Area 51 (KUFO), located near Groom Lake, Nevada is the infamous "top secret" air base and facility that we often hear about.

I was working with Austin on some spacecraft for SpaceCombat, but while working on the project, I was using XPlane to visually test the models.

I thought this would be a great place to put my models for testing, as I was initially using "San Bernardino" (KSBD I believe.)... I then came up with the idea of building Area51 for others to enjoy as well, and the timing was perfect as Austin just added easy (for you can I) support for custom scenery packages.

The shot you see above is from version 0.2 (more screenshots) of my "Area51" scenery project for XPlane, which requires XPlane version 6.5+ (tested with 6.5RC1 on Mac OS X - this uses the new "custom scenery" folder).

You can download version 0.2 from this link:

Area51_0.2.zip (3.2MB)

Here are the basic instructions for use:

1. For best viewing, use the "hi" setting in the "rendering options" screen - your experience may also depend on how much video ram you have. On my tib400 with only 8MB video ram and "normal" texture setting, the craft occasionally appear/disappear. On my tib800 with 32MB video ram and "hi" texture setting, I get excellent results.
   
   
2. Unzip the downloaded archive - it will create a folder named "Area51"
   
   
3. Drag this folder into your XPlane 6.5+ "Custom Scenery" Folder
   
   
4. Fire up XPlane, choose your favorite plane, and go to Area 51 (KUFO)
   
   
5. Fly around this area (all objects are located in the +37-116.env file, which was based on the same file from the global scenery project) and see what you can find! ...
   
   
6. Enjoy!

Dave :-)

Visits since 12/26/2002
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