Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Professional Review - By Mark "Frugal" Bush
Few GA Sims have received the hype that preceded FS2002, this was pretty much touted as the holy grail of General Aviation sims and it appears that there was plenty of substance behind the hype. Microsoft may just have given us a sim that delivers on its promises.
Whilst graphics do not a good sim make, it would be impossible to review FS2002 without talking about the fantastic graphics. This is the first thing that hits you when you get into the sim. FS2002 has some of the best visuals available in a sim. I have never been particularly interested in General Aviation sims, if you can’t blow stuff up I lose interest pretty quickly. FS2002 has changed all that, the graphics alone are enough to hold my attention. Some of the scenery can only be described as breathtaking. My first flight up the Himalayas in the Bell 209 was a real eye opener. I find myself often loading up fs2002 just to do some sightseeing around many of the worlds beauty spots.
The graphics engine is based on Combat flight simulator 2 but with several enhancements. The most notable is the addition of “Autogen". Flight simulator 2002 is able to automatically generate certain terrain features and objects to improve the overall look and feel of the terrain. This really adds to the sim, particularly when flying low over trees and foliage. One would expect these extra features and eye candy to come at a cost of fps, not so in fs2002, Microsoft have done an incredible job of optimising the gfx engine so that it runs smoothly on the average machine. Even on my Celeron 850 with a V5500 I was able to get high framerates and smooth play with the graphics set to high. At one point I maxed out most of the options to see what it looked like and was surprised to discover that it still ran at an acceptable frame rate for sightseeing (although I wouldn’t recommend those settings on an 850 for precision flying). On my 1.4ghz Athlon with a GeForce 3 this runs like a dream with the graphics cranked right up. The graphics are highly configurable so it should be possible to tweak them to get a smooth frame rate on most modern systems.
The graphics are what grab you initially but the scale and flexibility is what keeps you coming back. Most sims have a particular theatre of operations simulated, this is also true of FS2002, the only difference being that Microsoft chose Earth as the theatre. The whole world is simulated with varying degrees of detail dependant on the available information for a particular area. Considering 216 countries are available with more than 21,000 airports you should never run out of new things to see or new places to go. The sim comes with many pre-planned flights and you can create (and save) your own at the drop of a hat. Many pre-built adventures are also included with many more downloadable from the web. Just to ensure that you don’t get bored with the aircraft Microsoft have included 16 aircraft with the Professional Edition (compared to 12 in the standard edition). These include:
New to 2002
l Cessna 208 Caravan on Amphibious Floats
l Cessna 208 Grand Caravan
l Boeing 747-400
l Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP
l Raytheon BE58 Baron
Included in Previous Versions
l Boeing 777-300
l Boeing 737-400
l Raytheon/Beech King Air 350
l Mooney Bravo
l Cessna 182S Skylane
l Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter
l Learjet 45 business jet
l Cessna Skylane RG
l Extra 300S-Patty Wagstaff's aerobatic airplane
l Sopwith Camel
l Schweizer 2-32 sailplane
Another welcome enhancement is the new pan-able virtual cockpits that most of the aircraft are equipped with. Many purists will probably still prefer to use the normal panels as the 3d pits are not click-able, they do have working gauges though and can be zoomed in and out. Personally I find these perfect for sightseeing and aid immersion, when I need addition detail for navigation I switch to the 2D panels.
As in FS2000 is is possible to download the current real world weather for your flight from Jepperson. This is a great feature and adds greatly to the immersion. Microsoft has improved the weather in this release by including winds aloft with downloaded real world weather. I found the wind effects to be quite convincing and they really add to the feeling of flight produced by the sim. If you prefer to set your own weather conditions you can customise the weather with a wide array of options. You can select from any of the four seasons with the terrain changing to match, green and lush during the summer and snow covered in winter. Here are some examples of Korea throughout the seasons.
Times of day are also covered with the sun rising at dawn and falling into dusk. The sunrise and sunsets can be really pretty in the right weather and can really add to the immersion. Night time is particularly well done with some of the best night lighting I’ve seen. The cities can look very impressive at night. This screenshot of Vegas at night really doesn’t do it justice.
The night sky looks great at night with the stars twinkling in the moonlit sky, unfortunately my knowledge of Astronomy isn’t good enough to determine whether the stars are accurately placed but with the attention to detail evident elsewhere in the sim it would not surprise me if they are. Traffic is a lot easier to see at night with the strobe lights flashing and more importantly landing lights stand out from a long way off. This is an area that few sims have managed to do well, in many other sims the runway is not particularly visible until you get quite close, in FS2002 you can pick it out from a long way out except in very poor visibility conditions.
As you have probably guessed from the above paragraph traffic has found its way into FS2002 so you no longer need a third party add-on to populate the skies around you. The AI for the traffic seems pretty good and planes of all types will happily go about their business getting from a to b. ATC is also implemented now and again is very good. The ATC is very easy to use allowing you to select the calls from a context sensitive list. There is an autotune feature for newbies like me so that the radio is automatically tuned to the correct frequency for ground, tower, approach etc. Hard core users can turn this feature of and tune the radio manually. The ATC covers a wide range of situations including requesting taxi, progressive taxi (atc will give you progressive directions to get you to the correct runway). Take off clearance including direction of intended travel, class b airspace transition, flight following and traffic warnings. Some airports also have automated information systems that give weather and non-control information to departing and arriving flights. The Automated Terminal Information Service (ATIS), Automated Surface Observation System (ASOS), and the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) broadcast airport information that is important for flight safety. The ATC seems really well done and again adds greatly to the immersion. Once tuned in to a particular channel you will also hear other traffic talking to atc and vice versa.
The manuals are very informative but unfortunately are provided on the CD in pdf format rather than in book form. This is a trend that I am not particularly keen on, I’m not convinced that it is good for the the developers either as hefty manuals have traditionally been a flights sims best protection against software piracy. Being a relative newbie to General Aviation sims I found the included lessons and tutorials to be a real help. I was very impressed with the way that they have been done. The tutorials consist of a well written and quite humorous ground school manual and some great training flights. The training flights take the same form as real flying lessons with the instructor controlling the plane and talking you through the use of a particular instrument or manoeuvre then handing control to you and asking you to perform it. The lessons were enjoyable and pretty well put together. If you prefer to learn from a pro then Microsoft have included a multiplayer instructors station. I will be putting this element of the sim through it’s paces with BBall at a later date (whilst craftily getting flying instructions from a pro in the process :o).
Probably Flight Simulator 2002’s greatest strength is its customisability. Microsoft have included tools for creating new planes and buildings including gMax, a new 3D modeling tool that makes it easy to create aircraft, buildings, and other 3D objects. There is an absolute ton of add on planes and scenery already available free online for Flight Simulator 2002 (including the F16 in the shots of Korea above). This simulation is about as scaleable as it gets.
I have never really been interested in General Aviation sims but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 has managed to get under my skin. The flight simulator has really come of age. As a newbie to the genre I’m not really qualified to say that this is the best GA Sim available but it is certainly the best one I’ve ever tried and the only one that has managed to consume a good sized chunk of my limited leisure time. This really is a very high quality product that runs beautifully right out of the box. The depth and scale of the simulation is very impressive and it’s customisability and numerous free add-ons ensure its longevity. The Professional version is worth the extra due to the additional planes, gauges and tools. I would recommend this simulation wholeheartedly to anyone that has even a passing interest in aviation.
