Using ortho-scenery offers an interesting opportunity to disregard X-Plane airport textures and instead use the ortho to show where dirt or grass runways are. I’ve done a quick test of this at Omarama and quite like the results.

The problem with standard runway textures is that the grass etc tends look pretty cartoony, but it has bump mapping which is good for up close. In WED it’s possible to create a runway which is set to ‘transparent’. This means your plane will behave as though it’s on a runway, but you won’t see it. So instead you’re left with the underlying ortho scenery.

If you have the ortho at Omarama you can try this out using this airport. I *think* it’s in the West Coast region of the ortho. It’s a good place to fly out of as it’s not too constrained by hills and gives you a good view of the Alps on the way to Queenstown.

Categories: Flight Simulation