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Interview With Daniel Everman Conducted by Dominic Smith Development When did you start developing for flight simulators and what got you interested in it? I started developing for X-Plane in the summer of 2014. I noticed that many of the default airports weren't represented accurately by X-Plane and so decided to try my hand at making an airport. My first project was Fort Wayne International in Indiana and I chose it primarily because of the lack of detail in stock X-Plane. All that was drawn were the three runways and one taxiway running parallel to each runway. I found that pretty odd for an airport of its size and decided to see if I could improve on it. Tell us about the nature of your designs and what you do? I primarily create scenery for the larger US airports in X-Plane 10. Up to this point I've used what many call 'legobrick' objects (objects included with X-Plane and scenery library objects) and objects others have created (with their permission, of course). Although the airports aren't drawn exactly as you might see them in real life, I put my best efforts into making my sceneries as accurately as possible. One of the ways I do this is by using orthoimagery and other resources that I find online. I'm currently working on Burbank's Bob Hope Airport and decided to learn how to make 3D objects. It's been a steep learning curve figuring out how to draw them and then texture them, but I'm very satisfied with the end result. What do you consider your best or most popular work? As far as most popular goes (in terms of downloads), my scenery for Ronald Reagan National Airport definitely takes the title with over 1000 downloads at the two download libraries it resides in. The popularity of this scenery has surpassed my wildest expectations and is great encouragement. Personally I think that my most recent release, New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport, has been my best work yet. I tried many new techniques while in the process of making it and in my opinion, the end result turned out pretty well. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a project? Two things, really. The first one is figuring out which project to do. Deciding on which airport to create is, in itself a challenging undertaking. If I decide on an airport, then there's a couple of steps I still need to take. Is there orthoimagery available for the airport? Is it of good enough resolution? Does it show up in my scenery editing program? Is there scenery available for this airport and if there is, is it out of date or made for a previous version of X-Plane? The other challenging thing is learning about the airport. I rely almost exclusively on the internet to learn about the airports and figure out what's what. I've worked on a few airports where there has been a real lack of resources which hinders the design process somewhat. I've never actually been to any of the airports that I've created in real life, so Google has (pretty quickly) become my best friend. A short Wikipedia page (reference material) and poor orthoimagery really makes creating an airport a lot harder. What have been your favorite projects? Colorado Springs is up there at the top, as it was the first time that I included orthoimagery with an airport, instead of just using it as a reference. In addition, Colorado Springs was the first scenery where I used GroundTraffic and AutoGate in a scenery package. Figuring out how to do all those things was worth the effort, and I now include all three with every airport I create. Reno and El Paso were also great to work on, and both have been nominated for awards. Neither of them has won, but it was awesome just to be nominated. As I previously mentioned, Ronald Reagan airport has been my most downloaded airport, and I learned quite a bit from the project too. Making taxi signs for every single gate was a painstaking process but it definitely added to the immersion. What software packages and tools do you use to develop? I use WorldEditor (WED), which is provided by the developers of X-Plane and I am looking forward to version 1.4. I also use GIMP to create and modify textures, and have just picked up Blender to create custom objects and buildings. There's also an awesome program available for scenery developers called GetGT, which creates GroundTraffic routes when you drop an .xml file into it. It's a lot better than entering each lat/lon coordinate in by hand! What 3D objects have you created so far and have you used any of them in your sceneries? Currently I'm in the process of modeling some buildings of Bob Hope Airport and they will be included in the scenery (all going well). Before this though, nothing. X-Plane 10's legobrick system is great for creating accurate representations of an airport, but custom buildings make a big difference in the appearance of the airport. That's why I'll probably be making custom objects for major buildings at an airport; terminals, FBOs, hangars, plus anything unique to that particular airport. However, minor things like ramp equipment and smaller buildings will be left to legobrick objects. A lot of developers use SketchUp for their custom design work. What are some of the advantages (in your opinion) of using Blender? I've used and tested out objects that I've created with both and I have to say that I personally like the way the Blender objects have turned out, compared to SketchUp ones. SketchUp (apart from being easier to use than Blender) has some great features like a very simple UI and texturing system that is second to none in my opinion, but the objects I've made in Blender have just ended up looking a lot better and for that reason it's my preferred choice. Sure, Blender's UI isn't as good and it's got a steep learning curve but it has far more advanced tools (compared to SketchUp) which makes objects look that much better. Do you develop payware/freeware or both and why? At this present time, only freeware. I'm only 16, so I've no idea how the whole me-getting-paid situation would work. In addition, I don't think my scenery has reached the point (in quality) where I'd think about selling it. The Team How many people work with you or your team? I don't work with anybody most of the time. I have collaborated, namely on Reno, with Brett Newcomb, another scenery designer. It'd be nice to work with a few other people since there are parts of making scenery that I despise working on that I'm sure others enjoy (taxi signs?). Daniel, what role does Brett play? Brett usually lays out runways and taxiways, in addition to drawing all the lines and lighting at airports. Real Life What started your interest in aviation? Like a lot of people interested in aviation, mine started during my childhood; I've always loved planes! We didn't fly that often as a family, so getting to fly on a plane was an awesome experience for a 'young' me. Any memorable flights in real life? Not exactly a flight, but last December (30th) San Francisco International had aircraft landing on runway 1 (both), which only happens 2-3 times a year when the winds from the north kick up to 25+ knots. My dad and I rushed out to Bayfront park to snap pictures of everything from regional jets to 777s and 747s landing. The wind was insane (gusts up to 40 knots if I remember correctly) but it was truly spectacular to see these planes landing so close to us. Yes, flying on any occasion is a memorable experience. Daniel, what's your dream flight if money was no object and what aircraft would it be in? That's a tough question and there are a lot of flights to choose from. Any 737/A320 flight into Queenstown, New Zealand would be pretty great. There's some beautiful scenery as you fly into the airport and the approach procedure is pretty unique with the high mountains and short runway. Daniel, being still young, what are your plans for the future? I'm currently a student in my first semester of community college, after leaving high school this past December. I've considered doing something in the aviation field for a living and am leaning towards a career in air traffic control. What is it about ATC that you find so appealing? I've never asked myself why to be honest. I recently started up as a VATSIM controller in the Oakland ARTCC, and learning about all the procedures and how things work in the skies above my house is fascinating. Even though I can only control ground/clearance delivery at the moment, it's still very fun to control. What other hobbies or things do you do for enjoyment? I'm an avid gamer and I enjoy all sorts of video games. The Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and Madden franchises are some of my favorite to play. I'm also a football fan (go Broncos!) and a big history nut as well. Being an avid gamer, how do you feel about X-Plane being available on mobile devices? I think it's great that Laminar is expanding its market. I was a fan of the original X-Plane Mobile and I've got the new X-Plane Mobile on my iPad and have been enjoying it when I'm away from my computer. The new X-Plane Mobile feels (in my opinion) more like a game than a simulator, but hopefully the mobile version will promote the desktop version of the sim. Future Daniel how do you choose your next new X-Plane design or project? Usually I just stare at SkyVector and Google Maps until I find an airport I think I should work on. As my work has started to get more popular, some suggestions have come in and I always take those into consideration when thinking about future projects. In what ways do you see development changing in the future? I'm really looking forward to WED 1.4 as it has some great features that I can't wait to use. In addition, a few people in the X-Plane world are developing tools so as to not only make the development process more streamlined, but to also add greater details and features to sceneries. I'm always keeping an eye out for something that I feel could accomplish just that. As X-Plane is in a constant state of development, what features would you like to see implemented in the future? Improved optimization and SLI/Crossfire support would be great. I'm not well-versed on this, but I believe X-Plane does have multi-core support, only each core handles a single aircraft model at present. If you crank your AI aircraft up, then your processor's core usage will go up. Personally, I'd like it if the developers redid this and allowed multiple cores to be used, even if you're only using one aircraft and not cranking up the AI aircraft. This could benefit quite a few areas of the sim, such as loading times and objects drawn. Another great enhancement would be to see more variety in autogen objects. Often when I look at a residential area in the sim, I see the same house a few times in the same block. More objects wouldn't completely fix the issue, but seeing more variety wouldn't hurt at all. Your Thoughts What can sites like FlightSim.Com do to support you and the hobby better? Promote the work of developers. It was great getting the opportunity to do this interview, and you guys are already doing a very good job of featuring people's work and making sure it gets out there. What are some of the most important things a site or community can do to help the developers? Apart from the main web sites, the flight simming community must play their part too and that is to leave constructive feedback and comment. Constructive criticism is very important. If you enjoy a developer's work, or see something out of place or incorrect in a package, contact the developer. Daniel, from the team at FlightSim.Com, thank you for taking the time to complete the interview. I hope you enjoyed completing it as much as we did reading it. Daniel Everman Download Daniel Everman's scenery -
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