Introduction
The Isles of Scilly are a small group of islands, located to the
south-west of the Cornish coast. Whilst it is clearly not part
of the mainland, the Isles of Scilly are considered to be part
of the Cornish County, however the Isles still have their own
Council.
As of 2008, the islands have a very small population of
2,100 people, with a small land area of 6.2 square miles.
However, whilst being small, the islands play host to a
beautiful jewel of scenery with untouched rural fields
saturating the Isles, along with interesting landmarks and steep
rocky cliffs. It is not surprising that the Isles of Scilly was
named an area of outstanding natural beauty in 1975.
Tourism accounts for a large percentage of the Island's
total revenue, with helicopter flights, aircraft shuttles and
ship runs all being accommodated for suitably. The largest
island, St Mary's, has an airport which can suit
aircraft such as the De-Havilland Twin Otter. The airport also
has a heliport, allowing the helicopters of the “BIH” (British
International Helicopters) to land there. St Mary's Airport has
a rather tricky approach, as it consists of flying low over the
sea before breezing metres over a dangerous granite-faced
cliff.
As a whole, the Isles of Scilly is a very interesting place to
both visit and fly around. The combination of breathtaking
scenery and tricky approaches make it inviting for the pilot who
wants a challenge.
Earth Simulations Earth Simulations are a small simulation company who reside in the Isle of Wight. The company is primarily run by team Darren and Vikki, who also have some help in the form of friends Tony, Neil, Paul, Trevor and Ted, who offer contributions to the company. Earth Simulations aim not to produce large areas of scenery at once – they are more focused in designing small but extremely detailed scenery packages, such as Alderney, and the Isles of Scilly. They have also released some free-ware sceneries such as Wolf Rock Lighthouse, Isle of Wight Needles, Stonehenge, “ES Free-birds” (which allow you to “fly” a virtual bird, letting you get up close to your scenery), and much more. The company receive visual photography of a very high resolution from “Get Mapping PLC”, further supported by “Digimap”. This means that when Earth Simulations (from here on in referred to as ES) develop their sceneries, they are produced to a very high quality standard, for incredibly crisp visual results. |
Bishops Rock Lighthouse - included in the scenery |
The Product
ES have chosen to represent the Isles of Scilly as their second
major product. They have huge expectations to meet after the
enormous success that was Alderney. Have they met these
expectations? Lets find out!
The product can be purchased from the Earth Simulations website,
in download form, for £19.99. You will receive a
serial code and be prompted to download the ES Installer, which
conveniently handles your installations in one neat interface.
Without even starting FSX, I immediately got a first hand
experience of the quality of ES products. I found the ES
installer to be the best installation interface I have ever
used. It was clear, concise and very easy to use. Whilst the
files took a long time to download, I was informed of what was
happening every step of the way via the ES installer. Once
downloaded, I went ahead an installed the scenery without any
problems.
The Earth-Simulations Configuration Panel is also installed
along with everything else, in which you can enable/disable
whatever features you wish within the add-on (such as advanced
animations, etc).
The Isles of Scilly Experience
It is evident that ES have put an incredible amount of effort
into the scenery package as soon as you start up FSX.
I started at St Mary's Airport, which has been completely
over-hauled by Earth Simulations. I then worked my way around the
Isle, swooping low-down to inspect the detail provided by ES.
Why is the product so good? Let's find out!
Textures
Earth Simulations have implemented an outstanding set of of
summer-season textures. Unlike the default FSX, the terrain
isn't the same bland colour. ES have ensured that every field,
road, beach and stretch of land has its own identity.
The textures included in the product are expertly crafted. This
can be clearly seen nearby to St Mary's airport, where at the
end of runway 33 the terrain starts to become more soil-heavy,
eventually blending into a rocky patch which leads onto a cliff.
ES have given a very clear and realistic difference between the
three textures of land that lead up to the cliff, and what's
more is that they have been excellently blended together so
there are no tears or anomalies in the scenery. Even little tiny
mud plains can be distinguished from the neat, lined airport
grass, which looks beautiful next to the brilliant rocky
textures, in which one can make out little cracks in the stones.
Flying away from the airport, it is very clear that ES have
applied this ground-breaking texture approach to the whole of
the Isles of Scilly. Wherever you go, you're sure to find a
painstakingly replicated patch of the islands.
I also love the way that each agricultural field is defined in
the package. Due to the way that ES have
carefully rendered the textures, you'll find that pretty much no
two fields are the same. Each field has its own characteristics,
whether that be a small mud blemish or a different type of crop.
If the scenery can be rendered to display such minute details
between fields, then surely this demonstrates how much effort ES
have put into this add-on.
Click image for full size view |
Click image for full size view |
My only potential gripe with the textures is that there is no
seasonal variation (where the textures change depending on the
season). I contacted Darren at ES and he said that they will be
implemented possibly in a future pay-ware update, perhaps as a
boxed version.
To conclude this part of the review, I'd like to say that ES
have designed a very competitive set of high-resolution textures
which are sure to knock the big names in FSX scenery back a
notch. VFR flying over the Isles of Scilly has been perfected
with the introduction of this add-on.
Autogen
Thankfully, ES have scrapped the default autogen in favour of a
custom-made, more detailed 3-D library. This new autogen library
includes things such as updated houses, trees, bushes, etc. Not
only does this new library provides much better visual results,
but I can't really see any performance hits with it.
Along with the updated autogen library, you will see detailed
local landmarks too. This is great for helicopter pilots as you
can swoop low and hover right next to something such as St
Agnes' Lighthouse. From what I saw, most if not all of the main
landmarks on the islands are represented in the package.
The Autogen not only looks good, but it is immaculately placed
too. Flying around the islands, it's very difficult to see one
tree, house or building out of line. Field enclosures can be
easily be made out, usually marked by a row of trees or a hedge. Farms are quite common on the Isles of Scilly and this scenery package offers no exception. Greenhouses, animal housing, farm buildings, ponds, and everything you'd expect to see on a rural site is there. Furthermore, the autogen representing the houses is very well placed too. The houses are perfectly aligned with the respective street/road which they are on, and cul-de-sacs, pubs, car parks are decorated with accurately placed autogen which still looks very crisp even when flying at low levels. The old grey brick traditional houses really give an impression of something that might have had an eventful history. |
On the whole, I'm very impressed with the autogen that ES have
placed in their Isles of Scilly package. It does a great job of
replacing the default autogen, it is accurately placed, and it
looks fantastic.
Mesh
The product is advertised as featuring “Detailed 1.2M hand
edited terrain mesh”... But what does this mean?
Mesh defines the elevations of the land, the “ups-and-downs” of
the terrain. In FSX, this elevation is defined by placing “mesh
points”, which tell the FSX engine how to render the land. The
closer these “mesh points” are together, the more detailed the
land is, whilst the further away they are, the less detailed
the land is and it becomes more “flattened”.
ES have provided 1.2M mesh, which is extremely, extremely
detailed mesh. Most products feature a minimum of around 5M mesh,
so ES have broken the mould by implementing 1.2M mesh.
This can clearly be seen in FSX when you turn your mesh slider
to the maximum, especially when you fly into the approach of
runway 33 at St Mary's Airport. The rocky cliff preceding the
threshold is very well defined, and it really gives the
impression of a dangerous drop!
Click image for full size view |
Click image for full size view |
Round Island, a small rock bulge on the northern tip of the
Isles of Scilly, just to the North-east of Tresco, is a clear
example of why ES have crafted such detailed mesh. With the mesh
slider in FSX set to a very low-setting, Round Island looks
quite strange, appearing as a rocky hill with a building on top.
However, when you crank the mesh slider to the maximum, the ES
mesh really shines through and Round Island can be observed as a
wonderful isolated outcrop which looks stunning, particularly
when flying at low levels.
The variable terrain which sits atop the rest of the islands is spot-on. The gentle sloping hills look great, and I
couldn't really find anything wrong with the mesh that ES have
given the FSX user.
Night-lighting
ES have illuminated the Isles of Scilly at twilight very well.
Most houses present in the scenery package have a gentle warm
glow about them, and also things such as lamp-posts on roads are
lighted to give a realistic feel.
The large building atop Round Island gives a lovely bright blue
glow at night. This makes Round Island an even better place to
land at, not only because it has a Heliport but also because it
is very well night-lit.
St Mary's Airport looks equally impressive at night, the runway
is well illuminated and the main buildings at the airport are
too. Taxiways and holding points are also correctly brightened.
Zooming right in close to some of the buildings allows you to
make to the most of the night-lighting that ES have applied to
each building. As a nice little touch, some of the buildings
have red curtains which emit a crimson glow in the night,
instead of a default white glare from the window-frame.
The night-lighting has been designed in such a way that it feels
very real. For example, windows are not equally lit (as in real
life), usually the bottom of the window is slightly darker than
the top, and this is the case with the ES software.
Since lighthouses are very frequent in the Isles of Scilly, it
is essential that they are visible at night. Luckily, ES have
yet again satisfied the simmer by allowing Lighthouses to emit a
visible beam across the land, which can be used as an easy VFR
reference point.
The professional lighting-techniques ES have applied are hard to
miss when flying around the islands. I much prefer to
fly around in the day, but I don't mind
approaching at night now thanks to the ES night-lighting.
AI Objects
The seas surrounding the Isles of Scilly make up most of the
traffic within the area, meaning that AI ships are a fundamental
part of the ES product.
ES advertise the product as inclusive of 40 AI Timetabled Ships
and Boats. After flying low and slow over the coastal shores of
the Isles of Scilly, I can assure you that they aren't lying.
Even with my water traffic slider set at only 16%, I saw at
least three boats and ships manoeuvring around the harbours,
which is quite impressive considering that most people have
their sliders set much higher.
They seem to move in and out of the harbours in a very realistic
fashion, think of it as the aquatic version of Traffic X,
because by the shear number of departures and arrivals, and the
accuracy of their movements, it is quite evident that ES have
essentially made a product-within-a-product on the AI Front.
Furthermore, you'll see cars moving along the roads of the
main islands (albeit a little too fast) without any problems. It is
also nice to see that the cars don't wander off course, or that
the roads of which they travel on don't overlap or converge into
any surrounding scenery.
Animations
The technical supremacy of this product is beautifully presented
in the form of the fluid and realistic animations provided by
the ES team. St Mary's Airport, nearby fields and farms... Have
all been given a fully animated-makeover treatment.
One particular animation that really caught my eye was when I
managed to land a Bell-206 Helicopter in a field, right next to
a JCB-Style Digger Truck. The hydraulic scoop on the front of
the farm vehicle was moving with outstanding detail, but what
amazed me even more was when I noticed it was actually
transporting dirt from one area and dumping it in another.
Venturing into even more minute details, rabbits can be seen
wandering about the rural plains of the Isles of Scilly. You'll
see the furry little animals nibbling at the ground before
wandering off, searching for food. What fantastic detail! Also,
Mallard ducks can be seen sailing across local ponds accompanied
by their fantastic Soundscape (mentioned later).
Animated Horses
Plumes of smoke can also be seen from an industrial installation
nearby to St Mary's Airport.
Another neat little touch is the added animations of farm
animals within cattle-enclosures. Cows and other animals can be
seen grazing the land.
The animations supplied are far, far superior to other
manufacturers animations. Not only are they smooth, but they are
very realistic and they appear rather frequently throughout the
product.
Soundscape
ES have mastered some very pleasing sounds into the Isles of
Scilly package, which really give a sense of true immersion when
flying near to the earth.
Seagull sounds are heard very audibly from the coastlines,
whilst animal sounds can be heard when swooping low over farming
areas. Furthermore, you can hear and almost feel the waves of
the ocean battering the age-old rocks of the shorelines.
St Mary's Airport also has its fair share of sounds. The airport
fire vehicle really lets you know when it is operational – when
you fly over the fire truck, the sound file embedded within it
activates and you can hear a loud siren, coupled with flashing
lights.
Ground vehicles at the Airport also make sounds at appropriate
moments.
Join the seals listening to the waves
hitting the rocks!
The volume of the Soundscape included is perfect. It is loud
enough to hear over your engines, whilst not ridiculously loud
that it drowns out the experience of FSX. The quality of the
audio is superb too, there are no issues with jumpy sound or
sub-standard noises – everything is spot on.
The list of audio features that ES have popped into the add-on
are quite extensive, so I think rather than listing them all
here it would be better to watch some videos of the product, or
the much more recommended option, buy it!
Much like the animations included, ES have outcast other
developers by implementing a feature that not only sounds right,
but feels right.
St Mary's Airport
No doubt the intended home base of this add-on is St Mary's
Airport, located on the coastal borderlines of St Mary's Island.
It is the main port for the influx of air travel into the Isles
of Scilly, so it is evident that it should be one of the most
important aspects of the IOS product.
The terminal has been, as with most other aspects of the
product, exceptionally modelled, even on the inside. Transparent glass windows with
objects behind them like rotating ceiling fans are a nice touch, along with small posters
and plaques which adorn the outside of this masterpiece.
Airport “clutter” can be observed quite frequently around the
front of the terminal. Wooden crates filled with cargo, airport
picnic style benches, small litter bins and baggage trolleys are
all there and crafted in superb detail.
ES have filled St Mary's with their impressive signature
animations too. A man dressed in a reflective jacket drives
around on a small airport vehicle. The man can be seen
constantly looking around whilst driving his small truck, whilst
the truck itself is also interesting to look at as it houses a
small flashing light, along with animated wheels and other
assortments that are a treat to the eyes.
The tower which sits atop the terminal is a further source of
interest, as it contains what looks like realistic ATC equipment
(not for you to use though!). It also has a fluid, spinning
radar dish which lies next to the strong red tower beacon at St
Mary's.
Unlike the rest of FSX's airports, St Mary's has been given a
nice heliport makeover by ES. They have demolished the default
generic, circular, and bland yellow circle in favour of a much
better looking highly reflective ring that is decorated with
heliport landing lights.
A car park can be seen around the back of the airport,
containing a traffic-style barrier which rises and closes to let
traffic through. This is well animated and is also the barrier
in which the (previously mentioned) airport vehicle travels
through. The vehicle stops at the barrier, waits for it to rise,
before driving through and letting the barrier close behind.
Very bitty-gritty features I know, but in a product like this,
it's the detail that counts.
In a nutshell, St Mary's is extraordinarily modelled and does
well as a vital pipeline of this product. A busy place with a
perfect terminal, detailed clutter and wonderful animations
topped off with semi-intelligent airport staff makes the ES
rendition of St Mary's THE place to be!
Going out with a bang!
Verdict
Earth Simulations have proved that Alderney was not the limit
of their abilities by offering FSX users a masterpiece that is
saturated with detail. I have never come across a product
where even things such as animated rabbits are included!
Unparalleled quality and sheer dedication to make the best
possible FSX scenery allow Earth Simulations to penetrate the FS
scenery market with incredible force.
I am very pleased that I've had the opportunity to review this
remarkable piece of work and, with their latest release
Treescapes UK, the journey ahead for Earth Simulations looks
sure to be a comfortable one.
Pros:
Amazing Detail
Extremely fluid animations
Well placed and accurate autogen
Crisp photographic textures
St Mary's Airport completely overhauled
Wonderful Soundscape
Realistic AI Objects for water and land
Cons:
I'm tempted to put lack of seasonal variation, but as this has
been promised in a future (and deservedly pay-ware) update,
there's really nothing I could find wrong with this product.
This scenery has been awarded top
marks of 10/10 and our coveted Mutley's Hangar Award for
Excellence! Well done Darren & Vikki
/Jack Whaley-Baldwin