Lack of Bahamas Scenery in FSX

Hello all,

 

Just a thought I'd like to share. I am very surprised at the complete lack of FSX scenery for the Bahamas. I mean there is literally nothing in terms of payware, Tropicalsim did Nassau (MYNN) in 2006 and Imagine Sim re-did it in 2010, other than that there is nothing else. I have stumbled across some of Art Poole's work, he has done a lot of small airports in the Bahamas, including one I requested, Exuma Intl. These are great little projects however as soon as I get a few hundred feet in the air, the default FSX scenery kills it for me. The islands are poorly modeled, which is no surprise from default fsx, and it makes flying in this region a sub-par experience.

 

Bahamas is such a huge tourist destination, its close proximity to the US make it easy for tourists to visit. Not to mention the large presence of GA on many of the small airfields that dot the islands. Personally I feel this area has a huge potential for a payware scenery that covers the entire Bahamas. Obviously a big project but it has been done before. Aerosoft Maldives and Seychelles or FlyTampa Grenadines are similar projects that cover a large area with photo-real imaging, accurate object placement and detailed airports.

 

I'm talking about full photo-real coverage, hand placed auto-gen, reef and underwater coverage, lots of sand and beeches ect. And maybe the major airports covered in detail, Nassau, Freeport, Exuma, Marsh Harbour, San Salvador ect. With smaller airports available as expansion packs, similar to the ORBX stuff. I think a project like this, while very extensive and time consuming, would sell a fair amount of copies. I think it's a huge un-tapped market personally. One can always dream.

 

Just my 2 cents, what do you guys think? Does anybody have any decent addons, freeware & payware to make flying in the Bahamas more enjoyable?

 

Thanks!

UTX has coverage of the Bahamas in its Tropical America and Caribbean product, which should help with shorelines and other terrain features.

 

There's also this freeware list in case you didn't look here:

http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx/bahamas.html

 

Personally I'm not a fan of covering large areas with photoreal, having tried out the NL2000 photoscenery which is beautiful but caused OOM's galore for me.

Take a look at Paul Wheeler's scenery for the Islands in the Caribe.Google "Striking Software" and click on the PW Sceneries tab on the home page.

I've posted something about the Caribbean and especially the Bahamas in the Orbx forums..I asked them about doing a special pineyard with blue holes landclass for islands like Andros, G Bahama,.Abaco. I inquired about why nobody really wants to do the Caribbean justice,especially with the landclass, but they just dont care enough in my opinion. If I knew how to create landclass and airport terminal models i would redo the Bahamas and a few airports..I'd do Andros first though.

Take a look at Paul Wheeler's scenery for the Islands in the Caribe.Google "Striking Software" and click on the PW Sceneries tab on the home page.

 

The striking Software series doesnt cover the bahamas or the Greater antilles.. its only for the lesser antilles.

UTX has coverage of the Bahamas in its Tropical America and Caribbean product, which should help with shorelines and other terrain features.

 

There's also this freeware list in case you didn't look here:

http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx/bahamas.html

 

Personally I'm not a fan of covering large areas with photoreal, having tried out the NL2000 photoscenery which is beautiful but caused OOM's galore for me.

 

I am running UTX Tropical America, It was an improvement but still not what I envisioned. I have gone through the freeware list, that is were I found most of Art Poole's work. When FlyTampa released the Grenadines package I was surprised, the area is not well covered in terms of high quality imagery however It seems to be a blend of photo-scenery and auto-gen stuff that looks a lot better than the usual flat photo-real textures. It makes flying VFR in these islands super realistic and a fun time. See photo:

 

 

I've posted something about the Caribbean and especially the Bahamas in the Orbx forums..I asked them about doing a special pineyard with blue holes landclass for islands like Andros, G Bahama,.Abaco. I inquired about why nobody really wants to do the Caribbean justice,especially with the landclass, but they just dont care enough in my opinion. If I knew how to create landclass and airport terminal models i would redo the Bahamas and a few airports..I'd do Andros first though.

 

Really it is a huge market. I know a lot of Americans with PPL's hop over from Florida to Bahamas to do some flying. There is a ton of VFR & GA traffic between the two. Not to mention a few of my Canadian friends that have flown down to the Florida Keys and hopped across to Bahamas before returning home. I'm sure something like this would sell well especially done to FlyTampa or Aerosoft spec!

Ryan, I agree. I've done the Miami over trip on a RW boat more than once. It's a beautiful area!

 

Of course I'm also interested in obtaining better coverage of the ABC islands.

 

With a winter place on Bonaire and with friends on Aruba, I think that would be really nice. Not as many people from North America go there as people from Europe do. But I'd say ABC island coverage would have a substantial market both here and in the E.U. Europeans love to sim almost anything!

 

Does anyone have a suggestion of software, free or pay, with coverage of the ABC islands?

Does anyone have a suggestion of software, free or pay, with coverage of the ABC islands?

 

Check here: http://www.flightsim-scenery.com/fsx/antilles.html

 

I have all the tropicalsim stuff for ABC Islands. The Bonaire scenery is rather old, it was made in 2008. However the Aruba (2012) & Curacao (2013) sceneries are newer. The Curacao is a really nice project. There is also a photo-scenery/mesh for Aruba made by SYDesigns, it isn't the greatest quality but can enhance the flying experience from higher altitudes.

I would like to see an accurate Bimini.

 

Don