For Microsoft Flight Simulator X
By James Udall (a.k.a. Skyguy414 in the forums, FSX Multiplayer)
Note: This document contains links to various websites for you to learn more about a highlighted feature, if you so choose. You must be connected to the Internet for the links to work.
Introduction
Thank you for your interest in Utah Complete for FSX. Utah Complete
v1.0 is a scenery add-on which covers much of the state of Utah,
I hope this scenery will enable you to explore the state and
visit its many beautiful locations. Whether you want to go mountain flying
through scenic canyons, fly your helicopter up to the tops of mountains to let
your ski buddies experience the thrill of Heliskiing, or go
soaring over mountain thermals in a glider, or fly the complex airspace above
Salt Lake City in your favorite IFR aircraft, there is a little bit of
everything for everyone.
This project is many months in the making and has many new
and improved features. A revamped land class covering most of the state with
much more detail in select locations (see list below) is obvious when flying
around. One of the biggest motivations for this extensive project was to fix
the persistent problem of desert only textures almost everywhere, especially in
places it shouldn’t be, like the mountains. This was one of my major criticisms
with default FSX scenery, as it is for many. In addition, this project adds new
scenery objects and repositions others that were incorrectly placed or facing
the wrong way in the default scenery. For example, the Utah State Capitol
in
Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC) has been upgraded considerably and is where I have spent much of my attention during this project. Microsoft created a fairly realistic rendition of KSLC in FSX. Unfortunately the terminal Microsoft created is missing several gates and several of the concourses and other buildings are not the correct size or otherwise inaccurate. I created several new objects from scratch which greatly improves the realism of the airport. Buildings are correctly sized and placed with help from Google Earth and other aids. All gates are properly represented and sized for the appropriate aircraft. The gates are accurately sized and associated to the respective airline the gate belongs to. The AFCAD was also corrected for minor mistakes and missing features.
Provo Municipal (KPVU), which is now tower controlled, has been updated to add tower communications and adds a control tower on the field where it is located in reality. New taxiways at the airport, which are missing in the default version, have also been added.
At Ogden-Hinckley Airport (KOGD), I have fixed and added many recent changes to taxiway and runway configurations as well as added the new ramp and FBO terminal to the south end of the airport next to runway 34. Various scenery objects were also added for realism. The extra objects will appear with a dense or higher setting in your scenery density menu.
At St. George Municipal Airport (KSGU), taxiways were resized and repositioned for better realism. Several Parking spots have been added and a more realistic terminal building, similar to the one at the airport, has replaced the default one. As mentioned before, the land class and terrain modifications around KSGU are quite extensive when compared to default scenery. Once you have flown into KSGU, you will notice how landlocked the airport is as it sits atop a mesa roughly 500-600 feet above the city below. St. George is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation and is in dire need of a new airport to even keep up with the increasing population and to allow larger aircraft to fly there. Therefore a brand new and much larger airport is being built southeast of the city. It will likely open in 2010 or 2011. I highly suggest making KSGU a frequent stop on your journeys before it’s replaced! Flying into this airport in real life is even more thrilling. St. George is also where the corporate headquarters of SkyWest Airlines have been for over 35 years.
Airports with updated AFCADs include:
Cedar City Regional Airport (KCDC)
Logan-Cache County Airport (KLGU)
Provo Municipal Airport (KPVU)
Richfield Municipal Airport (KRIF)
St. George Municipal Airport (KSGU)
Salt Lake City Airport No. 2 (U42)
Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC)
Spanish Fork-Springville Airport (U77)
Tooele Valley Airport (Bolinder Field) (KTVY)
Generally the AFCAD and airport updates fix runway and taxiway placement and errors. For example, in default scenery, displaced thresholds are on the wrong side of the runway at several airports. The updates fix this and taxiway width and placement, apron size and placement, you get the idea. More parking spots were added for your AI traffic and some airports feature various scenery objects when scenery density is set to dense or above. Much time was spent researching each of these airports and doing my best to make them accurate and more realistic than default. In future releases, I plan including more airports with updates and fixes.
Detailed land class locations include but are not limited to:
- Salt Lake City & Metro Area:
o Much
of The Wasatch Front
(Includes Weber,
o Park City (Includes ski runs at Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons, and Deer Valley)
o Kamas
o
o Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon Ski Resorts (Alta, Brighton, Solitude, and Snowbird Ski resorts)
- Vernal and immediate vicinity
- Much of Sevier County
- St. George and metro area (Some terrain modification near the KSGU airport is also done to enhance the mesa the airport lies upon).
- Cedar City and immediate vicinity
- Various other towns and cities
At locations with detailed land class you will see much more
accurate and realistic scenery. Cities are updated to reflect most recent
development and urban sprawl. Google Earth
and other aerial photography were used for enhanced accuracy. The mountains are
textured much more realistically and are blended much better into the
surrounding environment. Ski runs can be found at some of the popular ski
resorts in the
A less detailed land class (but still more accurate and realistic than the default) covers much of the remainder of the state. Future versions will include detailed land class in other areas. The less detailed land class corrects many cities and towns for size, accuracy of location, and texture.
Other land class highlights include:
- Red rock scenery in many parts of Southern Utah (Such as a more detailed Zions National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Lake Powell/Glen Canyon, and the Moab area).
- Y Mountain with the famous
“Y” monogram on the side of the mountain can be seen east of BYU in Provo (KPVU). The “U” above the University of Utah in
- Agriculture & Fields are greatly increased in the appropriate areas where it is missing in default FSX.
- The famous Bonneville Salt Flats, located east of Wendover (KENV), features a more accurate and lighter texture (Although the Salt Flats are as white as snow in reality).
- More golf courses and parks are added in exact locations.
© 2007 Utah Complete by James Udall.
This is an add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Any person who downloads or otherwise obtains this add-on for use does so at his or her own risk. The creator of this work is not responsible for any negative affects this add-on may cause to one’s computer.
This add-on is available free of charge for download only from websites specified by the creator. Uploading this add-on to any other site without permission from the author is not allowed. You are not allowed to sell this add-on or ask for money for its distribution.
The creator makes no warranty, expressed or implied, and bears no liability.
This project was tested with default FSX scenery and with
the Flight1 Ultimate Terrain add-on (not required, but a nice product to have).
If you have any other add-ons covering any area this project covers, you may
experience different results. You should ensure this add-on is placed in a
higher priority (lower number) within your scenery library if you want to show
this project over any other conflicting scenery. This includes placing this
scenery as a higher priority over such products as Ultimate Terrain. If you do
use it with Ultimate Terrain, placing this scenery as a higher priority in your
scenery library should not affect other areas outside of
Important: If you have any other scenery add-ons which cover anywhere
in Utah (this includes add-ons like Ultimate Terrain or other country-wide or
land class add-ons), and you want the scenery from this project to show instead
of the other one, it is important to make sure Utah Complete is set as a higher
priority (lower number) within your scenery library.
If at anytime you do not like the end result of this scenery being
installed, simply deactivate or remove the
Special Thanks
This product was produced using FSX_KML by Innova Software, EZ Landclass by Russel Dirks, ObPlacer XML by Arno Gerretsen, FSX Planner by zBlueSoftware, and GMAX by TurboSquid. Special thanks go to these developers for their creation and work on their respective products. I would also like to thank Jim Vile and Bill Womack for their expertise. And of course, I want to thank Microsoft and the ACES team for continuing to deliver us new versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Version 1.0 is what I hope to be the first of several
versions, which I plan on updating and expanding in the future. I hope to
include more airports and areas with more detailed scenery in future
revisions. I have plenty of my own, but
I am always in need of good quality pictures of airport buildings (preferably
head-on at ground level) of any
This is my first major scenery add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator. I am releasing this project free of charge to the Flight Simulator community. This project took hundreds if not thousands of hours to complete and test. Not only would I like to provide you with revisions of this scenery, I would also like to start new projects. In order to devote more time to this endeavor, it must make sense for me financially to take time away from other work to do these sorts of projects. Therefore, I will be accepting donations via PayPal. Donating through Paypal is a secured process which allows you to use a major credit card to make a donation in the amount of your choice. If this scenery has improved your Flight Sim experience and if you have the means to do so, I would greatly appreciate any donation you wish to offer. If this add-on proves to be well accepted within the FS community and there is desire for more projects in the future, and I feel like it would be worth the time and effort required, you will see more to come. I’d also be happy to hear any ideas you have for future projects (I also have some ideas in mind).
Click
the button below to make a donation via Paypal secured.