Hypermarket Parking Lot - Phoenix R/C simulator - SupermotoXL Designs

Details: Published: 10 March 2021

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About

Ah!! this is one of my favorite site to fly our slow mo 3D profile plane especially after working hours and also heading down for shopping at nearby hypermarket after our activities. If you've been following our activities for years we've been here a lot with dev site xl hypermarketlot 17 my buddies practicing aerobatics, 3D, F3P styling flying or simply bashing our R/C car for speed. This is one of the 5 favorite spot to fly our lightweight 3D profile planes because the area is almost windless, flat tarmac, easy access to our transportation, very close place to dine for good meal and also very popular spot for any R/C enthusiast to gather around with their R/C models including aerial photography and R/C car/trucks enthusiast.....and of course a great spot for people who wanted to learn how to drive car which is also an annoyance for us R/C flyer too when we wanted to land. As for me its a pit stop point between working place and going back home. So why not stop by for a quick fun flying before heading home in the evening. I always carry 6x packs of 3s 650mah for a good 6 rounds of aerobatic flights...my favorite plane to fly has always been between TECHONE SBACH 342 or HK TRISTANIA profile plane. Sometimes we do also fly a night with LED's lights under the wings...we really attracted lots of public attention too as parade the nigh skies with colorful lights. Yes! i do have lots of 'night painting' photographs with our planes so do check our flight gallery.

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This flying area is actually a big parking lot belongs to 'Boulevard Hypermarket' building that houses many departmental stores, supermarkets, restaurants, clothing, bookstores, electronic and computers all under one roof.... yes KFC there too! There used to be an R/C shop back then but close down since 2010 which is why the parking lot used to be a normal daily activity for R/C people especially 'GoFlyKite' enthusiast who flew at night attracting many crowds with spectacular dev site xl hypermarketlot 13 night show. The size of parking lot is huge but motorist never occupies maximum capacities even at peak shopping hours. Its always have 70% empty space most of the time. In other season however the area sometimes rented to local Fun Fair event organizer, circus, car exhibition or sports festival.

So i've decided to replicate this awesome flying site and put it inside the Phoenix R/C simulator so i can enjoy it more often on screen especially if i'm to lazy to drop by. FYI; this virtual flying site 'Hypermarket Parking Lot' was already build a year earlier in January 2020 than the one's i've recently published 'Open Field Shop Lot' flying site because i did it as curious fun projects....you know 2020 Covid-19 lockdown keep us busy at home. The reason i didn't publish earlier because the panorama quality was sub par compare to the 'Open Field Shop Lot' due to low resolution pano stitch work......the quality was a bit 'grainy'. But after much consideration and some photo enhacement work finally it was released rather than put it to waste under archived of project files in my hard drives. At least the site is still enjoyable to fly in the simulator and could help out my local buddies and also my fans to try out my local flying spot without being there physically. Of course it was an alternative option to fly my bigger models virtually without real hazard.

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The build

As mentioned before the photographic panorama quality wasn't all that great especially it was taken during noon where the sunlight was at very bad angle causes my camera AWB to glare and looks shadowy. ISO setting doesn't helped much.....btw i'm not much of a professional photographer. The area photo shots was taken in the afternoon in a direction toward the sun which is also actually where R/C pilot suppose to view in front where big space to fly dev site xl hypermarketlot 14 located. Photos taken manually by hand on my HUAWEI Y9 camera on 13MP with f/2.8. The photo size aspect ratio is at 4:3 which give a good size coverage for composite panorama stitching. Took multiple shot of photos with 4160x3120 pixel resolution Jpeg photos in full 360 direction. Then using Microsoft Image Composite Editor to stitch the photos automatically into full 360 sphere panorama at 22528x8483 pixel in PNG format. Then i have to manually resample the size to 2:1 ratio (where width is size is twice the height) before turning into cube map layout via 'Panorama to Cubemap' online generator tools (here). On cube map tiled layout any imperfection on the generated scenery will be compared against the original photographs, any mismatched or imperfection will be edited manually by hand through Photopaint program which actually took me 8 hours to fix imperfection 'patchy' looking stitches. Once completed the real full 360 panoramic VR with multiple cube mapped photos will be assembled manually inside the PHOENIX BUILDER tools rendered in 'box' where its then will be layout with solid base foundation, object collision, lightings, weather elements and other items required to make the flying site more realistic to fly.........sound familiar? Unlike my previous site this one have more collision element all around from nearby car till beyond the horizon which took a bit longer to build than previous project.

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Tools used to create these custom site:

Photography tool: HUAWEI Y9 (2019) camera with 13MP, f/1.8
Site builder tool: Phoenix Builder
Sphere 360 panorama compiler: Microsoft Image Composite Editor
Cubemap tool: https://jaxry.github.io/panorama-to-cubemap/
Photo editing program: Corel Photopaint

Actual real life flying site:

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VR panoramic construction:

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Virtual flying site in Phoenix R/C simulator:

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Flying site characteristic

This is actually a very small and confined site to fly. In real world random motorist would wonder about this parking lot, trees, buildings and also glare from sunlight at noon time makes it more dev site xl hypermarketlot 47 challenging to fly. Usually we would fly our planes in the evening where the sun already sunk behind buildings and the horizon with enough sunlight visible to fly our planes...also it was ideal time coincides after my working hours. Unfortunately in this 'virtual' site inside Phoenix R/C simulator the site panorama was taken at noon because it was the best time to take panorama shots before environment get darker and makes it too grainy to process pano stitches during development..... have to suck it up with the sunlight orientation. During flying in simulator you'll have to settle in flying into shadowy outline of the plane against sun rays despite the flying 'front' orientation suppose to be facing towards that big hypermarket building when the sun directly above it. With just '100m x 92m' of safe flying space in the air and 60m of usable take-off and landing space this is not a good spot to fly big full scale models or even fast park flyer with flying weight above 300grams. That is why we only fly slow planes under 150~250 gram like 3D profile plane around here; just hovering slowly and perform 3D, F3P and aerobatic flights which only need small space for quick tight maneuver. However since we're now have a piece of 'virtual' lot....now we can experiment as many models as we wish in confined space.

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Flying site specification:

Area type: Urban area
Field size: Approximately 100m x 92m
R/C model flight suitability: 3D profile plane, mini helicopter and mini park flyer (slow flyer planes) under 300 grams.
Safe take-off & landing runway length: 60m
Hazards & obstacles: Buildings, trees, roads and parked vehicles
Flight skills required: Advance (*High agility skills required)

In real life this place doesn't get much turbulent wind. Most of the wind are mild and smooth because the surrounding are well blocked by tall buildings trees and other man made structure which makes it ideal to performed uninterrupted stunts especially when i'm doing delicate moves such as 'prop hanging' and 'knife edged' maneuver. In simulator if you really need some windy effect you can turn on from the weather option in the simulator to step up your game. You can also fly helicopter and other VTOL models too which doesn't consume much spaces to move around. In reality i used to fly a ALIGN 450 heli back then on the same spot. Overall since its now in simulator you can always experiments any models safely to test your flying skills and limits without much hazard.

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Summary

Although this place is not as cool as my previously released "Open Field Shop Lot' however the 'Hypermarket Parking Lot' offer unique and challenging way to test your flying skill in such a compact space. dev site xl hypermarketlot 56 This force you to learn how to fly in places where space is limited especially those who live in urban area and give you a glimpse how fun it was to fly a smaller and lighter flight models especially profile planes. This is why i love to invest time and resources building and flying 3d profile plane because not only its very safe model to fly, can be flown anywhere but also teaches us how to master the skills of advance flying; like be agile with our mental and physical reflexes when controlling the plane before it hits the border line. It was a fundamental skills that finally made me into what i am today, i can flip any planes in the air 360 without thinking. The hypermarket parking lot have helped me a lot with honing some skills. Its been my favorite yet nostalgic flying spot since year 2006. I've met a group of R/C kite flyer who used to the lit the night sky with LEDS at this very spot, it was my first glimpse to meet groups of 'GoFlyKite' enthusiast and learn few stuff about slow flight which lets led me into 3D profile flights doing aerobatics while keepin dev site xl hypermarketlot 18 g the pace slow. Because the place is close proximity to main road and roaming crowds of hypermarket customer our activity gain much attention and attraction especially when we flew at night on our colorful LED decorated profile plane mimic of 'GoFlyKite' style. Yes of course along the way meet new friends who come visit the venue too. This flying spot is a big crow magnet indeed.

To this day this place in 2021 this place still popular among casual R/C people who seek to escape from nearby home just for a peek of thrill try out their R/C models both air and ground because of vast space to enjoy about. As for me after working hours is definitely a 'go to' place to waste time with small fun flight before heading home or maybe for a quick nice dinner near by. Another strong reason why this spot was popular because they could hang around playing here while waiting for their wife and kids to finish shopping in that hypermarket... "I'll wait here honey!" with an sinister grin, lol!

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