Archive for August, 2008

In good PR fashion we can now announce that ‘we are happy, no, proud to announce’ … yadayadaya…

Seriously though, we ARE happy !!! After much hard work we can now finally put our feet up on the desk and bring you a new add-on for Flight Simulator X called Plum Island. It is the first of a new series of very highly detailed small sceneries designed by Bill Womack. The series is called ‘100 Dollar Burger’, with a wink to an existing real-life chain of small airfield reports.

Bill is well known for other commercial sceneries such as Freight Dogs, Dillingham on Hawaii and major parts of Tongass Fjords, and also for some excellent freeware sceneries such as Bear Gulch and RAF West Malling for RealAir and Reading Airfield in Pennsylvania made for the MAAM-Sim DC-3 title.

Plum Island’s small airfield (2B2) is situated near Newburyport, some 27 miles north of Boston along the Atlantic coast. The FSX version of it conveys the atmosphere of a small local field, often slumbering in the summer heat or laying deserted in the wintery cold. According to the Airnav pages aircraft operations average some 54 per week, so clearly not a busy airport, but instead the ideal companion for your VFR-loving GA aircraft!

FSAddon’s version for it is a ‘native FSX’ title and tested under Windows XP and Vista, and with FSX SP1, SP2 and Acceleration. It includes the airfield itself with abundant detail up to and including the field’s instructions hanging next to the entrance of the main building.

It also includes a wide area around the field including the town of Newburyport, the tidal flats from the river to the Atlantic, the beaches and the many holiday homes along the coast. This entire area is made using high-res aerial photos and painstakingly placed customized autogen houses and other objects.

Also included is a dedicated AI traffic file, a nice little manual in pdf format and last but not least a dedicated support forum on FSAddon’s web site.

The second best part of all this, next to the incredible detail and immersion the package brings you, is the price. Plum Island can be had for only $ 15, as an introductory price to the new series.

We have put it up for sale IN DOLLARS on our own site (click HERE), using the Flight1 wrapper software. We are also working on a CD version, for those of you who don’t like 280 Mb downloads, or just like to have some plastic in your hands!

The CD is estimated to cost $ 22, and that’s including shipping anywhere in the world.

If you rather buy from simMarket, that too is possible, then go here.

‘Hampered’ by family issues these past weeks and months productivity has lapsed of course. So now I am stuck all of a sudden with quite a number of projects, all vying for my attention. We have the Lysander of course, chugging away and making progress, but still quite a while from being finished. And then there is Plum Island, almost ready and we’re aiming to get it out the door this weekend !

Then there is a small mission pack I have still laying around, made by Ron Jeffers. Working on the installer as we speak. It is called Sandspit Missions. Further I am working with my friend Ruud Faber and another gentleman on a brand new series of missions. I’ll elaborate more on that when we’re a little further down the line and going beta.

And we have Garry J. Smith with a large set of wonderful liveries for 5 jet fighters. Working on the installer, screenies and product pages for that too!

What else? Ah yes, the template for the VA Web Sites is almost ready, so we’ll launch that upon return from France….. because Nina and I will make a second attempt to have a short holiday, after our regular vacation was so rudely interrupted a month ago.

Meanwhile, DO have a look at another set of great Plum Island  screenshots from our Screenshot Artist Nick Churchill, here on his web site.

The Lysander project has made another little step….. Ron delivered the modifications on the model, taken from our valiant beta testers team and delivered Beta 2.

I made some screenshots again, that REALLY show what I had in mind with the project in the first place…. following the book of Hugh Verity, one of the actual Lizzie pilots in the Second World War !

Check out the PREVIEW PAGE and feast your eyes…… (still a long way from completion, but hey !).

We’re inching closer to the release of Bill Womack’s latest title; Plum Island. And to celebrate I have been flying around and shooting pictures….. check them out on our PREVIEW PAGE!
 

Plum Island is Bill’s latest title for Flight Simulator, specifically made for FSX. This time Bill has made extensive use of aerial photos to add a true-to-life atmosphere to the landscape. On it he has meticulously placed autogen objects, so that this ‘photo-title’ is NOT one of the ’standard’ boring flat-looking wallpapers that so often result from using photos.

He has also made not only the Summer textures, as again is usual for products like these, but rather has provided ALL SEASONS, and night textures.
The BEST part of it all however is how he has been able to BLEND the phototexture in with the default MS textures. You will have a hard time figuring our where Plum Island ends and default FS textures begin !

But that’s not all… Bill has added the very small airfield 2B2, aka Plum Island, in stunning detail, rendering it truly ‘as real as it gets’. Finding the field from the air is not easy, but once you do and land there, you can taxi up to the small FBO or fuel station, and fill your plane up.

You can ‘fill yourself up’ on one of the picknick tables in the shade of some trees, and chat with the airfield manager or one of the ‘resident’ pilots.

For those of you familiar with Emma Field and its thriving community…… this is Emma Field Material folks !!!

In case you haven’t been here before….. and you clicked on your regular www.FSAddon.com link…. YES, we forwarded you to the new site; www.FSAddon.eu. The old address will continue to be valid, but THIS here is our new layout!

Maybe you will need to refresh your cache, to get rid of the ‘old’ pages…. or just refresh your browser window.

Not everything has been ported, and not everything will. It’s a fresh start and the reason for the change is that we can more easily update this format as opposed to the old ‘classic’ site.
We’re not done with the changes yet… this is a ‘project ‘.

As with every change in life not everything is good, welcomed or easy….. but we are certain that both you AND us will get used to it, and that it will be BETTER in the end !

Kindest regards,

Francois

Yup, good news at last! Bill Womack has been working hard (see his blog) and Plum Island is now ready for Beta testing. The Beta Team has been formed, the beta forum opened and we’re now all eagerly awaiting the first beta version to be uploaded! We expect this NOT to be a very lengthy process…… and we’re aiming at getting this product published during the Summer months still ! That’s especially for all of those poor souls who for one reason or other could NOT go on summer vacation this year!