Proposed SOAR Ranch Update

[sf4JC 1]

Well, it's been about a year since I left the project, so this past week I decided to load it back up into my FSX installation, without some of the extra stuff that was holding me back. First off, Don or Karen & maybe even Orange, I'm not sure I have the latest scenery files, so I'll be giving you an email in the coming days to see what I do have. Anyways, not sure how many of you (the SOAR community) fly the SOAR Ranch area, so I decided to make a video of one of my flights to show some of the proposed scenery changes, and also to show what great soaring can be done there. You can find the whole flight video over HERE. The following video is just highlights of the flight for discussion of what you may want added, subtracted, or changed. This is a chance to have you vote in, so please take the time to view it if you will. The old SOAR Ranch, though it is still good scenery and I have flown it a lot this past year again, is just a bit plain when compared to what FSX has to offer the area.

I realize you have to just go by what you see in the video, but the following are some areas of discussion...

1) the SOAR Ranch

- Too much, or Not enough?

- Your thoughts on what an ideal gliderport would be like

2) the Resort area

- Too much, or Not enough?

- One thing that really bothered me a year ago while reviewing the scenery, was that the resort really cut into the ridge I used to ride.

3) something not shown in the video is some added airports within soaring distance of the SOAR Ranch

- While such scenery would be nice, would you want it to be installed within the SOAR Ranch folder, or should it be a separate install?

4) there is also a question about trying to reproduce the scenery in a way so that FS2004 users can also enjoy the area better in FS2004.

Again, I realize everybody hasn't had the chance to fly the area with the new proposed scenery, but I feel like we should try and revisit this project. David put a lot of work into this just to have us let it totally fall by the way side. Maybe we can salvage it somehow. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

Scott

[Orange 0]

Hi All

Just before xmas 2010 I sent the latest version of the SOAR Ranch to Don, with a view to release. However the weeks passed and I heard nothing back. After weeks turned to months, I assumed the project had been canned. This despite the very positive response I received from Chris Gordon. I have reproduced his e-mail here:

22-02-2011

Dave,

I have finally seen your truly unbelievable work on SOAR Ranch - Correction...I have seen enough to know that there's still so much more to be seen.

I can only say that I never even imagined the depth, complexity, and range of coverage that you've managed to make from what was initially a pipedream among a few friends, that was executed by an amateur. Having seen this, I'm going to have to jump back on the forums and catch up with a few old friends, along with new ones such as yourself. I'm almost ashamed to say that it's been so long, that I'll probably have to use the password recovery, or call Don/Karen in Alaska. ROFL... Hey, it's ok...any excuse to talk to them is always a good one!

I have only begun to explore the rich detail of both the static and dynamic scenery that you've created. I'm completely flabbergasted. You've taken my amateurish attempts at a fictictitious airfield for SOAR, to a level that is clearly equal or superior to the best payware scenery I've ever seen. God bless you, sir! I haven't been this astonished since Roland and Max released the first ASW20-BL!!!

I can't possibly thank you enough (so belatedly, to boot- sincere apologies...). Flying out of SOAR Ranch as you created it, not only brought back all the wonderful memories (including some ground-breaking multiplayer events for SOAR), it brought back all the great reasons that I and others spent so much time and effort from FS98 through the present. The only regret of course, is that MS gave up. It's great to see that others have not. Everyone involved with SOAR who ever designed and shared anything from aircraft, to scenery, to courses to fly for either leisure or competition, has managed to create something on the FS platform that may have never even been thought of by the original FS design team. Yeah, we've all railed at MS in the past for what wasn't fixed or included in the newest version, but it's also true that all the great addons are a credit to the platform designers who realised that they couldn't do everything, and gave us the tools to do it ourselves. It's a shame that such an interesting "business relationship" will not continue with MSFS.

Thanks for your astounding work. I can only guess how many hours went into this, and I'm both flattered (and amazed) that you'ld do all this work on SOAR Ranch, when you clearly have the skills to create anything, anywhere in FS.

Best Regards,

Chris.

Scott, I really enjoyed your video! However, I can see that you have an old version of the scenery!

To address your points:

1] This is up to you guys!

2] Again not up to me.

3] This can be a simple opt-in or opt-out. You can either delete a few files to opt-out, or copy/paste files to opt-in. Do bear in-mind that using this scenery is already dependent on you d/l & installing a great deal of mesh/terrain scenery. It will NOT work FSX default. (As per my design brief). The additional airports are VERY unlikely to conflict with any other scenery you may have, as I have checked all the main file libraries and can find no other packages for these places. In my opinion, there addition greatly enhances the overall experience of the SOAR Ranch.

4] If there is a demand, I can work up an FS9 version?

"David put a lot of work into this..." Yes I did! it represents almost 100 hours of tweaking>re-compiling>re-starting FS>tweaking>re-compiling>re-starting FS>tweaking>re-compiling>re-starting FS........ loI

I have put up a web page for members to view some screen shots and d/l the SOAR Ranch scenery package http://www.orange-air.co.uk/util/project.html

Please post your thoughts...

Cheers,

Dave Morris.