Sim Giants - Canary Islands Gold Edition

By Bill Stack
(4 May 2009)

Sim Giants has released the "Gold Edition" of its Canary Islands sceneries, which is a bundle of their stand-alone Canary Island sceneries.

The Canary Islands are a possession of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean about 55 nautical miles (100 kilometers) west of Morocco in North Africa. These volcanic islands are a popular tourist destination for Europeans and Africans. Tenerife North Airport is infamous as the site of the world's worst aviation accident, the colliding of two Boeing 747's in 1977 resulting in 583 fatalities.

Sim Giants said it decided to create the Canaries "because it is wonderful pretty area with lot of tourism visiting this place." They also said the area was very challenging to develop due to the surrounding.

Major features include:

Detailed renditions of Tenerife North airport (GCXO), Fuerteventura Airport (GCFV), and El Hierro Airport (GCHI)
Highly detailed scenery of the airport and its near surroundings
Realistic runway and taxiway lighting
All navigation systems
Vehicular traffic on all major roads
Numerous static and dynamic scenery objects
Full night textures and night-lighting effects
High resolution mesh terrain

Sim Giants based its renditions on commercially available satellite images. They promise "very high frame rates."

In the product description, Sim Giants says it released the Gold Edition "after many requests." In response to my question about the nature of these requests, Sim Giants said: "Lots of FS users asked for a bundle instead of buying each airport. We listened and did that for them and also reduced the price for the Gold." They also said their Gold edition "is a bundle of all the Canaries we sell as stand alone."

Sim Giants	FSX
Comparison of Sim Giants' and FSX Sceneries

Major Features

Ground terrain throughout the islands is enhanced markedly. The overall appearance is appealing from aloft, afar, and close up. It's more colorful and lively, and the terrain contours are more noticeable. Sim Giants corrected elevation flaws in the default FSX scenery, which are obvious at El Hierro Airport.

The three renditioned airports appear considerably realistic with better ground textures, surface markings, and signage. Terminals and other buildings are much more detailed than the defaults. They also feature numerous static and moving objects such as light poles, vehicles parked outside the airport fences, and moving airport vehicles on airport grounds

Sim Giants	FSX
Comparison of Sim Giants' and FSX Sceneries

Nice Features

The installation package is easy to use. It not only creates the needed file folders and copies the needed files to those folders, it also adds the sceneries to the FSX add-on scenery menu. Other add-ons I have reviewed required adding the sceneries to the menu manually.

The colorful appearance of the Sim Giants scenery compared to the FSX default scenery is obvious. Ground colors, static and moving objects, and airport details are remarkable. The entire simulation experience is enhanced.

The mixtures of green and tan terrains reflect the wide range of flora on the islands. Actual photos I found of the islands show arid lands, semi-arid lands, and tropical greenery. A description of the islands says the climate is subtropical with snowy mountains and some dry areas. The scenery not being green throughout makes it reflect true conditions on these islands.

The manuals for the three airports included in the package are very well done. They provide clear instructions for installing the sceneries and selecting your simulator's display settings. They also contain important data about the airports and some background about the area. Their writing style is clear and to the point, and their screen shots are clear and helpful.

Sim Giants was very responsive to my questions, which bodes well for consumers who might have technical questions.

Sim Giants	FSX
Comparison of Sim Giants and FSX Sceneries

Comparative Screen Shots

My comparative screen shots were made as follows: I slewed to an impressive area and snapped a shot. Then I switched from FSX to Sim Giants and snapped a shot from the same viewpoint. Then I moved to another area and repeated the procedure. As a result, both shots in each pair are from precisely the same location and altitude. The difference of viewpoints in the runway shots was not my doing. The runways really are in slightly different locations.

Sim Giants	FSX
Comparison of Sim Giants and FSX Sceneries

Issues

As impressive as Sim Giants' Canary Islands scenery is, it's a drain on my simulator. The overall package is so huge that it takes a long time to load in FSX. All simulator functions such as accessing the map and changing airports, aircraft, and times of day are slower than usual. There's so much going on in these sceneries that the simulator and the computer struggle to keep up. The details on the buildings, the number of 3D items such as light poles, baggage carts, vehicles parked outside the airport fences, and the innumerable moving vehicles on roadways and airport grounds add to the FSX workload.

To make the simulator display the scenery without diminishing frame rates, several display settings must be changed. You'll see fewer moving objects in the air, on the ground, and on the waters. My frame rates are not as good as Sim Giants claims, even under the settings recommended in their manuals.

While the numerous airport details make the simulation experience more realistic, not all the objects are necessary for enhancing the simulation experience in my opinion. Granted, everything depicted in these sceneries (and more) can be found at many airports, but they aren't always necessary for enhancing the simulation experience. Some of the objects and details around Sim Giants' airport's are extraneous in my opinion, especially when their effects on frame rates are considered.

In response to my questions about these issues, Sim Giants said: "I don't know why you are getting low frames, we are getting between 30-40 with very high settings in the simulator. Most of our user also says very good words about the frames rates. If we had such problem in the testing time of the product for sure no extra feature would added to the release." They also said frame rates are low at one of the airports even with the default scenery, and that "Microsoft set the Island altitude TOTALLY wrong and we had to do lots of work to make it work fair enough."

Sim Giants believes the problems I experience are due to my simulator and not their sceneries. I'm operating Microsoft Flight Simulator X with all other add-ons removed. My video card is an Nvidia GeForce 3800 GTS, my computer processor is an Intel Pentium 2.66 GHz, and my operating system is Windows XP. My further research showed that the frame rates I'm experiencing are not uncommon. I don't dispute Sim Giants' claim of 57 FPM, but I've never experienced it myself, and I find no other reference to any such frame rates anywhere.

I also have a problem with a disappearing runway at El Hierro, but Sim Giants insists that it doesn't happen to them. Maybe it is just me, but my runways don't disappear anywhere else, my settings are exactly as recommended, and I can't find anything wrong with my simulator.

Light poles at airport perimeter fence.	Construction project outside perimeter fence. Worker waves arms constantly.	3D VASI Boxes.
Examples of Details

Summary

Except for my frame rate problem, this scenery package is everything the developers say it is, and the manuals are well done and useful. Flying around the islands shows no troubles until I arrive near an airport, then the frame rates drop. If you can move about the airport grounds and airspace without much trouble, the Sim Giants' Canary Islands experience is well worth it.

Bill Stack

Learn More About Sim Giants' Canary Islands Gold Edition

Bill Stack is author of several books about flight simulation, a regular author in flight-sim magazines, and a contributor to Flight Sim Com. His website is www.topskills.com