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Monday, September 30, 2013

Godzone update! Sort of...

FSX. Albeit not a very recent update. As it turns out, I am a bit late on this one. Sometimes I forget about our friends at Godzone as it's so seldom they release an update. And as you all know, news has really been nil the last couple weeks and I have mostly refrained from creating "filler" posts. So it's times like this when I am reminded to check all the little guys too! Here is the latest update on Wellington from earlier this month.


Note from the developer:

"Not a lot of updates lately, although work is progressing — there are always long development periods where the more tedious stuff is done. It’s better to get onto this early, otherwise it just might not get done. I have revisited Wellington Airport, though, to update my photo resources. It still amazes me how accessible the airport is. I guess it has to be, being so compact, but it is just so different from Christchurch Airport, where you can’t really get to see anything interesting from the public areas.
One of the goals with the new Wellington scenery is to know when to hold back for performance reasons. At least once a week I fly around the scenery boundary and watch the frame-rates, just to make sure that they are still manageable. The old Real NZ Wellington always came with a warning, based on the Meatloaf song — Two out of three ain’t bad. This meant that you can’t expect to run a scenery like Wellington without some adjustment for performance. The area includes a lot of features which drain FSX the most — a city very close-by, bounded by water, plus a reputation for bad weather. However this time around developers have discovered a number of techniques which keep performance without having to leave out too much custom detail.
WgtnAutogen
Here’s a shot (click to see it larger) which includes the current autogen, looking towards the airport, and with a bit of the CBD. The only concession to performance here is the water settings, down to Mid 2x, which I actually prefer the look of, anyway.
I admit that the default Bell isn’t the same as a complex payware jetliner, so this still needs to be tested to make sure that the weight of a complex aircraft won’t break this particular camel’s back. Still, I suspect that if you regularly fly a FPS-hungry jet, you won’t need to see every house in Wellington. You can’t hover over Karori in a 777, after all. Still, with FPS averaging around 50 here, there’s still wriggle room. Oh, wait — there’s another concession here, I’ve turned off Bloom, as this just does stupid things to performance on my system, with very little gain.
Back to the topic, though. Well, actually, no, I did intend to explain a couple of changes to the Godzone website, hence the title of this post, but I’ll leave it for the moment. Still, the post title is too good to throw away, so I’ll keep it:)"

http://windowlight.co.nz/godzoneWP/
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2 comments:

mfahey said...

Looking good, I have all of Godzone's sceneries, and really enjoy flying his latest realise Nelson to his old now legacy Wellington. I'm really looking forward to Wellington getting the state-of-art make over. Robin is such a talented designer, he has produced some amazing work over the years, I'm glad his latest offerings are being designed to fit seamlessly into both NZ VLC or the alternative Orbx New Zealand worlds.

Sid said...

I echo your comments entirely Mark. Had I not heard of Godzone here on ADX some months back (and toally missed it in fs9 era), I'd probably still not know of it personally...

Robin will hopefully be pleased to hear that I subsequently purchased his Nelson/Tauranga add-on a few months ago and I haven't looked back. I do love the Nelson scenery...really great for low & slow scenic flights and I often enjoy the experience. In fact, I recently enjoyed a nice Grand Caravan flight from Wellington to Nelson followed by jumping into the Alabeo Waco for a sightseeing flight and Nelson looks gorgeous:-) Hence, I'm really looking forward to an improved quality Wellington Airport & City scenery by Godzone (These airport & city sceneries seem to be becoming increasingly prevalent and are certainly the way-to-go in my book...Chances are, I'll take anything of that nature. Sounds like Robin's got all the bases covered, eg. performance with fps-heavy jetliners, blending of textures/boundaries with FTX NZNI etc. I'm not worried now and can't wait to see how things progress steadily. I know one thing, this is personally one very useful and desired city/airport I'm definitely in the market for. Asia/Oceania still has a lot of voids to fill but its great to see it finally being nibbled away at and the journey has begun.

This is a perfect example of where I can more than justify, without question, my own personal support for a smaller, more independent developer outfit for pulling their weight, improving skills and talents as they go from product to product and putting their heart and soul behind their projects and creations which gives me ever more confidence of even better to come and great satisfaction, rather than supporting just because they're small without any of the above attributes evident from release to release (of course, I'm always re-evaluating and reassessing on merit of new evidence or changes in practice - positive or negative). In Robin's case. it is obvious that he is already more than talented enough for some time but its is more a case of he is an example of someone who does it right for the other reasons I mention and I am a happy and strong supporter of his Godzone outfit, as he has himself evidenced in his work, attitude and approach. I'm ready when you are mate! Take your time. Really impressed since discovering the Godzone experience and mentality. Cheers so much for the update DAndre...was really hoping you could keep an eye out on Wellington for us mate!
Any criticism I sometimes have in general is intended to be constructive and largely is. In Godzone's case, I cannot find any to offer so far...He seems to be doing all the right things from my humble but critical standpoint and as a 'market-force' oriented customer. Great stuff indeed!
All the best,
Sid

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