Misty Moorings Forums
Return to Misty Moorings (FSX/P3D/MSFS2020) => Website Discussion => Topic started by: Doug on August 27, 2016, 07:41:22 PM
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The RTMM "GO TO" Interactive Table
I'm creating a new interactive table that should be helpful to folks when it is completed. You can find it HERE (http://return.mistymoorings.com/here2there_table/index.php). Being "beta" we will be making changes to the table and some of those changes can come from any ideas you may have to make it better.
As of this posting, I am starting with the "C's" so I have a lot to do. But you can "play" with the table and see what it does. Here are some scenarios:
1. You only have Tongass Fjords X and wonder which locations you can download for only Tongass X....
....You use the search for "TF" and only locations that are located in Tongass are listed. You can then click on the header in the left column (Going TO) and it will alphabetize them for you.
2. You want to fly one of the TripTics ... just put "TripTic" into search and you will get a list of them.
3. You want to just fly a short trip before bedtime ... sort the "NM" (Nautical Miles) column and you will get the shortest to the longest flights or reversed if you like. (Again in you only have Tongass, you search "TF" then sort the NM column. You can also sort "ease" for low to high, so pick only easy ones at first, or for the advanced folks, the more difficult ones.
4. I will be labeling things such as CIRP, (later BWEP), Owikeeno, Cabins on the Lakes, etc for those "groups" of locations. You will be able to search for those.
5. Each flight plan has a MAP that is an active link. So as you try to decide where you want to fly, you can click on the "map" link for that plan and see what it looks like.
We are just getting started on this new effort. The whole idea is to get people to interface with the site easier. One thing I am contemplating is making the location name in the first column a LINK directly to the zip that is downloaded for that location. So a newby could only have Tongass, list them, then decided to start with Akien Creek ... click on the name, the zip for Aiken Creek is downloaded. Still "thnking" about this.
I've decided NOT to use the "reverse" flight plans. Nobody was using them and they were a lot of work and confusing to most people. we eventually will be putting the "start position" for each location on its entry on the scenery page, so if you want to start at Aiken Creek, you'll have the lat/long/heading to do it.
I am also adding to the flight plans we have by cross-referencing with the "START TABLE" on the Here2There page. We have many locations that do not have flight plans. I'm making those as I go. This will be a slow process, but worth the effort.
Note that if you are downloading the new RTMM Flight Plans.zip (Here2There Page) ... you are getting the "latest" flight plans .. .the ones we already have plus the ones that I'm adding as we go. So they will not all be on the table yet, but you'll have ALL of the latest plans when you download that. Remember to DELETE your old ones and replace them with the NEW ones.
This means that the zip for the RTMM Flight Plans has now changed ... only the "TO' plans are showing there. I eventually will get rid of the "TO" prefix if this all works the way I think it will.
Your comments would be appreciated. The new table is far from finished, but you'll get the hang of what it can do.
Doug
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You can get to the beta table by going to the HERE2There page and clicking on the button up at the top. I have finished with the "C's" .. .TripTix and "groups" are in. All entries now have a map (some didn't before), and I've made about 4 new flight plans for places where we had none. I put a box in on the page to help you "experiment" with the table. This will be a powerful tool for the site when it is finished.
Update ... almost 100 entries now, have complted the "D's".
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Added RTMM Docks ... with flight plans from local SPB's to the RTMM Flight Plans.zip. All of these are now added to the new GO TO table. If you put in "RTMM Docks", then you will have 18 locations. These are just small docks but fun to find ... all of them are in the Tongass X area.
Added all the Lighthouses with maps. Now 170 entries in the GO To and we are still only on D on the scenery page! If you want to see the lighthouse entries, just search for "Lighthouse" and they will all come up in the table (be sure to set the number of entries at 100 or so, not 10)
Now into the G's
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Very neat and innovative spreadsheet table Doug... great job.
Norm
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Thanks Norm. This should make things a lot easier for people to select a flight, and I'm thinking it will really help the beginners. Some people only have PFJ or Tongass X ... it is difficult to go through the scenery page and find which locations to download. This makes that process very easy.
Right now I'm "playing" with the colors ... I need to let people know when a download is necessary. Also we have "groups" that are single downloads but MULTIPLE locations ... for instance "Missing Cabins" ... that download will give you about 200 locations! But when you look at a location name in the left column, unless I use the color coding, you don't know whether or not it comes with the ORBX package, needs to be downloaded individually from the scenery page or is part of a group download. I think the color coding fixes that. Going to play around with it some more and see what works.
Although we are still making locations, for myself, I'm going to focus on the "here2there" aspect of this. We have enough places to fly to that would keep people busy for months! This should eliminate a lot of confusion and bring the whole site together.
Doug
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Great Work Doug!! That should keep people interested for a long time.
Brad
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Yes, excellent idea, Doug!
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Well I got through the "L's" .. so about half way done. But even when all the flight plans are in, there is more to do. We'll want to search for every location we have and make sure there is a flight plan to it. Although the Hydro Plants have their own section, I'm still going to be sure we have flight plans to all of them with maps. There are some other orphans that we'll find. But if we get this thing correct, everything on the site will be on this single table. Now that there are over 250 entries in it, the searching starts to be a lot of fun.
Doug
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Slugging my way through the "S's" ... there are a lot of them! Had some duplicate plans, got rid of those, and made about 8 new maps that were missing. It is nice that everything will have a map.
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OK, the basic "GoTo" table is finished. It is fully active and perfectly matches the flight plans in "RTMM Flight Plans.zip". There are many "orphans" we need to fins and bring into the table, PLEASE, if you see one, let us know. I'm going to go to work on these first:
Brad's BBQ Locations
Owikeno Lake Locations
Vancouver Project Locations
Whistler Aerodrome
And I am sure there are many more. We want to have a flight plan for every location on the site, that's the goal. The new GoTo table makes it VERY easy to find thing quickly. Please help us find the orphans.
One other thing you could help with, I just didn't have the time to be switching seasons 400 times while doing this. But if you know of a lake location that freezes in the winter, let us know. I will be putting an asterisk (*) after the "-W" for the landing zone. That way, you will know, flying in the winter that you should be prepared to land on the ice with skis or tundra setups.
Please read the instructions and the Legend for the table ... they will help you understand the function of it. Basically, anything in RED is a "group" that you can download that has several locations. Anything in Green is an "individual" location that can be downloaded from the scenery page.
I've listed the key groups with a direct link to each of them. If you put in "Missing Cabins" ... you are adding 102 locations with a single addition. With Cabins on the Lake, you are adding 30 locations. So you can hadd many locations quickly by adding those groups listed.
Play with the table, if you find errors, let me know ... that was a lot of confusing typing and there could be some errors ... just let me know here in the thread and I'll fix them.
Doug
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Wow Doug, very impressive. This has to be a monumental and time consuming task! Thanks for the list.
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Thanks Steve, yep, it takes some time to add everything, for each entry I'm making sure we have a correct map, and that the flight plan works. Many I'm adding don't have maps, so I've had to make about 60 maps so far. Right now I'm working on the Brad's BBQ locations. There are several of them and they are almost all orphans. We used them to give a "spawning point" for a river run. But if folks are not using the boats, they will never see these. So I'm making a flight TO each one of them. When these are done, I'm going to work on Owikeno Lake and have a flight plan to all 20 locations. So there is a lot still to do, but the table is now good enough to be of real value to folks.
I'm thinking for the new people who wonder what to download first ... rather than starting at "A" and going down the list downloading, they can go to the table and pick and choose ... sort of "shop" for what THEY like to fly. The table can help them with the selections. Then it isn't a "chore" it is something that is "fun."
As I go, I'm making sure the starting points table is updated also, so the starts are exactly where they should be. Also, I'm double-checking as to which ORBX package each scenery is in ... we had some of them wrong. So as I make the table, we are really doing some housecleaning on the site at the same time.
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All of the Brad's BBQ sites are in. There were a little tricky. Some of them come from River Runs from "The Moorings" (Boating). So folks will have to download the river run, which won't hurt anything, and they might even try a boat trip! The key is, when you see GREEN TEXT without parentheses, it is an "individual" download that must be downloaded and installed.
These were some fine orphans to pick up. Brad's BBQ at Spud's Creek ... did you ever see it? If you aren't a boater, chances are you haven't and you have no idea where it is. Several are like this. For Brad's BBQ Stewart, I made the route happen from Summit Ice Station CIRP ... which gives them a chance to download a CIRP and see what the ice looks like. I think the Brad's BBQ additions are going to be fun for people. We still may have a couple out there "lurking" ... if you know of one, let me know and we'll bring it into the fold.
Going to work next on Owikeno Lake. By the way, each time I work on these, we are adding flight plans to the RTMM Flight Plans.zip folder ... so if you are playing along... be sure always to have the latest from there. The table is up to date with it.
I had to get innovative with Photoshop Elements on a couple of these so people could figure out where the BBQ place was situated. So I put a couple of inserts on the maps to help. See below:
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Vancouver Island Project North ... is now all set up in the GoTo table. There are individual flight plans for each of the features with maps. To find them, search for "Vancouver" and they will come up for you. The updated RTMM Flight Plans.zip on the Here2There page is updated to include these new flights.
Doug
Update ... all of CIRP is now on the table. Also added Whistler Aerodrome and Vancouver Int'l SPB.
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I've finished adding all the entries from Owikeno Lake. Also found CU Ranch was missing. Added Whistler Aerodrome and Vancouver Intl SPB. So far I've made 64 maps! This means we didn't have maps for that many locations. There are now 474 entries in the table.
Next I'm going to be sure we have the SAK SPB's and the hydro plants (Alaska Power Project). Once these are entered, then we'll just be looking for other orphans. And if you see one, let me know.
Doug
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All of the SAK Sea Plane Bases are now represented in the table with maps. Chicamin Bay Dock (Barnstormers) has been added.
Added all of Barnstormers Locations (35) and all of Alaska Power Project locations (16)
Doug
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Sir Doug. Great job on the table and putting all information together. Ties everything totally together.
Thank-you
Norm
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Thank you Norm. I'm now just looking for the orphans, and there are some I'm sure. Going to work next on the getting started page to tie the table in to it better. This is the way for a new person to start with RTMM. The can find the kinds of flights they would most enjoy (checking the maps) and load those in first. Basically, they would load the libraries, then head to GoTo for scenery selection.
With the groups better highlighted, I found over 65% of the all locations can be loaded by just installing the few groups. I didn't realize the percentage was that high. We had 30% of the locations without flight plans and maps...that took most of the production time.
I haven't got all of the water landing zones that freeze indicated yet (W*) so more to do, but the table is functioning perfectly. I have a friend here, just starting up. He only has PNW. Now he can search for PNW and all our PNW locations are listed for him, no more searching through the scenery page.
I hope people "discover" it so they can use it very day to pick their next flight.
Doug