag carrier Malév which ceased operation in January. We do have some ideas how to respectfully remember our blue nosed airliners.

D'Andre: Indeed the news of Malev ceasing operations was devastating news. Malev used to have a sales office in Los Angeles in the same corporate office tower where I used to work. Even though Malev closed the offices a few years ago, I really miss the spirit of my Hungarian friends and the pot lucks they used to invite me to. I personally know how the blow feels when an airline you love and truly respect ceases operations. Many good people have lost their jobs. I truly hope Malev finds a way to come back. In the mean time, I fully plan to keep my Malev AI traffic alive in my sim. I love the blue noses too. I am quite sure you and the team will come up with a very cool way to memorialize your flag carrier.

Okay. The  time-line on your next project. Can we expect anything else from LH this year?

Sándor: We estimate release of LHBP in January 2013. It will be a tight schedule for us but we will do our best. Very soon we will release LHPR for FSX, X-plane, and shortly after, the AI traffic pack first for FS9 then FSX.

I think around November  a new landmark pack will come. For quite some time we wanted to extend the landmark pack with custom autogen and landclass but unfortunately we always have different priorities. We also want to include an improved road, rail, power line, and water vector class scenery which will enable highly accurate VFR flights over Hungary in FSX.

Maybe not this year but next year for sure the airport of Pér will be enlarged. I learned this week  from the manager of the airport that they will build a new large apron where two B737's can operate simultaneously. They will also extend the runway, widen the taxiway, and equip runway 30 with an ILS system. I am counting on the ability update the Pér scenery, even before the construction is finished because the airport authorities wants an accurate simulation of the updates rendered in FS. 

D'Andre: Now that is very cool. It must be really nice to have such a relationship with the airport authorities, if only all airports were as generous. Okay, the future of LHSimulations. So as we well know there are few commercial airports in Hungary which are small airfields. Do you plan to develop all of them or do you see the team moving into another region of Europe?

Sándor: After LHBP we would like to create a scenery outside of Hungary, somewhere in Europe. Right now there are two "candidates".  We have contacted the airport authorities already and we are currently in negotiations. Let's hold it as a secret which airports we are planning. What I can say is, one of them is on the coast of Mediterranean Sea, and the other is located in the Alps.

D'Andre: Ooh! Now you have started a serious guessing game Sandor! I am going to pour over Google Earth when I get home. Regarding Győr-Pér, your first payware product. Is the team pleased with the reception from the FS community?

Sándor: We have received a lot of good feedback and we are proud of that. Quite a few people have especially expressed thanks for supporting the old FS9. We are looking forward to the FSX version how it will be welcomed by the FSX community as well.


D'Andre: Once again Sandor, congratulations to you and the team on the success of LHSimulations. We have learned quite a bit of the processes that goes into your masterpieces and the people who strive to make them as beautiful and detailed as they are. AirDailyX wishes you and the team continued success in the future. Thanks much for taking the time and keep up the great work!


Sándor: Indeed. Thank you.

I also want to thank our readers for joining us today as well. So, where will I be heading next? Time will tell... But for now, I think I will cruise the countryside here for just a little while longer...

Caio!

D'Andre Newman 

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