Thursday, August 18, 2005

Auckland City for Microsoft Flight Simulator - Real New Zealand

FSAuckland-CityMicrosoft Flight Simulator comes with basic scenery for “Auckland” but the only way you’d see it looking like this is out the window of a real aircraft!

Godzone Virtual Flight have released Real New Zealand -- Auckland City "Base Pack" scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator . This is stunningly detailed photo real scenery for Auckland District from about Whangaparaoa to Pokeno including the inner Hauraki Gulf islands (Rangitoto, Waiheke, Ponui etc).

FSAuckland-BethellsThe image (right) shows the West Coast near O'Neill and Te Henga/Bethells Beach. You can see the coastline, beach and land textures are great and there is enough detail in the terrain mesh for reasonable modelling of most features. The CD includes Geographx 75m resolution “mesh” which provides the lumps and bumps in more detail than the default Microsoft scenery. It is also compatible with the newly-released Geographx 20 metre and 40 metre if you want even greater detail. A good demonstration of the impact detailed meshing can be seen on the Godzone or Geographix mesh pages .

FSAuckland-WhangaCompThe image (right) shows the end of the detail area at Whangaparaoa and gives a comparison between Real Auckland and default resolution. You can clearly see change in textures, autogen and coastline accuracy . In addition to detailed photographic scenery texture there are lots of detailed building models and even “entourage” such as boats in Westhaven. Part of the joy is spotting those familiar landmarks. As with the real city you see the Sky Tower from nearly everywhere..

One warning is that it does not include detailed airports. According to the website accurate, custom-built, photo-realistic airports within the Auckland area are being developed and will be available for purchase. Unfortunately existing detailed airports (such as Deane Bauntons Auckland 2002/2005) are not compatible but this scenery does provide a fantastic base for future releases.

If you Flightsim around Auckland, it’s a must have.

John Cleese in New Zealand when I'm not!

John Cleese is coming to New Zealand to perform a new one man show in early December. Problem for me is that I’ll be in Florida