A bit more Portsmouth

[DaveB]

Hi Chaps

After building Southampton from scratch then finding it's presence on the south coast slowed my system down too much.. off it went and a few more bits were added to Portsmouth. The basis of all this is Portsmouth HighRise for FS9.. dragged into FSX along with Portsdown (which is just visible in some shots.. as it should be). Additions are from 3D warehouse compiled using MCX and added with ISv2..

Early morning 'daan saaf'..









You can't tell it's a naval base at all can you

All but Spice Island fit without too many problems. The major issue with Spice island is elevation and FSX. FSX/GenX doesn't build that part particularly flat and Spice Island is a big model built on one plane so if you enter the harbour in a submarine.. you'll see the buildings nearest the harbour are floating a few feet above. Still.. the effect of a scenery 'busy' harbour entrance is what I wanted and it does this fine. Pity there's nothing for Gosport side

ATBG
DaveB

[DaveG]

Looking good Dave

[Airspeed]

Excellent, Dave!
LOOGADALLTHUBOATS!! (most doing less than 3 knots)

[DaveB]

Most doing 0 knots Ark Royal had just popped in from Southampton in the last but one shot (in front of Blake) and she's a bit of a speed demon and I've another Hermes (missing from these shots) which zips around the Solent forts before finally berthing not far from where the helicopter is parked but by and large.. speed regs in the harbour are adhered to Believe it or not.. AI shipping is something I really must get more into. Ben makes ship tracks by using what I think is a complicated (but tried and tested) system.. Google Earth and George does it the old fashioned way using TTools but never having made a ship traffic file, I'm wary of both. I've tried doing it Ben's way but can't remember how it's done now.. never tried it George's way.

It would be nice to have the fleet coming and going but sadly, none of the ships tied up would be able to move as they're sitting on tiles with ships underneath them and we found out from George that AI ships won't go on or off such tiles. They could tie up alongside the images I suppose but they'd need bloody long gang planks to get ashore

Helicopter in shot is the Nemeth Bo105 btw.. paint by yours truly I've a few more for it I must release at some point

All those shots look a bit bare without full autogen though don't they. At lower angles, it all looks great but the higher you get, the worse it looks. Still.. at least there are no trees growing on the dockside as in FTX England

ATB
DaveB

[GHD]

George does it the old fashioned way using TTools but never having made a ship traffic file, I'm wary of both. I've tried doing it Ben's way but can't remember how it's done now.. never tried it George's way.

No, one can't use TTools for boat traffic

What I do is create the track in Afcad2 and use a custom program to convert the track to a KML for use with AIBTC.

[speedbird591]

Dave - the post is in the FTX Compatibility section of the forum which isn't viewable unless you're registered. It's where people share their tips about freeware and payware add-ons that fit in to FTX.

I've grabbed the two screenshots that the guy posted. Before and after shots of FTX default Portsmouth and with Portsmouth Highrises by Simon Swallow for FS2004. I think that's what you're using?

He had to disable Simon's Spinnaker tower as FTX already has it but that was all. He also confirms that the Gosport ferry works fine as well.

FTX default



FTX with Highrises



Looks as though Warrior is off on a cruise!

Ian

[DaveB]

Ahh.. thanks for that George. I knew it was more complicated than I suggested

Ian.. tks for posting those. Just as I was beginning to warm to the idea of FTX again (well.. full autogen anyway).. all those white houses prompted me to stay clear I hope the chap concerned doesn't mind me saying but I much prefer my Portsmouth to that one. Portsmouth HighRise has been swallowed up and those random warehouses just don't belong. All down to what you want to see I suppose. At least his additon of Portsmouth HighRise makes it look more like Portsmouth than just the Spinnaker Tower

ATB
DaveB

[DaveB]

One final shot taken atop Portsdown Hill next to ASWE.. or was it AWRE?.. ASWE I think.. looking down at a skyline I remember very well. Commcen Fort Southwick was just down the road and I did this run daily for a few months. Spinnaker Tower wasn't there then.. I don't think the marina closest me was there either and certainly, those AI ships which continually end up dossing around up the creek weren't there either. They do go if I turn AI shipping down but are a necessary evil of having it set to 100%



Nothing up to the beginning of Portsmouth Highrise and the dockyard are important really.. it's the panorama that counts.. for me if for no one else I'm prompted now to travel some 10 miles or so behind me and knock up a quick HMS Mercury.. the College of Knowledge as it was known It was the RN Communications School until some time after I left. Gad knows where it is now

ATB
DaveB

[DaveB]

No sooner said than done.. HMS Mercury.. the rough version



It looks like it's in the back of beyond and it was. We reckoned it had it's own eco-climate The ground texture has changed a lot from how I remember the layout but some of it remains. The row of houses at the back were our accommodation blocks on the infamous 'Crescent Road'. Much marching done twixt those and the drill shed at the end. We marched everywhere as I remember it Sailors.. marching.. nah! The big block to the left was the WRNS accommodation.. dining hall to the right of that.. offices/classrooms to the right of that. A lot of classrooms were old nissen huts. No sign of those on the ground tile The rather grand looking large building was the officers mess.. Leydene House.. a lovely property handed over during the war for a song. The red tarmac in front was where parade was held. Happy days.. not

Buildings aren't really authentic.. stock UKVFR library RAF items.. but it gives a flavour of what the place 'looked' like
ATB
DaveB

[Motormouse]

Er, Dave, Simon Swallow did Gosport for X too, check out flightsim.com,
Half a mo and I,ll be back with file name.....
Rightyho, search Gosport Highrise by Simon Swallow.

Pete