The ASD I tested is the latest version 2.1 which was released quite recently. When I started my ASD testing I still had the version 2.0—but there are so many new things in the 2.1 version we decided to review that as well.
There is no doubt that ASD's success comes from one simple point: it will let you create scenery with a very simple user interface that enables most of the functions found in other scenery development programs. For example you actually see a map of the area you are creating; the program then lets you add the desired scenery features. Many maps are available on the CD and these cover most of the world, but you can also go to special internet sites where you can download a special map and import that to ASD. This means you'll have the ability to accurately represent most of the main geographic features since some of the maps contain information about the rivers, coasts, lakes, sea etc..
Before you start, I would suggest you read the manual, which is excellent. There's about 180 pages of very useful information, from the basic setup to very detailed descriptions (such as how to add elevated mesh terrain). It contains numerous, clearly marked tips; I'm sure many of us would have something of a hard time without that. Of course, everything in the manual is represented with quality printed screen shots. What might get a bit hard for non-English speaking designers is the fact that this manual comes only in English. I'm sure other languages will be added in the upcoming versions.
Ok, so here you are with the successfully installed ASD and no knowledge in scenery design. What to do next? It's very simple, use the Airport and Scenery Designer Wizard. The wizard lets you add an airport and its basic features in a couple of very simple steps. You can edit this airport and its features with the advanced features of ASD—or even include this airport in larger scenery projects.
Basically ASD designs scenery in two different ways. The first one is called Map view. The map view will let you work with features like scenery tiles, mountains, roads, lakes, rivers, VORs, NDBs etc... The other part is called Airport view. It's used for designing the airport scenery like runways, taxiways, hangars, buildings, polygons. Let's have a closer look.
The Map View:
Well, before you can actually see what Map view can do, you must load a proper map. ASD's manual contains a lot of online addresses where you can download the maps; there are plenty of them on the CD as well. The scenery design process is not as easy as it first looks. It's really good if you go trough the manual and read about how all the features in map view work.
Adding tiles is easy; you actually point and click where you want them to be and there you go. Scenery designers from earlier days will remember the calculation needed to properly set down the tiles.
After you've successfully imported the maps downloaded from the internet—containing the geographical characteristics such as rivers, lakes, roads, and coasts—you can select them in ASD. ASD lets you define certain properties such as width, borders, different textures, layering, height etc... basically everything you see in sceneries designed these days is available to define, edit, and add. If somehow you couldn't get the detailed data you wanted from the downloaded maps, you can draw those features by hand. Using the region tool this will be a very easy job and the end result can be stunning.
Since we don't want to fly in flat land, here comes an excellent tool, one that many people have been waiting for years to see. The Mountain tool will let you add mountains in a couple of easy steps. You can select single peak, twin peaks and the highly anticipated mesa style mountains. These can be set as elevated terrain, which means you can have an airport created on a mountain or hill. Since the mountains can make considerable trouble if you lay them down the wrong way, here comes the trick. It's possible to move and resize the mountain points without drawing the mountain once again. Pretty cool.
We must not forget to mention one of the breakthrough features of the ASD 2; it's the ability to create elevated mesh terrain. The picture on the left hand border will show you the difference between the normal terrain and the new elevated mesh terrain.
Again, you need to download a proper map containing the data for the elevation points. Depending on the area you choose to cover, the file sizes to download will be at least 10 megs and often higher—even in zipped format. You can then very easily create textured mountains with smooth transitions just as they look in real life,—not those ugly walls with textures anymore. The enhanced texture viewer will let you see all the textures in the folder you choose. You will need some time to figure out how to do the whole process and successfully add the mesh terrain, but everything is covered in the manual, which again, is excellent.
Ok, so we have successfully created the basic scenery features and now we want to get more detailed and draw some airports and create the scenery around them. First we need to lay down the airport and switch to Airport design view.
Airport view
I suggest that you prepare all the information you have about the airport you are creating; once that's done, airport creation is very easy and can be done quickly. Just click and draw the runway; don't lose too much time with the graphic's positioning since you can fix everything in the properties box. You can see an example of the possibilities in the picture. Version 2.1 also includes the ability to allow the pilot to switch airport lights on and off, which is another step higher.
With FS2000 and ASD 2.1 you have the option to add runways, taxiways and other features into FS2000 terrain. This means you are able to import the scenery and make certain corrections and improvements to the airports. Of course we need some buildings, hangars, heliports, windsocks etc... and everything is there. You can choose among more than 300 macros to use on your airport, from trees to airport terminals.
After the scenery is designed and prepared for testing in FS we need to compile it to the BGL format. The SCASM compiler will let you compile the scenery to BGL. SCASM was recently upgraded and is now more reliable. The compilation will produce a couple of files, therefore it's very useful to name them properly giving them logical names. The compile dialog box will let you do just that.
After the scenery is compiled, you are ready to go and fly.
Conclusion
Airport & Scenery Designer is a huge program. It can be just too complicated for the ordinary non expert scenery design user, who would just like to create scenery. Abacus offers you excellent support if you need help, which you can get on their website, or even from some unofficial tutorial pages.
With the recent upgrade to 2.1 ASD is now FS2000 compatible; it will give you access to all the scenery features inherent in this latest MS Flight Simulator.
I can now call myself a flight sim scenery design addict—and you can guess what I will be doing after I finish this review <Grin> You can get Airport & Scenery Designer here, or directly from the Abacus web site.
