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Overview & Background
Tauranga and Rotorua are two major cities in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty region. Tauranga is a coastal city surrounded by lush farm land and is one of New Zealand’s major sea ports that has made a name for itself as a highly popular tourist destination with Mt Maunganui, which is a major landmark in the region, being a focal point. Tauranga has a notable aviation history with Hilda Hewlett, the first British woman aviator to earn a pilots license, who emigrated to Tauranga in the late 1920’s, and Les Munro who is the last surviving pilot from the famous Dambuster’s missions of WWII, who remains living in Tauranga today.
Rotorua, some 60 minutes south of Tauranga, is an inland community located on the shore of Lake Rotorua. Sometimes referred to as ‘Sulphur City’, Rotorua is a geothermal wonderland with geysers, hot and mud pools, lakes and outdoor areas that have made Rotorua a must see location for tourists. Like Tauranga, Rotorua has a link with New Zealand Aviation history as the birth place of Jean Batten, who in 1934 flew solo from England to Australia.
Godzone has produced a scenery package that provides high detailed airport scenery for both Rotorua and Tauranga, sitting on top of photoreal textures bringing both areas to life. In this review we will look at both areas, what’s covered and get a real world trainee pilot’s perspective of operating from both airports.
The copy of Real NZ Tauranga & Rotorua reviewed here was on CD and is the original FS2004 version, I then downloaded the free patch (71MB) from the Godzone website. A download version of Real NZ Tauranga & Rotorua is also available from SimMarket. Like all Real NZ releases, the CD is supplied with a small manual that explains the install process and provides some background on the scenery. The packaging overall is well presented with the CD coming in a standard DVD case.
The installation process itself is simple enough. The CD autorun’s and you are presented with a menu, click the scenery you want installed and this will then be done automatically, to complete the process you will need to activate the scenery manually through the FSX Add Scenery options to complete the process. Both sceneries will take up just over 400MB on your hard drive. I’ll also note that Godzone have released a FREEWARE Mt Taranaki which provides photoreal scenery covering Mt Taranaki and its surrounds, I certainly encourage you to install this as well.
Once these were installed I then needed to patch the files. Let’s be clear that this doesn’t just make the scenery compatible with FSX, it provides many enhancements and upgrades to make the scenery a full FSX release. If you are buying this package now you wont need to install the patch files as the FSX version is ready to rock straight from the box.
- Intel Quad Core 3.2
- 2 Gig DDR 3 Ram
- 8800 GTX Graphics Card
- 10,000 RPM HD
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- Sony wide screen TV
Real NZ Tauranga & Rotorua is effectively 4 sceneries in one, with the airports at both Tauranga and Rotorua, the high resolution photoreal textures and various ‘point of interest’ additions in both regions.
First we have Tauranga airport and surrounds. Tauranga Airport, which is New Zealand’s 4th busiest according to the chaps in Tauranga Tower, consists of the terminal building, control tower, Bay Flight flight centre and various hangar complexes. These are all purpose built scenery objects that have been compiled using the FSX SDK which means they feature bump mapping and reflection effects unique to FSX. The quality of all these objects are typical of Godzone scenery, all are accurate representations of their real life counterparts that use photos for their textures. Having been to Tauranga several times I can confirm that the overall effect is very realistic. Having said that Tauranga Airport has recently been upgraded and changed somewhat, so whether we will see another ‘patch’ is an unknown, but even without it the layout is excellent and captures the airport magnificently. The apron area contains various other objects such as stairs and refueling areas all adding to the atmosphere, if you run AI traffic there is a great spot just behind the fence between the control tower and terminal that affords excellent views of the goings on. Across the road is Bay Flight, once again the buildings are reproduced accurately with concrete pads available for their unique Cessna 152 fleet registered MUM, DAD, SON, KID, SIS, NAN & PQP. Hangars run north to the Classic Flyers Aircraft Museum, and further hangars spread to the west. On the eastern side of the airport you will find the helicopter operational area, popular with a local fleet of R22’s, and further east is the Tauranga Aeroclub. Godzone have gone as far as adding the giant Bunning’s Warehouse north of the airfield, so for VFR flying accurate visual landmarks are provided. Lets get a pilots perspective from Chris Gallagher of RNZ Tauranga.
Tauranga, from a trainee pilots Perspective
Well where do I begin? Taxiing from Bay Flight across to the holding point you feel as if you’re going out for a real flying lesson. In real life I am learning to fly with Bay Flight International the home of DAD, MUM, KID etc. In real life I would go out to one of the sectors and practice my skills in an 152 similar to the FSX default 172, when I heard about this scenery I first thought, na this won’t be accurate, but I was wrong. This scenery is effectively an aerial photo of Tauranga airport & City with default buildings like Bunning’s Warehouse for an example. With this scenery I can take home my lesson objectives and practice on my computer in realistic high detailed scenery. Without this I would be flying in Microsoft’s Default version with buildings on the Mount (Mt Maunganui) and the whole place looking like a complete dessert with no civilisation. With Godzone’s 2.5 Metre pixel textures this makes my Simulator experience an ideal training aid. I can go for a flying lesson and go home and practice what I learnt in the same sector. So if you want a good place to fly in FSX with high quality scenery get this and explore the Bay of Plenty!
As Chris mentioned RNZ Tauranga & Rotorua comes with 2.5m pixel photoreal scenery that covers an expanded area in both regions. Given there relative proximity to each other it would have been awesome if they had met, but as it is there is a gap between the two. In the Tauranga region I found these photoreal textures to be a bit colourful compared to other photoreal scenery Godzone have done. I still haven’t decided if I like it or not, but its unlikely to detract heavily from your overall experience, you will notice the difference however when you leave Tauranga airspace for Rotorua. It certainly adds depth and is well worth spending time exploring in something a little slower such as the R22 or C172 aircraft, you’re never sure what you might find as you fly along the coast or over the city.
Night lighting is provided for the airport and surrounds, this adds good effect for the airport at night with sensible effects covering the ramp, buildings and car park area as well as the other buildings in the airport boundaries. Beyond this some areas appeared to be blacked out, and those that do have lighting are in line with what you would see in default FSX scenery. The grass areas of the airport that use default textures also have default lighting and in this area it really doesn’t work as you have areas lit as though they have streets on them, where as they are just grass. This aspect of the Tauranga area shows the limitations of using default FSX textures without purpose designed night textures.
(Night screenshots by Jon Murchison)
One can’t visit Tauranga and not see, even if it’s in the distance, the famous Mt Maunganui. The Mount as its called by the locals is a Mecca for young people at New Years for its surf and sand, and a tourist magnet. The Mount is a prominent feature in this scenery as well, correcting a number of issues with the FSX default such as houses on the slopes etc. Near the mount is the Port of Tauranga, here Godzone have used various FSX default scenery objects to populate the wharfs and container terminal area, as a region that has a special relationship with the ocean you’ll find the marina also present in this area. Autogen across the region is well placed and depending on your settings will add considerably to your experience, so if you can I would encourage you to move your sliders up a notch or two to get the benefits. Add Tim Barnes Bay of Plenty Islands (Reviewed here) and you have yourself a very special and unique experience of discovery and flight around this region.
NZRO - Rotorua & Surrounds
Did you Fart? No, you’re in Rotorua! The fragrance that is unique to sulphur is a key memory I carry from my visits to Rotorua. Described as the rotten egg smell by many, I am delighted to say Godzone have failed completely to include this in their rendition of the Rotorua Airport and lake region. But, that’s about all that hasn’t been included in what I consider to be the better of the two scenery areas. There is a quality to Rotorua in real life that I really enjoy and I am delighted with the accuracy Godzone have included. The Airport is the centrepiece, once again the enhanced visuals are evident across the terminal as all the glass areas, and Rotorua Airport has a large glass frontage onto the ramp, takes advantage of this fully. The apron area is highly detailed and like Tauranga, reflects its real world counterpart well with numerous scenery items added enhancing the detail. To the south a series of hangars for skydiving and other local operators is provided, and to the north GA facilities and the tower watching over the area. The 2.5m photoreal textures add excellent detail to the area, and cover all of the Lake Rotorua area and some distance west allowing numerous volcanic areas to be included. This makes for some interesting flying with lots to explore.
On the shores of Lake Rotorua is the Volcanic Air Safaris lake base. This has both a seaplane dock and helipad, as both the classic Beaver and JETRANGER/R44 helicopters fly scenic tours around the region from here. Like all the other areas the buildings and facilities are all completed with photoreal textures. A number of other scenery items are in this area that you will find in real life (No I’m not going to tell you what they are). Like the Bay of Plenty if you chose to add Tim Barnes Rotorua Gardens and also his Mt Tarawera sceneries, both designed to work seamlessly with Godzone’s Rotorua, the experience of the scenery is taken up another level, and is particularly ideal for those wanting to fly VFR around this fascinating region of the country. Between Godzone and Tim, this must be one of the most highly ‘Photorealed’ regions in the FSX world!
Performance in FSX, flying or a slide show?
Performance is a moving scale dictated by your system and how realistic you are in your settings. AI, water settings and scenery levels all play a big part in your experience, and this has been the case since FS98. I personally found both scenery areas to perform well, and I would expect this given my system specs. Mid level computers should be ok as Godzone have done well to build this scenery with good LOD (Level of detail) meaning the closer you are to an object the more detail you see. But like all FSX scenery, if you struggle to display the default scenery then you may well struggle with this, having said that the developer, Robin Corn, uses a mid level system to develop the scenery, so I would not expect major problems.
Godzone don’t tend to disappoint with there releases, and Tauranga & Rotorua is no exception. Excellent hand crafted scenery items, photoreal textures and of course the higher resolution photoreal scenery all combine to add depth and realism to these two regions. Good performance on mid level machines, and it must be said great performance on higher level systems as well given more and more people are upgrading to dual and quad core processors, means hours of enjoyment and fun for VFR flying. And I think that’s the point, this scenery is about exploring and looking at the ‘eye candy’, Real New Zealand Tauranga and Rotorua don’t disappoint, and we give it an x-rating of 4. Go get it now!
