Flight 1 are a household name when it comes
to quality add-ons for FS. But did you know that they also have a
range of add-ons which enable you to create 3D objects and scenery
directly within FS? I've admired these add-ons from afar for a
long time and jumped at the chance to review one of their latest
releases, Instant Object Studio.
What is Instant Object Studio
Flight1's own words are more than sufficient to tell you what to
expect:
Instant Object Studio runs as a Flight Simulator module and lets
you design new scenery objects directly in the Flight Simulator 3D
view. You can create several predefined types of 3D shapes and
then edit and arrange them to make a scenery object. You can move,
rotate and stretch individual parts of your model, bend them,
apply different textures, create holes and indentations and apply
other transformations to make even the most complex objects.
There is also a very good video on their website
showing the creation of a couple of objects from scratch, how easy
does it look!
Download and Installation
Regular Flight1 customers will be familiar with their tried and tested wrapper system. Download the add-on and enter the registration information given to you at the time of purchase and the installation is automated for you. Very simple, very easy and very little chance of you getting anything wrong. The download is only 16mb and should only take a matter of minutes if you have a reasonable internet connection. The purchase price is $29.95 / €23.58 / £18.96 which represents great value for money if you intend to use IOS on a regular basis.
Documentation
For an add-on which delves into the dark art of scenery creation the documentation needs to be good, and it is. The 46 page manual tells you (just about) everything which you need to know to be able to start creating your new objects within FS. What the manual lacks is a tutorial to help get you up and running, this has also been commented on in the Flight1 forums.
My personal goal with IOS was to create objects that I could then save and use in my own airport scenery which I create. I thought that the documentation didn't give enough of a guide about how to do this, thankfully the program developer was more than helpful when I contacted him via Flight1.
Using Instant Object Studio
Saving Your Object
Once your object is created you'll want to save it. I thought that the documentation could have explained the save process in a little more detail, along with some screen-shots. Personally I find it a lot easier to follow a guide which is explaining how to do something when there are pictures there to illustrate what you need to do. It took a while for me to get the hang of getting the objects saved correctly, but once it clicks it's easy enough.
Image taken from Flight1 forums, creator Sid Schwartz |
Conclusion
The video on the Flight1 website does show how easy it is to use IOS, but the learning curve to get to that stage is quite steep and may involve an element of frustration.
If you are unsure if this add-on will be to your liking you can download the program to trial it, the only difference between the trial and full version is that you cannot save your objects in the trial.
Verdict
Instant Object Studio is a hugely powerful tool in the correct
hands. From looking around internet forums it's easy to see the
weird and wonderful shapes which can be created.
I felt that the documentation could have been better with regard
to having a tutorial included and screen-shots to help guide the
user. That said the documentation is sufficient for walking you
through the basic operation of IOS. It's very much a program which
you learn more each time you use it.
• Ease of Use:
• Features :
• Documentation:
• Performance
• Value for Money: 8.0/10
8.0/10
7.0/10
9.0/10
8.0/10
Overall Mutley's Hangar Score for Flight1's Instant Object Studio 8/10
Rob Scott
Review machine Spec: Intel i7 2600k @3.40GHz | 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz |NVidia GTX570 1280MB GFX Card |Windows 7 64bit Home Premium