Computer Graphics Memory Disk Space Minimum 386/33 VGA, SVGA 4 MB 17 MB Max/Rec. 386/40 or higher recommended Control: Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Thrustmaster Sound: Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum Notes: Requires Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 5.0 Reviewed version 1.00 on: 486SX/25, 8 MB RAM, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, CH Products Flight Stick
It's 6:22 a.m. and 74 degrees outside. The sky is clear. It looks like it's going to be a really nice day. You're passing over Washington D.C. at about 150 feet AGL, with full flaps heading into National Airport. The Potomac River is just ahead. Look down there. Recognize that building ahead? Let's drop a little lower and wake up Bill and Hillary.
You're doing fine. The White House is a truly magnificent building. Look, you can see the Jefferson Memorial off in the distance and the Washington Memorial is just a little over to the left. I'll bet the Kennedy Center is somewhere over behind those buildings on the right. Ummmm, looks like you're getting little low. Better pull up. Uh-oh, you're going too slow. You're stalling! Well, I guess you're going to do a little more than just wake up the Clintons today.
That's the situation "DC-Wakeup call" from Mallard's latest scenery for Microsoft FLIGHT SIMULATOR 5.0, WASHINGTON DC SCENERY ENHANCEMENT. Included in the package are six diskettes that contain the scenery, a NOAA Terminal Area Chart, and a Scenery Guide. The Scenery Guide includes installation directions, a directory of airports covered by the scenery, ILS approach plates and some general tip.
The scenery enhancement includes all three major airports in the area, National Airport (DCA), Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) and Dulles International Airport (IAD). Each of the major airports has multiple ILS approaches and many buildings. Most of the major area roads are also included as drawn polygons, with street lights that show up clearly at night.
The scenery area covers approximately 2,200 square miles and is arranged in a rectangle that is 36 miles high by 60 miles wide. The approximate coordinates of the upper left corner are North 39 degrees 13 minutes 56 seconds by West 77 degrees 31 minutes 41 seconds. The lower right corner is located at North 38 degrees 42 minutes 49 seconds by West 76 degrees 25 minutes and 2 seconds. For those people that can't translate longitude and latitude into reality, the northern edge of the scenery falls somewhere between BWI airport and Baltimore City, Maryland. The southern edge ends a few miles south of National Airport, while the western edge extends a few miles past Dulles. The eastern edge of the scenery runs past Annapolis, Maryland into the Chesapeake Bay. Several nearby airports outside these boundaries are also included.
I bought this scenery enhancement primarily for VFR flights to see the sights and landmarks around the area I live. So with that in mind, I tend to fly with the maximum details set. The problem with this is that the PC has to process data more quickly than at lower settings. With Flight Simulator 4, I was getting 10 to 15 frames per second on my 486SX/25, which I found to be a reasonable frame rate. I had previously installed Mallard's SAN FRANCISCO SCENERY ENHANCEMENT shortly after it came out and found that the frame rate for that scenery was about 1 to 2 frames per second and the joystick control was so bad that I couldn't control the airplane. When Washington DC was released, I expected to find the same problems I had with San Francisco. I wasn't disappointed (or maybe I was).
With 640x400x256 SVGA graphics and maximum details set, I experienced about 1 to 2 frames per second while using the Washington DC scenery. I tried using a 486DX2/50 and found the frame rate improved to about 3 to 4 frames per second. At that point, I felt that I couldn't get enough performance even from one of the new 66MHz Pentium systems so I removed the FS5 and both scenery enhancements from my system.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft released an update to Flight Simulator 5.0. I heard on Usenet that this update significantly improved the frame rate and also improved joystick control. I downloaded the upgrade, reinstalled FS5, applied the update and reinstalled both scenery enhancements. The upgrade was definitely worthwhile. The frame rate jumped(??) to 2 to 3 frames per second on the 486SX/25 while the 486DX2/50's frame rate improved to 4 to 6 frames per second. The joystick control was also improved, making flying FS5 a lot more fun. While I'm still disappointed by the frame rate, the software is now back on my PC and those Pentium system prices are falling.. ....
Most of the scenery in Washington DC looks good when flying above 4,000 feet. Flying at 1,000 feet, the scenery starts to look rather blotchy, and at 500 feet it is often difficult to recognize what you are seeing. Unlike most of the area covered by the scenery, the downtown Mall area is much more detailed. It appears that Mallard used a higher resolution when creating the images in this area. Also several buildings and monuments were enhanced with polygon images similar to those found in the Chicago area. A few buildings like the Capital and the White House were rendered using photo-realistic ray-tracing techniques which makes them very impressive to see. Unfortunately, most of other the buildings and landmarks in the area are of the non-enhanced variety, however they can often be recognized if they are approached from the right altitude and direction. It is possible to fly at 500 feet over the Mall area and be able to recognize various buildings and other details. It may be helpful to have a tourist map of the area to assist in recognizing the various buildings and landmarks.
I live and work in the area covered by this scenery collection and have been waiting for it since it was announced last summer. I was hoping that I could find my house and office building. I haven't been real lucky here. I work at the University of Maryland, which is located a couple of miles off the end of runway 33 on the College Park Airport. After taking off several times and paying close attention to the roads, I believe I may have found the particular blob that is the building in which I work. I haven't found my house yet, but I'm still trying.
All things considered, I am reasonably happy with Mallard's Washington DC Scenery Enhancement and Microsoft's Flight Simulator 5.0A upgrade. I would recommend it to anyone lives here or who is really familiar with the area. I also would recommend it to someone who simply wishes to see some of the sights in the Mall area. However, I'm not sure that anyone else would find the scenery as enjoyable. It is a distinct improvement over the San Francisco scenery. Many landmarks are easily recognized and the 5.0A upgrade to Flight Simulator really makes a difference in performance and usability. The DC Mall area is especially fun to fly, although I wish Mallard would have included more polygon or ray-traced buildings. I was very disappointed at the omission of the Air and Space Museum and the lack of taxiways and buildings at some of the smaller airports. I also wish that Mallard had used the same scenery density found in the Mall area throughout the entire scenery area.
Some things I would like to see Mallard and Microsoft include in future updates to this software include: customizable instrument panels with the ability to add instruments such as a Loran or GPS and a moving map display; some high performance aircraft such at the P-51 Mustang or the P- 38 Lightning plus some low speed aircraft such as an ultralight or a helicopter; complete scenery for the USA digitized and put on to multiple CD-ROMs without any of the building and road enhancements, plus a utility that would permit the user to load scenery ranges on to a hard disk at a specified level of detail (this would work well with the long rumored Aircraft and Scenery Designer add-on, especially if it has the ability to design buildings and then add them at to the scenery file at a specified set of coordinates); and finally an industry task group to standardize flight simulator controls or provide a method to change the keyboard mapping (it is annoying trying to remember if it's 'G' to lower the landing gear, or it's 'L' or 'W' or ...)
This software was reviewed on a generic 486SX/25 with 8 MB of memory, a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 sound card and a CH Products Flight Stick, and a Dell 486DX2/50 with 16 megabytes of memory, no sound card and no joystick. Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0 was used, with the 5.0A upgrade and the frame counter option installed. It was tested under both MS-DOS 6.2 and OS/2 2.11. The frame counter and FS50A upgrade are available for download by anonymous FTP at FTP.IUP.EDU in the FLIGHT-SIM/FS5 directory as FC-FSO. ZIP and FS50A.ZIP and on CompuServe in the FSFORUM download libraries. I can be reached by sending mail to WFreeze@umdacc.umd.edu on the Internet. Now let's go back and see if Bill is ready for breakfast.
This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Wayne S. Freeze for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.