ADX Exclusive: Interview with Jarrad Marshall!

[Developer Interview] Boy are we trying to get caught up! We are already mid year and as such, we have seen many amazing releases for 2013 with many more to come. Today, we chat with one of those highly talented developers responsible for bringing us the many products we enjoy. His name is Jarrad Marshall one of the many great individuals that make up the global icon we all know as Orbx Systems. Socome join us for our latest interview!

Down under to Perth we go!

As always, our goal with AirDailyX is to encourage and support our developers while also providing the FS community the most up-to-date information taking place within the development community. But sometimes, we like to get just a bit more in depth and learn just a bit more about the FS gods that create the amazing aircraft and sceneries we just can't live without. What are these developers all about? Why to they get involved with FS design? What inspires them? 

Come head way down under with us to the West coast of Oz where we chat with the talented Jarrad Marshall, one of the many Orbx Masterminds! We hope you will find this interview informative and just perhaps get a personal understanding of what it takes to be an FS scenery developer.

ADX: Hello Jarrad! Thanks so much for having us and taking the time. We are all fans of your work!

Jarrad: No problem guys. Glad to!

ADX: We know your time is very valuable so let's get right down to it. Now all are obviously aware, flight simulation scenery design is quite a niche profession. How did you get into the field?

Jarrad: Like many, I started dabbling in scenery design in an attempt to improve a local airfield over the stock FS version. In my case, the airports and skyline around Perth, Western Australia, looked pretty sad in FS2002. Armed with a copy of Gmax, Photoshop, AFCAD and Airport 2.1 (remember that one?), I gradually worked up the basic skills to spit out a fairly bad rendition of Perth Airport (YPPH), and I was hooked.

ADX: How did you first get involved with Orbx?

Jarrad: Prior to being invited to join ORBX, I had been developing under the moniker of Westsim Design Group, which I founded with two other Perth locals in 2002. We created freeware - and a couple of limited-release payware airports - and terrain packages for FS2002 and FS2004, the most well known of which would have been our freeware FS9 Jandakot (YPJT). Our last major release in early 2006, Murray Field 2.0 for FS9, was designed to work seamlessly with the recently-released Vista Australis (VOZ). Westsim had also collaborated with JV’s VOZ early on, contributing terrain work and an airport to the project for the initial release.

Fast forward to late 2007, I’d been quietly working on an all-new HD version of Jandakot on the side. ORBX was well into development of their first product, AU Blue, when John invited me to contribute some 3D work to the project. I was extremely excited to be invited to join the team; after my initial work (creating skyscrapers and POI’s for downtown Perth), I kept working on Jandakot for FSX, which was my debut airport for ORBX.

ADX: Given the fact that Jandakot was developed with your own personal passion in the beginning of your transition to Orbx, these days, what type of input do you have regarding project selection? Can you chase you own passion and develop what you want? or is there a due process to carry out with the company as a whole?

Jarrad: In terms of my own projects, I am in the enviable position of having full autonomy during the selection process. Passion is the key to a successful project – without it, momentum can be quickly lost during the development cycle. Choosing a good location is also vitally important – in my opinion the ideal mix is a scenic location, fps-friendly area (no use making a highly optimized airport if the surrounding location already performs poorly) and suitability for a broad spectrum of simmers.

Lastly, I need to look at projected development timeline – 4-6 months is a nice balance in my book. I’d love to develop more large airports such as Cairns, however that took me 20 months to create and it’s just not sustainable to spend that much time on a single project. For me, the sweet spot is the mid-sized regional or large-sized GA (think KJAC, KSFF, YBRM) – small enough that I can go nuts on the details without ruining performance, whilst large enough to be suitable to fly both an NGX and C152 into.

ADX: Can you elaborate as to what happens next once a new project has been selected? What steps are required to actually “break ground”? Do you ever actually visit the project airport?

Jarrad: Before I move ahead with a new project, two vital criteria need to be met: availability of suitable quality orthoimagery, and ground-level photography of all infrastructure, and plenty of it! Whilst it would be ideal for me to visit each airport personally, this is not always feasible (especially with my US projects). Fortunately I have been lucky to have access to excellent photographers who have helped out on these projects. There have actually been a couple of projects that I have seriously considered, however have not been able to move forward with due to a lack of photography or imagery.

ADX: Do you socialize with other members of the Orbx team, either virtually or in real life?

Jarrad: Even in 2013, I still find it a bit of a novelty to be working with a team spread across the entire globe. Whenever possible, I take the opportunity to go out for a beer or meal with some of the guys to “chew the fat” and catch up. Unfortunately, I am the only team member based in Perth at the present time, so these opportunities are few and far between, usually when travel takes me to other cities around Australia and the overseas.

ADX: What do you see as the next big step forward in flight simulation scenery design? Are there any big advancements still possible using the older FSX platform? Any thoughts on P3D?

Jarrad: My eyes are looking toward P3D 2.0 – I am quite excited to see what this new platform will offer for developers. I’d love to see a couple of fundamental issues with FSX fixed (see next question), however in terms of discovering “hidden features” in the FSX code, I believe we are probably reaching the limit. That said, plenty can still be achieved within the scope of the FSX platform – look at what has come out from the ORBX R&D department over the past 18 months (PeopleFlow 2.0, CreatureFlow etc) to give just an idea of what can be done.

ADX: In your experience, what is the most frustrating aspect of scenery design? Further to that question, in your opinion, what is the biggest limitation to flight simulation scenery development?

Jarrad: Certainly there are more than a few limitations set by the FSX scenery engine, but to be honest no more so than for any previous version. Due to the ceaseless work of masters such as Arno and many others, the limits of the engine are being pushed further and further. 

Aside from wishing for major leaps forward in the core engine itself (of which we had such a tantalizing glimpse with the gorgeous MS Flight scenery engine), the biggest bugbear of mine is the lack of a true FSX-native airport ground-poly code. We have two main styles that are used across the industry, but to be honest both have large drawbacks from a development point of view, and in my opinion this was a serious omission from MS’s team.

ADX: For you personally, what is your dream flight simulation design project?

Jarrad: I have a couple of projects that have been on my wish-list for a very long time now, but given they fall outside of our existing ORBX regions there has been little incentive to move forward. With the impending release of FTX Global though, this opens the opportunity to move forward. I won’t give too much away at this point; however there is a high chance that one of these will be started immediately following my current airport...

ADX: Speaking of which, can you disclose to us anything about your next project?

Jarrad: I can indeed; in fact it has already been listed in JV’s 2013 ORBX Roadmap. My next project will be Bozeman International (Gallatin Field) for the CRM region. KBZN is a short flight from West Yellowstone and Jackson Hole airports, and as with most of my airports will be suitable for both tubeliner simmers and low-and-slow GA flyers. Like KJAC, Bozeman is situated in a very picturesque location, with the impressive Bridger Mountains just to the north-east. I’ve got a few special features planned for this airport, but these will be announced as I progress a little further.

ADX: What is your all time favorite Orbx airport scenery? And if we dare ask, your favorite non Orbx airport scenery as well?

Jarrad: That’s a bit of a loaded question! It would be unfair of me to pick a single airport, however I would have to say that from a sentimental point of view, I do have a soft spot for many of the Aussie airports released during the early years of ORBX. This was a time when many of the now-established airport developers were cutting their teeth, and many different ideas and approaches were being tried out for the first time.

In terms of non-ORBX scenery, a couple of legacy products greatly influenced my early philosophies on airport design. Back in 2002, many may remember that Microsoft released a freeware Oshkosh package, which represented the airport and town at the time of the annual EAA AirVenture. 

Moving forward to early 2004, a then-unknown developer by the name of Vauchez (of FlightScenery Portland fame) released a lovely freeware package of St-Malo (LFRD). To me, these were both groundbreaking not-so-much for their detail, but in the way that they created an entire environment (rather than just the airport perimeter), seamlessly blended to surrounding terrain and using core terrain elements such as photoreal tiles, custom autogen, landclass and vector scenery. 

Although certainly not the only products of this era to fully embrace this concept (GeoRender being probably the most well-known), they did pave the way for many to come, and heavily influenced the way I designed my early FS2002/FS2004 airports. Design choices to include large expanses of surrounding terrain (KJAC), model entire city/townscapes (KSFF, YBCS, YBRM, YCUN, 74S) or include additional auxiliary strips and local scenic POI’s (74S, YPJT) stem directly from my enjoyment of flying circuits around LFRD and KOSH back in the day.

Lastly, in terms of current-day developers, I have enormous respect for the guys at FlyTampa, Flightbeam Studios and 29Palms; their products are always guaranteed to have a lot of soul and character and I always enjoy taking their latest offerings for a spin - although not always as often as I would like!

ADX: Is there anything you can tell us about your life outside flight simulation that most people would not expect?

Jarrad: I’m very much into my music; among other pursuits I run and play trumpet in an 18-piece swing band and co-present a radio show for a local independent station. At the present, my girlfriend and I are taking six months to travel the US and Europe, no doubt sowing the seeds for a few new airport ideas in the process!

ADX: If you had one message for the readers of AirDailyX, what would it be?

Jarrad: A very genuine thanks to everyone who supports developers such as myself. Developing simming software is not particularly glamorous work, with many long (and late) hours put in to get a product ready for release. I put a lot of myself into each airport I develop, and as an avid consumer of all things ADX, it brings me a great deal of pleasure to see your readers enjoy the work I do. 

ADX: Jarrad, thanks again so much for taking the time. It's always a pleasure to get to know our talented developers and a real treat to get this very valuable insight regarding your life as a scenery developer. I'm quite sure our readers appreciate this as well. We very happily yet patiently await your next release!

Jarrad: It was a real pleasure! Keep up the good work guys!

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Indeed if it's one thing we can't help but respect personally, it's when a developer really invests his spirit, passion, sweat, and soul into ones work. Without a doubt, from the moment you approach one of Jarrads airfields and the objects come into view, it gets clear real quick just how well the talent shows no matter how hard you are working through checklists and lining up for final.

Orbx has a great and many extremely talented developers both working with and for the development company. Jarrad is just one great example of all the talent that makes up such a successful FS development company.

We do wish Jarrad and the entire team at Orbx all the best as they continue to strive and deliver on all the amazing products they have in store for us time after time!

A special thanks to our good friend Mark Hrycenko for his amazing efforts in getting this interview together with Jarrad and as always, thank all of you for joining us as well!
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