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Do you like flying VFR and watching the World below you? Do you sometimes feel that something is missing? We Love VFR is here to help you. We Love VFR is a free add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator that adds thousands of new VFR-friendly objects. In this beta version, you get communication, radio, and tv antennas, chimneys, radar domes, construction cranes, and satellite/radio telescope dishes. I have plans for many, many more.
I spend countless hours developing this, so donations are very appreciated, but not mandatory ;)
If you don't like smoke effects, or they kill your fps, first of all, report it, but then you can switch them off by removing the "chimney_smoke.bgl" file from this add-ons scenery folder.
Region 1 (Europe and North Africa) is here »
- Almost 200 000 objects were placed in region 2
- Coverage of North and South America and part of Oceania
- In this version mobile communication, tv and radio antennas, chimneys, radar domes, construction cranes, and satellite/radio telescope dishes
- Probably the first use of visual effects in scenery add-on. Yup, we have smoking chimneys (still experimental)
- Puffin AI* - correct placement and appearance of objects**
- Incorporated data from FAA, NOAA, and other national authorities
- Over 100 custom models
- Lower spec PC friendly
- Much more planned
- Yes, I know there are no cooling towers. Next update hopefully.
How to install?
Find your „Community” directory and just copy "a-puf-we-love-vfr-region2" folder there. That’s it. If you’re updating my addon, remove the old version before installing the new one.
If you have a conflicting addon refer to the included ReadMe file.
Warning: To get satellite dishes/radio telescopes you need "USA Points of Interest" by Asobo, from the official World Update USA installed. It's available in the marketplace for free.
It's a beta and I don't have much time for testing, also data in this region is far from perfect, so...
...don't be mad if you see any errors, just report them to me so I can fix them ;) If you see an object that you know but its appearance is wrong, join our discord and report it there. I'll try to add/fix it for the next version.
Known Issues:
- In very rare cases there might be an office building instead of a chimney (I don't mean cooling towers, these are not implemented in the mod at all... yet). This is a case of mismatched data between Asobo and OSM and has to be fixed manually. Report it in comments or in our discord.
- my objects are switched off on photogrammetry to avoid conflicts (except mast and antennas). Unfortunately, photogrammetry boundaries are sometimes different than real photogrammetry coverage. Because of that, objects that are close to photogrammetry areas might not appear at all. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this.
- sometimes the smoke effect can be on the ground instead of on top of the chimney and go up and down depending on camera position. It's a bug in the sim and it was reported to Asobo.
*Not really AI. Just quite complex conditions, but AI sounds a lot better.
**Depends on data availability.
gryper
Looks like a bunch of similar mods I just paid for over at Sim Market. Now I guess those will conflict with this.
PuffinFlight 12 hour(s) ago
I strongly advise you to test this one. It's free and so it won't cost you anything to compare them. And yes, this will conflict with some of the mods from company that starts with a "T" 😉
Viranto
Because of 200 000 objects, the probability is very high that there is some area for which I have a scenery mod.
PuffinFlight 23 hour(s) ago
Depends on what another scenery adds. Because my objects are scattered around, for example, Texas, it doesn't mean that they will affect the San Antonio airport you downloaded, at all. On the other hand, if you have an addon that adds some nice custom-made antennas in specific area, the conflict may occur. I treat my addon as a low-level kinda autogen+ mod. So if the author of local, custom scenery included exclusion rectangles in his addon, my objects will be removed. Not every add-on does that, but some do.
octatone
Just wanted to report a bug or oddity. I noticed with this mod on, flying in NYC, that it adds a tower to the top of the WTC with guy lines coming off of it to the ground. Probably not intentional.
PuffinFlight 4 day(s) ago
Oh s***, this is so embarrassing. You're totally right. All antennas that cross buildings are disabled, except antennas marked as polygons in OSM. In most cases, these are big antennas placed on small buildings. In this case, it's obviously the other way around.
I should have checked it as it's one of the taller ones. Sorry for that. I'll consider releasing a fix, but can;t tell you when exactly.
octatone 3 day(s) ago
No worries, love your VFR mods. I shall wait patiently 😊
pearlbeater
This is absolutely amazing! Most of the towers are exactly where they should be from my real world flying job. I wonder though. Is there a way to have them show up in the garmins as obstacles on the moving map and SVS like they do in real life? Probably would require Asobo to do something huh? Either way, Thanks for this amazing VFR mod!
PuffinFlight 7 day(s) ago
That's the part of Asobo/Working Title thing. I can't add that. But never say never 😉
pearlbeater 7 day(s) ago
Figured, but thought I'd mention it. Thanks!! Also, I see you use FAA data. Have you looked at FCC data any? They show coordinates/heights of all licensed towers as well. In fact, there is a pretty crazy KMZ file for google earth at https://www.fccinfo.com/fccinfo_google_earth.php
PuffinFlight 7 day(s) ago
I've checked out FCC data before and decided not to use them. There are few reasons. First is that FAA data covers all antennas over 60 m. Let's be honest, lower ones are mostly eye candy and those closer to airports are in FAA too. Second, FCC data usually overlaps with FAA, but they are both all over the place in terms of precision. I have already problems to combine OSM and FAA data and not create duplicates. Add to that third source and you have even bigger mess. And last one is that with OSM and FAA we have way over 150000 antennas in US only. Adding more, smaller ones wouldn't change much in immersion but might change a bit in terms of performance.
pearlbeater 7 day(s) ago
Great points. Thanks!
wblackret
Hi from the Pittsburgh, PA area, home airport KAGC. Love what you have done here. Makes VFR flying more meaningful too. I noticed one bug I wanted to call to your attention. On approach to RWY 18 at KMGW Morgantown, WVA there are three or four towers right in the approach to the runway, actually right in the middle of the runway approach lights. When you can take a look and you will see what I mean. Also noticed while approaching stacks throughout the area, smoke comes out the top, then moves to the bottom and as you get closer, back to the top. I hold a PPL and have flown a lot in the tri-state area, what you have done makes it as real as it can get. Thanks and keep up the great work!
PuffinFlight 7 day(s) ago
This is a very peculiar case. I was sure the problem is some ILS antenna marked incorrectly in OSM, but no. Those come from FAA data.
Here you can see what it is https://www.google.com/maps/@39.6525781,-79.9189567,3a,90y,343.07h,93.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s13PpNftb8KqBAU6fPgYfkg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
I think that FAA data is wrong in terms of height. I will remove these for the next update as they are not GSM or radio antennas and should be taken care of by developers that work on custom airports.
The "jumpy" smoke effects are a bug by Asobo. It's reported to the devs by dev platform, so it shouldn't be lost in the vastness of zendesk 😉
Thank you for your kind words.
Biokerozen
Hello and first of all, thanks for your amazing job !
Is smoke effect take into account wind direction and strength ?
PuffinFlight 8 day(s) ago
Thanks. Yes, it does 😊
DC6Pilot
What had you add for this release of July 27th?
PuffinFlight 9 day(s) ago
You can see it in detail in the Changelog. It is mostly a compatibility update as SimUpdate 5 changed some things and smoke effects stopped working. Plus reworked the smoke placement system for better performance. Added smaller smoke effects for smaller chimneys. Some data corrections. Added collisions to few objects that didn't have them. Plus some other minor fixes and tweaks.
DC6Pilot 7 day(s) ago
Thank you.
Amadeo_Cutini
That's a very useful mod. Thanks!
scobbTDCtv
Any plans on adding lighthouses with working light beacons? Love to fly on the coasts and would be nice to look down and see a few in the dark.
PuffinFlight 12 day(s) ago
Plans - yup. When - no idea. I'm way behind schedule with cooling towers, so let's not talk about new objects for now 😉
scobbTDCtv 12 day(s) ago
No rush, but thanks for doing everything you can. Make flying in the sim better when you know where there are items in real life, to avoid while flying.
Fungaming44
Just wanted to let you know it needs a fix / update for the Performance Plus Beta / Release, when having this one or / and the other one in then it hangs half way loading into a flight even if I start a flight all the way in San Francisco .
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
This is very unusual. I'm in beta program too and had no issues except missing smoke texture that needs a fix.
I will check San Francisco area but I've been to London, Boston and Wrocław so far and had no issues.
Can you tell me exact airport you had problems spawning on?
Fungaming44 1 month(s) ago
San Francisco Airport and Half Moon Bay both get stuck half way through the loading screen. Removing your addons fixed it, took some time to figure out what things were causing the issues. Yours are not the only ones causing problems some others having issues too. Problem is it works fine in 1 region but in another it doesnt at all.
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
For no I have no idea what's going on. I had no problems with starting at KSFO. The only thing I need to try is to remove US POI. Other than that I have no idea. Maybe it's a conflict with another mod. Did you try with We Love VFR only? Let's wait for next beta build and we'll see if it still freezes for you.
DazzaJay
I discovered a really unusual and specific bug with this addon. (have both regions installed) - It does not stop me from playing or anything like that. it actually affects another program - LittleNavMap
When LittleNavMap scans the FS2020 Data Folder for Airport Data, it gets to the folders of this addon and then the scan fails when it finds a specific file in this addon.
The solution is to remove this addon, run the scan, copy this addon back in.
I don't know if the bug is in the code of your addon, OR in the airport parsing system of LittleNavMap, either way they don't seem to agree with eachother.
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
IIRC LittleNavMap analyses contents of scenery files looking for airports, VORs and such. In my add-ons there are over 400.000 objects combined so it may be a bit too much for it to process 😉 I'll check it out and maybe reach out to LittleNavMap author and ask to add some exception.
Lade
Are there any conflicts with the telescope files that have been released?
bstikkel 1 month(s) ago
I was having the same question. Are your objects also having an default or other parties object removing function in it, in case there already are available in some places?
Great work, by the way!
Bram
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
There might be. The thing is I can't detect if anything stands on top of my objects. Another thing is I treat my add-on as autogen extension (it's not autogen technically, but you get my point). What I mean is I try to recreate as many object as close as possible but not making custom objects for specific places. This is the area where creators of "local" landmarks come in, and their work is far more accurate.
Other mods can be compatible with mine if their authors added exclusion rectangle in their scenery. Then, if user has the correct load order of scenery (that's why my folder name starts with "a" and description how to set that) my object will be removed and the more accurate custom object will be out in it's place.
This is also the reason I don't place exclusions in my add-on (except those to remove vanilla buildings). My mod is low level, poi mods are high level and always will be more important than mine.
And on topic of telescopes. If it's optical telescope I don't place it at all. I don't have proper models yet. So, only conflict might be with radio telescopes. If you want to get rid of then just remove "dish" from my scenery folder.
Semor76
Great work mate! Question: does Region 2 already include Region 1 ?
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
No. They are separate. I know it would be cool to keep it all in one add-on, but I had to split it as the data I'm dealing with is so big that I and my PC would go bonkers trying to update everything at once.
dappercorleon
great work! unfortunately I've had to disable smoke effects. I would report on discord, but I'm "unable to accept the invite" for some reason.
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
Maybe try this link? https://discord.gg/n2XPeCfU
In case of smoke effects. Do you get low fps because of them? Is it some specific place? Did you test the same place without them?
So far I was unable to tell why this happens for some people. Most have barely any fps impact from effects. It might be an issue in the whole visual effects system, not just my smoke.
Did you by any chance play with some aircraft that has effects? I think Vertigo has. It might show if it's overall effects related, or specific mod related.
dappercorleon 1 month(s) ago
When using the Carenado M20R flying in NYC with visuals enabled, I noticed a large fps impact (~30%). Using the same aircraft after removing the visual folder frames back to expected.
I will do some further testing with the mod enabled/disabled on other aircraft / locations in the sim to see if I can learn anything.
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
First of all thank you for your generous donation, despite having problems.
It's always NY or Boston. Few people that reported the same issue were always in these places. First of all, NY should have no smoke at all. I exclude chimneys and smoke from photogrammetry. Problem is, because of bug in the sim this exclusion doesn't work for simobjects/effects (need to perform few more tests). Still it shouldn't give you such problems, as I with my potato, have no significant FPS drop the because of effects.
Still, I will optimise effects a bit and there will be small update before SimUpdate 5. On top of that, SU5 may change so much in code that this problem will vanish.
verted
So great changed the sim any plans on adding solar farms?
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
A few weeks ago I took a look at solar farms briefly. It's a lot more complicated than it looks. Sometimes roof solar panels are marked as solar farms. Sometimes the whole area of the solar power plant is marked so it's hard to tell where generators stand. And in some areas, these farms are so huge that I was concerned about the FPS load.
I'll get back to that someday, but I have other objects higher on my to-do list.
verted 21 day(s) ago
I was concerned about fps too I was asking I live 5 min from a new one in Virginia 1.6 million panels
brunocclins
Very good Addon. Excelent work!
IBBangin
Smashed it again! this adds so much and the smoke effects are epic, will you be updating Region 1 with them? - thanks for your efforts, this is a superb addon
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
Thank you.
Smoke effects will be added to Region 1 for sure. But first I need to fix/find workarounds for few issues that I have with them. Also, there are very rare CTD reports that need to be checked.
DC6Pilot
So awesome to see objects as part of the scene when you VFR at low level. Great job and congrats on the recognition from Asobo.
astroseanf
Excellent mod, thank you so much.
FlyingsCool
Hi, I just got a CTD because both you and MSFScenery Builders named a file modellib.bgl. You may want to consider making a unique name for this file to avoid CTD's for your users.
It's easy enough for users to rename the file and update the layout.json appropriately, but better not to do it in the first place.
Nice job, though. Love seeing my smokestacks back south of KCON. They were a major missing landmark. I haven't checked, but, another missing landmark in the area is the Haystack Observatory in Westford. If you didn't already take care of it, I'd LOVE to see that one. I use that all the time to find my way to KASH in real life.
(I just loaded several sceneries, and forgot to check them. I just found 6 modellib.bgl's... sigh)
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
Hi. Sorry to hear you got CTD.
According to this answer given by Asobo to 3rd party dev, the filename doesn't matter as long as it is in a folder with a unique name. And in this case, it is in one.
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/scenery-creators-please-move-or-rename-your-modellib-bgl/307563/66?u=puffinflight
Maybe some other sceneries are in conflict. In 23000 downloads I had no such case and Region 1 is using a similar approach. Actually too similar, so I will change names anyway 😀 But I guess you don't have Region 1.
Haystack Observatory is indeed missing. I'll add it to the next update. Thank you for your report.
FlyingsCool 1 month(s) ago
Cool... yes, as I said, in the end I found 7 of them, and a couple were in "mycompany", so, from what you said, it wasn't likely yours that caused the problem, but, I still think it's best to name everything uniquely. Why live dangerously? 😉
And yes, after a bad experience flying around London (my first time in Europe, if I'm going to fly a Spitfire, it better be where it grew up and called home I thought) and bam, bsod and I had to repair my windows installation, I'm scared now and only fly pretty much around where I really fly 😊
PuffinFlight 1 month(s) ago
As I said, maybe I didn't create conflict with other mods, but accidentally created one with my own mod 😁 Thanks for that. It will be fixed in next release. Hopefully you will find what cases your issues, and if it's We love VFR you know where to find me 😉
FlyingsCool 1 month(s) ago
Oh, I did. I found a couple of mycompany\modellib.bgl files and fixed them and no more CTD. I go through every scenery I download looking for this error as it's quite persni-kitty.