Hi! Well - things are going a bit slow as it is summer time and we are taking our vacations. We are still hoping for a September release, but it may slip into October.
5 Likes
Hello- can you she an update, eta and new images please, as it’s a few weeks into September? Thanks
Hi! Sure - work is going on on the concrete pad area of the LC39B, with LC39A to follow. Since these two are very similar and will be basically cloned, we decided it was worth to give them a complete overhaul as far as detail addition and texturing. Here is the scope of work on the LC39B pad area:
- Complete re-texturing of the concrete launch pad base, using proper PBR textures (the textures from the previous screenshots were aerial imagery, and the resolution was very low, below acceptable standards except if viewed from high up in the air).
- Detail addition to ALL of the existing 3D objects, such as pipe supports, LOX and LH tank piping, support structures, etc.
- Launch pad 3D detailing upgrades, such as curbs, pipe trenches and grating, elevated pole supports, etc.
- Complete overhaul of LOX and LH piping and supports, with vector placement of supports.
- Complete overhaul of lightning towers (MUCH more details than the old ones)
- A brand new aerial underlay imagery for both Pad A and B (these are visible from underneath the grass cover and aid in alignment, and add details like bare spots and cart trails). MSFS2020 default Bing coverage for B pad area is very bad, and Pad A area (SpaceX) non-existent.
- Addition of water channel detail and outflow to the collecting pools north of the pad.
- Complete rework of the support buildings - proper texturing, adjustments, lighting, etc.
- Complete rework of the gatehouse area - proper texturing, adjustments, details like AC units, electrical boxes, gate hardware, turnstiles, lighting, etc.
Once the above is done, we will start working on the actual flight hardware, plus support structures. Here are a few quick screenshots of the work in progress, and I will follow up with a bit more to show off the before and after detail regarding the re-texturing work.
9 Likes
Looks awesome. Thanks for the update
2 Likes
Here are a few more shots of what I was talking about - the blurry textures are the original aerial imagery we used in the initial model, and the sharp textures are what we are working on. You can see the far superior quality of visuals: In the first pic, the concrete pad tiles and the pad concrete (to the right of the work crew) and also, if you zoom in, you can see the individual scorched bricks of the flame trench. In the second pic, the gravel sharpness vs. the blurry grass patches and concrete. The new PBR textures have proper normal maps so you can see, for example, correct shadowing of gravel pebbles depending on sun position.
Again - the contrast in the quality. We are using the old aerial textures for alignment purposes now. For example, the dark thick line running along the edge of the pad in the screenshot below is actually metal grating covering the water outflow channel. We are cutting actual holes for those channels and covering them with metal grating mesh. You can see the example of that on the right of the screenshot.
4 Likes
There are two addons I’m patiently waiting for:
- Bluebird 757
- This amazing one.
It’s a long wait, but I know it will definitely be worth it.
1 Like
Alright, onwards to more visuals of the work in progress - we implemented dynamic Pad39B loading of launch hardware! AND, we developed this really cool (at least we think so 
) night spotlight 3D volumetric light beam system - check it out!
14 Likes
That is awesome! Very cool night beam too
1 Like
A couple of quick shots of Artemis umbilicall detailing, day and night lighting check. As always, work in progress. LUT materials will be upgraded.
11 Likes
Been a couple of weeks since the last post. Officially October now. How’s things coming along? Thanks
1 Like
Coming along nicely!
1 Like
Certainly! We know you are eager to violate this virtual airspace ASAP 
, and we are hard at work! We are busy working on PAD39 A and B, adding detail and fixing legacy objects. Here are some screenshots of WIP… enjoy!
Liquified Hydrogen Storage Tank:
Pad 39B Main Gate area:
Tracking Camera arrays:
7 Likes
This thread continues to amaze.
1 Like
Sweet. Looking great as usual. Thanks for the update
1 Like
Thank you! Just a bit of a background, stuff you don’t see… Shown is Pad39B, but Pad39A (SpaceX) is also being worked on. We created a precise aerial imagery for Pad39A to help with alignment. Then we transplanted all the groundpolys (roads, concrete surfaces, etc) from Pad B to Pad A, and alignment was perfect. Pads A and B differ slightly, but most perimeter roads and access areas are identical, so that saved us a LOT of work.
3 Likes
Nice. Yeah sounds like it did.
Is October still release still on the table?
1 Like
A bit confused here. Somewhere you mentio the 80 km height limitation in MSFS. Are you meaning the vehicles will be launchable?
1 Like
Sure - here is the clarification of the scope:
We currently have 2 separate projects in the pipeline:
- Kennedy Space Center SCENERY (which is what this thread is about)
- SpacePort Spaceflight module (WASM module with a collection of spacecraft SimObjects and support content)
For initial release version, Kennedy Space Center SCENERY will be scenery only, with advanced features such as temporal (time dependent) object loading. This means different space flight hardware will be shown dependent on the date of flight.
For a subsequent update of THIS project (v2.0), we intend to include a rocket launch animation, which will be guided under simple physics model, and the object (rocket) will be unloaded (it will disappear) at a certain altitude, when it becomes too small to see.
As for the 80 km altitude limit, we have a SEPARATE, stand alone project called SpacePort. SpacePort is a fully-featured, accurate space flight module, capable of enabling user to launch into Earth’s orbit and re-enter back to the surface, visit orbital space stations and even perform space walks. It is fully functional for P3D, however, we are in a holding pattern for MSFS2020 because (for some reason unknown to us) MSFS2020 has a hard altitude limit of ~80km. (P3D’s limit is ~350,000 km).
This project (KSC Scenery) will NOT be required in SpacePort, but it will be highly recommended.
If someone from Asobo, or someone that has their ear, is reading this, please let us know if the 80km altitude limit can be overridden or if this will be expanded in MSFS2024. I posted questions in Dev Forum several times, but no reply so far.
[EDIT]
We will still endeavor to release SpacePort, even with the 80km limit. This is possible because we have our own physics and atmospheric model (not using FS’s data) and, for the time being, we can lower the extent of atmosphere from Von Karman line (~100km) to ~70 km. It will be unrealistic, but at least someone from Asobo may be persuaded to look into the 80km limitation.
6 Likes
thanks for the added info. hope that km limitation gets resolved for ya
When is Kennedy releasing?
1 Like
October is still our target! We just took a closer look at the area around pad A and the default scenery (ground coverage) is a complete mess. There are huge portions of water bodies missing around both pads. It looks like Bing coverage was completely missing here, and their AI inserted some awful looking generic ground coverage. In any case, we will need to fix this, because next to our upgrades, it just looks bad. We are working as hard as we can!
[EDIT] We just hope people won’t be noticing 21st century vehicles in the 1969 parking lots with Saturn V on the launch pad. …
5 Likes