The scenery series 'Historic' for Microsoft Flight Simulator X ® offers a new approach to the flight simulation hobby by providing a photorealistic ground texture cover based on real photographs from the Second World War (1946/1947). The resulting view of the countryside will not only provide a new basis for the implementation of future historical scenery titles, but also allows you to discover the landscape of the era and the all the history of the region.
The product 'Normandy 1944' will allow you to specifically discover the theater of the Allied landing operations back in 1944, Operation Neptune!
To achieve the maximum immersion in 'Normandy 1944' it comes complete with no less than four vintage aircraft and a steerable landing craft.
Many add-ons and other free and / or commercial bonuses will be offered later through our sites and forums. It is our goal to (help) create a real community around this range of new and original products ...
You can find more details about the contents of each of the various products in this series and their compatibility at the web site FS Historic (http://www.fshistoric.com) and on the VFR Network forum (http://www.vfrnetwork.com/forums).
Our partner FS Addon also has a section dedicated to 'Normandy 1944' (http://www.fsclassics.com) on its English language web site.
High resolution photoreal scenery covering the ‘Manche’ (50) & ‘Calvados’ (14) French departments of the Normandy region with black & white photos from 1946/1947.
1 meter resolution ground texture (black & white) made from vintage aerial photography (IGN) adapted for an optimal visual rendition in Flight Simulator X®.
High resolution real 4.75 meter (LOD13) optimized custom mesh incuded.
4 vintage aircraft provided (GFA Super Cub, Cessna Bobcat Military, Lysander et Fieseler Storch) and a Steerable landing craft including vintage black & white repaints.
Special waterclass customized to specific vintage textures.
Coastline (and parts of lakes and rivers) waterbodies fitting the texture.
Extremely precise geo-referenced texture positionning is carried out in order to ensure a maximal compatibility with scenery add-ons for this region.
Process development is fully conform to the Microsoft Flight Simulator X® SDK, ensuring a maximal compatibility with future versions of Flight Simulator.
Open scenery concept allows an easy integration of scenery add-ons from other editors.
Requirements
Microsoft Flight Simulator X® - Pentium or Athlon 2Ghz - 1 GB Ram
Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Seven or 8 – NTFS partition with 11 GB of free disk
space.
Please make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your graphic card.
These can usually be obtained on the manufacturer’s web site.
As a Baby-Boomer whose Father participated in this conflict, I was excited to see what his contemporaries had also seen, probably while under live fire!The Black-and White photreal sceanery was obviously intentional and to me adds to the immersion level. (We didn't get color TV until the early sixties so B/W is NOT a problem for me) You mileage may vary. It is an excellent compliment to Mark Schimmer's Solomons 1943 scenery package.
The only negative Iv'e experienced so far is discovering the extras when signing up for the Free registration on FSClassics website, nothing found yet? Friends and Premium have extras available though.
Otherwise, I'm happy to follow it as it progresses and see what else they come up with to add to the overall experience.
Disappointing Scenery.
Having purchased this scenery yesterday, I was looking forwards to flying over a WW2 1944 era Normandy, but after downloading 3 huge files, extracting & installing them I must admit I was very disappointed. The result is a very bland black & white featureless terrain. I understand that you can add other products to add more detail but having the terrain in black & white?! I can see original D-Day aerial photos were used as reference but, if you ask anyone who was around during the period, they will tell you that colour was around back then too! The grey drabness detracts you from the experience of flying over Normandy & having a few puffs of "flack" doesn't make it any better.
Ok. you do get a number of aircraft & landing-craft which are pretty reasonable but that is pretty much it.
I have purchased Aircraft & Scenery from SimMarket numerous times in the past & nearly all of the items were of great quality. It's just that I wouldn't waste your money nor time on this product & be aware, there is no chance of getting a refund.
Keith.