167 replies to this topic

[Sasa]

There is probably no city where you see more aviation then Los Angeles. Not only are there several major airports close to the city but general aviation rules the skies over the city. Besides Alaska there is no state where single engine aircraft are more used and there are more helipads then in any other city. That’s not only because of the rich and famous (just see how many helicopters land in Hollywood) but also because the layout of the city looks spectacular. From the coastline to the mountains around the city, LA is a great city to see from above.

US Cities X: Los Angeles will be one of the largest projects in the series and it will be a great place to explore. Development is progressing well as you can see from the images. Stay tuned to this station for more information.

Features:

• Aerial image coverage (see attached Google Earth file)
• More than 5,000 major buildings included (just to compare: US Cities X - Chicago has 2,000)
• Innumerable autogen buildings placed realistically
• An incredible number of 150+ helipads! Among them a few well-known as:
  - LAPD Hooper Heliport (largest rooftop heliport in the world. Base location of the "BlueThunder" movie and series)
  - US Bank Helipad (world's highest rooftop helipad)
  - Queen Mary Heliport
  - Catalina Air-Sea Terminal Heliport
  - Pebbly Beach Seaplane Base and Heliport
• Major airports in and around the city are covered with new ground images (no new building structures added)
  - KLAX Los Angeles Intl
  - KBUR Burbank Bob Hope
  - KSNA John Wayne Orange Co
  - KLGB Long Beach
  - KVNY Van Nuys
  - KAVX Catalina "Airport in the Sky"
  - KSMO Santa Monica Mun
  - KSLI Los Alamitos AAF
  - KWHP Whiteman
  - KEMT El Monte
  - KHHR Northrop Hawthorne
  - KCPM Compton Woodley
  - KTOA Zamperini
  - 64CL Goodyear Blimp Base
  - KNTK Tustin MCAS
• Sound effects like downtown- and highway traffic, gulls...
• Traffic on most major roads
• Low price, very good value for money
• Includes a separate Scenery Density tool
• Bonus: Detailed rendering of Catalina Island!

Please note that the screenshots show the scenery in development.


Los Angeles Downtown


Los Angeles Downtown


Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles


Queen Mary and Carnival Passenger Terminal


Queen Mary Helipad


Catalina Air-Sea Terminal Heliport


Catalina Air-Sea Terminal Heliport and Thomas Vincent Bridge


Catalina Island


Catalina - Approaching the "Airport in the Sky"


Catalina Island

Attached File(s)

•  LosAngeles_Preview_2012-03-05.kmz   44.85K   752 Number of downloads

[Jerdoo]

Can't wait to get my hands on this ... might have to make a new video using this scenery as well

[kamanba]

is it compatible with megascenery southern california ???

[member111333]

Absolutely fantastic level of detail.

[Dominik G]

Wow, awesome, looks pretty good!

[wingnut]

Hello;

I see that new ground images are going to be added,will this work with FSDT KLAX airport.


Mark

[Velocity]

Will it come for FS9, too

[AA777-200ER]

Second request, is this scenery compatible with MegaScenery X (very important), work with fsdt's LAX and does it include night-lighting.

If it meets these requirements, I will buy.....Darryl

[Mathijs Kok]

Will it come for FS9, too

No, simply will not work because of the complexity, you really need multicore support.

[Mathijs Kok]

Second request, is this scenery compatible with MegaScenery X (very important), work with fsdt's LAX and does it include night-lighting.

If it meets these requirements, I will buy.....Darryl

Night textures are not planned right now, this is really day time VFR scenery as all other US Cities X scenery (expect Las Vegas). Adding them would increase the file size (already rather massive and the cost)

[Dominik G]

Major airports in and around the city are covered with new ground images (no new building structures added)

• [...]
  - KBUR Burland Bob Hope

I think you mean Burbank, right?

[KingCat]

If this scenery is not going to be compatible with MegaSceneryEarth California and FSDreamTeam's KLAX (which I consider a minimum requirement considering the quality of these addons) then I'm skipping this one.

There is already a scenery for Catalina Island and airport available, so hopefully it will be compatible with this one too. This is the link: http://secure.simmar...-island-x.phtml


Jon

[Sasa]

Just a quick reply on the compatibility questions:

US Cities X - Los Angeles will of course be compatible with both FSDT's LAX and Mega Scenery South California! If there are any unexpected issues with one or both sceneries encountered between now and release, this will be mentioned in the (publicly available) manual.

That Catalina Island scenery mentioned is another matter: Our scenery comes with a version of Catalina that adds much more detail like a more detailed airport, thousands of autogen objects covering the island and so on. We can't of course be "compatible" with something that is much less detailed. But you will be able to deactivate our version of Catalina be renaming a few files in case you think otherwise about our version of Catalina Island.

Bests,
Sascha

[wingnut]

Hello;

Thanks for the sttatement on the compatability with the other add-ons,this product will be a great add-on for the area.

Thanks;

Mark

[mongo52]

Looks awesome. I live in the Los Angeles area if you need pics for anything please let me know. Mike Gutierrez, North Hollywood, California.

[Sasa]

Hi Mike,

Looks awesome. I live in the Los Angeles area if you need pics for anything please let me know. Mike Gutierrez, North Hollywood, California.

Thank you for the offer! I'm still missing some photos from around Hooper Heliport showing the faces of the complex from the ground that can be used for textures. But I'm not too sure if that would be a pleasant place to take lots of photos with such a Police presence around. If you like you can always contact me directly by using this contact form.

Bests,
Sascha

[Sasa]

I think you mean Burbank, right?

Oups! Right! Thanks for noticing.

Bests,
Sascha

[Sasa]

Can you please consider doing the night please??? I don't mind paying extra for that!!

The way the scenery is done just adding night textures would multiply development time by 4. If you're willing to pay that and convince all the other potential customers to do the same, we have a deal. See the problem?
Not even mentioning that the chance of other cities to ever be completed would reduce dramatically.

Bests,
Sascha

[Sasa]

The skyscrapers/3D models ARE the problem in creating night textures. That's like you're asking a car producer who can't do the 200 MPG car to create the 1000 mile range all electric one instead...

Bests,
Sascha

[Mathijs Kok]

Gents, this is a discussion that comes back for each of the US City X products. And to be honest it gets a bit old.

I cannot go into too much details but it is not twice the development time, not three times, but much more.Just accept that as a fact even if it does not seem logical. If it would double the development time we would consider it, but it is not double, it is far more. If we calculate that for the previous products we would need to have sold three times as much of each, or triple the price. It is just not feasible. The product is as it is or it would not exist. Las Vegas was a exception and I am pretty sure we lost money on that one because of that.

So let's close this topic. No night textures. If that you feel that is not acceptable this is not a product for you.

[Sasa]

For those of you that missed it: Here's a nice HD video featuring an approach on the largest (and probably busiest) rooftop heliport in the world, which will be part of the package:



That gray complex in the background is the LA prison, which has two more helipads (Anyone knows their purpose?).

[Evan Banalian]

I have 2 questions, will Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott building downtown be included?

Are you guys considering this project for x plane 10 ?

Thanks

[Sasa]

I have 2 questions, will Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott building downtown be included?

Of course! Just check the attached KMZ (Google Earth) file in the initial post, which shows the Ritz Carlton Helipad among many others to be included.
I also considered adding new Wildshire Grand Towers, but there isn't enough information available yet to do them (not even mentioning that they won't be completed before 2017 and construction won't start before 2015).

Are you guys considering this project for x plane 10 ?

There are currently no plans to do that. Maybe Mathijs can tell more in the future.

Talking about skyscapers... Anyone seen this video yet?

[Pao13]

Are you guys going to optimize the fps because Chicago is way too hungry (even on my 2700K - GTX580...?
thank you

[F4PhantomRAAF]

[Forum post edited by Admin; no need to quote the whole post when its on the first page]

All I can say is WOW!!!!

I love the US Cities projects, having got three already!!!

OK, I admit it is not night scenery capable, but it is gorgeous. Of course I want night scenery, but I believe you when you say it more than triples the costs.
I suppose if the community were to take night photos of the cities in question would that help? Volunteer help?
Maybe each volunteer could do 10 or more buildings? And then it isn't that hard to put the textures onto the 3d models.......
What do you say? Might end some complaints.
EDIT what I mean is that volunteers could also do the 3d night models and send their work to the devs. Maybe those volunteers who did a certain amount of buildings could receive a discount voucher?

But I love your work!!! +100 for this new LA scenery!!!!

[Shaun Fletcher]

Hello F4,

The subject of night textures has been settled its not going to happen so please lets have no more talk on it.

[Sasa]

Are you guys going to optimize the fps because Chicago is way too hungry (even on my 2700K - GTX580...?
thank you

Just note what I wrote im my initial post:

More than 5,000 major buildings included (just to compare: US Cities X - Chicago has 2,000)

Alone for that fact there's barely any room to optimize performance but we will surely do our best to make it running as smooth as possible. Keep in mind that skyscrapers in LA are scattered over a MUCH larger area than in Chicago downtown and therefore FSX usually doesn't have to calculate them all at once.

Bests,
Sascha

[signmanbob]

Wow! This looks like a huge project. I never thought you would take on Los Angeles. I will be watching anxiously for the release.

[nzeddy]

Sweet! Well.. time to get MegaSceneryX SoCal.

[F4PhantomRAAF]

Hello F4,

The subject of night textures has been settled its not going to happen so please lets have no more talk on it.

OK, sorry Shaun, it was only an idea. I will cease and desist...

Daniel

[High Plains Gamer]

It is really nice to see you make a scenery of LA. So far, it seems like you have picked many of your cities from one of those lists of the worst cities in the U.S. - places no one really want to go to (Indianapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland). But LA makes a lot of sense, even though it, too, is rather scuzzy. It also ranks as the third busiest airport in the U.S. Of course, Atlanta ranks number 1, and Dallas and Denver rank 4 and 5 respectively. Making sceneries for Atlanta, Dallas, Denver (and Seattle or San Diego) makes a lot more sense than doing another Detroit! Good choice!

[cosnowboarder_777]

Just out of curiousity, when a product doens't have night textures is it just black at night or what does it look like? I'm not trying to stir up an argument I was just curious and I've never bought a product that doesn't have night textures.

[Sasa]

Just out of curiousity, when a product doens't have night textures is it just black at night or what does it look like? I'm not trying to stir up an argument I was just curious and I've never bought a product that doesn't have night textures.

It will be just plain dark without any illumination. The airports itself of will be illuminated of course (same as default airports).

Edit: Attached samples show Detroit at day and night.

Bests,
Sascha

Attached thumbnail(s)

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[cosnowboarder_777]

Thanks for the response Sascha, looking forward to this one, great to see you guys doing more stuff in the US.

[muzik4ever183]

I haven't been doing any looking around just yet, but has anyone taken Downtown San Diego to this extent of detail yet for fs9? I sure hope so... los angees is looking great! rock on, guys!

[mongo52]

Sasha: You asked about the helipad on the twin towers (jail house). The Hooper facility is operated by the Los Angeles Police Department (the city police). The twin towers are run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (law enforcement for all of Los Angeles County). The helipads are for Sheriff Dept. helicopters. It is a common site to see Sheriff Department buses on the 101 freeway transporting prisoners between the Twin Towers and other County jail facilities outside of the City. These buses are a sight themselves. They are huge diesel buses, with police lights at the rear. You can see the bus driver isolated by cages. I image (though I don't know for sure) that some hi-risk prisoners are transported to the Twin Towers by helicopter. This is the website for the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Aero Bureau. http://www.lasdblog....name=aero_main. Mike Gutierrez

[scubeesnax]

I think this is a ROCKIN' GOOD idea. I live in LA, and what I love about what you're doing is Catalina Island, the skyscrapers, and the rooftop helipads. Just tell me when Los Angeles X is ready and I'll be customer #1. Frankly, I don't care about night textures. By the way, I own Megascenery X Southern California and I think it's just awful. It mangles many important areas of LA, for example Catalina Island where it actually removes the famous casino in Avalon Bay! I suppose no matter how hard you work, you'll always have some grumpy guys whining on the forum. I already own Buffalo X (Niagara Falls) and Antarctica X and Manhattan X and I love them. Awesome job, guys! Frankly, I think your work is a work of art. Absolutely OVER THE TOP! Thanks again Sascha, Mathijs, and team for all your hard work. I, for one, really appreciate it. You bring a whole new world of aliveness and immersion to FSX.
(PS - On my wish list for the future, I'd love to see the Glacier Bay and Juneau, Alaska for FSX. It would be a nice addition to Tongass Fjords, which is amazing. I will buy it instantly.)

[Sasa]

New Screenshots:


Anyone out there who doesn't know this place?


Santa Monica Pier


KLAX - Los Angeles Intl


View from (K)LAX to Downtown LA


Shoreline southeast of Long Beach


Irvine and John Wayne Orange County Airport (KSNA)

[macroth72]

Wow, looks great!

[ardix]

Great work!