Article Type: Field Report
Article Date: March 07, 2002
Details! Details! Details!
The one thing a civilian aircraft simulation must do above everything else, in my humble opinion, is “sell” me a believable experience of realistic flight. A lot of my consternation is as a result of Microsoft's concept of being able to fly pretty much anywhere on this planet. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing in itself but the net result of such a concept is that within the boundlessly vast Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) world, the all important details become homogenized to the point of becoming indistinguishable. You only need to look at the terrain at low altitude to know what I mean. Until now I would have given any simulation with the word “Airliner” in the title a wide berth. As I say…until now.
“World Air Sim” is a brand name I came across for the first time in September at the ECTS show and was asked at the time not to talk too much about the new products due to be released. I thought it a strange first encounter, but was recently able to get the opportunity to go along and visit them and see what they are about.
Their offices are located right in the heart of rural Hertfordshire. After an offer of a much-needed coffee World Air Sim owner, Pete Tishma, greeted me. World Air Sim have been in business since about September 2000, and in that time has amassed a very creditable roster of twenty-five different products geared specifically for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2000/02 (FS2000/FS2002) series.
I started by saying that in all honesty I hadn’t been that impressed with the MSFS series, unless you're above 5000 feet. I thought that with FS2002 they’d made some steps in the right direction toward creating a viable/ realistic simulation, but there was a lot still too do.
Tishma grinned wryly, “Well,” he said, “the thing I think we should do is sit you down with one of our products and you can start the Boeing up, by the book!” With that the stock Beach Baron disappears from the screen and the Ariane Boeing 737-300 series (Ariane Studios being the place where the aircraft are designed) appears on the tarmac of my local airport, Stanstead.
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Stanstead  |
I asked what the development process was for an aircraft, such as this. Tishma explained that the World Air Sim team is split into four areas: systems, art, resources and aircraft/cockpits. The result after some serious man-hours is that the separate parts are pooled together and a new product is born. Some fine tweaking is then done to get it just right and then it is ready to ship. Having bought a copy of Windows XP recently I was a bit concerned as to whether these add-ons would work with the new operating system. Tishma said that XP had been giving them some headaches, though not to worry as they’ve been updating their software accordingly.
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| Details |
After showing me round some of the finer detailing of the exterior we switch to the interior…this is the cockpit of their newest product, the 737-400 digital cockpit. I can honestly say that it is the finest example of a civilian airliner cockpit I've seen to date. It is simply fabulous.
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| Digital Panel |
[Author's Note. I've had to resize these images down, quality has been affected by compression.]
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| Analogue Panel |
I asked Tishma about the flight models and such, “The flight .mdls are hand coded, yes. We also hand code some other aspects of the programming, aircraft configs are hand edited (easier now they are in note form). We have to edit the aircraft details anyway so that the correct ATC ID is used when using FS2002's ATC engine.”
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| Overhead |
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| Radios |
As Tishma brings up several flight panels for me to see, we move onto the topic of sound. To date I always felt that the simulated cockpits of airliner titles were too sterile, and especially too quiet considering the plethora of actual sounds one encounters when flying for real. I thought the new ATC that Microsoft had introduced had been an improvement, but there was something still missing—with that there’s a bit more mouse clicking by Tishma and the PC's speakers jumped and my ears are greeted with what sounds like real ATC. This is another of World Air Sim’s products called Live ATC. It’s designed to work alongside the stock ATC. If you have the Stanstead product you’ll hear recorded traffic from that airfield, use the Gatwick Live and you’ll hear Gatwick and so on. I was quite surprised at how well they bring the event to life.
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| You want to fly freight? |
Tishma brings over a ring binder, on the disk when you buy one of their products is a reprint of a genuine Boeing 737 operations manual. I must admit I was a bit daunted to see this, as I’m not overly keen on monster manuals but all is not lost for those who don’t go in for such things as you can also start the planes up, in the usual MSFS fashion. But if you want to play it for real, you got to do it for real too.
While I thumbed through the manual, I asked Tishma what he did, before entering the world of flight sims. “I was Creative Executive working with Paramount, as a client and through their agency, on the launches of the Deep Space Nine and Voyager series. I drew the key digital art for the release titles, on a Mac! and also illustrated a lot of conceptual art for the promotions, which later appeared on the first videodisks that were released. "Planet fall" was the one item Paramount asked me to create when we could not find anyone to illustrate the effect of a starship entering the planet's atmosphere. It was difficult to conceptualise a ship so many miles long, and what it would look like breaking through the clouds since distance and hazing would have had to be taken into account. I also designed a lot of the additional promotional and collector ephemera for the series besides helping to write the synopsis and copy for the brief on each episode. It was great fun.”
As we got to work doing the pre-flight checks (by the book!) the 'immersive' part kicked in and to me it felt like we we're scrutinizing the Boeing's systems for real. I can now understand why it feels a lot more realistic, knowing Tishma’s artistic credentials and his eye for detail. I can honestly say, that even though I know a big fat zero when it comes to starting up a real 737, every switch, dial and system that was there worked in the proper fashion, matching what's in the manual—including aircraft faults!
Next the flight computer is programmed (boy! did that make my head swim), after push back and engines start a quick call to the tower sends us off toward the runway.
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| Taxiing |
I Tishma how the cockpit might look at night; no problem, and a couple of clicks later the digital panel is lit up like a Christmas tree. As I'm looking out the aircraft window I can see ancillary vehicles moving around. When you arrive at the gate they'll swarm around your aircraft getting the plane ready for its next flight. It's a nice detail. Meanwhile on the PC next to us he’s bringing up some screenshots of their other airport add-ons. All shots were taken using a GeForce3 card.
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| Easyjet@Luton |
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| Heathrow |
London City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton are but a few of the airport add-ons; no doubt there are going to be more on the way as World Air Sim’s product range continues to grow. I spied one I didn’t recognize called ‘Nth American Airfields’, “Those are highly detailed American provincial airfields, for FS2000,” he said. “They’ve been selling very well; a newer version is being planned.”
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| Provincial 1 |
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| Provincial 2 |
Having reached the runway, it's now my task, as Captain, to get this bird off the ground. I found it rather strange to have someone, other than my wife being an over the shoulder observer…I then made a remark to Tishma about the possibility of my ploughing the aircraft into the tarmac. He grins and points my feet to the CH rudder pedals…Err, okay! Clearance is given from the tower and off down the runway we go, he's calling out the speed, V1 and then V2 and rotate…the heavy nose comes up and…we're airborne!
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| To Infinity... |
The gear lever is clicked and the dull thumping sounds indicate they're coming up. Having passed through 3000 feet he indicates that I can select the autopilot, which I do and with it comes the feeling of a job well done. Now that was fun!
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| Outbound |
With any software company there are always new things in the pipeline and I was shown a couple of new items that are underway, making use of the G-max object modelling software included with FS2002 Pro. Seeing the incredible object effects made with G-max's refraction mapping was an eye opener…but of course I’m under instructions not to divulge anything just yet. You’ll just have to trust me when I say they look great!
After having spent an afternoon with World Air Sim, I can see that there is a concerted effort underway, by this third party developer, to address the need for more detail in FS2002. When you gather all the new features that they can offer into one flight experience it does transform FS2002 into something really worth having a go at. Whether you're just after a casual experience or a fully authentic virtual airline session, these add-ons really do make a difference. As World Air Sim's product line continues to expand I can see that FS2002 can only get better, and deservedly so!
You can go to the Ariane Studios website to download the 737-300 and 737-400 with cockpits; 757-200/300, 300f and 767 200/300, 300f aircraft.
Visit the World Air Sim website to see their complete product line.
