Questions about FS 2

1st Official Post

    Hi,

    I am looking for some sims to develop scenery for later on, maybe next year, and I think I have zeroed in on P3D as a market and Aerofly FS 2 but I have some questions about it.

    I think Aerofly doesn't have autogen, is this correct? And if so from what I have seen it does have autogen specifically for the dedicated sceneries for sale right?

    From my perspective it wouldn't make sense to build an airport that has no autogen in the given area, but I was wondering if autogen will become available on a global level. I don't really know if or how this would be possible though given that the scenery is photoreal.

    Are airports made for P3D able to be ported over to Aerofly easily?

    Does Aerofly use PBR?

    How similar is the process to create an airport compared to P3D?

    Not related to scenery or my topic, but will Aerofly have A2A develop or port over aircraft in the near future?

    Also, from what I have seen it doesn't seem like Aerofly is marketed towards the same consumer base as P3D, from what I have experienced P3D is the rich mans sim so to speak as a lot of money is spent on it. I don't know if there is the same market or will be in time with Aerofly but if I can port over sceneries easily then it will be worth it regardless, even for a lower price.

    These are just a few questions that I was thinking about in order to prepare a little bit and find out what I need to get ready for.

    Thanks,

    Easton

    • Official Post

    Hi Easton,

    welcome to our forum.

    To answer your questions.

    Aerofly is using a new technique for autogen called cultivation. Cultivation allows for mass foliage, buildings and houses, and even lighting to be added to any Aerofly scenery. Currently this is still in preliminary but it well in Aerofly. For the released DLC packages we have added some cultivated areas already and we are looking at adding more to existing releases.

    The scenery that is produced either by us or by the community is always aerial imagery. We have tools that anyone can produce their own scenery, then also add cultivation to it rather easily now.

    We have extensive tutorials and step by step instructions on how to use all of the SDK tools on our wiki HERE Just look under 'development. We have even added some video tutorials (thanks to Rodeo). You will have all that you need to begin making your own scenery with cultivation. This forum also has a lot of users that are very willing to help you out.

    Currently there is no way to easily cconvert P3D airports over to Aerofly.

    3rd party developers are interested in Aerofly so expect to see more come on board in the future. ORBX has already released some very nice sceneries/airports with more on the way.

    To make an airport, there are a couple of different 3D modeling applications that are supported with more on the way. Currently you can use 3DS Max, Cinema4D, or AC3D. There are tutorials on the wiki for each of them. To get the best results you should use 3DS Max or Cinema4D, but if you need a more reasonably priced solution then AC3D is your way to go.

    I won't compare Aerofly with any other sim out there but we have a lot of free DLC, including very high quality aircraft as default airplanes, If you plan on using VR then you won't get a better experience than Aerofly, and it's only getting better. Performance in Aerofly is also very good.

    One thing is certain, we will not release anything unless it's of high quality.

    This should help you get started here.

    One bit of advice here is to review the forum, and take a look at our wiki. You should get any answer from there, if you don't just ask.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    Hi Easton,

    welcome from me as well!

    I'm not familiar with tools of other flight simulations, but I think the SDK can cover the whole process of scenery creation.

    If you have your existing sceneries in any 3D format, there is a good chance to get them into aerofly.

    Additionally these external tools work with aerofly FS 2 as well: FS Earth Tiles, GeoconvertHelper, scenProc, ModelConverterX.

    As Jeff already explained, autogen is possible with aerofly although it may undergo some more development steps in the future.

    But have a look at OrbX Chicago scenery with a ton of buildings reaching the horizon and some user creations like Munich...

    Check the wiki, the tutorials and youtube videos. And of course, all your questions are welcome.

    Regards

    Rodeo