Swedflight - History

A lot of users have asked how this big project started. Therefore Bengt Larsson himself (the original father of the scenery) describes what happened in the beginning. This text is written for the beta version of the scenery almost three years ago so a lot have happened since then. But here is the story - in his own words.

How it started

The SWEDFLIGHT-history is a "Norway-story". As a matter of fact it is. By a coincidence I got in touch with Arne Sundsbo after making SWEDMAP for SWEDEN1.5. I had just started working with SCBUILD1.3 and Arne had made some airport sceneries for Norway. Together we started making sceneries for some of the bigger airports in Norway. After some time Arne told me about Svein Holbo who had made a very beautiful scenery of the northern part of Norway. Sveins scenery was the best I had ever seen. How in hell had he done all that?

Well, soon the three of us were making what later came out as NORWAY6 and NORWAY6.1. The later scenery is awarded as the best freeware scenery of the year 1997. In the latest issue of Microsoft Magazine (Norvegian edition) is a presentation of this scenery. To me are both Svein and Arne the best designers of all. Arne is a specialist of airport design. Look at Stavanger, Kristiansund and now his latest creation in SWEDFLIGHT: Karlstads new Airport. Arne will also make Arlanda, Landvetter and Sturup for Swedflight. Svein not only makes exact geography, he also cares very much about that his sceneries are an aestetic experience for the flightsimmer. Perhaps are these the reasons why these two guys also are members of the SWEDFLIGHT group.

While we were working on NORWAY6.1 I was also drawing what later became SWMAP2.2. That was a geographical scenery over Sweden, but didn´t have any airports. Still was SWEDEN1.5 the basis for this scenery. I made it in just one purpose - to get in contact with Swedish designers. I wanted someone to cooperate with. SWMAP2.2 gave some response. I got many letters, but nobody seemed to be the one to work with. But one day I came to Mats Findells homepage. He had made some very nice, small sceneries of his "hometowns" Ludvika, Grangesberg and Borlange. I sent him a letter and a few days later Mats phoned me. He suggested that we together should start making a gigantic scenery of Sweden with all airports. Then came a very nice letter from Bo Wiberg. He also called me and now the plans for making a Swedish scenery vere getting stronger. We realised we needed one more. So Goran Gronlund from Gotland turned up. We were now four and so we started.

The work has been very intense during our holidays. Almost everyday we have been in contact with each other, sorting and solving different problems. During this time Bosse has been responsible to keep the contact with Arne Nylén at KSAK. He has also had a great deal of help from Luftfartsverket in Sundsvall with all the maps we needed. Mats has taken all photographs for SWEDFLIGHT. These were later converted to the R8s that are used in this scenery. He has also desgined our home page and persuaded Dalnet to give us "room" on their server. So this is what up to now have come out of all this work: The beta version of SWEDFLIGHT.

We know there are some bugs, but we are sure that you will at least not get any hang ups or database errors. For the nearest future will some files be updated to fit this beta version. Some new files will also be made to make this scenery complete. After that will the work start for a new, even more realistic version. I earlier told you that Mats has taken a lot of photographs. All of them are not used for R8s. One of them is GRSKOG1.R8. We want a "Nordic light" over this scenery and more R8s will come. 30% of the country is covered with marshy grounds so a new MYREN.R8 will be released for this purpose. We also have BYN.R8, BYN2.R8 and BYN3.R8 to get more Swedish oriented types of textures for communities and cities.

When we started, we of course wanted to beat the Norwegian scenery. But how could we do that? Sweden is a flat country and Norway is very exiting with all it's mountains. "Water", we said. So in this scenery you will find at least 1500 - 2000 lakes. And more will come. Almost every bigger populated area is there. The coast line is as exact as we could make it without sacrificing the frame rate. Now it seems not so important to beat NORWAY6.1. These two sceneries are 100% compatible. The files in NORWAY6.1 fits exactly to all files in SWEDFLIGHT. You can now fly from Stromstad and northward, following the border between the countries all the way to Kiruna or Narvik and have a geograhic scenery almost all the way. Some parts of Sweden is still missing. The border to Finland is not yet ready. And the so called Treriksroset is not fit yet. We are waiting for a geographical scenery of Finland.

In order to make this scenery we are very greatful to Peter Jacobson who has released ASDesigner. Bo and Bengt have also beta tested this tool. We have also used the AIRPORT202 by Paul Meziat for many airports. Many thanks to Paul. SCASM by Manfred Moldenauer compiled it all.

/Bengt Larsson 1997-09-03