Avwriter

I hear you Craig. I only bought a couple of the Tower2011 RCs because so little of the liveries was actually visible in a top down view (especially ones like DAL). With 3D, it definitely adds a lot more to the experience. However, after you have a few, there is less and less impetuous to buy RC's for all the newer add-ons, but I am glad that it is set up the way it is (the packs add together cumulatively). It is easy for me to imagine a less scrupulous developer making livery packs that ONLY worked with the airport they were designed for, so that you basically had to buy everything over and over again if you wanted coverage at each airport. That would have been a true rip-off. What we have here is reasonable to me, since each customer can pick and choose how complete he wants his livery collection to be. I can fully see how if someone just now discovered and bought Tower3D, and was especially interested in, say, KATL, they might purchase that one and perhaps 1 or two more. In our case, since we were here from the start, we did it the other way around (KLAX and KJFK cover the vast majority of aircraft at KATL, KSAN, and KPHL). No big deal. As for a few white planes, I have said it before and will say it again. IRL it is quite common to see a few of them out an about at a major airport. I see them at KATL quite often (usually cargo planes on temporary lease to other carriers, DOJ prisoner transports, or various charters). Really no big deal to me. Just my 2 cents. Andrew

Thanks Ricky. The Pilatus is a nice touch. Gabor should have added a FedEx Feeder C208 Grand Caravan too. They fly out of ATL every day:-). Andrew

There are already a ton of photos and videos from the areas I go to for airport watching (lets be fair - there is a lot more to see than just planes). One guy in particular (Matt Cochran - search out his YouTube channel) has posted literally hundreds of hours of footage from KATL over several years, complete with humorous/bizarre commentary, and even a few emergencies and wild weather events. So there is little need reinvent the wheel. Anyway, I am not so much into the photography thing, since when I spend all my time stuck behind a camera, I feel like I am missing the action for myself :-) Footage and photos specifically from the tower, however, is much harder to come by. Andrew

I have all the RCs except for KATL and TIST. I am only seeing a few "white tails" about so far. Most are cargo planes, but of particular note are missing liveries for DAL 73W (737-700), DAL A321, and ASQ CRJ. So I suppose there are a few that could be filled in. The question is whether RC KATL includes these? Still watching for a DAL A330 (DAL added a bunch of these to their fleet in the last couple of years, but so far have not seen one yet in the game). Some more cargo liveries would be great as well. KATL gets a lot of international cargo such as Lufthansa Cargo, Air China Cargo, KAL Cargo, TNT, Airbridge, Cathay Pacific Cargo, as well as the occasional Cargolux and Atlas. Andrew

By the way, I just wanted to point out how well the FeelThere version stacks up against the real thing overall. They did a remarkable job. Raising the tower height a bit should be an easy fix. Did anyone notice the way that Terminal F was actually designed to look like a bird or plane when viewed from above? Andrew

Yes actually. I was already planning to bring that up, but you beat me to it :-) KATL has the tallest tower in the US and the second tallest in the world. Thus it should be a little taller than KJFK. Granted, KJFK in Tower3D is a bit taller than it should be currently (even if it works well that way). It is hard to do an effective comparison with images because of zoom factors, but the different angles should still give an idea for what it is worth. Here is a view of Terminal F from the real KATLTower: Below is a similar view of Terminal F in the FeelThere version, which looks a good bit lower to me: And below is one more comparison. Notice that in the second photo (the real one) the image of the tower is taken from a higher pov than the one in the sim, and yet even so it still appears taller.

Hi RIchard. I just looked it up, and there actually is a KSAN sector for TRACON. It is sold as a separate add-on http://www.feelthere.com/en/product/1101_ksan-for-tracon-2012.html Keep in mind that Schedule Creator is only what its title says. It creates schedules for sectors that are already in the game. It does not create sectors. It is a freeware app created by a user, Dick Parker. You may want to post in his thread, above, if you have more specific questions. Hope this helps clarify things. I am a user too, and do not represent FeelThere. Andrew

Does TRACON even have a sector KSAN? I don't remember. Andrew

Hey, Vic. Perhaps we could make this a sticky, or set perhaps set up a separate sticky thread just for for airport strategies? Andrew

:-)))

What new liveries are included with KATL that were not in KLAX/KJFK/KPHL/KSAN?

Its a sticky at the top of the Forum. Here you go:

Views and videos from KATL tower are relatively rare. Here are a couple of short ones. Enjoy!

I'm glad you liked my write up Wayne. I hope it helps a few people get the most out of this add-on. If I come up with more ideas and suggestions, I will definitely come back and post them. Andrew

Thanks Wayne. That was really very kind of you to say. Andrew

I thought it would be helpful to provide a quick overview of KATL operations, now that it is out for Tower3D. KATL prefers a western operational flow, but east flows are quite common nevertheless. West ops: North Runway Complex: Arrivals on 26R and departures on 26L During busy hours, a large percentage of 26R arrivals are routed all the way around the far end of 26L via B, V, and then brought the gates via F. However, aircraft with longer wingspans are not permitted on V (767s are the only heavies that routinely use it), and must cross the runway elsewhere. South Runway Complex: Arrivals are mostly on 27L and en route to the gate are often routed all the way around the end of 27R via N, P, L. Runway 28 is used as overflow at peak times (particularly arrivals from the south), as well as for Cargo arrivals destined for the south cargo ramp. Departures are normally from 27R, which is the longest runway at the airport, and thus is preferred departure runway for heavies on long routes, and is also the default runway for emergency landings. East Ops: North Runway Complex: Arrivals on 8L and departures on 8R. Arrivals either follow B, V, F, or cross 8R and proceed to the gate via F Departures taxi to runway via E. South Runway Complex: Arrivals via 9R and 10. Departures via 9L (and occasional cargo departures on 10 as well). 9L departures normally taxi via M and take off from intersection M2, so as to allow 9R and 10 arrivals to use P as an end-around and follow L to the gates. If there is an unusually big backlog of departures (as may happen after a weather delay), Ground will send some departures up N, have them cross 9L at P, and then head them back down M to M2 from the opposite the main departure stream coming up M from the other direction. This does work quite well in Tower3D if you are careful with Hold Position commands. Tips: -You may choose to not activate Runway 10/28 for arrivals in the game menu. Instead, just activate 27L/9R +26R/8L. Then use the ENTER FINAL command to side-step planes to 10/28 when the final corridor on 27L/9R gets too crowded. Likewise 26R arrivals may be sidestepped to 27L if there is space. -Departing ground traffic en route to 27R may lined up on both L and M if needed. Traffic on M may then depart from intersection LB, and alternates departures with traffic on L which departs from the end of the runway. -Note that there are two taxi lanes in each of the ramps between terminals T-E. These do not operate like two-way roads, with planes passing each other on the right. Instead, an aircraft will always use the lane that is on the side closest to its gate, regardless of whether heading north or south. Forgetting this detail will result in head-ons between departing and arriving aircraft. Unlike in the real world, there is no way to instruct an aircraft to switch lanes in order to go around another plane here, even if there is room. -Taxiway D (In the game it is called Delta, but IRL it is referred to as "Dixie" so as to avoid confusion with the large number of DAL aircraft based at the airport). This is the only route for crossing between the North and South runway complexes (contrast with KLAX which has multiple options for this). On the KATL Airport Diagram, it is marked as a non-movement area, but this does not mean that it is closed to traffic. It just requires a specific clearance for any aircraft to traverse it (much like crossing a runway). In the game, it is just treated as normal taxiway without any special restrictions, so do plan taxi routes carefully to avoid nose-to-nose situations here. -Taxiways SC and SJ are a pair of parallel North-South taxiways used for to getting to and from Runway 28/10, which is separated by some distance from the rest of the South Runway Complex. SC is used for aircraft traveling TO this runway. SJ is used for aircraft traveling FROM this runway, heading toward the main terminal area. Their use mirrors the normal U.S. driving convention of staying to the right side.

Ha ha. IRL it really stinks when your plane lands on 10/28. The taxi distance is about is only about half a mile, but it feels a looooot longer. Most of the time it is used for overflow at peak times and for Caro flights destined for the South Cargo Ramp. It is rare to see it used for departures except for south cargo flights that are not so heavily loaded as to require 9L/27R. Andrew

Depending upon where you installed the game itself, you will likely need to manually point the installer. For Real Traffic, the installer just needs to be pointed to the main (root) directory of Tower3D (or Tower3DPro). This will add models of real aircraft (but without any liveries - the planes will be white) and real world schedules for each airport. Real Color is a little trickier. It should only be installed AFTER installing Real Traffic. During installation of Real Color, you will need to point the installer to Tower3D (or Tower3DPro)/Extensions/Airplanes. Hope this helps. Andrew

I thought I would start a new thread for this, so as not to hog the release thread. Below are my initial thoughts on seeing ATL. Others, please feel free to add you own, I will be back latter once Real Traffic is updated for this airport, and more once thoughts I have thoroughly tested it out. I really am having a ball with it. Thank you Vic and team for all your efforts. Notes/criticisms based on two short sessions. 1. Visually, I think it looks quite good. Nice job on the terminal concourse buildings. They very closely resemble the real thing, frankly more so than in some of the other airports in Tower 3D :-) Likewise kudos on the 3D ground effects around the tower and along taxiway E at the east end of the airport, north of Terminal F. The north runway complex at that end really does sit on a raised earth berm, and what you guys did looks very convincing. I especially like the way you added trees down in the bottom of the depression in places to enhance this effect. 2. As we were warned, this is rather resource hungry add-on. I am sure that your optimizations helped a lot. At this point, performance is similar to KLAX back when Tower3D was first released. Not great, but tolerable, at least during daytime with good weather. Have not tried night time yet. 3. The Atlanta skyline should be clearly visible due north of the airport. Most of your other airports provide city views where appropriate. I do understand and fully support your choice if this was a performance compromise, but I still miss seeing the city, and wanted to note it, just in case it was overlooked accidentally. 4. IRL, there is a rather prominent concrete wall around the length of Taxiway Victor (8R end-around). It is a fairly visually distinctive feature of the airport, and I doubt that adding it would have a major impact on performance. Hard to find a good pic of it, but here is one from when the taxiway was under construction. You can see that it extends all the way around the curve to the north end of Concourse T: 5. Being a little OCD here, but IRL the land off to the west of the airport is not nearly a hilly as depicted. In reality is mostly expressways out there. However, I must admit what you did there does make it rather pretty, so maybe keep it anyway. I suppose I will not have much luck convincing the city authorities to add some pretty green hills out there so that the real area will match the virtual one :-) 6. The size of this airport really really really makes me wish that we could either have a couple of extra fixed view points to better see the action, or something akin to a chase plane view that the player could select at will, instead of depending on the automated action cam that we currently have. I know I know - next version - but I had to say it anyway. I don't know what you will do when you get around to KDFW, where they actually have more than one control tower. In all seriousness, thanks again for all your work on bringing KATL to life in my own home. I really do love this airport and this is so cool, even better than having the Imaginesim KATL add-on for FSX (which is far worse on performance) :-) Andrew

Thank you for responding promptly. Andrew

Real Traffic 3D not yet been updated for KATL? Not worried about Real Color, but Real Traffic is pretty important. Andrew

Woohoo! Downloading now. I'll be back after I have a chance to try it out... or maybe I won't :-))) Andrew

Music to my ears :-) Let's do it! Of course, barbecues are great too, but they are best enjoyed on top of the South Terminal daily parking deck of KATL. Who need fireworks when you have airliners taking off a few yards away, enhanced the heady smell of Jet-A in the air. Unfortunately, though I suspect airport security would not take kindly to grills and burning charcoal on their parking deck... Andrew

Wayne, I never said how much is in that particular wallet? Afraid Vic will have to settle for a simulated Gulfstream ;-) Andrew

Thank you for keeping us in the loop Vic. I am waiting with an open wallet ;-) Andrew