Base UK Cornwall Spaceport?

[francisdrake]

Recently I had to abort a DreamChaser launch over the mid-Atlantic. Due to a pilots error I dropped back into the atmosphere.
Instead of quitting the simulation, I looked for an airport in Europe to make an emergency landing.
Surprise: There is none!

With the simulation temporarily suspended, I looked up the internet and found the Spaceport Cornwall, which is the Newquay Cornwall Airport.
As a hack, I copied the Habana base to this position and could make an emergency landing there, see the screenshots below.

Now I wonder if one of you wizards would like to make a base for the Cornwall Spaceport?

I am not good at making bases. A simple one would do, with the correct runway heading and a few buildings around, to make it better visible from a distance. As a licensed spaceport (at least thats what they say on their website) I guess it has a right to be in Orbiter.



Coming in after a 180° turn to shed off overspeed. The runway orientation is all wrong.

A photo of the real Cornwall airport.

 

[Notebook]

Some shameless self promotion...

https://www.orbiter-forum.com/resources/wescott-rpe.5447/

If I ever get back into base making, I'll certainly give Cornwall a go.
Also, if anyone has copies of my old bases, feel free to post them.

 

[LordCroussette]

I think I'll try it.

 

[LordCroussette]

40 minutes later, I have some basic L15 tiles done.

 

[francisdrake]

Wow, your progress is absolutely fascinating!

Runway 12 will ideal for a straight-in approach from the Atlantic.
I assume in reality the opposite runway 30 will be used more often due to prevailing north-westerly winds

 

[LordCroussette]

Thank you. I've done L16 and L17. Right now, I'm taking a launch break and then I'll do L18 and L19 before putting some objects and finishing it (might modelise some basic buildings for it, if I feel like it)

 

[LordCroussette]

L18 and L19 done! Now I have to figure out buildings... great x)

 

[LordCroussette]

Well, there you go! I published the first version of the base. Might go back on it later to add proper buildings to it (since I decided not to work on that today) but it will be enough for now. Hope you enjoy it!

https://www.orbiter-forum.com/resources/spaceport-cornwall.5508/

 

[n72.75]

That's awesome. Deltagliders will feel right at home here

 

[francisdrake]

LordCroussette, thanks a lot!
I was hoping for a base with the runway pointing into the right direction only, but you made a fully-fledged base with runway, surface tiles and terrain flattening. Thanks for spending your Sunday on this!

Installation was an easy drag and drop. Much fun to fly into it!
Below are screenshots of a DreamChaser landing.
What a way to come to Cornwall!

 

[LordCroussette]

No problem.

 

[BrianJ]

Wow! That was quick work.
Great to have my nearest Spaceport in Orbiter. Thanks
Nice bit of coast around there.

Returning to base over Mawgan Porth beach.....

 

[francisdrake]

Mission Failed Succesfully!
On top of a Vulcan Centaur, a Dream Chaser is ready for an early-morning launch to the ISS.


But after stage separation problems arise. The Centaur is underperfoming.
It is decided to abort the mission. The command for a Transatlantic abort is given:
"Tenacity, go Cornwall!"


After the initial reentry, DreamChaser performs a series of
atmospheric hops to stretch its range over the Atlantic.


It is a hazy noon over the British coastline when DreamChaser arrives,
coming in from the North-West.


With the elegance of a flying brick, it dives into final approach on the Cornwall Spaceport.


Runway in sight! Gear down.


Wheel stop on Cornwalls' runway 12. We made it!

 

[LordCroussette]

Amazing!

 

[misha.physics]

Hi all,
inspired by this thread I would like to ask you if it's difficult to make such landscapes? I just would like to try to make something for Orbiter and such landscapes seems pleasing to me. I'd like to experiment with tile resolution, runways, buildings, etc. Maybe you can advice/suggest me any study materials/documentation/tutorials/video/required soft/threads on this forum to immersion in this job. I would be very grateful for any help.
___________

Deltagliders will feel right at home here

They really do

 

[LordCroussette]

It's easy once you know how tiles work. It is just time consuming.

I think I might write a tutorial in the future to explain how to make bases for 2016 from scratch. The only thing I won't be able to explain though are elevation tiles, since to this day I still had no clue how to work on them (hence why I use D3D9 flattening for this base (and all my others))

 

[misha.physics]

Thank you!
These few days I'm studying this subject. I've started from tutorial of jacquesmomo: here, and read carefully the first 6 lessons. So, now I know how tiles of Orbiter 2016 work, and what folder and file names are. I made several tiles (in *.dds) for practice (19 and 18 level, but not true landscape). Also, I ran through the rest of these lessons (to the end) to get general understanding of the forhcoming work. It looks quite real for me, but nevertheless I decided to study it more. (Because I was mainly confused by the manual gluing of pictures in the editor, but maybe there in no other way...)

I've found several threads on this forum regarging Orbiter Base Maker, Base Tile Maker, Terrain Tool Box. Besides, it seems there are some other tools which can be very useful for this. Now I'm going to read PlanetTextures.pdf. I've already installed some graphic editors, Google Earth Pro, etc.

Of course, I have a lot of questions. For example, is the tile resolution restricted to be 512x512 pixel? Does it mean that there is a principled restriction on surface texture resolution? Is it possible to get higher resolution level? Namely, 19+ ?

Even if it's a big manual work I would like to try to make some beautiful small area on the surface. Without objects, buildings, elevation for now. Only surface tiles.

 

[LordCroussette]

Thank you!
These few days I'm studying this subject. I've started from tutorial of jacquesmomo: here, and read carefully the first 6 lessons. So, now I know how tiles of Orbiter 2016 work, and what folder and file names are. I made several tiles (in *.dds) for practice (19 and 18 level, but not true landscape). Also, I ran through the rest of these lessons (to the end) to get general understanding of the forhcoming work. It looks quite real for me, but nevertheless I decided to study it more. (Because I was mainly confused by the manual gluing of pictures in the editor, but maybe there in no other way...)

I've found several threads on this forum regarging Orbiter Base Maker, Base Tile Maker, Terrain Tool Box. Besides, it seems there are some other tools which can be very useful for this. Now I'm going to read PlanetTextures.pdf. I've already installed some graphic editors, Google Earth Pro, etc.

Of course, I have a lot of questions. For example, is the tile resolution restricted to be 512x512 pixel? Does it mean that there is a principled restriction on surface texture resolution? Is it possible to get higher resolution level? Namely, 19+ ?

Even if it's a big manual work I would like to try to make some beautiful small area on the surface. Without objects, buildings, elevation for now. Only surface tiles.

Like you, @jacquesmomo 's tutorial is where I learned how to make tiles. I remember asking the same question about tile resolution. His answer was that it didn't look more detailed, and even glitched out a bit - or something like that.

However, I believe it is possible to do higher resolutions than L19. For that, you need to open Earth.cfg in the Config folder. In the file, you will find this section:

; === Visualisation Parameters ===
TileFormat = 2
CloudFormat = 2
MaxPatchResolution = 19        ; surface texture resolution limit (1-19)
MinCloudResolution = 1         ; cloud layer from this resolution
MaxCloudResolution = 10         ; highest cloud resolution level
SpecularRipple = TRUE          ; enable specular water microtexture

You will need to change "MaxPatchResolution" from 19 to higher (like 21 for instance, which was Orbiter 2010's highest res). However, only you and everyone else who did this edit will see the higher res tiles. So, if you upload it as an addon, the majority will never see these tiles. If you make these tiles for yourself, then go for it! But if you do them for an addon, then I wouldn't bother personally.

 

[misha.physics]

Thanks. I will try.

 

[jacquesmomo]

However, I believe it is possible to do higher resolutions than L19. For that, you need
You will need to change "MaxPatchResolution" from 19 to higher (like 21 for instance, which was Orbiter 2010's highest res). However, only you and everyone else who did this edit will see the higher res tiles.

Oh... I did not think to try this...
Thank you for this idea, I will try...