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Post by kbr on Dec 16, 2007 17:12:37 GMT -5
Yesterday I went in to town for some Christmas shopping. Since I got a ride with my sister and not driving myself this time, I was able to play around with my digital camera on the way (it's about a 40m drive to town for me.) Thought I'd share a few shots from the ones I took in case those of you who occasionally fly over Arizona would enjoying seeing a few scenes from the ground. Most of these were taken with the shutter speed set to 1600/s to lower motion blur. These shots were all taken along Highway 69. It was dark when we were heading home. No street lights out here. An abstract photo? No just a failed attempt to take a picture of some Christmas lights on a bump road. Still came out rather pretty though. ;D
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2007 19:22:11 GMT -5
Wow - love the look of that sunshine. No snow here (we rarely get snow in the south of England until Feb/March if at all) but it's been bright and cold today and there's a heavy frost tonight (it's 25 past midnight right now). And I've still got to take the dog out for is last walk. Brrrrr...
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Post by bhk on Dec 17, 2007 1:13:42 GMT -5
Fabulous country, Kev. The colours and foliage remind me of the type of landscape in the Pilbara area of Western Australia, but the mountains are far bigger and more extensive.
Where do you go to do your shopping? Obviously you have a multi-lane highway on which to travel....is that for the full distance?
Regards, Bruce
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Post by scubakobe on Dec 17, 2007 4:10:47 GMT -5
Nice pictures. But the "Wrong Way" sign sticks out from the first pic, looks like you aren't the only one going the wrong way. It was funny to see this, because I was actually thinking that some people should share pictures of their daily routine in their part of the world. Just to see what other places look like. In the spirit of this post, here is a picture I took while driving home from Flabob on Saturday. (I tried to get a picture of the major traffic clog just ahead, but the overpass blocks the view) -On I-60, 1/2 mile before the junction with the I-215
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Post by kbr on Dec 17, 2007 4:54:17 GMT -5
Nice pictures. But the "Wrong Way" sign sticks out from the first pic, looks like you aren't the only one going the wrong way. It was funny to see this, because I was actually thinking that some people should share pictures of their daily routine in their part of the world. Just to see what other places look like. Thanks, Kobbe, and nice picture. I noticed you're on a concrete road. That's interesting as all there is in my area are asphalt roads. I agree with you that it would be nice to see pictures of people's areas and it can add to the imagination while sim flying. I got the idea from Bruce's post about a week back. The wrong way signs are actually for the other lane, but I've heard that they have confused people unused to driving here. ;D Fabulous country, Kev. The colours and foliage remind me of the type of landscape in the Pilbara area of Western Australia, but the mountains are far bigger and more extensive. Where do you go to do your shopping? Obviously you have a multi-lane highway on which to travel....is that for the full distance? Regards, Bruce Thanks, Bruce. The highway starts starts from about 3 miles from where I live and continues all the way to Prescott, which is were I do my shopping. (When I moved out here it was just two lanes, but winter traffic was piling up so they expanded it.) It's a bit of a commute, but I don't mind it, as while I like visiting cities, I don't really enjoy living in the city that much, I'm much happier living out in the country. From pictures I've looked at, I've noticed some similarities between certain places in Australia and Arizona. I've also thought some of the lighter VOZ textures would suit wintertime Arizona very well. Wow - love the look of that sunshine. No snow here (we rarely get snow in the south of England until Feb/March if at all) but it's been bright and cold today and there's a heavy frost tonight (it's 25 past midnight right now). And I've still got to take the dog out for is last walk. Brrrrr... Arizona tends to be a pretty bright area. One of the reasons there is so much traffic on the highway is that we get a lot of tourist and wintertime residents here at this time of year. In the summer, you'd hardly see anyone out here. ;D The brightness can be a bit misleading though as it's actually pretty chilly right now. It's been snowing on a few occasions last week, but when it snows here it rarely piles up. Most of the time it just melts as soon as it touches the ground. You can see it at higher altitudes though. Here is a picture of some on a mountain. I took this the other day from my front yard, using the zoom lens on my camera to get a look at the snow.
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Post by bhk on Dec 17, 2007 5:13:10 GMT -5
It really is a beautiful area, Kevin, although I would miss the trees and the bush. Prescott.....I've just had a browse on Google Maps so can now relate to where you are and where you go shopping. Another sim hobby of mine is Microsoft Train Simulator and I have a collection of routes which run across Arizona. You are pretty close to one of the locations ....Flagstaff. There's also a Phoenix sub-division. Usually when I'm into Train sim I'll have Google Earth running on the adjacent lap-top, allowing me to see what the landscape is like. All adding to my education about other places. Regards, Bruce
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Post by kbr on Dec 17, 2007 5:38:37 GMT -5
It really is a beautiful area, Kevin, although I would miss the trees and the bush. Prescott.....I've just had a browse on Google Maps so can now relate to where you are and where you go shopping. Another sim hobby of mine is Microsoft Train Simulator and I have a collection of routes which run across Arizona. You are pretty close to one of the locations ....Flagstaff. There's also a Phoenix sub-division. Usually when I'm into Train sim I'll have Google Earth running on the adjacent lap-top, allowing me to see what the landscape is like. All adding to my education about other places. Regards, Bruce There is a lot of trees down in the valleys along the rivers, but the mountains can be pretty bare. I've known of people who are used to living in the more forest filled parts of the world to get sick from the openness here. Kind of like the opposite of claustrophobia. Nice to meet another train simmer. I love trains myself and though I don't train sim as much as I fly, I train sim quite regularly. I tend to prefer Trainz Railroad Simulator, but I also have MS Train simulator. Though it's a little off topic, here's a few shots from 1954 Toronto Line in TRS2006 that I had on hand that you might enjoy. Where did you get your Arizona routes at? I'd like to see them. i used to watch trains on the Phoenix route and a child I used to visit the route the goes through Globe.
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Post by bhk on Dec 17, 2007 15:07:53 GMT -5
Where did you get your Arizona routes at? I'd like to see them. i used to watch trains on the Phoenix route and a child I used to visit the route the goes through Globe. Well....we're in an "off-topic" area, so I guess we can move even further off the subject Thanks for the shots from Trainz: I helped develop the original, spending some time in Brisbane with Auran in 2000 editing the User Manual and beta-testing for many months. The Train Simulator routes through California, Arizona and New Mexico are all available at www.trains-sim.com (an off-shoot of the flightsim.com site), are freeware, are all created by a bloke named Bob Wirth (just search for his name under "Routes") and are as follows:- ATSF Glorieta Pass route - Las Vegas, NM, through Albuquerque to Belen, NM. ATSF Seligman-sub route - Winslow, AZ to Needles, CA. ATSF Gallup-sub route - Belen, NM to Winslow, AZ. ATSF Clovis-sub route - Belen, NM to Clovis, NM ATSF Phoenix-sub route - Includes the old line through Prescott and the new Abra - Skull Valley cutoff. Also incudes the Clarkedale sub. ATSF Needles-sub route - Needles, CA to Barstow, CA. (His most recent creation). I hope this helps. Bruce
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Post by kbr on Dec 17, 2007 15:30:56 GMT -5
Thanks, Bruce. I'll check them out. Neat to hear that you helped with the original Trainz. I only started train simming a few years ago. up until about ten years ago, I had easy access to be around real trains when ever I wanted, but living out here where I am now, trains are one of the things I miss. I discovered a few years ago with the discovery of BVE that I could keep up my interest in trains through simulators. One of the reason I like TRS2006 is that it is so easy to set up and play around with your own routes, like having a huge tabletop train set. I also use MSTS because it has a lot of routes that TRS lacks, but I do wish that the two sims shared a similar keyboard layout. I'm interested in how the new MSTS will turn out.
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Post by bhk on Dec 18, 2007 2:15:19 GMT -5
I did a bit of stuff for Trainz.....the Iron Ore route is mine, based on the Robe River's route in the Pilbara, Western Australia. It was the first prototypical route done for Trainz. Also did a few things for BVE, which is the most accurate "cab-ride" train simulation available. MSTS, for all its faults, has a lot going for it. If you haven't obtained the (freeware) "MSTS Bin" update, then I urge you to do so. It's a third-party add-on to the original and it fixes a great number of original faults and has the bonus of adding quite a few enhancements. Here's a link that will give you info and a download URL:- mstsbin.uktrainsim.com/MSTS II - based on the FSX engine - should be a valued improvement IF the developers have been listening to the feedback and input from the users. Cheers! Bruce
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Post by kbr on Dec 18, 2007 4:00:07 GMT -5
Thanks, Bruce. I hadn't known about the 3rd party update. Thanks for the link. I'll get that tonight. Today I downloaded the Phoenix sub route that you mentioned, but I haven't installed it yet. I was thinking (after reading your post) that it might be a good idea to install the update first. I reinstalled MSTS not to long ago to a new harddrive, so it's still pretty much a clean install (currently only the defualt routes but I do have a program installed to change the weather and sky textures to suit the season.)
I'll have to pick up a copy of the first Trainz so I can see those routes. I've noticed that TRS2006 has an Australia Outback route with it, which I found quite fun, but I am not sure if the route is real or fictional. I also wouldn't mind checking out the routes you did for BVE if they're still avalible. I was searching for BVE stuff a couple days ago but noticed that many of the sites seem to be no longer up.
I hope that MS does listen to the user feedback.
One thing I was wondering, do you have the Raildriver controller? If you do, what do you think of it? I've been playing around with the idea of saving up and getting it for a while now. I can get it for around 150USD here which seems pretty decently priced for such a complex controller and if it works as claimed, it would sure beat using the keyboard.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2007 8:15:39 GMT -5
I love threads like this. There's no such thing as 'off topic' with this kind of thread. It's like a good conversation in the pub - once it starts who knows where it's going to end. It's a real TOH thread
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Post by bhk on Dec 18, 2007 14:56:56 GMT -5
Kev, The Raildriver is a good unit......I've heard very little against it over the past few years. I don't own one but I have used one and quite liked it. However, I'm not sure if it is fully compatible with 'MTS Bin', as there are some code improvements in that upgrade which may not be read by RD.
With regard to Trainz, ninety-nine percent of the routes are fictional. The one percent that are accurate representations of real-life are the Marias Pass route, available as an add-on, and Robe River/Iron Ore. I also did a real line in Utah that was provided as a download. I can send you the BVE route I did....it's called "Heavy Coal". I've got it floating around here in zipped form somewhere. If you'd like it, let me know and I can upload it to my web-space.
Regards, Bruce
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Post by bhk on Dec 18, 2007 14:58:02 GMT -5
I love threads like this. There's no such thing as 'off topic' with this kind of thread. It's like a good conversation in the pub - once it starts who knows where it's going to end. It's a real TOH thread It is at that.......they meander along, branching off wherever the conversation takes them. As you say.....a "pub" chat! Bruce
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Post by kbr on Dec 18, 2007 17:12:15 GMT -5
I love threads like this. There's no such thing as 'off topic' with this kind of thread. It's like a good conversation in the pub - once it starts who knows where it's going to end. It's a real TOH thread You never know what direction a conversation might take out back at the Pilot's Grill. ;D Kev, The Raildriver is a good unit......I've heard very little against it over the past few years. I don't own one but I have used one and quite liked it. However, I'm not sure if it is fully compatible with 'MTS Bin', as there are some code improvements in that upgrade which may not be read by RD. With regard to Trainz, ninety-nine percent of the routes are fictional. The one percent that are accurate representations of real-life are the Marias Pass route, available as an add-on, and Robe River/Iron Ore. I also did a real line in Utah that was provided as a download. I can send you the BVE route I did....it's called "Heavy Coal". I've got it floating around here in zipped form somewhere. If you'd like it, let me know and I can upload it to my web-space. Regards, Bruce Thanks, I sent you a PM about the BVE route. I installed the MTS Bin update last night. I did a little passenger run on the Tokyo-Hakone route (which is one of my favorites of the defaults) and noticed some improvements right off. Thanks for your thoughts on the Raildriver. I noticed that there were some instructions in the MTS.Bin update on using the Raildriver in the instructions. Due to the way my computer desk is set up, it would be easy for me to move my flight yoke out of the way when I wasn't flying and set the Raildriver there, then switch back to the yoke when flying. The Raildriver has been very tempting for me, so I'll probably end up with one sooner or later. I've also been searching for a copy of TRS2004 as many people say that it is better than TRS2006. I've noticed the online community situation between the two sims is kind of like that of FS9 and FSX. ;D One thing that I wish MSTS and Trainz did was support joystick axis. BVE 4 does and I have my CH 6 lever throttle quadrant mapped to it and it works great for trains. Sadly most of the BVE routes I have don't seem to work with BVE ver. 4.
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