BirdsEyeView Volumes 1 & 2

By Steve Franklin (10 February 2006)

When Microsoft displays 'As Real As It Gets' on the front of every sim package, you immediately know that you can improve on the default installed aircraft, scenery, weather, etc. just by installing a third party add-on pack. But with so many now available, which ones do we choose, and which ones do we really need?

Of course, it is always pretty much a personal preference. For example, I love to fly aircraft that I know I can, or could have the chance of flying. Fast jets, etc. I leave to the specific shoot em up' sims! But there are third party add-ons that are essential to all flight simmers, those being the scenery enhancements.

Introducing Birds Eye View Volumes 1 & 2 For USA & Canada

VFR scenery is great until you click on the 'Fly Now' button. This is the point where you go and put the kettle on, as it takes a while for the texture files to load. BEV doesn't have this problem, it simply replaces the FS2004 texture files for the US and Canada with the new ones. It is totally customisable, using the scenery configurator that is placed on your desktop. This allows you to replace the texture files to suit the region in which you are about to fly.

For example, if I wanted to take off from KLAX Los Angeles California, I can set the urban area to dry, with the choice of tree and foliage to be palm trees. This makes a world of difference, especially when you whack the autogen density slider to overload!

Beautiful suburban landscapes with no frame-rate sacrifice!

If you wanted to fly in an area where there is a lot of desert, you can even choose the type of sand that you want to fly over, whether it be dark, light, dirty looking or with slight vegetation.

       

Remember, with the addition of the auto-gen shrubs and trees, the ground beneath you can look either green and rich during the summer, or warm and golden during the autumn.

BEV also re-works these auto-gen scenery files. I noticed a massive improvement with the layout of housing, factories, etc. Where there are industrial areas in the real world, BEV has created that area by using the specific buildings. So basically, you won't get a church sitting next to a massive factory, which is shadowing a couple of oddly placed sheds!

Trees and vegetation have been reworked to produce an explosion of color when flying through the autumn season. This is all thanks to Volume 2 of the BEV scenery packs. Over heavily wooded areas, you can really see a major difference with the new tree auto-gen files.

Also in built up suburban areas, the blending warm color of the trees and foliage against the new autumn city textures in Volume 2 look great. Again, you can totally alter the new scenery texture files and auto-gen, to suit with your actual surroundings. If you were flying on a stormy day, with rain lashing your windshield, you would most certainly choose the 'wet textures' from the drop down menu of the scenery configurator, as this would make the ground beneath you look even more realistic against the weather you are flying through, than the default scenery files within FS2004. This applies of course, to using the 'dry textures' on a warm, sunny day.

You will see rows and rows of houses in the suburban areas, perfectly placed on photoreal US suburban texture files, and factories interlaced with industrial textures. You also have a vast choice of forest texture files within both summer and autumn volumes of BEV for the heavily wooded areas. Remember, this isn't VFR scenery, but is very near to it!

       

It's not just the land mass files that have been reworked. The tapering waterlines of the coastal areas have also been given a polish! You can see the shallower areas clearer, and they simply look better. Use Direct X9 water that you can download from FlightSim.Com, and the views are stunning.

Other key limitations in default FS2004 are the four R's; the Roads, Railways, Rivers and Runways. The runways look like grey plastic sheets, the roads look like dirt tracks, and the rivers just look black and bland. BEV breathes life into these textures, but also gives YOU the full control over what you prefer to see by using the scenery configurator. You have choices of different rivers, with rapids, etc. and also some really nice runway textures that blend in more, and even a choice of railway lines!

The scenery configurator is simple to use. Believe me, if I can work it, anyone can!

You can scroll down the list of the overwhelming choice of changeable options, including city/suburban textures, crop textures, eleven types of tree, and far too many others to mention, allowing you to tailor each option as you go. You then click on 'apply theme' and after a few seconds, the magic has been done.

Then just click on 'launch FS9' as see the new transformation without the long loading time!

I have to say, Birds Eye View Volumes 1 and 2 USA & Canada are superb visual add-ons for FS2004, and are well worthy of a purchase. You will get so much more enjoyment out of your virtual flying experience having the new scenery files to soar over. Whether you are hopping from one airfield to another on a wet, gloomy day in a Cessna, or at the controls of a 747 inbound to land at a major city airport on a dry, scorcher of a day, this add-on will certainly put the sparkle back in your eyes!

Steve Franklin
steve_franklin75@hotmail.com
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