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The RealAir Spitfire has long held the crown of best World War II fighter simulation for Flight Simulator; the first time we reviewed it being almost two years ago, when the simulation was first released. At the time I thought it was one of the best FS addons I had ever reviewed, so it was with some trepidation that I installed the new FSX version on my system - so many FS2004 addons have been 'upgraded' with little more attention than a new installer. So what did I find out? Well, patience, you are just gonna have to read on...
The Spitfire is one of the most famous fighters of all time, partly thanks to its name and partly thanks to the fact that in its Merlin-engined form at least, the Spit is also one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed. R.J. Mitchell, the man who created the aircraft, was dying of cancer at the time (not TB, as is often stated) and must have known that it was the last project he would see into the air. He died barely a year after the prototype flew in March 1936 and the responsibility for the design passed to Joseph Smith, who saw the project through every succeeding mark. When you bear in mind that the airframe coped with a doubling of horsepower; a change of engine type; and roles varying from air superiority fighter, through fighter-bomber and photo-recon, to carrier ops, it is possible to see the Spitfire in its true light. The Spit had one of the most versatile airframes ever designed, with the result that examples were still in service more than twenty years after the prototype first flew.
When we reviewed the RealAir Spitfire back in 2005, it was available only as a download for FS2004 and there was only one variant available - the Griffon-engined mark XIV. My father's generation, who flew in the war, always held the Merlin-engined Spitfires to be nicer to fly than the Griffon marks, but if they got talking long enough, a grudging respect used to emerge for the late marks, usually along the lines of '...of course, they were much more exciting to fly...' When RealAir released their Spitfire package, it made me wonder what it would be like if they did a Merlin engined version for comparison and the good news is that, for FSX, we have exactly that, because the Flight1 RealAir Spitfire includes both the Griffon powered mark XIV and the Merlin powered marks IX and XVI, so you get the best of both worlds.
The product comes in a DVD-style box, containing a single CD-ROM, accompanied by a 40 page monochrome flying guide and a color leaflet advertising other products in the Flight1 range. The minimum system spec given on the box is fairly realistic: Windows XP or Vista; FSX; a 2.8 Ghz processor; a 256 Mb sound card; 512 Mb of RAM; and 470 Mb of hard disk space - I put in the word 'fairly' because although it would do for Windows XP, Vista would require at least a gig of RAM and preferably two. I did the review on a 2.66 Ghz Core2Duo with 4 GB of RAM, a 768 Mb GeForce 8800GTX, Windows Vista SP1 and FSX SP2 - and frame rates were more than acceptable.
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Installation is easy, given that all you have to do is put the CD in the drive and follow the prompts. There are a couple of pages devoted to solving problems that might crop up, including how to deal with the User Account Control dialog in Windows Vista. A point worth noting is that by default, the addon is installed with relatively low resolution DXT5 textures and if your system has enough grunt (RealAir recommend a 512 Mb video card and 2 Gb of RAM before you do this) the configuration utility can be used to upgrade the textures. In the screenshots, the mark IX is shown with the DXT textures and the mark XIV with 32 bit. If you want to get the best out of the simulation, you are also advised to put the 'general realism' slider on the FSX aircraft menu fully right and to do the same with the P-factor slider and the torque slider. If you want to see all the effects, the crash tolerance slider should be set to 'minimum'; 'ignore crashes and damage' should be checked; and 'engine stress damages engine' and autorudder should be set to off. The reason for this is that RealAir has built in bespoke systems to deal with crashes and engine damage which bypass the FSX defaults.
Since I have mentioned it, the Configuration applet is worth a look before we get onto the plane itself - this app has a shortcut installed on the desktop, which has three tabs: the first linking you to a 49 page Flying Guide pdf, which goes into rather more detail than the printed version; a 12 page Pilot's Notes; a 47 page copy of the Air Ministry Pilot's Notes for the Spitfire, suitably amended for the sim; and a link to the RealAir website. The second tab covers setup options, including whether or not to show virtual cockpit (VC) glass reflections; enabling/disabling engine failure; installing 32 bit textures; stall buffet strength (neat effect); and whether or not to have an 'authentic' runway at the included RAF West Malling field, which is only recommended for FSX SP2 users. The final tab is presumably a leftover from the downloadable version of the Spitfire, because it contains a link to a 133 Mb file containing the 32 bit textures, which are already present on the hard disk, awaiting use.
There are quite a few changes in the FSX version beyond the additional marks: the VCs have been completely rebuilt, which is amazing, as they were spectacular in the 'old' version; the gauges have been improved; the visual (external) model has been improved in the mark XIV; the Griffon sound has been improved (again, it was good in the previous version); there are new camera views in the VC; and flight modelling has been improved.
RealAir have always been keen to provide realistic spinning in their planes and so the FSX version is easier to keep in a spin once it has been started; the flight model recreates high speed stalls and sideslipping is 'more controllable' which is just about the only place I would even raise a mild question with RealAir, because Spitfires were quite difficult to sideslip properly - which is one of the reasons why the curved 'Spitfire approach' was developed.
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A quick check of the 'Select Aircraft' dialog revealed a slew of liveries, including eleven for the mark IX, ten for the mark XIV and one mark XVI. RealAir have made a varied selection including RAF, Royal Netherlands AF, USAF, Free French, Australian, Russian and Reno racer schemes. Within the warbirds you get the usual northern European camo schemes, as well as some interesting birds, including Squadron Leader Skalski's desert camo plane and an overall blue high altitude plane that was used to engage a Ju86R at no less than 43,000 feet; and there are several paints representing planes that exist today. The IX and the XIV hulls include both 'normal' and 'clipped' wing planes, while the XIV also brings a contra-rotating prop prototype, which will be familiar to users of the FS2004 addon - the sole mark XVI livery is for an RAAF 'shark mouth'.
The mark XVI, in case you are wondering, was a Packard-Merlin powered mark IX and was identical to late mark IX's externally, so much so that the two versions shared the same works number and airframes were completed on the line according to whichever engine happened to be available. Internally, there were very few differences between the two marks and as far as Flight Simulator is concerned, they are the same plane.
The visual model on the FS2004 release was good, the one in the FSX release is superb and it is clear that this addon really has been the team's baby, because every ounce of these planes oozes the kind of detail that only comes with care and attention. In addition to all the detailing you can see in the screenshots, you get some really subtle stuff, which demonstrates to perfection the slightly rippled skin that all mass produced (particularly wartime) aircraft demonstrate if you look at them carefully enough. I don't normally go over visual models with as fine a toothed comb as I did this one, but trust me, if you zoom in close enough with the light at the right angle, you can see the rough surface of the wing walkways and even the slight shadows thrown by the uneveness of the wing panels outboard of them. If I was to be very, very critical, I can just see under the edge of the cockpit canopy, but hey, this is one of the best FS models I have ever seen, bar none, and it doesn't kill frame rates.
Animations are few, limited to the control surfaces, wheels, engine smoke effects, the pilot's head and an opening canopy and door - there isn't a maintenance mode, so you don't get to see the engine itself. Although frame rates were very good even with the 32 bit textures installed, the bad news is that both the VC and the visual model can be very slow to skin - I am talking several seconds here - although this speeds up once the textures are cached. This slow skinning is more or less the only thing I would criticise about the addon, because it can make for some scary moments if you have the habit of swapping to external view during aerobatic maneuvers; by the time you have got a view through the windshield, you can be another ninety degrees around a loop and on your way to perdition, or wherever it is that warbird simmers go when they goof. Against that, the addon works well with the FSX SP2 DX10 preview turned on, so I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth.
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There isn't a 2D panel as such, unless you count a cut-down instrument strip, which is just enough to get you off the ground and keep you flying, but no more than that. Instead, the Spitfires are flown using the VC, for which RealAir have provided seven different views, which you can cycle through using the A key. Apart from the standard view, there is a 'straight ahead' view, which duplicates what you would see if you rested your chin on top of the glareshield; a '2D style' view, which puts the point of view (POV) that you would have were your eyes near your navel; a throttle quadrant view; a trim and switches view; a gear lever view; and a magnetic compass view - with the exception of the standard and straight ahead views, all the views temporarily kill the default FSX head movement, so that you don't have to play cat and mouse with the switches. The rear view mirror appears to work, but on close inspection the dim reflection you can see isn't anything to do with what is behind you and at ten thousand feet, I could see a range of hills when I was well out to sea! By way of compensation, the reflector sight can be switched on, although the guns don't work, so you can't get an early tea by shooting down everyone else in the circuit. None of the WWII Spitfires have radios in the VC, although shift 2 pops up the FSX GPS and shift 3 pops up the FSX 2D radio stack, so you can fly with ATC, should you wish; the 'display' planes have modern radios where the reflector sight would have been. There isn't much more to say about the panel, other than that if the FS2004 version was good, the FSX one is better, and that I wish all addon panels were as good as this - just a shame it doesn't skin faster, but then you can't have it all.
The Spitfire wasn't a particularly complex plane and so this addon isn't exceptionally hard to fly, but it is hard to fly well and take-offs and landings take a while to master, thanks to that long nose blocking the forward view. With a few exceptions, mostly due to FSX limitations, you can start up, fly and shut down the Spit by the book and if you flog the engine too hard, it fails, spectacularly. RealAir have gone to town on the flight model (OK, they have gone to town on everything) and the stall buffet is extremely well done - this was one of the big strengths of the Spitfire, in that being a lady, it told you what it was going to do, before it did it, by contrast, the 109 would just quit flying without warning. The mark IX and the XIV make a good pair, not least because of the difference in horsepower, but because the mark XIV pulled to the right on take-off because the Griffon rotated the opposite way to most other engines. For what it is worth, the Griffon prototype was tested in 1933, but was left aside until 1939, when it was realised that the ideal combat engine would be the Griffon, with Merlin cylinder sizes, but there wasn't enough time to make the change and Rolls-Royce went for a complete redesign instead. With over 2000 hp on tap, the one thing you can't do with the mark XIV is firewall the throttle on take-off, unless you want to die in a virtual crash - reduced power take-offs were the norm in Griffon engined Spits.
The Spit spins very convincingly, much more naturally than the previous version, but the best bit of the flight model, to my mind anyway, is the accelerated stall, and the plane can even be made to flick if you have the airspeed right and pull enough G in a turn. All of this is accompanied by stomach-churning sound effects and while the howl in the dive is probably a bit over the top, I like it (-:
A WWII vintage RAF West Malling scenery is provided with the addon, developed by Bill Womack and this depicts the field as it as in 1943, with a 4000 foot paved runway and a disused grass strip crossing it. The easiest way to find the scenery is to type 'RAF West' but there is a flight included, which loads the mark IX in one of the blister hangars - the scenery is extremely pleasing and has the bonus of coming with Spitfire AI planes doing circuit training.
The Flight1 Spitfire has a rival in the form of the Just Flight
Spitfire addon,
which we reviewed in its FS2004 version, but which now has a free
FSX compatibility patch. However, the Just Flight Spitfire pack is a
different animal to the Flight1 product, in that it simulates no
fewer than fourteen different marks and necessarily makes some
compromises in the process. If you want a lot of Spitfires, go for
the Just Flight version, but if you want the best Spitfire, there
isn't any question, you want the Flight1/RealAir version.
Is the Flight1 Spitfire that good? Oh yes. I guess a real Spitfire would be better, but it would also be noisier, stunningly expensive to run, impossible to insure and would get cited in the divorce proceedings.
If I need to dream, this addon is as far as I need to go.
Andrew Herd
andy@flightsim.com
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