 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Screen shots by Taburet |
||
Photorealistic scenery of Kansas City, U.S.A., has been released by Raimondo Taburet, who has produced other scenery enhancements for Microsoft Flight Simulator ®.
Kansas City is a metropolitan area in the central United States, at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Missouri River. One Kansas City is in the State of Kansas, and the other is in the State of Missouri. The metro population is over 1 million, and it includes numerous independent cities, the largest of which are Independence, Missouri; Olathe, Kansas; and Shawnee, Kansas.
The Kansas City metro area is a major transportation and cultural center for this region of the United States. In the 19th Century, cattle were driven in huge herds from ranges as far as Texas to Kansas City for slaughter and processing, and beef from Kansas City was shipped throughout the United States.
Kansas City International Airport (KMCI) is the region's commercial airport with numerous daily flights by Southwest Airlines, Midwest Airlines, and Delta Airlines. Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC) is the region's major general aviation airport. About 20 smaller GA airports and heliports serve the metro area.
Taburet says its photorealistic scenery covers the entire Kansas City area and is photorealistic for day and night during summer. The scenery resolution is "2 m / pix. - to ensure that all users benefit from the highest frames rates as possible in order to achieve a pleasant experience!"
He says he made this scenery because he believes it is important to have a realistic ground to fly over, "especially for students pilots and even more for those that fly VFR, to see the real thing beneath in order to practice skills. It is the most realistic view we can see."
Scenery Coverage Area |
Terrain throughout the coverage area is enhanced. It's more colorful in most places, and hills and valleys are more obvious as a result. This region of the United States is not rugged, however, so there aren't as many terrain variations to view as in other sceneries produced by Taburet.
The package is conveniently available for instant downloading from the Flight Sim Pilot Shop.
Installation is easy. The scenery files are installed in a subfolder within the scenery folder. Users must add the scenery to the FSX scenery menu, however, by clicking on the "Add" button and clicking on the Kansas City scenery folder.
Frame rates are barely affected. They're in the 30s and 40s throughout most areas. My display settings are at "medium high." Higher frame rates are possible with lower display settings, and vice versa.
Taburet
|
FSX
|
|
|
Kansas City Downtown Airport |
||
Taburet
|
FSX
|
|
|
Kansas City Downtown Airport |
||
|
Screen shots by Bill Stack |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City International Airport |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City International Airport |
||
|
Screen shots by Bill Stack |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Independence Memorial Airport |
||
|
Screen shots by Bill Stack |
||
My pairs of comparative screen shots were made as follows: I slewed to a position with Taburet's scenery activated and snapped a shot. Holding the position and viewpoint, I switched to FSX default scenery and snapped a shot. I repeated this procedure for each pair. As a result, all pairs of comparative screen shots are from the same position and viewpoint. The only differences are between the sceneries.
More default scenery objects than shown in my screen shots are possible with higher display settings. I used "medium high," and more buildings are visible when "high" and "ultra high" settings are used. Frame rates are diminished by higher display rates, however.
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City Convention Center |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Missouri River Downtown |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City Sports Complex |
||
|
Screen shots by Bill Stack |
||
This scenery package is huge. It took one hour to download at cable-TV speed, two minutes to extract, and four minutes to install.
It is photorealistic terrain enhancement only. Buyers should know that they will get no additional scenery objects with this package — no buildings, aircraft, bridges, and so forth.
There are fewer auto-generated objects in Taburet's scenery than in the FSX default scenery, as seen in my comparative screen shots.
The Chinook helicopter and the ultra-light aircraft shown in some of Taburet's screen shots are not included with the package.
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City Downtown Skyline |
||
Taburet |
FSX |
|
|
Kansas City Downtown Skyline |
||
|
Screen shots by Bill Stack |
||
The photorealism is impressive, and this scenery definitely looks better than the default scenery. This makes the flight-simulation experience more enjoyable. The frame rates seem to be only slightly affected. The lack of additional scenery objects isn't a problem as long as buyers know what they will and will not get from this product.
Bill Stack
Learn More About Taburet's Kansas City Scenery for FSX
Bill Stack is author of several books about flight simulation, a regular author in flight-sim magazines, and a contributor to Flight Sim Com. His website is www.topskills.com
[ Back
| Home
| Main Menu
| Logout
]
Copyright © 2009 by FlightSim.Com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.