Platinum Wings - Christmas 2023 Beta Release.

[Jorge]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I've been away due to family issues, which will ALWAYS take priority. I've also been working on other stuff as well that had nothing to do with flightsim.

I finally did, however, have a chance to go through my files and I've uploaded what I thought was a good starting point for PW from the things I had. There are still MANY things that are not ready or not authorized yet for release since I haven't heard from the original authors, but this should be a good starting point.

I didn't get a chance to finish the installation instructions yet, so they are still a WIP. It should be enough, however, to get you started.

Some notes are in the "readme" which basically state -- very breifly -- part of the instructions that are still missing with regards to some of the default GW3 airfields and the GW3 scenery as a whole.  There are also some other things in there you should be made aware of.

The two places you will have access to PW will be here at the Vintage Flying forum and over at the Sim Outhouse's FS2002/FS2004 Discussion forum.

Enjoy and if you have any feedback, please feel free to share!

My appologies ahead of time if I take another long "sabatical" from flightsim, but things have been going on at home that needed my attention.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jorge
Miami, FL

Platinum Wings Folder on Mediafire.

[wobbie]

Hi Jorge,

Thanks so much for this.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can only download the zips, PDF & txt.
Mediafire will not let me download the other files, as it tells me the following...

Bulk-Download multiplefiles and folders
Do you need to download more than a few files at a time? No problem! Upgrade to a MediaFire Premium account to gain access to features like Bulk-Download.

Is it possible for you to zip those folders & files as well? I do not have a MediaFire Premium account.

Regards,
Robin

[Jorge]

Sorry for the mixup.

All folders deleted, and now only zip files are there.

The PDF and txt files should be fine, as said.

Enjoy!

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Bernard]

Hi Jorge,

Just downloaded and installed all your sceneries. For now I did it in a separate scenery.cfg.

First of all, many thanks for having done this tremandous work and giving us the opportunity to share the many backdated airfields. It's a real and very welcome Christmas gift you are presenting us!

Meanwhile I have been in some of the areas and on airports there. I assume that the package should be essentially used with Golden Wings AI traffic. It also would be questionable whether it should be based on default or GW scenery folder, as well as default or GW textures. I have tried both, but in both cases I got issue with untextured buildings and objects.

As I mentioned once in SOH forum, I deleted all AB9xxx.xxx bgl files included in the Scenery subfolders like AFR / ASIA, EURW and so on. Of course, that would eleminated all ADE worldwide and makes default based AI traffic unsuable. But at least, it shows an acceptable backdated world.

Anyway, hopefully your package will be duly appreciated by the community and could animate, increase or relaunch the interest for vintage flying.


Merry Christmas to all,

Bernard

[Jorge]

Just a small update to the readme.txt in the download link.

You don't need to get the new on if you don't wish to. It's just a reminder that you need the CalClassic Library V.4 installed to get the buildings, hangars, vehicles, etc, in the Platinum Wings world.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Tom/CalClassic]

Thanks for the Christmas present!

[Bernard]

Obvisouly I didn't use the newest version of Custom Scenery Library. Meanwhile the objects are all shown correctly textured. So next step would be integrating my actual SW setting in the PW package. Especially the Golden Wings sceneries should be selected in order to avoid overlaps. In any case, I have some exciting days ahead of me! The sight-seeing of further airfields is very encouraging and shows every time very interesting addons. 

Jorge, just for your information. I had a 1930 version of Kai Tak already before and struggled to run an AI traffic there. Now I moved your short NW/SE runway more western to allow AI to land from south-east and avloid the hills. While AI are taking off in the same direction, it would be ncessary to create a waypoint somehwere over Chep Lak Kok. This way AI would heading to western after takeoff and avoid again the northern hills. Unless there is a better and simpler solution, of course. Actually it looks like that:



Bernard

[jsaus]

Seems a very complicated process to get it all working,
Lots of download files that I don’t know where to put them. 🤕


edit : I didn’t see the pdf that gives the instructions. It’s….RIGHT there. Bahahahahaha. Silly me. 
So let me have a go at installing it. 

[Bernard]

In order to get a general overview of the numerous sceneries included in the package and to avoid overlaps with those already used, I created a simple Excel list with these airports. This may also be useful for you.

www.mediafire.com/file/lkmat070w9redgv/List_PW_airfields.xls/file

The gray lines refer to sceneries that implicitly represent airfields from the late thirties / early forties, at least according to Jorge's informations.


Bernard

[wobbie]

Thanks, Bernard.
Very useful.

[wobbie]

Thanks, everyone, for still supporting FS2004. It is still, even after 20 years, still a growing sim.

Have an awesome peaceful New Year.

Regards,
Robin

[Bernard]

Finally I opted to use Jorge's PW sceneries with my Forties version. That's an amalgam of ATC and Hump routes as well as a lot of WWII airfields. The GW_Com traffic fits very well with those airports as it includes some end thirties aircraft. But its flightplans should be severely reviewed and adapted.  


PW Le Bourget




PW La Guardia




Bernard

[Jorge]

Thanks to everyone who's enjoying this!

I included the SDK so you could have an idea of how I was doing this and so you could try and make updates yourselves.

I'll still ahve to go through the process of installing my fresh copy on the "new" rig I got from Al. Things have just been too crazy here, but I've definately been enjoying the more traditional CalClassic setup that came with it over the past few days.

One thing I forgot to mention since it was something that I only "added" later in the project: Wildlife.

There is a scenery out there that you can download and install (11 files I believe?) that adds wildlife all over the world. When combined with the PW setup, it REALLY gives the world a different "look" out there. You have camels in Egypt, Oxen in Asia, and in Europe you have bears, elk, etc.

It'll be part of the instructions as an optional thing, but really worth it. Here's the link:

Ivar Danelsen's Living World

Or you can look for "Danielsen" over at "simviation" since that's the only place he uploaded them to. Just look for the FS2004 ones, though, since there are updates for FSX from what I saw.

There are still SO MANY things I need to do for this.  I need to finish the Vintage Gauges (all the "normal" gauges from the aircraft that came with the sim modified for soft, white night lighting like what was found back then), finish the instructions manual (only at 46 or so pages, so far), finish updating some aircraft for use (many over at the SimOuthouse already, to include Paul Clawson's Fokker Airliner), and so many other things.  The AI is sort of done to an extent since you can use the wonderful files from the TriMotor website now hosted at SOH for preservation, but I also did some default DC-3 textures a while back which I posted some pics of on the forum here.  Most of those birds had traffic already done, but for the life of me I can't figure where I put them.  I remember AA and Eastern were done, as were some of the Mexican airlines like LAMSA.

I also need to package the said AI files so they can be added to the default DC-3.

Another thing I started which I had to leave was a GMAX update of Master Ito's DH-86 with new textures, animations, and a more "proper" VC as well.  I was planning on releasing that one with a sort of paint kit since there haven't been many paints for it and I was using the original texture layout where possible.

When I get the chance I have to dust off the videos by Mr. Schuppe just to get the cobwebs out.  The thing was going to use the "vintage gauges" folder I was putting together, which will eventually include "vertical needle" RPM gauges more suited to aircraft like the DH-86 as well as incorporating the Lorenz gauge I made (which I believe is separate in the files I posted).

Nice thing about the Lorenz is that the scenery with localizers (Berlin and Croydon off the top of my head) actually have the markers at 300 meters and 3000 km like the German manual said they should be.  I also made them so they are "Outer" and "Inner" markers so the sound is more to the original "slow" and "fast" beeping, and I put the altitudes more along the lines of what they should've been with Lorenz (500 m AGL for outer and 100 m AGL for inner if I remember correctly).

They even have a backcourse if I remember correctly, and they both have beacons on the other ends, so they may both have the localizers.  I also placed a shack with some antenna where the beacons are so you can see something when flying over. 

Hopefully I'll get the chance to work on this in the near future.  I was also doing some stuff for the other "passion" in simming I have: Silent Hunter 4.  That one is also on temporary hold for now.

Thanks again for the encouragement, and I'll keep putting stuff up as I can.

If the Lorenz gauge isn't in the current package of files, please let me know and I'll get it up there.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL

[wobbie]

Thanks for all the good work... Have a peaceful New Year.

[Bernard]

The animal addon is indeed a tremendous work. But it's also a tremendous effort to set the coordinates to see just one elephant! So I still prefer to use the old and not less complicated LAGO FS Enhancer. The number of animals is quite limited, I agree. But they might be placed where you want and will be able to see them easier. With an invisible runway nearby the animals could be even flown over.



Bernard