California Missions Pak #2 (for FSX Only)

Table of Contents

    1. Introduction
    2. Installation
    3. Optional Installations
        MegaScenery Earth
        FSGenesis Terrain Mesh
        Additional Library Files Used
    4. Scenery not Showing Up
    5. The Missions
    7. Acknowledgements
    8. Disclaimer
    9. Release History

1. Introduction

This is the Second scenery package of California Missions for FSX, and includes the following missions:

        San Diego (San Diego de Alcala) (CAM01)
        Carmel (San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo) (CAM02)
        San Antonio (San Antonio de Padua) (CAM03)
        San Juan Capistrano (CAM07)

        Santa Barbara (CAM10)
        Soledad (Nuestra Senora de la Soledad) (CAM13)
        San Juan Bautista (CAM15)

        San Miguel (San Miguel Arcangel) (CAM16)
        San Fernando (San Fernando Rey de Espana) (CAM17)
        San Luis Rey (San Luis Rey de Francia) CAM18)
|
       
DePala (San Antonio de Pala) (CAM22)

I have decided to include all previous missions in each scenery package as I release new ones. This will result in larger downloads, but will vastly simplify installation and update any previously installed missions I may have changed. Therefore:

Before installing this package, check the above mission list. If you have missions NOT listed above, you have already installed a later California Missions version!  DO NOT INSTALL THIS SCENERY PACKAGE! Installing earlier mission packages over newer ones will probably screw things up!

This scenery has been tested on FSX Gold Edition (FSX Delux and Acceleration Expansion Pack), FSGenesis 9.6 terrain mesh, on both Win XP and Win7 operating systems.

2. Installation

There are many ways to install the files. Shown below is the way I believe is the easiest. Your FSX drive and path is probably different than mine so I do not show the entire path below. Where I indicate "FSX" you would use your FSX directory.

1. Unzip the CMFSXP02.zip file to a temporary directory/folder. (Be sure to allow the paths to be maintained.)

2. Open Windows Explorer and look at the temporary folder. You will see four main folders: California_Missions-FSX, RWE-Library-Objects, Sound, and Effects.

3. Using Explorer, copy (or move) the effects files to the FSX\Effects folder.

4. Using Explorer, copy (or move) the sound files to the FSX\Sound folder.

5. If you have a previous California Mission package, delete the California_Missions-FSZ folder from the FSX\Addon Scenery folder.

6. Drag the California_Missions-FSX folder to your FSX\Addon Scenery folder.

7. If you have any of my scenery packages that use my RWE-Library-Objects, check the version number (located in the root RWE-Library-Objects folder). If it is older than 1-31-1012, then replace with the version that came with this package.

    If you do not already have a RWE-Library-Objects folder, then drag this folder to your FSX\Addon Scenery folder.

8. If you have previously installed any of my FSX missions, you are done! Move to:   3. Optional Installations below. If not...

9. Start FSX and from the World, Scenery Library screen, select Add Area and add the California_Missions-FSX and RWE-Library-Objects scenery files that are now located in the FSX\ADDON SCENERY directory. This does require two entries for this scenery, one for the scenery and one for the object libraries, but that will solve future installation problems and the object libraries will be used in other, non-mission, sceneries I have planned.

3. Optional Installations

MegaScenery Earth

A. Megascenery Earth California from PC Aviator Inc. is not required for this scenery, but without it the scenery looks very unrealistic. See below images for a comparison.

Soledad-WO-MS.jpg (379678 bytes) Soledad-W-MS.jpg (302789 bytes)
Soledad Without MegaScenery Earth Soledad With MegaScenery Earth

The MegaScenery Earth sections used in this scenery are California # 10, 11, 12, 15 and 28. These can be downloaded for a small fee at:

http://www.megasceneryearth.com/store/cart.php?target=category&category_id=64

B. Also used in this scenery is the MegaSceneryX Southern California package, also available from the link above. Not sure yet how many missons will use this MegaScenery, but it is several of the 22 I will do and 5 in this package.

FSGenesis Terrain Mesh

This scenery was designed and tested with FSGenesis 9.6m terrain mesh. It should work fine without it, or with other 3rd party meshes, but I have not tested that. I have used some "Flattens" around the missions (based on the 9.6m scenery), and that may result in some raised plateaus or holes if using other terrain meshes. FSGenesis terrain mesh is available at:

http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

EZ-Scenery and Rwy12 Object Library Files Used

I have used objects from these two Objects Library Files. While most of these objects were designed for FS9, many can be used in FSX without problems (mainly objects that do not use transparent textures.) These library files can be downloaded from flightsim.com and avsim.com. All you need are the objects files - the object placement programs are not needed. Note: These objects are NOT required - they just add to the scenery.

        EZ Scenery default library file can be downloaded at: http://abacuspub.com/pub/AbacusEZLibraries.exe   or

        ezoliv33.zip from flightsim.com includes a much larger list of EZ Scenery object files.

        Rwy 12 default library files from flightsim.com: rw12L112.zip, rw12L212.zip, and rw12312.zip

This scenery also uses these specific addon library files. All other objects are either default FSX objects or are objects supplied in this file.            

Library Type BGL Name Source (File)
EZ landscape.bgl Included in kcnymoab.zip from flightsim.com
EZ MCDMilitaryLibrary.bgl mcdmil.zip from flightsim.com
     

 

4. Scenery not Showing Up

If after installing, or later for no apparant reason, the scenery does not display, try the following:

1. Make sure the scenery display level is at least set to NORMAL or higher.  (OPTIONS/SETTINGS/DISPLAY/SCENERY/SCENERY COMPLEXITY)

2. Instant Scenery appears to have a small problem. If the Instant Scenery bgl is moved around, FSX loses track of where they are. To fix:

   a. Close down FSX
   b. Go to the Missions scenery folder and move the BGL's to another folder that is NOT an active scenery folder.
   c. Restart FSX going to that mission location.
   d. When it has loaded, exit FSX
   e. Move the BGL's back into the scenery folder.
   f. Restart FSX.  

That should do it.

I have had to go through this procedure several times during the development of this scenery.

5. The Missions

 

Mission Photo Airport ID

Directions to Mission

San Diego 01-San_Diego.jpg (182309 bytes) CAM01 Take off from Montgomery field (KMYF) on Rwy 10R. Make a slight right turn to 120. Mission is about 3 miles.
Carmel 02-Carmel.jpg (236416 bytes) CAM02 Take off from Monterey Peninsula (KMRY) on Rwy 28L. Turn left to 220. Mission is about 5 miles, just before the coast.
San Antonio 03-San_Antonio.jpg (285316 bytes) CAM03 Start at Mesa Del Rey airport (KKIC) and take off from Rwy 11. Turn right to 192 and fly about 16 miles. You will need about 3000' to clear mountains.
San Gabriel To Be Done CAM04  
San Luis Obispo To Be Done CAM05  
San Francisco To Be Done CAM06  
San Juan Capistrano 07-San_Juan_Capistrano.jpg (250052 bytes) CAM07 Take off on Rwy 19L from Santa Ana (KNSA). Turn left to 123 for about 17 miles, paralleling the coast.
Santa Clara To Be Done CAM08  
Ventura To Be Done CAM09  
Santa Barbara 10-Santa_Barbara.jpg (262487 bytes) CAM10 Take off from RWY 7 at Santa Barbara Muni (KSBA) and make a slight left turn to 070, and in 4.5 miles you will pass right over the mission.
La Purisima To Be Done CAM11  
Santa Cruz To Be Done CAM12  
Soledad 13-Soledad.jpg (227421 bytes) CAM13 Start at Clark Ranch (3CA9) and take off from Rwy 31. You will see the mission about 4 miles straight ahead.
San Jose To Be Done CAM14  
San Juan Bautista 15-San_Juan_Bastista.jpg (199445 bytes) CAM15 From Hollister Muni (3O7), take off from Rwy 24. Turn to 232 for 8 miles.
San Miguel 16-San_Miguel.jpg (222550 bytes) CAM16 Start at Paso Robles Muni (KPRB) and take off on Rwy 31. Make a slight left turn to 302 for 6.5 miles.
San Fernando 17-San_Fernando.jpg (191091 bytes) CAM17 From Van Nuys airport (KVNY), take off from the active runway. Turn right to 7 and fly 5.5 miles.
San Luis Rey 18-San_Luis_Rey.jpg (204175 bytes) CAM18 Take off from RYW 6 at Oceanside Muni (KOKB) and make a left turn to 045. Mission is about 2 miles from airport and is visible after taking off.
Santa Ines To Be Done CAM19  
San Rafael To Be Done CAM20  
Solano To Be Done CAM21  
De Pala 22-DePala.jpg (279402 bytes) CAM22 Go to Pauma Valley Air Park (95L) and take off from the active Rwy 29. The mission is on the other side of the mountain in front of you, about 7 miles away.

 

7. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank:

Garvin Barnicoat for his organpipe cactus API macros. I have changed the macros some, but still use his texture files.
Jim Crummy for his railroad car API macro.
Allan Wheeler for his California Coast Scenery. I didn't actually use it in the creation of these missions, but after thinking about it for several years, his scenery inspired me to start this project. He also helped with several problems in figuring out how to do FSX objects and scenery. He was also a Beta Tester.
The entire Airport for Windows and the newer SceneGenX development team. These freeware packages make this all possible. While I didn't use these too much for the FSX versions of the California Missions, I still use them extensively for the FS9 versions, making conversion to FSX much easier.
Seev Kahn and Israel Roth for RWY12 and all the people who contributed the object libraries.
Michael Carr for the Military Objects Library
Ron Silent for his backhoe texture. I rebuilt the model in GMAX for FSX, but used his textures.
Scott Hendrix (H_Farfy) for his object models and great tutorials. If you want to learn how to create scenery with FS Design Studio, here is the place to start! See:  http://farfyscenery.katuu.com/
Jon Patch for his library objects. See: 
http://www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim/  for more details.
I'd like to acknowledge the author of Landscape.zip, but I don't know who it is! It is included in a file by Alan C. Heiner, so for now, we'll go with that.


I have collected hundreds of macros over the years, many of which I don't have a clue where they came from. If I have missed anyone, let me know so I can include acknowledgements in future releases.

8. Disclaimer

The author cannot be responsible, in any way, for any problems occurring from the use of this software. If you think it is causing problems, delete it.

This zip file may be freely distributed to other sites (only if they do not charge a fee) in its complete and original form only. I retain all rights to this file and all the files contained within.

Designed with SceneGenX (Version 1 Build 61), FS Design Studio V3.5.1 (for FSX objects), FS Design Studio V3.0 (for FS9 Objects), FS Design Studio V2.0 (to create transparant texture files),Gmax V1.2, PaintShopPro V7, Instant Scenery from Flight1 Software, and Airport Design Editor V9x.   Many custom objects (almost all) are based on photos and have photo textures.

Thank you for trying my scenery, hope you enjoy it.



Ron Ezra
ronezra@cox.net

9. Release History

Mission Pack #1 - Nov. 2009
    Mission Soledad - Original Release
    Mission De Pala - Original Release

Mission Pack #2 - Feb. 2012

    Mission San Diego - Original Release
   Mission Carmel - Original Release
   Mission San Antonio - Original Release
   Mission San Juan Capistrano - Original Release
   Mission Santa Barbara - Original Release
   Mission Soledad - No Changes
   Mission San Juan Bautista - Original Release
   Mission San Miguel - Original Release
   Mission San Luis Reyl - Original Release
   Mission San Fernando - Original Release
   Mission De Pala - No Changes