DCS World : Sightseeing

[Ironhand]

:) About now ED et. al. must be smacking their heads and thinking they can't win. Not so long ago the forums were filled with people bemoaning the fact that we were still flying the same tired Crimean theater. And, now, we're talking about it as the good old days. :)

 

That being said, I wouldn't mind having it back myself. But, since it was a part of the original LOMAC, I'm not sure what sort of Ubisoft/ED issues that might create. Then again, it was also the location of the Su-27 Flanker series, so it might not be a problem.

 

Anyway, I'm hoping to have time to install 1.2.1 tonight and start sightseeing.

 

 

Rich

[Tailgate]

Crimea was pretty nice but too flat. IMO nothing beats flying through the mountainous terrain of the Caucasus.

[Exorcet]

Crimea was pretty nice but too flat. IMO nothing beats flying through the mountainous terrain of the Caucasus.

I think the best thing about Crimea was that it made the map so big. It also made the area between Anapa and Bagerovo useable for missions, which I think was a nice area.

 

Somewhat related to this topic I noticed that Belsan is the wrong airport. It's over the location over Magas Airport. Belsan is actually called Volgodonsk and is way, way north. 300 miles north of Sukhumi, actually off the current map. At least according to Google Maps.

[104th_Crunch]

I seem to recall that the reason for removing Crimea, was that it needed to be removed in order to save memory for the new area added in Georgia. Maybe a limitation of the engine that couldn't be worked around previously.

[JimMack]

I seem to recall that the reason for removing Crimea, was that it needed to be removed in order to save memory for the new area added in Georgia. Maybe a limitation of the engine that couldn't be worked around previously.

 

That is correct.

[MemphisBelle]

That is correct.

 

But this was nearly 4 or 5 years ago with introduction of Black Shark...Is there a little possibility that the need to remove a part from the Theatre for saving memory is history, considering the new technical possibilities and now EDGE in addition?

[Ironhand]

OK. A couple of things to check in Gori:

 

1) Gori Football (Soccer) Stadium: (41* 58' 58" N, 44* 06' 09" E)

 

2) Gori Military Hospital: (41* 58' 46" N, 44* 06' 47" E)

This building is in the general location of the hospital and roughly the same shape but it's one of the generic buildings and, so, appears several other places in the city as well.

 

3) Gori Rail Station: (41* 58' 30" N, 44* 06' 24" E) to the south across the Mtkvari River.

 

Unfortunately the Gori Fortress/Castle ruins are not depicted except as an empty spot at location 41* 59' 16" N, 44* 06' 31" E.

 

 

Also, I just took a quick peek at Tbilisi and the Boris Paichadze National Stadium (same side of river as the airports but toward the other end of the city) which is the largest stadium in Georgia and the Lokomotive Football Stadium (Mikheil Meskhi Stadium), 2nd largest stadium in the country, are represented. This second stadium is located across the river to the west. Both are represented by what I suspect are two different generic stadiums but their locations are correct.

 

Rich

Edited October 13, 2012 by Ironhand

[leafer]

Awesome, Ironhand. :)

[JimMack]

I do not know if they are of historic interest, but flying ap and down the valleys in the mountains, one can come across some interesting little villages.

[Ironhand]

I do not know if they are of historic interest, but flying ap and down the valleys in the mountains, one can come across some interesting little villages.

I flew the length of the Military Road yesterday expecting to see some of those but only saw villages with more modern buildings. Are the villages with traditional structures farther to the north? I know they were on the FC 1.5 map of the northern Caucasus but haven't run across them yet in DCS farther south where I've been doing most of my flying. Are the models not being used in the newer map areas?

 

EDIT: As an aside, I was a bit disappointed that, given the number of religious structures (cathedrals, mosques, etc) that should be in the area, I couldn't find anything resembling such anywhere I've looked so far (mostly in Georgia). There are some fairly easy to use tools for creating and inserting structures into the proper locations in a sim like FSX. Does something similar exist for DCS?

 

Rich

Edited October 14, 2012 by Ironhand

[maturin]

Well the tall conical towers represent mosques, which obviously don't belong in most of Georgia.

 

The present map is pretty sorely lacking in Caucasian architecture in general, although we've got some Svanian/Ossetian towers.

[Cookie]

Speaking of sightseeing, there´s a thread over at airliners.net you guys need to check out. It´s a trip report to Georgia made by a guy from Finland. It´s a long, long, long read (you have been warned!) and contains an incredible amount of really cool pictures. It gives you a neat idea what life in Georgia is like.

 

The link is http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/224262/

 

Important: Make sure you click on "Show all" beneath the first post, else you can just read the part about getting to Georgia (which is quite neat in itself) and not the part about Georgia itself.

 

It´s a pretty cool thread and actually made me see Georgia in a totally new light.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Cookie

[JimMack]

Searching google for Georgia, mosques and churches, I think ED artists may have used someting similar to the attached as typical models. There are plenty of mosque models in the caucasus villages in DCS.

[Ironhand]

Searching google for Georgia, mosques and churches, I think ED artists may have used someting similar to the attached as typical models. There are plenty of mosque models in the caucasus villages in DCS.

:) OK. Thanks. I guess I just haven't stumbled over them yet because that's pretty much the type of objects I've been looking for.

 

RIch

[JimMack]

Hi Rich - if you look at the first picture I posted, you will see the lat long of that particular village.

 

I do cheat when sightseeing! I place an object on the ground, then CTRL F11 to get a camera view and zoom around to find a place of interest. Useful for planning an area for ground ops/Air Defence.

[Ironhand]

Hi Rich - if you look at the first picture I posted, you will see the lat long of that particular village.

Those coordinates look to be over in the vicinity of the Enguri Reservoir. I should have guessed that based on your suggested sightseeing flight. :)

 

I do cheat when sightseeing! I place an object on the ground, then CTRL F11 to get a camera view and zoom around to find a place of interest. Useful for planning an area for ground ops/Air Defence.

:) I fly to an area and, then, Ctrl-F11 to go outside for a look around. I've got to get some flying in somehow. I have so little time for it as it is.

 

 

Rich

[Yurgon]

[...]It gives you a neat idea what life in Georgia is like.

 

The link is http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/224262/

 

Great travel report, thanks for sharing!

[Ironhand]

Speaking of sightseeing, there´s a thread over at airliners.net you guys need to check out. It´s a trip report to Georgia made by a guy from Finland. It´s a long, long, long read (you have been warned!) and contains an incredible amount of really cool pictures. It gives you a neat idea what life in Georgia is like.

 

The link is http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/224262/

 

Important: Make sure you click on "Show all" beneath the first post, else you can just read the part about getting to Georgia (which is quite neat in itself) and not the part about Georgia itself.

 

It´s a pretty cool thread and actually made me see Georgia in a totally new light.

Great read! Thanks for posting that. :)

 

Rich

[Ironhand]

OK. I've been staring at the list and recall where some of the Caucasus tour stuff was. Check the info bar on the screens for the coordinates:

 

1. Rail Tunnel - just below Verhnebakanskiy
   
2. Novorissijsk - major oil port (this one was a no-brainer)
   
3. Soccer stadium - near the Novorissijsk runway
   
4. Mig-19 Gate Guardian at Krasnodar-Central
   
5. Oil Storage Facility - east of Il'skiy
   
6. Oil Fields - Look around. Small fields all around the area between Smolenskaya and Novodemtriavskaya.
   
7. Two Offshore Oil Platforms - off Sochi's shoreline
   
8. Large Road Bridge - between Sochi and Hosta
   
9. Two Observatories - on the hill east of Izmaylovka
   

 

Enjoy.

 

 

Rich

[maturin]

Well there's Lake Ritsa, where Stalin had a dacha amid some of the Caucasus' best scenery. The Roki Tunnel, strategic linchpin of South Ossetia's separatism, the highest villages in Europe in Svaneti, the Inguri River dam, and Kazbegi with Mount Kazbek, where the Vladikavkaz-Tbilisi Military Highway goes over the border. South of that last is the huge switchback the highway goes down, which is currently a well-known ski resort. There's also that big radio tower overlooking Tbilisi, which otherwise isn't worth looking at because it is depicted as a dreary Soviet town full of apartment buildings.

 

But that's just off the top of my head.