Orcas Island Georender

Introduction

Personally I think there are three places were Bush flying is a must. The French Alps, Alaska and the Washington state. The last place was due to one person only: Richard Goldstein. The Georender series introduces a new concept in Flight Simulator. The small and very detailed airfield it’s not new but Richard gave it a new meaning, I called it ambiance. This could be defined has the ability to not only show the airport but also to put you there, you can almost feel the place. I’m from a sunny country and the Washington State is perfect since allows me to enjoy a completely different place. The long Georender series (each new one with an added realism) made me anticipated the new release: Orcas Island.

The place is once again the Washington State. A nice island overview can be found here: Orcas map

Besides Richard as author and FSAddon as producer you can find several “Emma Field Flying Club” members as testers, Peter McLeland (search is name and you will be astonished) in AFCAD and Justin Lamb as plate producer.

Installation and manual

The package is an exe file with a clean install as is usual in FS. New group in start programs with the link to the PDF manual and support forum.

The manual comes in two flavors color and B/W. The two versions are a nice touch. The manual starts with a story to get you in the scenery mood. This story is followed by product and features description and something that I liked: 3^rd party scenery possible conflicts. Lot of producers seem to ignore that but in a place where there is a multitude of 3^rd party addons this was a smart move, preventing some support headache Some Airport / Island information and flights suggestion closes the manual. The only thing that lacks is a sectional chart to go with the fictional approach chart.

You get 5 places to park your airplane. Not any 5 places but very detailed ones: KORS, Waldronaire, Rosario, Clam harbor and a private field. A small search in goggle to get some info about the place: http://www.orcasisland.org. shows that the big attraction is…Orcas watching so that’s what I expected in the package. Some Orcas

The overall texture appreciation is very good. The objects are very well textured, also liked the transition from the object to the ground.

The Runway/scenery textures blend is very well done. You don’t have the sharp transition. The shadow simulation and the detailed ground texture really add a professional touch.

The transition between the scenery and the FS textures is well done in the summer. However in the winter there are some problems if the surroundings aren’t snowy.

The runway /taxiway lights are one of the best things I saw in FS. Made with individual macros and some ground effect, the solution adds something new from the default FS dot lights. The scenery sleeps during the night and besides some occasional autogen houses lights and street lamps it’s pretty dark.

This is one of the best scenery characteristics: The animations. You can find several well done animations from Orcas (of course) to a fisherman. However the scenery is full of little surprises and it’s a pleasure to walk around and discover a new animation.

Sounds

There aren’t any sounds in the package. Do I miss them? No, I don’t. The sounds from other Georender scenery (I only have the 6) were not something that I liked too much. Too loud and repetitive, after a while I just stop them. However you can already find some FSE sounds in Emma Field forum. Tried them and liked it, if you don’t have FSE and still want some sounds try this link: Sounds Program.

Overall appreciation and conclusion

The best from this scenery? The textures. Really is a work of art from Richard. The animations come very close in second. It’s something new and very well done. The Autogen inclusion was a good move since fills the empties spaces without killing your frames.

Did I miss anything? Only a sectional chart for the place. The scenery is full of small surprises that will keep you busy until next edition. The scenery publication, as a first product from a new company, was a smart move from FSAddon. The product quality is very good and the FSAddon contribution (like the manual, installer) is up to the product. You can find Orcas at Simmarket

José Oliveira

AirSim.net