urope
3 is the third scenery in a series for Flight Simulator 5.1, 95 and
98, which will eventually cover the entire continent. I already own
Europe 1 and 2 so I was very excited when Apollo Software announced
the release of the new Europe 3.
Big Ben in London.
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I preordered Europe 3 and when it finally arrived, I was eager to get
in the air over London, Birmingham, Manchester and many other cities.
What I received was an organized manual, the CD of course, and a
Jeppesen Low Altitude Enroute chart which covers more area than the
scenery. The documentation is written in English, German and French
and is very nicely presented.
It is important to note that Europe 3 covers all of Great Britain
below the 54th parallel. This means that Wales, the Channel Islands
and most of England are included. The manual includes a list of all
107 airports in the scenery. ILS frequencies are given for 45
different airports and ATIS frequencies are also listed.
East Midlands airport, with a medieval castle, nuclear power plant
and glide slope antenna in the background.
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After the instructions on how to install the scenery, which is very
easy to do, a few pages are dedicated to show the different approach
lighting and airport signs that appear at every airport. In addition,
there is a section which briefly describes some "Interesting flights
to make" including a trip to Stonehenge, London, Dover and others.
There is also a table listing some "Points of interest" including the
London Bridge, Parliament and other Easter Eggs. However, the best
feature in this manual, which started with the Europe 1 manual, is
airport maps, SID's, STAR's and ILS approaches. These are included in
abundance! For example, London Heathrow is documented with 4 SID's, a
STAR, and 4 ILS approach charts! This is a great advantage especially
for the serious IFR pilot. However, some ILS approaches appear
without the associated airport map like for Birmingham Int'l. Lastly,
a list of all VOR's and NDB's is included. Well, enough about the
manual! Let's go on to see the scenery!
System Requirements
Europe 3 requires the following:
- Flight Simulator 5.1 or 95 or 98.
- 12 MB free hard drive space
- IBM or compatible 486 MHz or higher
- CD-ROM drive
Apollo recommends a 3D graphics accelerator card if you are running FS98.
This review is based on the performance of Europe 3 installed on the
following system:
- FS98
- 233 MHz, 32 MB RAM
- 24X CD-ROM
- Diamond Viper V330 (Direct 3D graphics accelerator card)
Scenery
The white cliffs of Dover.
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Europe 3 has very nicely textured terrain. Apollo claims that
the textures are optimized for use with a 3D card and FS98. The
airports are quite detailed as the screenshots depict. Taxiways are
textured if the scenery complexity is set to "normal" or higher. A
significant effort was made to texture the mountains so that they
look realistic in low visibility and fog (which is very common in
England). When flying high, the scenery looks excellent and very
similar to its real world counterpart. Airport signs have been added
to most airports. In addition, the "land me" command can be activated
at any airport. The best feature of this scenery is its compatibility
with its predecessors, Europe 1 and 2. I have flown many routes from
the continent to England and the scenery is integrated very well. One
way to see this is by flying around Dover. France is visible to the
south if Europe 2 is also installed.
Mountains north of Cardiff, Wales.
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A lot of static scenery objects are included. The most interesting
are nuclear power plants. There are also many factories, smokestacks,
castles, churches and other unique buildings. Apollo also included
many forests in this scenery. They used a new technique which looks
quite realistic. Special attention was given to the terminal
arrangement at Heathrow and Gatwick in London. These are the most
detailed airports in the scenery. The control towers look very real.
However, other airports such as Manchester and Leeds-Bradford do not
have very accurately depicted terminal layouts when compared to the
airport map in the manual.
The airports are a virtual airline pilot's dream! Many large
airfields are included: London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted,
Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff and many more. At night,
the lighting is very realistic and adds to the anticipation and
excitement of instrument approaches.
There is a minor visual fault associated with using Europe 3 with a
3D card. When approaching an airport with visibility set below 40
miles, the runway looks a little strange. A white triangle appears on
the surface until you get close enough and then it disappears. This
is a minor flaw which is well eclipsed by the "goodies" of the
scenery. On my computer, I experience short pauses occasionally
especially over London when the scenery complexity is on very
dense.
Dynamic Scenery
Countryside south of London, with the English Channel
in the background.
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This is the one area where this scenery falls short. Although
there are ships and barges floating in the English Channel and around
Southampton and Dover, I did not encounter any airport traffic. With
FS98, the dynamic scenery became more detailed but Apollo failed to
use this to their advantage. My first flight of exploration to
England was an Air France 737 flight from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to
London-Heathrow. I was disappointed when I saw that Heathrow, the
world's busiest international airport, was deserted! I visited other
airports in the airports menu with the dynamic scenery set to very
dense and all the options activated but again, there was not a soul
around!
Conclusion
Overall, I am very pleased with this third Europe scenery by Apollo.
Despite several minor flaws, it depicts very accurately the beautiful
island that is Great Britain. Apollo wisely introduces new terrain
features with each scenery they create and I hope they will continue
to do this throughout the Europe scenery series. In addition to the
great looking terrain dotted with castles, factories and churches and
the forested countryside, the airports look very real in any weather
conditions. Apollo has done a magnificent job once again!
Philip Iplixian
iplixiap@db.erau.edu
