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Hi, I'm Art Martin and this is my brand new company - Simulating Art.
I'm 51 years old, married to a wonderful woman and have 2 bright and fun boys.
The job that puts food on the table is programming computers which I've done for over 20 years.
I live in Litchfield Park, Arizona which is part of the greater Phoenix valley.
I grew up with a strong fascination with flying and have always been pressed to the window whenever
the jet I'm traveling in starts its descent into the Phoenix area.
Clear skies and visibilites of hundreds of miles transform the vast desert cities below into a magical
carpet of depth and color.
Needless to say, I was thrilled when Microsoft came out with their latest masterpiece -
Flight Simulator 2004. I was certain my city would be well-represented and I'd be flying over my
home and familiar places in no time. Well, MS did a masterful job of giving the overall feel of the
Arizona desert and the area right around Sky Harbour Airport had some interesting detail.
There were familiar and detailed buildings in the downtown area including the Bank One Ballpark.
However, once you flew out of downtown, the detail ended and the valley became default and
generic scenery. Only way I could locate the area around my house was by assuming it was somewhere
between the Glendale Airport and Luke AFB. My project started.
I began by creating photoreal textures of the area around my home. I learned quickly how
wonderful aerial photos looked from altitude but how flat and lifeless they
looked near the ground. I learned how to use a Microsoft-supplied program for creating
my own autogen to give depth to the view. I also found out what a poor tool that program
was for doing large areas so I wrote my own and shared it with the scenery design community.
I now had the capability to add huge amounts of buildings and vegetation in
intriquite patterns quickly to large areas of texture. I also realized that the downtown buildings Microsoft had done such a grand job of creating were wildly off in position and
many of the landmark structures were missing. Learning the complexities of GMAX was next
and soon I was creating my own buildings and structures.
As the area I layed down grew and my creation turned into true "eye-candy", I shared screenshots with
members of the flightsim community. A few locals came by to see the scenery and
convinced me that it was commercial quality and that I should persue this present venture.
Tim Fuchs and Chad Black have put in a huge number of hours beta testing, helping me with
website design, and have become great friends as well.
Thanks so much for your interest in this product and I hope you enjoy flying across my scenery as much as I do.
Art Martin
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