An oldie but a goodie!
The roads
in Flight Simulator 9 have always been pretty
unimpressive. Microsoft got most of them in the right
place, so that the roads are reasonably recognisable as
long as they’re on their own. However, the complex road
layouts and junctions that are a part of everywhere on
Earth nowadays have been simplified far too much in the
simulator. Massive spaghetti junctions have been reduced
to mere crossroads, and many smaller roads have been
left out altogether. They do not bend or curve in the
right places or intersect in the right way. Aesthetics
aside, for navigation purposes, they are, in short,
useless.
However,
Just Flight and FSQuality have teamed up to provide a
solution. High-quality NAVTEQ GPS data was used to give
the roads exactly the same layout as they have in the
real world. And not just with roads – rivers and
coastlines have also been vastly improved. The River
Seine in Paris is restored to its true beauty and the
M6’s Spaghetti Junction is once again a true
representation of chaos.
A closer look at
another not too far away. Roads and Rivers and
Ground Environment make a good combination. |
“So how
big a difference is there?” I hear you ask. The answer
is: "A big one". A very big one. This product is aimed
mostly at those virtual pilots among us who love to take
it low and slow, in a Cessna piston plane or perhaps a
Robinson helicopter. At low altitudes in a large city,
the difference really is mind-boggling. Main roads to
side streets, motorways to towpaths, it’s all there.
They use default textures but the point is, these roads
actually go somewhere and you can rely on them. You can
really use a road map to fly in FS if you so wish.
The best
bit, however, is how far the changes spread. They’re
everywhere – you can go from the middle of Oslo to
Kilkee in Ireland and the roads will be exactly as they
are in the real world. The rivers and coastlines will be
the same, too. And it’s not just in the UK – the changes
are applied to Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden and Switzerland too. And remember, it’s
everywhere, not just in the major cities. I’ve never
been to the Greek holiday island of Zakinthos but I can
tell you that Roads and Rivers is a vast improvement
over the FS default roads there. It is very interesting
to go to somewhere like Amsterdam or Venice and see how
well the famous canals are modelled there. Harbours all
over Europe are represented nicely, with jetties and
piers poking out accordingly. Unfortunately there aren’t
many boats. The access roads to the airports in FS do
not disappoint either. This used to be a feature that
only the best scenery add-ons could provide – now every
bog-standard airport or airfield in the sim has a decent
road layout around it.
The
changes and improvements I’ve mentioned may seem
trivial, but believe me when I tell you that once you
are flying over them, with perfect road and river
layouts visible from the cockpit stretching in all
directions, it gives a wonderful sense of realism. When
you’re following a road you know especially there really
is a sense that you are going somewhere. As an
experiment I flew over the roads I take to school every
day, and then I followed the roads that I took back, and
they are recreated flawlessly.
The canals and
interesting lack of any topography around
Amsterdam. The detail in R&R is incredible. |
More improved
roads around Schiphol. |
To be
honest I had been expecting the night textures on the
roads to be the default ones, and therefore a bit
disappointing. How wrong I was – the roads come alive
with red and white lights all over the place as cars
turn on their headlamps. Nothing moves but you’ll be
flying too fast to really notice anyway. Unfortunately
the nice effect has not been re-created in the daytime
textures; one improvement I could suggest would be cars
drawn onto the textures.
As with
all products however, there are a few criticisms to be
had. I have two main complaints which I have mentioned
already. They are that I would have liked a bit more
detail in the daytime road textures, and a few more
boats bobbing about in the rivers and seas would have
been nice. On a more minor note, because of FS’s autogen
you may find some buildings and trees poking out over
the water or sitting at the edge of it. It’s mostly rare
though, and you’d only really notice it if you went
looking for it. Occasionally however, it happens with
airports too.
In
conclusion, this is a truly stunning piece of work and a
credit to the abilities of the guys who produced it. The
fact that I am saying this when I spend most of my time
too high to see any roads underlines that fact. If I
didn’t already own this product, I would go out and buy
it right now – I advise you to do the same. Remember
that you'll need a road map too.
email dave@mutleyshangar.com
Reviewed 18/02/07, last updated 18/03/07
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