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Monday, April 8, 2013

Sloped Runways - Next Big Thing?

FSX/Commentary. As most of you are well aware, real life runways/taxiways are rarely flat. In fact, there is almost always some level of gradient. This fact is generally ignored in FSX third party airports with very few exceptions. FSdeveloper member Tore Stranden has posted a video of his fictional airport development illustrating sloped runway possibilities...it looks very good and quite realistic. Perhaps this is the next big step forward? More information and video link inside.

Clearly, this type of FSX realism is theoretically possible...with many challenges I'm sure. My complete lack of technical expertise or technical anything for that matter is of course prohibitive in properly discussing said challenges. Now, I am fully aware that certain airports such as Orbx Ketchikan and LLH Courchevel do use this type of technology on some level - however, both airports have extreme examples of sloping so it is almost to be expected.

The FSdeveloper thread simply got me thinking if one day "normal" runway/taxiway undulations will be implemented into mainstream third party FSX airports? I truly believe this would add an immense level of realism to the average users flight simulation experience. On a side note, I have been very much enjoying Orbx Popham, mostly due to the undulating runways...

Anyways, see below for some screenshots, for the video link - click here

 
 
See the entire thread over at FSdeveloper - click here
 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

LatinVFR did such thing with Sucre airport, also for FS9

Unknown said...

There are many many products, some four years old that have sloped runways. Aerosoft Lukla sold thousands of copies over the years because of that great runway.

Anonymous said...

Can be done by developers, but the AI traffic engine will not accept AI on sloped runways. That's the only thing holding developers back. Latin VFR did partial slope and added a longer portion of the runway to accept AI traffic. So it is nothing new or the "next big thing." Good video though and thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

If you tried X-plane 10 and older versions you will notice sloped runways, realistic shadows, water effect od windshield with accurate wipers washing your screen, accurate wx radar on all modern AC,no OOM due to 64bit support for all your sys memory and much more. Also photo ground of entire continents and exact road map.... much more advanced simulator. FSx- eye candy, nothing more.

Immanuel said...

Yes I was hoping for years that once this feature will be available for all airports within FS. If you know Luxembourg (ELLX) what has a really long rwy (4.000 meters) but due to its slope it is impossible even for the crews of 2 differnent 747 at the oposite ends of the rwy to see the other plane. I really would love to have this in FS soon but only if the AI-problem would be solved.

Fabo said...

It is not technically too difficult to make a non-flat runway in FS.

Problem is, it would wreak havoc on any AI a customer would like to use and possibly even on multiplayer; FS simply is not coded with sloped runways in mind - unlike, say XPL9,10. It is a part of the legacy.

By the way, I could hardly be happier if I could make use of sloped runways in FSX, alas and alack, foe is me, no chance for that.
http://www.planes.cz/cs/photo/1027071/a320-214-ok-mei-czech-airlines-csa-csa-ok-praha-ruzyne-prg-lkpr/

Unknown said...

Indeed there are products available that offer this type of runway/taxiway; however, this is far from being the norm, especially at more “ordinary” airports.

Anonymous said...

On the video link, what airport is that and any idea of where to get the scenery airport from ?

Unknown said...

The runway is ENNK in Narvik, Norway. It is designed as a test for my own use only.

DAndre Newman said...

Tore, please continue the tests. Would be great if you can get AI to work with it. Great work BTW

DAndre Newman said...

I would love to see an updated version of the airport. It's heaps of fun!

Anonymous said...

Absolute amazing. This would give a new feeling into FSX. Handling of well done addon planes would be so much fun and improves massive flight simulation quality.

This high quality solution textures in combination with every kind of rwy slopes - and additionally autogen obstacles near threshold like real worls approaches/takeoffs, that would be the absolute improvement and new expirience in FSX !

Please go on with your project !

Unknown said...

It was not my intention to start a debate about whether it is possible with AI traffic on sloped runways. It is probably impossible with the technology we have in FSX today.

1) Maybe someone can develop an AI package that works on sloped runways? I dont know.

2) Smaller VFR Sceneries / airstrips may have sloped runway. There are the many fine examples of it already, as Mathijs Kok mentioned above.

3) Today it is technically possible to allow the customer to activate sloped runway via a control panel, just as you switch on and off the season you want. This means of course lots of extra work for developers ;)

DAndre Newman said...

You make a very good point Tore, we have seen everything become more advanced but not AI traffic. Very good point.

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