FlightSim.Com Reviews: FSClouds Pro III

FSClouds Pro III & Textures

By FlightSim.Com Staff (30 Jul 1997)

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I tested FSClouds on FS5.1. The review is based on those observations. However, one must note the program is optimized for FSFW95 and in my review I mention you must be in "summer" mode to see all the features. In FSFW95 however, the season can be in summer or winter.

SClouds came out a few years ago and was really the first in a series of scenery enhancements that flightsimmers ever saw. I remember the first time I saw the newly textured thunderstorms with their "whiteness" as real storms have. Gone were the black cauldrons of the default thunderclouds. If I ever saw a truly black storm cloud like that in real life I'd run for the hills. We certainly don't ever get black clouds like that in New England! Anyways, back to the review. FSClouds gave us nicer ground textures and a better palette of cloud textures.

Then came along FSFX. FSFX used some similar techniques for clouds and ground plus a lot more. You can read my FSFX review here, and the good news is the new FSClouds Pro III & Textures works fine with an installed FSFX version of Flight Simulator.

What is FSClouds III all about? Well, first of all you get a better variety of cloud designs to choose from. The shading and "dithering" of the edges of these clouds is done very nicely and gives a great real looking effect - especially with a little haze added. You will see the whitened thunderheads, plus contrails and 15 other cloud styles. You can change the darkness of the overcast as well. The clouds will vary in coverage with 6/8 overcast being a good average for selecting broken layers from the program's menu. When selecting any clouds to overcast, you'll be treated to a great looking solid layer with hints of grays and outlines of the patchwork cloudiness you'd have if not overcast. Unfortunately, you will not see 3D puffy clouds in this program. Due to limits in computer power - this may still be years away - as no flight sim product to date offers photorealistic puffy 3D clouds with rounded edges and a solid middle.

NOISE IN THE SKY

Remember in the FS4 days we had thunder? Well it's back! Kinda. Here's the deal. If you run a separate adventure included with this program, you will get bolts of lightning in the sky at random times. However you'll notice that no clouds appear here - just the lightning. You will hear a boom from time to time as well, depending how close to the lightning you are. During the day if you forget to put in a cloudy sky, you will see random lightning bolts in the sky where thunderclouds would appear. Putting in an overcast layer is better but just flying with the lightning adventure at night is best. That way you won't realize there are not any clouds with the lightning bolts. Something about all this was just too goofy for me and I had myself missing my standard GPWS adventure I always fly with.

Before I became familiar with the thunderstorm effects in X-Plane, these storm adventures would have been cool. But now that I have experienced the wrath and realism of convective weather in X-Plane complete with rain, wind, thunder, lightning and microbursts - any other attempts to recreate weather will be futile. This is not the fault of FSClouds, Microsoft Flight Simulator has never been able to simulate much more than flat clouds and visibilities. However with FClouds the most realistic looking sky in any simulator is certainly MS Flightsim.

PRO SEASONAL TEXTURES

Besides the good sky effects, FSClouds brings to the world complete new summer and winter "pro" textures. What I see is an FSFXish quality in the ground scenery.

I installed my FSClouds on top of FSFX and it works fine. The big changes are in the urban cement-like city textures and in the countryside. One must note, to see FSClouds ground seasonal textures, you must always have your date in FS set to a summer season - even if flying in winter. You will also have to adjust sunset/sunrise and temperatures yourself to fit the season. You will loose those nice autumn effects that the default flight sim gave you. They are not gone, to see them you must change the date to autumn, but then the FSClouds summer or winter textures will be gone.

Anyway, the summer textures are very nice, with lush forest, open farm fields, suburbia, crammed city streets etc. The smoothness or airbrushed quality is noticeable and pleasing to look at. In addition, frame rate will remain unchanged. Over the mountains, rocky colors and grassy areas blend better and look very seasonal.

Installing the FSClouds pro winter textures bring snowcover to many areas that would have snow on the ground around the world. This is the best snow scenery I have ever seen - some runways will be partially covered by "blowing powder". The urban areas in winter look equally good - with the grey areas looking like building tops, parking lots or streets and the white areas looking like woods or fields. The mountains have a lot more snow and in Europe the Alps' snowline goes to the valley floor as in real life all the Alps get buried heavily in winter. You will find it refreshing to see the winter textures on a hot winter day! But that's not realistic. I will wait until December to change my FS to winter textures!

In any season, the coast lines have also been enhanced. Surfy looking foam, sand etc. can be seen. This looks much like the FSFX enhanced coastal scenery as well.

FSClouds city areas look great by day, but I was shocked to see there is no night lighting feature! FSFX added nice night time lights in random areas, now I have no night lighting anymore. That's too bad. I wish night effects were part of the deal. I do not know if this is due to the FSFX being installing or not, but it is disappointing.

BEYOND SCENERY

There is a lot more than just the texturing changes that I have described. The program comes with 10 flight challenges and start up scenarios to challenge you as well as introduce you to some of the eye candy. There are included in the box a 1966 style Cessna 150 panel for FSFW95 by PROPELLERhead. There is an FSFW95 DC-8, Cessna 152 and Kitfox as well. Flight Planner 4.0b flight planning software is included courtesy of Math Maessen.

USING FSCLOUDS

The install program runs a main menu where all of the program's choices are launched. You can start a session using any favorite start-up mode. I found the choices of cloud types, layers, etc. to be plentiful and slightly confusing. If you start your FS by not going thru the FSClouds program, your default cloud textures will be present - but the ground textures will remain. This is fine with me as the ground textures are my favorite part.

Like a Ginsu knife commercial - "wait, that's not all". The big bazooka of this program comes in the S.A.M., short for Scenery and Aircraft Management System. This only works with FSFW95. With this you can easily manage your panels, situations, ground textures, clouds, sound files, and even custom instruments. You can also catalog your situations and instrument panels visually by taking inflight photographs of them and using them as icons! For FSFW95 users you will be able to change weather while in flight to suit your needs.

CONCLUSION

FSClouds III adds a nice touch to existing FSFX scenery. Overall I believe that I enjoy the FSClouds features better when added to FSFX. I don't know if I'd like it as much pre-FSFX because I love the FSFX buildings and runway textures so much I can't live without them. But, I do love the FSClouds suburb and city textures better (except at night) than the ones that came with FSFX.

FSClouds will spruce up Europe I and II nicely. FSFX does that and Hawaii, Japan, and the Caribbean as well. I hate to compare the two directly but I have to. The really big difference between the two is in the extras each package offers. I think the Flightplanner, PROPELLERhead Panels and S.A.M. program add value to FSClouds Pro III. FSClouds Pro III works for FSFW95 right out of the box, and FSFX requires manual copying of files to get the features to work in FSFW95.

In all honesty, since I like to boil down my conclusion as clearly as possible for those who can't make decisions easily (like myself) - I'd recommend FSFX ever so slightly more if you want just a great scenery and texture enhancement. You get a little more scenery eye candy with FSFX in my opinion. If you're at the very least attracted to the Scenery and Aircraft Management System, Flightplanner software, and the excellent panels by PROPELLERhead - I'd get FSClouds Pro III. If you have FSFX already - you'll just have the best of both worlds and can't go wrong by getting FSClouds. I don't know how to be any more clear. I just think those who already have FSFX will enjoy the extra "frosting on the cake" FSClouds Pro & Textures provides.

[UPDATE: The current version of FSClouds & Textures Pro is optimized for FS98 use. This is included in the latest packaged version, while owners of older versions can download a patch from the Flight 1 Software Web site at www.flight1.com]

Visit publisher Flight 1 Software at www.flight1.com

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