German Airfields 2 and 9 from Aerosoft

Posted: Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 17:55
Senior staff reviewer David Wilson-Okamura takes us on a scenic tour of some of the smaller airfields in Germany with Aerosoft's German Airfields Volumes 2 and 9.

"The airports covered in this series are smaller in scale, and at the same time more intimate. Each of these airfields feels unique. There are elements, of course, that are common to all airports; for example, all of them have runways and a majority have control towers. But support services vary widely, and so do the types of traffic."

"Some fields are urban, others are rural. Each package covers a relatively small region, and some of the fields are only a few minutes apart; because of the variety, though, you don’t have to fly a long distance to see something different."

"GA2: Nordlichter is a newer product than GA9, and feels like it. For most airfields, products in the GA series try to cover the airfield proper and the surrounding terrain for about 2 km in each direction, including bridges, church spires, observation towers, windmills, smokestacks, and other aerial obstacles. For Kiel, though, the team has modeled the entire harbor, including the marina, the cargo loading facilities, an off-shore lighthouse, and numerous buildings."

"GA9: Northern Bavaria is fully compatible with FSX, including SP2 and Acceleration. GA9 airfields tend to blend in better with the surrounding default terrain. Each field has variety, and surprising details abound. GA9 also has seasonal textures."

Concluding his local tour of Germany, David says, "But both of these products are fun and -- what’s kind of rare in Flight Simulator -- they’re fun right away. With German Airfields 2 and 9, you just jump in your favorite small plane and pick a couple of airfields to fly between. There’s a range of distances, so if you have an hour you can fill it. But if twenty minutes is all you have, that’s enough too: not just to fly somewhere, but to fly somewhere interesting."

Space Shuttle Mission 2007 Service Pack Released

Posted: Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 17:59
Exciting Simulations has announced the release of a new Service Pack for the Space Shuttle Mission 2007. The Service Pack adds several changes and fixes but most importantly, performance improvement and a new free mission: STS-32.

STS-32 – was a complex and unusually long mission for the time. The mission highlights included the deployment of the Department of Defense SYNCOM IV-F5 Communications Satellite and the rendezvous and retrieval of the LDEF NASA satellite which was deployed during STS-41C six years earlier (STS-41C is also available in SSM 2007).

The Space Shuttle Mission 2007™ is available for online purchase in downloadable format at the SSM2007 official website: www.space-shuttle-mission.com. The latest Demo can also be downloaded freely at the same website.

Carenado Releases C182 Skylane II For FSX

Posted: Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 3:19
Carenado today released a new aircraft developed especially for FSX. The traditional C 182 Skylane II RG which was previously developed for FS2004.

As with all of the other FSX releases, this aircraft takes advantage of all the new features in FSX and DX10 which allow things like casting shadows on the VC, external dynamic shadows, normal mapping, specular mapping and bloom lights, resulting in a superior representation of this aircraft.

With this addition to Carenado's Full FSX fleet, the aircraft available are: Mooney M20J, C206, Piper Cherokee and the new C182RG.

CH Products Announces The Eclipse Yoke

Posted: Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 3:12
CH Products is proud to release the latest and greatest in Flight Simulation hardware with the release of its new high end yoke, the new CH Eclipse. Built with the same high end components you find in our industrial products, the CH Eclipse brings value added functions to compliment all your favorite sims.

The Eclipse Yoke includes the following new features:

- Fully programmable fingertip paddles, ideal for flight and racing sims
- Programmable trim / scroll wheels with center push function
- Two backlit push buttons and a third traditional push button
- Two 8-way hat with rocker switch and trigger on both sides of handle
- Configurable POV hat for either left or right hand use
- Colored handles for throttle / prop / fuel mixture
- Three color LED selector dial giving you a total of 240 programmable functions with CH Control Manager software
- Six analog 10 bit axes for aileron, elevator, throttle, propeller pitch, fuel and rudder
- New and improved industrial grade material / components; indestructible robust plastic, free floating shaft and clamp extenders for the thinnest of desks.

Visit the CH Products website and find your nearest retailer to get your hands on the Eclipse Yoke.

GB Super Sportster by AlphaSim

Posted: Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 2:42
Avsim's Gabe Logan submits his first review, Alphasim's GB Super Sportster. "Dubbed by cynics: “The Flying Silo” and: “The Killer”, the Granville brothers (after whom the aircraft was named) pushed the limits of aerodynamics to leave a colorful legacy that would influence aircraft design for decades to come. The Sportster R–1 and R–2 were, arguably, the most successful of all the Gee Bee models."

"The high attention to detail is immediately evident with everything from individual rivets to the exquisite engine detail being modeled in 3D. With highly-reflective and high-poly textures, the external models are simply excellent! Performance too is startling, especially when you consider how many polygons are actually drawn at typical zoom levels, with typical frame rates around 80-85% those of default GA aircraft."

"Although there is a 2D panel, Alphasim admit that, although included, it’s not really designed to be used. The VC is perfectly capable of standing on its own and in terms of performance, boasts frame rates only 10-15% lower than those of default GA aircraft. Lighting is authentic: unfortunately this means virtually, non-existent. Although the R–1 had no lighting at all, the R–2 was equipped with fixed red and green navigation lights, yet the cockpit remained a very dark place to be."

"TSS (Turbine Sound Studios) was recruited by Alphasim to create the sound package – and, it rocks! Sound is often overlooked by developers, yet I feel that for these aircraft, the throaty engine sounds really are the icing on the cake. Moreover, the subtle yet discernible changes in tone provide an additional and welcome source of information as to the aircraft’s performance."

After putting Alphasim's GB Super Sportsters through their paces, Gabe concludes, "Alphasim have produced a more than decent aircraft that is both fun and challenging to fly. The high-poly external model is extremely impressive and while there are a few niggles, the VC is, on the whole, more than acceptable with smooth gauges, pleasant night-lighting and attention to detail. The Gee Bee is still a high-quality add-on that certainly doesn’t disappoint."

Looking For A Place To Fly?

Posted: Friday, September 12, 2008 - 14:45
Flight Simulation is a wonderful, you will agree but with over 24,000 airports available as standard it can be a bit of a problem deciding where to fly. Garen Evans from FourFlights.com has come up with an innovative solution that allows you to choose between four different flight rules: LIFR, IFR, MVFR, and VFR, then suitable airports-pairs are shown that are updated hourly. The service has a lot of potential, so why not try it out at FourFlights.com.

FScene Total Pack Available

Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 16:06
FScene has been twelve and a half years of continuous work by Ruud Faber. FScene is valued worldwide by many flight simulation enthusiasts and has won many Flight Simulations Awards. Ruud – being a professional aquarelle painter – started the project in 1996 with his first set of replacement ground textures for Europe, and soon other continents followed. All these years, development never stopped following the exciting developments in the FS world, every new version of Flight Simulator requiring adapted and new texture versions. FScene has provided thousands and thousands of replacements for Flight Simulator`s default ground textures, for all over the world and for every season. The program is replacing most ground-textures with new texture files, which are specially designed to match the characteristics of the landscape on the different continents even better than the default ones do. Additionally, a special drawing technique applied to the textures gives them almost the impression of being three-dimensional. No matter if you fly over cities, springtime meadows, snowy Alps, summer islands, or rainforests, they will turn every flight into an optical experience of enhanced realism. The complete work for FS9 / FSX is now available in a combined package, the FScene - Total Pack.

Orbx releases More Freeware

Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 12:43
Precision designer Mango brings us the born-again instant classic that is Redcliffe airport. You will be astounded at the amount of detail which has been added to this GA airport, right down to signage taken from actual photos at the airport, to perfect AI traffic support with accurate parking and push-back support. This is one freeware addon not to be missed, and you should proceed directly to Orbx

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress By PRE-Flight RC Simulator.

Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 1:17
Although the Boeing B-17 was not the most capable bomber in terms of bomb load and performance, it was the darling of the bomber air crews due to its legendary resistance to battle damage. The B-17 bristled with defensive guns - much to the crews' delight - earning it the title "Flying Fortress". From its first flight in 1935, despite a streak of tragic luck, the B-17 eventually became the greatest bomber of the war - dropping more bombs than any other aircraft.

This super scale PRE-Flight model of the B-17G has moveable control surfaces and retractable landing gear, as well as bomber and pilot views. To download this and other models and to download the PRE-Flight Demo, visit PRE-Flight RC Flight Simulator.

TweakFS Releases ScreenShot ToolBox

Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 1:11
TweakFS has released the second member of its ToolBox Series of utilities. The TweakFS ScreenShot ToolBox is a Flight Simulator-specific screenshot utility (supports both FSX and FS2004) and with it you can easily create, display, edit, upload, download and email your FS screenshot masterpieces.

A major feature is the dazzling Apple iTunes "Coverflow" style 3D screenshot display system which uses cutting-edge DirectX technology. The ToolBox is packed with a number of handy integrated utilities which makes emailing, uploading and downloading screenshots from within the utility a real snap. The built-in ScreenShot Creator supports automatically adding logos, banners and anti-aliased text when the snapshot is taken which saves a lot of post-editing time, or they can be added later. The banner/logo adding feature supports images with transparent backgrounds and layered objects with shadows such as (PNG - Portable Network Graphics) and (PSD - Adobe Photoshop) files.

BAe Hawk T1 from SkySim

Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 2:37
Staff reviewer Laurie Aston goes aerobatic with SkySim's BAe Hawk T1. "The British Aerospace Hawk T Mk1 is a British all-metal, low wing, tandem seat, flight training and weapon training aircraft. The Red Arrows Royal Air Force Aerobatic team took delivery of the BAe Hawk T1 in the winter of 1979/1980."

"The aircraft looks excellent; with maintenance steps and chocks, pins and blanks fitted in all the right places all the way around the plane. It is finished in the 2007 RAF paint scheme allocated to the team, and from the front or “sharp” end of the plane, right to the back end, it looks exactly right in every detail, and this includes the landing gear, doors, panels, smoke emitters and tail pipe."

"Having studied the real Red Arrow Hawk interior, I have to say that this simulation is first class, with every dial, switch and button faithfully re-produced. I couldn’t fault it, although it is true that some of the “eye candy” is just that. However, all the instruments that are required for flight do just what they are supposed to, and the CWS (Central Warning System) panel reads correctly and tests too. The Radios are functional and there is enough information to keep most people happy most of the time. And this goes for the front cockpit and the rear cockpit too."

"The Rolls Royce Turbomeca Adour Mk.861 Turbofan has been re-produced very effectively, starts realistically, and idles correctly so it stands to reason that feeding power in is also going to sound great, and it does!"

"This model has it all, and it has been very carefully created to be as near to a real Hawk as I can imagine it. The aircraft looks very nice, flies perfectly and reacts well to its environment. As this is an aerobatic jet trainer and team performer, I give it full marks for all of that. The SkySim Hawk has the honor of being my favorite package and may well be for years to come. This BAe Hawk T1 “RED ARROW” by SkySim is a true winner."

SimScape HUD Update

Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 0:55
The SimScape team is happy to announce an update of its F-16 and Mirage Head-Up Displays. If you wanted to try the SimScape HUDs, you may have noticed they were expired as soon as they were installed... This is now fixed. You now have a 15 days evaluation period after installation to test the product, "try before you buy". For more information, vector to the SimScape site.

Abacus - 30 years later

Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 0:53
Arnie Lee, Founder and President of Abacus quotes, "When we first opened our doors in 1978, there were only a handful of companies that had dared to venture out into the nascient personal computer industry. Our aim was to produce fun and useful software for computers from such names as DEC, Altair, Radio Shack, Apple and Commdore to name a few. How many of those names are still around? Most everyone knows of the brutal personal computer wars that have wrecked havoc on many of the industry's participants leaving many dead and others wounded and scarred.

For some unknown reason we've managed to stay around for these past three decades and will celebrate our 30th anniversay on September 12th. Along the way we've published more than a thousand different titles. We've delivered millions of software packages and millions of computer and technical books to personal computer users throughout the US and Canada. We've also worked closely with our long-time international partners overseas bring these goods to worldwide markets.

To endure such a long run, I'd like to offer a deep thank you to both Jim Oldfield and Scott Slaughter who have been with us for ages. Their respective expertise helps us stay competitive. Thanks to others on our staff - Adam, Brett, Sharon, Rachel, Mike, Paul and Isiah. I'd also like to thank these individuals and developers (by first name - they know who they are): Bill D, Chuck, Julie, Konstantin, Laemming, Louis, Peter, Rob and Roy." Stop by the Abacus website and see what's "new" and check out their blog.

Rescue Pilot – Mission Pack,

Posted: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 19:32
EMERGENCY DEMO! Test your flying skills under pressure with a free mission from Rescue Pilot's Mission Pack, the first in a series of exciting mission expansions for simmers who want to take their FSX experience to a new level and try out their flying skills in an emergency. If you want to see what all the excitement is about, Just Flight is about to provide a complete Rescue Pilot mission for you to try. The free mission will be available to download exclusively by subscribers to Just Flight’s monthly newsletter. You can sign up for the newsletter from Just Flight and test your skills.

Free Upgrade Eaglesoft FSX Cirrus SR20G2

Posted: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 11:20
Eaglesoft FSX Cirrus SR20G2 to Full FSX/SP2/DX10 Compliance. This Upgrade adds 16:9 Ratio Widescreen Panels along with View and VC Window Tint toggle .DDS Textures, DX10 certified and optimized for performance in FSX! Now completed and released this FSX SR20 Upgrade is provided at NO COST to current owners of our original FSX Cirrus SR20! Current owners should remove their current installation and simply redownload and reinstall using their original Key and Password.
For complete details and download visit the Eaglesoft hanger

Carenado, The Next Generation

Posted: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 1:32
Fernando Herrera explains: ”FSX has opened a whole new world of technological possibilities to push up even more our high quality standards. In this new era we have adopted the latest in modeling techniques: (NURBS modeling) and improved the development techniques of high resolution textures resulting in a photorealistic representation with very friendly FPS performance. All of this plus new FSX effects such as normal mapping, specular mapping, freshnel effects among others.

Carenado has achieved a new quality standard that was impossible to reach until now which we are absolutely convinced will delight our fans and customers. With this, we enforce our promise to our customers to give them high quality products which truly representations of the reality in terms of visual and behavior parameters. We invite all the community to take a look to our projects and titles developed under this new technology."

Intel Ships Solid-State Drives

Posted: Monday, September 8, 2008 - 17:24
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 8, 2008 - Intel Corporation announced today it has begun shipping Intel® X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. "...The new high-performing data storage devices give computer buyers a new level of system responsiveness in a lightweight, rugged, low-power package that can replace traditional hard disk drives..."

"...validated for Intel-based computers, the X18-M is a 1.8-inch drive and the X25-M a 2.5-inch drive, offering several advantages over hard drives including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives. In addition, SSDs remove performance bottlenecks associated with hard disk drives that help maximize the efficiency of Intel processors, such as the company’s Core™ family of products. Whether this technology will be of benefit to flight simmmers remains to be seen. For further details, the full press release can be accessed here.

Cielosim Studios Launched

Posted: Monday, September 8, 2008 - 11:24
Cielosim Studios are pleased to announce their launch. The popular addon maker is now designing detailed textures for flight simulator aircraft, offering fully customized paint jobs, together with rivets, shine, scratches, dis-colored panels, dirt, wear, paint chips and tiny details that are barely visible but add that 'extra touch'. For further details visit their official website.

AVSIM Opens the Flight Simulation Wiki!

Posted: Sunday, September 7, 2008 - 21:03
AVSIM is pleased to announce the opening of the AVSIM Flight Simulation Wiki. The FSWiki has been brought online to provide the community with a place to store the history of flight simulation, provide a repository for all things related to flight simulation, and more. Check out the FSWiki, and start contributing your knowledge of our hobby today!

Fastest 3D Cards Go Head-To-Head

Posted: Saturday, September 6, 2008 - 20:04
Tom's Hardware Guide has followed-up on its "Best Cards for the Money - August 2008" feature, with an in-depth test of a range of high-performance video cards. One of the many games covered is Flight Simulator X with SP2 and the results are very interesting. In typical style, the article looks at all the most recent cards and how they perform at different resolutions, their power consumption and 'bang-for-buck'. Not to be missed whether you're a tech-head or simply looking for a little guidance through an area that could reasonably be referred to as...a labyrinth!

The article can be accessed directly via this link. Remember to always do your research - using a number of sources - before committing yourself to a purchase.