Reality-XP Jetline Avionics for FS2004

By Andrew Herd (21 February 2004)

rogramming new gauges for Flight Simulator is an activity which is almost as old as the game itself, but most of this activity has either been confined to the freeware sector, or part of gauge sets for addon planes. The problem is that good gauge designers and programmers are rare animals and anyone who gets good at the trade soon discovers they have a highly marketable skill, which tends to impose a ceiling on the quality of freeware gauges available. This isn't to say that there aren't any good freeware gauges around, quite the opposite, but the supply of freeware gauges is relatively small compared to the quantity of freeware aircraft - which accounts for why all freeware panels tend to look a little alike, because their programmers all end up choosing from the small pool of instruments. Just try doing a search in the file pool on the word 'gauge' and see how many genuinely new ones you can come up with.

One answer is to reuse Microsoft's gauges, but this raises a new problem, which is that with the exception of the 'classic' aircraft instruments, all the default gauges are as old as the hills and look it. Most were designed in the FS98/2000 era, at a time when screen resolutions were considerably lower than they are now and a 90 MHz Pentium was regarded as a reasonably fast machine. The default analog instruments aren't too bad, but the glass ones quite frankly suck; with clunky graphics and minimal functionality, the only thing that can be said for them is that they don't steal many processor cycles. To be fair, when they were designed, they did stress the average system, but things have moved on and my fervent hope is that when the next version of FS comes along, we get a completely new gauge set. After all, we have been looking at some of those panels for half a decade now.

The supply of commercial addon gauges has never been very large either, mainly because the number of competant gauge programmers is so small that all their time is soaked up by commercial developers. Gauge code has become such hot property that some groups spend as much time writing protection routines for it as they do creating the code in the first place, which has slowed development and led to some intense arguments of the kind that only flight simulation developers would ever make the time for. However, it has also spawned one or two independent gauge commercial gauge developers, Tony D'Ambrosio's RealCRT series being a good example, which are high quality payware vector drawn glass cockpit instruments for FS98, FS2000 and FS2002 panels. For a long while Tony had little competition, but now he has a competitor which provides payware vector gauges not only for FS2002, but FS2004 - Reality-XP. If there are more of you out there, I would be glad to take a look at what you have.

We took a look at this developer's first product back in August 2002, which was a simulation of UPS Aviation Technologies GPS and the company's slimline avionics package and liked it. Although this package is still available for FS2002, it has not been upgraded for FS2004 - if you run this version of the sim, the nearest comparable product is the Flight Line 530 XP, now at version 2.1. This package will be familiar to anyone who has used the Flight1 Piper Meridian, as the Garmin GNS530 and GTX327 gauges first appeared in that aircraft. The Flight Line 530XP makes those instruments available as addons for other FS2004 planes and throws in a Garmin GMA340 controller on top, in a 5.3 Mb download that costs $29.95 - which makes the Meridian look like something of a bargain, when you consider that the whole package, including the GNS530 and the GTX327 is available at the same price.

The Flight Line 530 XP and the two other packages we review here are all protected by product activation keys, which means that after the program file has been downloaded and you have received your key, it is necessary to use an on-line activation system during the installation. As far as I can tell, this is the Flight1 system and I have never known it to fail - just don't lose your key, that's all.

To cut down the words a little, anyone who has an interest in the 530 XP might take a look at the Meridian review, which goes into some detail about the capabilities of the GPS in particular. All three Garmin boxes are such faithul duplicates of the real units that the developer doesn't include manuals for them and simply directs the user to pick up the relevant PDFs from the Garmin website. There are some changes of course, the limitations of FS meaning that there are special click areas for performing various functions - and I will warn you right now that the 530 is a fearsomely complicated and somewhat counterintuitive instrument to operate. When I first ran the 530 XP it reduced my frame rates down to single figures, leading to some slide show like approaches. However, this appears to be a well known problem if this software is run on hyperthreaded processors and it could be cured completely by setting the affinity of FS2004 to one processor and task manager (and therefore the Garmin trainer package, which for data flow/copyright reasons has to be loaded at the same time and is a 16 bit app) to the other. Setup like this, I was mostly getting frame rates comparable, if not slightly better, than I was getting with the default GPS, which isn't at all bad; and I am told it would be possible to fix the problem entirely by disabling hyperthreading if I didn't need it to run other software. This aside, there is no doubt that the complexity of the 530 XP has the potential to cause problems on quite a wide variety of systems and so for example, I had a couple of hangs which it turned out could be cured by loading the Garmin trainer first. As you can see from the screenshot above, the components of the stack are launched using an icon bar at top left, which makes it all very easy to operate. When all is said and done, the Flight Line 530 XP is the most completely functional Garmin stack in town and a nice piece of code, even if I happen to think that Bendix King units are nicer.

The Jet Line 2 XP is something of a classic of its kind. The package, for a less challenging $17.95, includes an EADI and EHSI which can be used to replace the ADI and HSI of a variety of FS aircraft. The download is just under 6 Mb and I tested version 2.1, which worked well and seemed to impose hardly any frame rate penalty on my system, though I am sure it would be a different story for lower end machines. You also get a so-called RTU (radio tuning unit), a TCAS, a configuration utility that lets you set up various aspects of the display and settings for the units, and a 27 page user's guide.

Though the package installs by default into the Beech King Air, various user provided panel setups are available on Reality-XP's website for other FS panels - it isn't that hard to edit panels to install gauges like this, but it would have been nice to see some 'official' developer approved panels together with an automatic installation routine, as many users will never get any further than using it in the King Air. That being said, the EADI and EHSI do put in an appearance in the VC, which is a nice touch.

The only way to describe the two main gauges is that they are beautiful and put some real world instruments to shame - if you use the Microsoft King Air a lot, I can think of few other addons (beyond a new air file) that could make as much difference. Apart from actually being readable and therefore usable, the Electronic Attitude and Direction Indicator is one of the smoothest gauges I have ever seen in operation. The Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator, on the other hand, is not only good looking, but goes so far beyond what the instrument it replaces does as to leave it eating dust. The big difference is that you get a working TCAS and Jose Oliveira's AIBridge program so that VATSIM addicts can avoid touching metal as they pass on the virtual airways.

Though the RTU looks great, at default load size it is slightly too small, the controls are fiddly and I found it more than a little frustrating to use, though you can opt to use the default radios instead. The chief problem I had with it was getting used to the ergonomics, which force you to chase around from one side of the unit to the other all the time. One of the beauties of the vector graphics is that you can drag the RTU larger and doing this doesn't seem to result in any loss of quality whatsoever until you get to very large sizes. Since this unit is used to control the EADI and EHSI display modes, it isn't possible to escape from it completely, unless you use keyboard shortcuts, but I confess I actually grew to like it in the end. If you look very closely at the screenshot above, just to the left of the clock is an icon which can be used to pop the RTU up and it remembers its size in session once you have got it to your liking.

The TCAS seems to work pretty well and I had an unnerving opportunity to do an uncontrolled approach to EGNT down to minimums during which I was overtaken and passed by a 757 which I never saw until it had passed, but I held my nerve since I knew it would only upset virtual ATC if I told them I was there. On the whole, I reckon Jet Line 2 XP is a nice product and if the price suits you, then it is worth a trial.

Jet Line 4 XP is for the bigger boys and a default installation puts it in the Lear - though as with Jet Line 2 you are free to install it in any plane you want if you know how. The chief differences between this package and Jet Line 2 are the price ($24.95 for a 7.3 Mb download) and the fact that you get an EICAS (Engine Instrument and Crew Alerting System), a second RTU and a GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System) in addition to a somewhat more advanced EADI and EHSI.

All my comments about Jet Line 2 apply to this package also, which means that it is great to look at and seriously enhanced my experience of piloting the Lear. One of the things I didn't say about Jet Line 2 is that if you click on the face of any of the instruments, you can enlarge it; in Jet Line 4, doing this enlarges all three of the gauges, which is a real advantage when you are flying an approach. I shot several ILS with this setup and can honestly say it is far easier when you can actually see what you are doing - the default gauges just aren't up to the job when all is said and done.

RTU lovers will be delighted to hear that there are two of the little beasts in Jet Line 4 and I guess it isn't too hard to get to grips with their idiosyncracies, not least the fact that to get the transponder code to 'stick' you have to mouse the cursor past the fourth digit, which didn't come naturally to this simmer. For some reason there is no icon to pop the RTUs up from the Lear 2D panel, but on the plus side, the two units are linked to resize together.

The EADI is superb and offers the most mouth-watering range of functionality, ranging from take off reference speed ticks - set using the configuration utility if you use the suite in something other than the Lear - through minimum speed cues and a trend indicator that is actually usable. The altimeter and VSI tape offers the kind of display that you normally only get by shelling out for a top price Boeing or Airbus sim, and even then, I can't think of an instrument that is actually better to look at than this one. Similarly, the navigation display manages the neat trick of presenting all the information that one of these instruments is supposed to display and making it readable on a small gauge displayed on the 17" LCD screen I use, which is a pretty severe test. Needless to say, you can toggle it between arc and rose display and once again, TCAS info is shown on this instrument and I enjoyed using it for my virtual navigation.

The EICAS is, once again, far better than anything Microsoft offers, although it has a relatively limited range of functions compared to the other two gauges - you can scroll the message list and you can toggle the trims/oil display and that is it. However, if you delve into the configuration utility, it seems that this unit can be set up to display data on either two or three engines, which opens up some interesting possibilities, though it makes me wonder about the logic behind the Jet Line 4 name. What are Reality XP going to call their four engine unit, should they ever produce one? Jet Line 5?

The twin RTUs allow some functions to be split between the units, so that flight plan display update now is shown on the second unit only - I should have mentioned that the EHSI will display an FS2004 flight plan assuming you load it and then go to the flight plan page of the RTU and hit the update key. This will then display the magic magenta line. Despite the way flight plan update only appears on one unit, other features are still displayed on both, such as the ability to control either pair of com/nav radios and adjust range display on the EHSI. In the default state, either unit can control either radio, if you have a tidy mind (like I don't), it is possible to use the configuration utility to set them so that one displays nav 1/com 1 and the other nav 2/com 2. The developers tell me that the whole purpose of making the RTUs work the way they do is to provide maximum flexibility for purchasers and I can't disagree with that.

Verdict? The Flight Line 530 XP will definitely appeal to simmers who have outgrown the default GPS, though I found having to set the bindings up every time I loaded it on a hyperthreaded system a little tedious. Jet Line 2 XP, I like without reservation and Jet Line 4 XP is up there with it, though I am sure better use could be made of that second RTU. One way of looking at Jet Line 2 and 4 is that the packages offer the kind of simulated glass cockpit experience which would only otherwise be available by paying for an addon aircraft, but in this case avoiding the pain of learning how the panel works and leaving you the freedom to add the gauges into any other aircraft you want, subject to it having no more than three engines in the case of Jet Line 4.

At that point I was going to end the review by saying that are all we waiting for is a four engine gauge set, when Jean-Luc at Reality-XP went and released the Flight Line Wx500 XP. Now this is something really radical, because not only is it a breathtakingly clever idea in that it is the first working weather radar I have seen for Flight Simulator, but it commands one of the highest price tags I can recall ever being asked for a single gauge. Time will tell whether the market will judge it an investment worth making, but in Reality-XP's favor, weather radar seems to lie really close to the heart of flight simmers. I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked if a panel screenshot showed a working weather radar and have had to disappoint my correspondent by saying no, it was only a static picture. Until FS2004 came along, a static picture was all you could possibly get, because FS weather was homogeneous and though you could transition from one weather area to another, the weather in each area was all the same, transitions were startlingly abrupt and rain was such a local phenomenon it didn't happen more than a few yards beyond the plane. FS2004 is radically different, with a weather engine that is almost as complex as its physics engine and individual weather systems which have natural lives - which the result that Cbs can grow nasty and mean, yet remain embedded in an innocuous layer of another cloud type, just like they do in real life. Reality-XP have cracked the conundrum of working out where they are, by prising their way into the arcana of the weather engine.

The Wx500 is a $24.95, 2.6 Mb download and installs using the same system as all the other Reality-XP gauges, creating its own program group, which gives access to the documentation and a configuration utility which allows you to add the radar to the panels of your choice. The first thing to say about this unit is that unlike the 530 XP and Jet Line 2 and 4, I am previewing it, not reviewing it - the software is in a very early version - so I am just going to explain how it works so that this piece can provide as complete a picture of Reality-XP's packages as possible.

Once installed on a panel, the Wx500 opens either from the menu or from an icon which you can see at extreme bottom left in the screenshot above. The gauge runs in its own window and as far as I can see it should be possible to drag it onto another monitor, though I didn't have an opportunity to try that. There must be a frame rate hit, but the fact that I could comfortably run the Wx500 with the Jet Line 4 avionics on a 3.0 GHz system speaks for itself.

If you take a look at the screenshots alongside and above, you will see the radar set to look horizontally; right now it is showing all four levels of weather information: black, for no returns at all; green for weak returns; yellow for moderate returns; and red for the really bad stuff. The range of the radar can be toggled from 20 to 80 miles, you can tilt the radar 15 degrees up or down to assess the 'depth' of a storm, and it is also possible to 'hold' the beam on a particularly interesting piece or redness, for example lying one dead ahead. The upper screenshot shows me trying to thread the Lear in between two cells, though in real life nothing would tempt me into a fool's hole like that! The shot alongside here shows a thunderhead right on my nose. Seat belt lights ON and just check my life insurance will ya?

The ability of the Wx500 to function depends on the percentage of 3D clouds in FS2004 (more is better), the use of detailed clouds and a cloud coverage density of at least 'medium'; so it is highly settings dependent and if your system isn't fast enough to run the weather engine at the level required, there isn't much point buying the radar. If you do decide to buy (once again, bearing in mind this is only a preview of version 1.0 of the software and I didn't get to test it for long) then make sure you read the manual, because the weather radar is not something you can set up and leave to its own devices if you want to get the best out of it. For example, it is worthwhile pointing the beam down just far enough to get a sprinkle of ground returns on the periphery of the display if you don't want to have storms disappear off the screen as you near them; there is a whole art in spotting big storms by detecting the radar shadow they leave behind them; and when you are climbing out, pointing the beam up a little will prevent you flying into any nasty surprises. Personally, I don't like the look of that black area behind the red clutter to the left side of the upper screenshot, which is why I am headed for the gap.

It is worth understanding that Wx500 only shows precipitation and won't necessarily identify every situation where you might become IFR - because clouds can exist that don't create any returns, just as in real life. What weather radar does do is let you spot the really bad stuff and on the basis of my short acquaintance with it, the Wx500 appears to be capable of doing exactly that in Flight Simulator, which is fairly outstanding. I haven't looked at it for long, but all I can say is that it is one of the most exciting developments I have seen in a while and if it turns out to be as good as it looks at first sight, it may prove to be a huge hit for Reality-XP - just assuming that price tag doesn't put potential buyers off.

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