| Support:
Developing this mod has been very time consuming. If you like my work and would like to help support future development, please consder donating using the Paypal donation link. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Description:
This mod replaces the entire shoreline of Big Bear Lake, CA with a higher resolution poly that is much more accurate, replaces the default (incorrect) trees in the San Bernardino mountains with pine trees, removes the water in Baldwin and Erwin lake (they're dry in real life), improves the lighting, fixes some glaring issues with the default scenery in the Big Bear area, and adds landmarks and many fine details. The goal is to bring the scenery as close to reality as possible. The water level of Big Big Lake is constantly changing, so the water level in this mod may not exactly match the current state of the lake as it is based on the water level when the bing image was taken so that it matches the underlying image. This mod requires both USA world updates.
The L35 Big Bear City Airport mod (By JosueMejia) and the L35 Density Altitude Signs mod (By vbazillio) are now fully merged with the permission of the authors! If you have either mod installed, please make sure to remove it before installing this mod.
Current default scenery: Winter
Requirements:
- World Update II (USA)
- World Update X (USA)
Features:
- Now includes an updated L35 Airport. L35 was orginally created by JosueMejia but he kindly allowed me to take over development. This update brings significant improvements, including better integration with the surrounding scenery, proper routing for the AI and taxi ribbon, taxiway signs, proper frequencies, improved parking, terraforming and much more!
- Density altitude signs for L35 by vbazillio!
- Much more detailed shoreline for Big Bear Lake and Stanfield Marsh
- Stanfield Cutoff is now above water and has details like the guard rails and drainage pipes
- Summer and Winter version of the scenery
- Baldwin Lake and Erwin Lake are now dry
- Improved lighting throughout Big Bear and street lights are removed where they don't exist in real life (38, 330, 18 etc)
- Stanfield Marsh boardwalk
- The Snow summit ski slope is now lit up at night during the winter (Winter scenery must be enabled)
- There are now boats on the lake during the summer
- Big Bear Solar Observatory (Plan to update the model in the future)
- Updated the biomes for the entire San Bernardino mountains. Pine trees now grow in Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, Lake Gregory etc.
- Custom localized biomes reflecting the microclimates of Big bear, such as variable scrub brush in the Erwin Lake area
- Horses in the Baldwin lake and Erwin Lake areas and a few black bears now live in the woods behind Fawnskin where there are frequent sightings.
- The CA-18 bridge at the dam is no longer baked into the scenery texture
- Added the solar array behind the convention center/wyatts and the solar panels at the North Shore Elementary School and Big bear highschool
- Random car parking throughout Big Bear, including paved parking lots, trailheads, turnouts along the 38 and 18 etc.
- Tons of little fixes and improvements all over Big Bear.
Video from Bill4LE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzESL9xPFIs
Recommended/Relevant Mods:
- Project Lifts (Includes Big Bear) - Highly recommended!
Update Instructions:
Always delete the mod folder ('flightsimdude-scenery-bigbearca') from your community folder before copying any future updates.
Switch Between Summer And Winter Scenery:
To switch from summer to winter:
Rename "scenery\bigbearca-scenery\bigbearscenery-summer.bgl" to "bigbearscenery-summer.bgl.bak" or delete the file
Rename "scenery\bigbearca-scenery\bigbearscenery-winter.bgl.bak" to "bigbearscenery-winter.bgl"
To switch from winter to summer:
Rename "scenery\bigbearca-scenery\bigbearscenery-winter.bgl" to "bigbearscenery-winter.bgl.bak" or delete the file
Rename "scenery\bigbearca-scenery\bigbearscenery-summer.bgl.bak" to "bigbearscenery-summer.bgl"
Special Thanks!:
- JosueMejia (Provided the art assets and was the original developer of L35 Airport. Make sure to check out his other mods!)
- vbazillio (Provided the Density Altitude signs. Make sure to check out his other mods!)
- tacandme (Sponsor)
- vgbaron (Sponsor)
- monstersd619 (Sponsor)
- Joshsum (Sponsor)
- Vibstronium (Sponsor)
- Tom1957 (Sponsor)
- lloydsmit (Sponsor)
- perohijo (Sponsor)
- Bill @ Bill4LE
ZacA
Etymology. Big Bear got its name due to the large number of grizzly bears that once roamed the area. Although grizzly bears went extinct in the valley at the turn of the 20th century, there are still thousands of black bears found in Big Bear Valley.
DC6Pilot
Is there a photogrammetry of big bear anywhere? Would love to see it used with your mod.
flightsimdude 13 day(s) ago
I experimented with photogrammetry in the past and it looked much worse than no photogrammetry because of all the glitches and the tree spikes\blobs. Photogrammetry is much better suited for non-forested areas, like cities. You can see what I mean in the Google Maps globe view.
KomradeDoge
Very accurate, I go up to Big Bear all the time, and the little details like the observatory and docks are great with this scenery. Excellent for the VFR landmarks from IRL.
BostonElf
I love this package but it now causes direct CTD during loading.
chrisjake
This is really nice. Any idea why this scenery would conflict with 3N6 Old Bridge airport by NJFlyer606 ? I've confirmed that with only this and 3N6 installed, I get a CTD at startup.
einherz 3 month(s) ago
in my case old bridge airport don't work even without this scenery. msfs just can not start with it
lawlegge
Hi flightsimdude,
Excellent work...
One question - can/should we use the "Aerial" folder from the old original project (v1.3b - JosueMejia) or is it also superseded by this package?
Thanks for your time and efforts...they are much appreciated.
flightsimdude 1 month(s) ago
I personally don't use it while developing, but it's ultimately up to you. It should still work in theory.
BertGroner
Gentlemen, good day!
Thanks for making this outstanding airport.
One question pelase: Should the L35 Density Altitude signs made by vbazillo work? In my installation they are dark showing no density altitude.
Thanks a lot for help - take care!
Bert
flightsimdude 4 month(s) ago
They don't actually display the density altitude at the moment, but that's how it is in real life as well. They rarely work.
https://www.aopa.org/-/media/Images/AOPA-Main/News-and-Media/Publications/Pilot-Magazine/2022/2207/2207p_snt/2207p_snt_006.jpg?mw=1200&mh=675&as=1&hash=8E7849FAD86868ED33FDD73783CDE8D8
BertGroner 4 month(s) ago
Thanks a lot, Dude, very kind - hope this will work some times 😊
Take care!
Bert
einherz
must be cool stuff, but it conflict with something in my community dir, ctd at msfs loading. don't sure, may be trees from bijan, may be something else. could you please make this addon more flexible and universal, please?
chrisjake 3 month(s) ago
This was happening with me as well. I finally found the 2 conflicting sceneries, this one and Old Bridge airport in New Jersey created by NJSim. If you also have these installed try using one or the other to see if its also your issue.
einherz 3 month(s) ago
thx
ltjackson
Very well done!
Maxest
Hi, can you say which .bgl in your scenery folder are responsible for the trees? I am trying to merge your mod with some of my other vegetation mods in my community folder that otherwise crash if installed separatly.
flightsimdude 5 month(s) ago
It should just be a matter of deleting the \vegetation\ folder. I couple people now have reported a crash from the vegetation. If anyone has any further information that can help me narrow it down, please post a comment or send me a PM. Thanks.
vbazillio
One of my favorite freeware!
Considering that this mod is a package including the airport buildings and infrastructure, I would love to find more pics of it in this page slideshow 😉 This package is full of features now!
I also would love to help corrected an awfull building: I think it's the Goldsmith's storage here : https://goo.gl/maps/nJn3yYfLJFf9oAvJ7
I have very limited skills on Blender and Sketchup (anything took hours for me). Is there a way to replace the low poly and low texture resolution building even with a stock/from MSFS library building?
flightsimdude 5 month(s) ago
Thank you for the feedback. I will look through the generic buildings and see if I can find a closer fit than the autogen for that building. The screenshots are a work in progress for WU10; I will make sure to add some close airport screenshots. 😊
Pandaman
My sister lives in Big Bear and I live at the bottom of the hill in Redlands, CA - love to fly in this area, used to training in a Cessna 150 in the early '70's in this area. I installed the mod and had a CTD. I removed it, booted the sim and it worked fine. I did some clean-up on my community folder and did a redownload and a reinstall. Had another CTD, did another removal and sim works OK now. Will check back when you do an update. The scenery photos are awesome, love that you included the observatory.
flightsimdude 5 month(s) ago
Do you have any mods installed that affect the trees?
Pandaman 5 month(s) ago
I checked my community folder, didn't see mods that related to trees, but there may be one that doesn't have the word tree in the folder name that I missed. I've downloaded the newest 5.0 update, I'm checking it now, will advise. Thanks for your work, if the scenery is as good as the photos you've posted, that will be awesome. I'm sure I'll have to buy you a cup of coffee!
Rockfrog
Have loved this mod from its earliest days, through the developments, pulling in and improving 3rd party work, and up to today's WU10 fixes. Great project, great effort, please continue!
flightsimdude
WU10 development update:
https://flightsim.to/group/6334/big-bear-polys
monstersd619
Thank you again for the latest update!!!
skassa
flightsimdude 6 month(s) ago
You should be able to remove the 'vegetation' folder but then you won't have pine trees or scrub brush where they belong. This mod makes minimal use of the custom biome system compared to what's possible and is based on Asobo's SDK documentation and samples, however I will go over it against to make sure that there's no errors.
With that said, If another mod causes a CTD because of the way it modifies the game, because it's not updated, or because of a bug in MSFS, I don't think the solution is every other mod not using custom biomes, which is a core feature of the SDK and a requirement for certain areas to achieve a realistic look.
skassa 6 month(s) ago
Removed the vegetation folder resolved the ctd (conflict with bijan four season mod) thanks.
DC6Pilot
Wish you could do photogrammetry for this city. It would be awesome.
fppilot
For crying out loud! Do us and yourself a favor. Please work on this for a week, or better yet a month before posting updates. This every day stuff is frustrating. Who flies to Big Bear daily? You have accomplished a great deal. Much appreciated! But please just spread out the updates.
Coty734 7 month(s) ago
I personally appreciate all the hard work this creator puts into this free mod!
CalsFM 7 month(s) ago
Or just ignore the updates for a week rather than asking the developer to change his workflow.
BostonElf 7 month(s) ago
Flightsimdude: I am most appreciative and will gladly spend the extra 2 minutes or less that it takes to update your most delicious scenery now with merged airport 😊 Dear fppilot: I hope tomorrow treats you better, get well soon 😊
fppilot 7 month(s) ago
😏
monstersd619 7 month(s) ago
Do you have the FBW A320 mod? They update their plane everyday, sometimes twice a day. You going to tell them to slow it down and not put out an update everyday? Settle down Karen!!
monstersd619 7 month(s) ago
Don't let this ungrateful keyboard warrior change the way you do things. Keep the updates coming and the great work!!!
fppilot 7 month(s) ago
If you objectively read my comment you will see that I am far from ungrateful! Just the opposite. I am much appreciative. I do find it frustrating to install an update, after several months since the last, only to find another update the very next day. My point is this. If you decide after months to work up another valuable update, please go ahead and complete it rather than posting incremental updates on consecutive days! This is a great an valuable piece of work, totally agree. Just allow us to be more productive in embracing it. One comprehensive update every couple of months is something I value more highly than a lag followed by consecutive daily updates. I believe that is valuable feedback.
monstersd619 7 month(s) ago
More like critical than valuable!! You consider this "remark" as valuable? In what way? "For crying out loud! Do us and yourself a favor. Please work on this for a week, or better yet a month before posting updates. This every day stuff is frustrating. Who flies to Big Bear daily?" In what way is that a valuable comment? If you think its valuable for him to change the way he puts out his updates for his project on his profile then maybe your comment isn't as valuable as you think it is, or maybe you should have phrased it better. Did you provide any constructive criticism like add this or that? My comment/suggestion to you is, stop following the updates, delete the download and move on and like I said before, if you have the FBW A320 mod, do the same with that as well because they update theirs EVERY DAY or even TWICE A DAY!!!! You are not fooling anyone sir....good day!! Oh and I need to mention something....this scenery is FRREEEEE thanks to a generous creator like flightsimdude!!
P.S. Make your own scenery and you can update it on your time schedule, your hearts content and whenever suits you!
fppilot 7 month(s) ago
My feedback was in no way intended to apply to you. I would defer to this developer, whose work I highly value, and I clearly have stated so. My feedback was simple. Several months since the last update? Then please complete the new round of updates rather than posting daily progress. I feel that feedback has value.
flightsimdude 7 month(s) ago
This is a free mod with optional updates you can choose to install that are only a few MBs. I really don't know what to tell you. If you want to wait a month or two then wait a month or two..
monstersd619 6 month(s) ago
😂
charliebravoAT
We don't need the Den alt sign extra more since it is included yet? Did I get it right?
Amazing 😊
flightsimdude 7 month(s) ago
That's correct. The altitude density sign mod will now result in double signs if you have it installed
charliebravoAT 7 month(s) ago
thanks 😀
HomieFFM
I discovered this airport thorugh the BigBear Eagle stream.
Don't know if it's possible to be implemented, but the tree with the nest is not far away from the airport 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx0nese3zL8