et me say from the outset that this was a review I looked forward to doing for several reasons: I take great interest in any program that promises to enhance the flight simulator experience. The task of doing two simultaneous reviews was necessary because the authors/publishers Steve Halpern and Jeff Wheeler designed the two programs to work together. In a nutshell, the FSClouds & Textures Pro III program handles the setup of the weather and clouds and textures within FS98. Flight Director 98 handles the flight planning, and assists during actual FS98 flights with many features including EFIS, moving map, GPS, as well as incorporating the weather and features of FSClouds into a flight. It's quite a combination but for this review I'll take each program on an individual basis for clarity of discussion.

How many times have you considered the ice cubey clouds in FS98 were a major drawback to an otherwise great sim? Or how often have you started to work with setting up weather through the FS98 Weather function and finally thought it too tedious? Having to set up a local weather region for this area, another one for another area and on and on? FSClouds makes this tedious task much easier and offers many, many more options. In one simple interface you can now set up different layers of weather, clouds, winds, etc. and FSClouds will send that weather into FS98 for a variety of different weather options. Here's a bit of what FSClouds can do:

• 18 new different cloud textures for new clouds....mix and match them!
• New light, medium, and heavy cloud covers, new overcast styles, three textures for approaching weather front systems.
• 3 different cirrus cloud types, and a new special multi-texture cloud option that works with any density setting....best for adventure type flying where the weather changes during flight.
• New thunderstorms and a special lightning effect file.
• Jet vapor condensation trails at upper altitudes.

All the options are configurable from what the authors call the SAM interface, the Scenery and Aircraft systems Manager. This might be a bit of a misnomer here...it really controls the FSClouds program and launches FS98, but in FSFW95 it will assign custom sound (.wav) files and custom panels to aircraft. It isn't necessary to use this function in FS98 since there is already one. The SAM program allows setup of all the various weather functions, allows you to save the configuration as a .sam file for future use, allows saving in-flight pictures for various uses such as screen savers, desktop wallpapers, or as a saved description of the .sam file. From SAM you launch right into FS98 with the weather already set up. Once in FS98 you can edit the weather as you go if desired with the help of a handy applet that stays hidden until needed. Finally, there is a Flight Rally feature, which saves long flights so you resume from the point where you left off...no more restarts from an airport. On the Textures Pro III part of this package you get many new ground textures to see. You can switch to new summer or winter textures with snow, get new a haze type of variation that varies the "haze" in different areas, either increasing or decreasing visibility. Add a bunch of new situation files which highlight the new features and you've got plenty to see.

My Impressions

The authors have done an outstanding job on lots of areas in this program, but some areas need a bit more work in my opinion. Outstanding is the eye appeal of the new cloud types. As I was working with the various clouds and evaluating them by using the situation files supplied I was amazed at the variety of clouds and effects. My first look at the cloud edges, the cloud transparencies and the different cloud textures told me my Flight Sim 98 experience would never be the same repetitive few cloud types again. Now I have a mix and match variety to work with and almost endless possibilities. Check the screenshots for the various cloud shots as examples. There's no doubt that the new cloud textures add a great deal to FS98...we're not there yet with the billowy, fluffy thick cloud effects yet (where's the guy that did those great Miami/Nassau/San Juan puffy clouds?) but these new clouds are most welcome. While toying with the cloud varieties I managed to make a very realistic looking fog effect, pea soup thick and gray!

Ground textures are again great, especially the winter textures which look very realistic. Snowy and gray scenery is reminiscent of my Chicago youth...it even looked cold! If I had anything to comment on with the ground textures it is that the replacement summer texture for urban.r8 or burb.r8 makes areas look a bit too much covered with foliage. The city textures that we're used to in FS98 become almost rural looking in that greenery seems to take over. There's not enough "city" texture left to make it look as if you're flying over a city area. The water textures are much improved and the swamp textures for areas like the Everglades (since I do a lot of Florida flying) were outstanding. One huge improvement is the textures no longer look like repetitive checkerboards when viewed from above, you know, where the pattern repeats itself unrealistically so it looks like an endless mile after mile running copy. The new textures somehow break up that monotony so that at reasonable altitudes the repetition is gone. Desert textures again are more varied than the sandy brown we're used to. It all adds up to be a giant improvement to the default stuff.

One tiny bit of criticism: these guys (Steve Halpern and Jeff Wheeler) are great at doing the programming to create this new eye-candy but they need to spend a bit more time on the writing of the manual in both FSClouds & Textures Pro III and Flight Director 98. They're adequate...they'll give you just enough information to get you stumbling along but could use a few good illustrations of the SAM launcher interface or the Flight Director's Main Screen within the text so the mentioned buttons, launchers, or windows are seen while being discussed. Actually I found that starting the programs up and using the help screen within the programs to be very good at explaining the interfaces. I could see them while reading about each area on the help screen. Between the onscreen help and manuals you'll be able to work your way through learning these programs. As always, I'll strongly suggest a thorough read prior to toying with your new program. Expect a bit of a learning curve though in both these programs as there are many variables to try out. Overall I'll give FSClouds & Textures Pro III high marks for what it does to improve the scenic effects of FS98. I'm sure you'll like the new ground textures, the snow and winter textures, and the new lightning effects. Rain, next we need rain!

This program acts as a flight planner and much more. During the review I was in contact with Steve Halpern, the author, who had suggested checking out some beta versions of the Flight Management System in Flight Director. These were upgrades and worked flawlessly. One thing became apparent with the numerous email exchanges between us during the beta testing and testing of the commercial versions -- Steve and his co-author are intent on providing the consumer with the latest and best performing software they can. Visits to the web site they have demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the purchaser and provide a place where flight plans can be downloaded and exchanged as well as get answers to questions on the products. Here's what Flight Director 98 adds to the FS98 flying experience (and why it calls itself "companion to Microsoft Flight Simulator"):

• Allows use of real weather to be configured into FS98; you dial up a site where the weather is available, and using a special METAR file Flight Director 98 sets up the FSClouds program!
• A full featured EFIS (electronic flight information system) which displays surrounding NAVAIDS
• A global positioning system
• Automatic weather updates as you fly, and constantly changing weather as you move into new areas
• Flight plan automatically loaded to the FS autopilot, including heading and speed and altitude
• Color coded weather radar that matches real world conditions from the METAR files
• Generate custom flight plans or have Flight Director 98 automatically generate one
• Weather radar shows precipitation -- light rain to downpours, it's there to see on radar
• A 23000 waypoint, NAVAID, and airport database covering the globe!
• A moving map with a 360 degree view of the plane's location
• A career kit that follows your flying career; it also contains a text based ATC system
• More...

My Impressions

Flight Director does all of the above, and does it well but there is a bit of a learning curve due to the complexity of all it does. It's not one of those "load it in, boot it up, and go with it" type of programs. The flight planning takes a bit of time to work with and understand. I spent a while trying to build a flight plan before it became less troublesome. You can use a map display to go point to point building a flight plan but I found it easier to create it without the map display.

It is necessary to know the proper airport name or 3 letter NAVAID identifier to do this, but you can then create flight plans quickly. Otherwise you can search through the database to find your next waypoint but that becomes tedious and slow. And Flight Director is no rocket building the flight plans. In the release version doing a search through 23000 waypoints takes a bit of time. The beta version I was provided (and probably will be released if it hasn't been done already) allows you to load just regional areas so you no longer have to search through such a huge database.

Thankfully, there is a better way to learn all the capabilities Flight Director 98 has -- the authors have included a tutorial flight which is documented in the manual (which has the same format and drawbacks as FSClouds does, although it is illustrated with examples better-- see above). Again, expect to try things out...to stumble through a learning process as you master this program. This isn't a negative I'm tossing out, the program is complex much like our first tries with learning all the bells and whistles of FS98 or another of the full function add-ons.

After the first couple of flight plans for short flights with relatively few waypoints, I went on and tackled making longer flight plans and flying cross-country. It was great to guide the plane aloft, set the autopilot and watch as Flight Director 98 changed course, altitudes, speeds, weather and then take the plane to final approach like a dream. In fact, on one flight in Chicago Midway I set the plane on autopilot, the EFIS told me how long the flight would take and I came back to the computer with the plane on final approach at an altitude of 3000 feet. Yep, it'll do SIDS and STARS too, as well as arm the autothrottle, and you can import NAVAIDS from your custom scenery too.

All told this is a very comprehensive package, not a speedster as it number crunches and sets up the flight plans and pulls info from the database but once made and saved it works very well. With the regional database capability it should make flight planning quick and easy.

Conclusion

Overall both programs work very well and do exactly what they're intended to: they enhance the realism and overall flight experience of FS98. Together they are a nice addition to FS98. The authors have a 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee on the purchase if not satisfied. I think you'll like these programs together and with the support and guarantee you can't go wrong. Frankly, I'd bet they don't have to use that money back policy very often. I liked these programs and the ongoing commitment to improve and update more features.