Carowinds is a 407-acre theme park located near Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the border between South and North Carolina, hence their slogan "Where The Carolinas Come Together." Carowinds originally was opened in 1973; before its current ownership by Cedar Fair, it was operated by Taft Broadcasting and later by Paramount Pictures.
By far the largest amusement park in either of the Carolinas, Carowinds sports an impressive lineup of roller coasters, thrill rides, and water slides; the most famous of these is almost certainly the 325-foot-tall Fury 325, which is the tallest non-launched roller coaster in the world and consistently ranks as one of the top 5 coasters worldwide. That ride, and the entire park, are prominent visual landmarks on northbound approaches to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, which lies about 6 nm due north.
Features
- Detailed, fully hand-modeled recreation of Carowinds, including the Carolina Harbor water park and selected other adjacent buildings. Due to a lack of more recent reference photographs, this depiction is (with a couple minor exceptions) of the park's appearance in late summer 2022, when I last visited. Since then the area between the Afterburn roller coaster and the water park has been reconfigured quite a bit.
- LOD models used extensively for best balance of performance and appearance.
- Park-wide custom night lighting, including emissive textures for some models, as well as lights placed in Blender and some default lights.
- Animated flags (requires TSR's Windy Things addon, available on flightsim.to)
- Terraforming and vegetation corrections around the park and vicinity as needed.
Compatible (and visible in some screenshots)
KCLT Charlotte International Airport by FSDreamteam (payware)
USA Modern Cities Vol. 2 by SamScene3D (payware; includes Charlotte downtown buildings as well as Atlanta, Honolulu, and San Francisco)
(Other addons covering the area may be compatible, but I have not specifically tested them.)
How to Donate
If you enjoy this addon or my other scenery addons listed below, please consider using the PayPal link on my profile page to make a donation. I'm not specifically looking to monetize my work, and intend to keep it freely available, but keep in mind that putting these sceneries together requires a significant investment of time, effort, and research, and every bit helps.
Other Scenery By Me
(all available on flightsim.to)
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Cedar Point
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Knott's Berry Farm
Kings Island
Six Flags Over Texas
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Globe Life Field
San Francisco Bay Area Bridges (now in one bundled package)
Ambassador Bridge
Downtown LA Bridges
Coronado Bridge (and other San Diego area bridges)
Balboa Park (San Diego) vegetation overhaul
Installation
Download the ZIP file and extract the "whitearcades-carowinds" folder to your Community Folder:
- For the Microsoft Store version: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_\LocalCache\Packages\Community
- For the Steam version: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\Community
(Remember to first delete any previous version of the package that was already in your Community folder.)
Package takes up approximately 110 MB installed.
1 months ago
1 months ago
TheWhiteArcades
AccAkut
1 months ago
Flightj
As for race tracks and the like, they're not my main focus at the moment (still mostly looking at bridges and amusement parks) but something I do occasionally toss around when I'm thinking of what to work on next. Charlotte would definitely be on the short list if I do try my hand at one, but I can't make any promises when that might be.
1 months ago
TheWhiteArcades
As a poster here wrote, i would also appreciate you would do some Racetracks, Raceways, Speedways around the globe. So many of them are missing in a good scenery.
Best regards dear @TheWhiteArcades! Henry.
1 months ago
1 months ago
TheWhiteArcades
McHenry
1 months ago
USA5775
1 months ago
Greazer
1 months ago
Snoopy7412
1 months ago
Bluestreak5150
1 months ago
Carlos17