FScene New Zealand And Australia Textures

By John Dale (19 February 2003)

Ruud is a retired computer programmer who rides a BMW motorcycle for relaxation. He has been busy producing these add-on packages for quite some time now. The FScene-Europe textures package came first with Canada/USA next and seasonal variations for these. On our continent of North America there is a different need for scenery interpretation. One major difference is that the cities in Europe are smaller and the houses are much closer to one another, while in the on the North American continent there is enough space to create cities as big as major areas in Europe.

They do not appear to interfere with any other add-on packages. His own website http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/rfaber/fscene-reviews-usa.html gives a summary of all the available packages. The review pictures basically speak for themselves and need to be seen in color on the web to appreciate the work and richness of the texture changes, studying photographs and carefully recreated them as bmp files for FS2002. If you do enjoy flying VFR then set the plane at 5000' and enjoy the scenery from these packages.

These two show an airport on the Australian coast with FScene's textures on the left and original FS2002 on the right.

Here we see a comparison of coastal countryside in Australia.

For this picture I flew multiplayer and had a 152 in the scenery augmented FS2002 and a 172 in the standard FS2002, they are flying very close to one another to make the scenery comparison.

Here we have a comparison over Ayer's Rock but as we are in the middle of rather bland desert country it does not show such a difference.

In the Australian part of this package I noticed a much greater difference in the coastal populated areas. But overall I must admit (for the sake of FS2002 at least) that I had more fun looking at the New Zealand textures, as the scenery is richer in the first place.

For New Zealand the comparisons were more striking as can be seen from the attached pictures. The computers used were a 1.4 Athlon for the enhanced scenery and a 1.1 Celeron for the regular FS2002 but the graphic cards were both GeForce 64 Mbs cards and settings were similar on both. Ruud suggested taking out the autogen but I wanted to make it a real comparison in the way most people run their FS2002.

This is scenery near Christchurch, in New Zealand, not over the identical spot but very close.

Here we are flying away from Christchurch almost due west.

In these images we are almost at the same position as the last pictures but it shows the two planes in multiplayer mode, so that the scenery area is identical. Note the considerable color differences showing off the new textures. Time and season were identical by the way.

Here we have a view out of the front cockpit from both planes in multiplayer mode. The one on the right i.e. ordinary FS2002 actually shows the plane from the other one (JD1) ahead and to its left.

Finally if any more evidence is needed for the dramatic changes in FScene here is a view from outside at around the same area, still to the west of Christchurch and still in multiplayer mode, with the 152 flying just ahead of the 172.

Purchasing: All the scenery can be previewed on Ruud Faber's website http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/rfaber/ but for purchase you need to visit Simmarket.com at http://secure.simmarket.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=25. The pricing is available online and a Euro is pretty close to $1 U.S. for comparison, so as these prices are all at sale prices, they can be assessed and then downloaded online. Discounts are offered for various bundles too.

John Dale
jrdale@netidea.com

Dr. John Dale has been flying in Canada for 32 years and currently flies a Cessna 210 and organizes tours to the Yukon and Alaska in the summer. Check http://www.flynorth.com for details.