WHAT'S NEW? ======== ORF5 introduces dramatic night flying effects made possible through Laemming Wheeler's SEE utility. While previously limited to blue taxiway lights and darker polygons (beaches and rivers), this version includes shading of all buildings, runways, taxiways, and polygons through darker colors to black or gray as time advances through dusk to night. Roads become strings of street lights at night, adding realism and depth to the night-time scene. Many new SEE library objects, particularly cranes, power transmission towers, and water towers, are included, especially in the shipbuilding/industrial area south of our central business district. Look for the Norfolk Naval Shipyard gantry used to handle battleship turrets, among other little things. The Elizabeth River has been reworked for better accuracy, and numerous small adjustments have been made. ======= ORF4 introduced expanded documentation (this file), with tips on use and configuration for those of you who may be new to Aircraft & Scenery Designer. Also added were numerous radio masts and towers as described in the Commonwealth of Virginia's 1990 Aeronautical Chart. ======= ORF3 introduced the first SEE enhancements (taxiway lights and the docks by the Waterside). Scenery in general was expanded from the immediate Norfolk downtown and airport areas to cover the complete Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, and some of Portsmouth and Chesapeake. Airports PVG and W36 with its floatplane strip were added. ======= INTRODUCTION This is the fifth version of the Norfolk, Virginia area for the Microsoft Flight Simulator. It requires the recently released Aircraft and Scenery Designer and Scenery Disk 7 to work properly.(You can run it without SD-7, but since the Atlantic coast is several miles further west on the default scenery, you'll notice quite a lot of flooding around town.) The file names are in accordance with the CPAA suggested format: VA for the state, S for scenery, ORF for the airport ID, and RS, my initials. This version is greatly enlarged, and now includes numerous roads, buildings, and landmarks in Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, as well as Norfolk. Sources include aerial photography files in the Norfolk Public Library, the Commonwealth of Virginia's 1990 Aeronautical Chart, AOPA's 1990 edition of Aviation USA, and observation and photography by myself and a general aviation pilot. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! CONFIGURATION: This is a BIG scenery file. For it to run successfully, you will have to change the default configuration for A&SD. To do so, select 1 "MODE", then J "SCENERY DESIGN", then 0 "SETUP CONFIGURATION". You should (A) request 60000 static scenery and (B) 18000 dynamic scenery. Be sure to press "S" to save the new configuration. You will have to exit FS4 and restart it for your requests to take effect. Note that other scenery files may require even more space for static and dynamic scenery: be sure to check any accompanying documentation. The FS4/A&SD combination requires a lot of RAM. I usually boot from a floppy or use an alternate boot utility to get a "clean" system. About 590 - 600 K free ram is good. You _can_ run this from Windows, but the memory overhead and slower processing usually makes this a bad idea. Hope MS-DOS 5.0 gets here soon! Frame redraw rate can also be a problem in very complex areas. My 80286 system at 12 Mz is usually adequate, but I find myself planning for a 486-33 if I win the lottery. If you notice excessive jumpiness, you can disable the dynamic scenery: select 1 "MODE", then J "SCENERY DESIGN", then toggle 5 "DYNAMIC SCENERY ACTIVE" so that the "+" disappears. These memory requirements and scenery density (which determines frame rate) are very demanding. If you still have excessive jumpiness after disabling dynamic scenery (definition of "excessive" varies), you can delete a few scenery items that you don't care about. (You DID back up the .SC1 file first, didn't you?). I've taken the approach in preparing this scenery that you can delete stuff now easier than you can add it when you get that 486-33. A word of warning here: many items in this file have been modified by SEE or other means. You can usually delete these items with A&SD without problems, but attempts to move or otherwise alter them may result in system lockup. SCENERY DISKS: This scenery works best with SubLogic's Scenery Disk 7. If you have SD7 installed, be sure you have selected 5 "NAV/COM", 2 "SCENERY LIBRARY", and then the appropriate number for SD7. DEMOS: The demos included in this package will autoload the appropriate mode, which means all you have to do is select 1 "MODE", then H "DEMO RECORDER", then 6 "SEE MORE DEMOS" until the demo you want appears, then the appropriate number for that demo. I also like to select B "DEMO LOOP" if I'm going to use the demo for wallpaper. Since the dynamic scenery is not synchronized to the demo, each loop will be a little bit different when dynamic scenery is active. MODES: A start-up mode is included, which puts you in a Cessna at the General Aviation area of Norfolk International Airport. To load this mode, you can start the "Norfolk" demo and then use ESCAPE to exit demo mode, or load the mode directly by selecting 1 "MODE", then F "MODE LIBRARY", then 7 "SEE MORE MODES" until the mode you want appears, then the appropriate number for that mode. DEFAULTS: If you live in the Hampton Roads area, you may want to set FS4 to start you at Norfolk International at start-up. First select 1 "MODE", then F "MODE LIBRARY", then after locating the mode you want by 7 "SEE MORE MODES", select E "SAVE STARTUP MODE TO DISK". You can also make SD7 the default scenery. FS4 loads file "F1." as the default start-up scenery. By appropriate renaming of files, you can make SD7 the start-up scenery. Be sure to rename the "F1." that comes with FS4 to something else first. I am not being more specific because you can easily screw up your configuration by doing this: if any of this seems strange, please don't try. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ I've added runway lighting and ATIS (frequency 127.15) at Norfolk International, but navaids, including ILS on runway 23, are unchanged from SD-7. I have also added two small airports not found on SD-7: Hampton Roads airport (PVG) southwest of Portsmouth, and Chesapeake Municipal airport (W36). PVG includes a NDB at frequency 123. W36, which you can reach by flying almost exactly due south from the start-up mode position, is especially interesting because a canal has been dug there to serve as a floatplane runway. There are a few F-14's operating out of the Oceana Naval Air Station doing buzzes and manuevers that are definitely not representative of reality, but which can be entertaining. A demo tour of the area (which takes about 32 minutes to run) is included, as well as a startup mode that places you at the General Aviation area of Norfolk International Airport with light winds and very slight turbulence. The demo is not synchronized with the dynamic scenery, leading to occasional situations that are non-FAA approved, but amusing as long as it's only a computer. (You'll notice I'm no Charles Gulick at the controls.) There is also a floatlane demo (strictly non-realistic) showing some of the obstacle course potential of our downtown bridges and power lines. Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome: My Compuserve number is below, and in the Hampton Roads area I can usually be reached on the Solutions and Exchange BBSs. Ray Stephens CIS 72070,2015 4/6/91