Product Name: Spitfire
Category: Add-on
Developer:Just Flight Publisher:Just Flight Release Date: Released
Sys. Spec: Flight Simulator 2004/2002 or Combat Flight Simulator 3/2 Windows® XP/2000/ME/98 Processor 1.4 GHz RAM 512 Mb Hard drive 1.5Gb Video card 64 Mb Other DirectX® 8.1 or higher
This add-on blows my mind with its scope but it is not for everyone for this very reason. If you are a warbird fan, specifically a Spitfire fan, and would like to fly it in its myriad variants, this is the expansion for you. It will be wasted on the arcade flyer who has little interest in nuance. It includes content for CFS3 and CFS2 as well as Flight Simulator 2002 and 2004. This is a great way to get to learn about the Spitfire. It is full of resources and the cockpits are so detailed I am sure I could get into a real one now and know what most of the controls did by studying the virtual ones in this addon.
Just Flight has included a very complete Spitfire "experience" with this release. In it, you will get fourteen different models to choose from. Early war, all the way up to the advanced 5-bladed prop Mk.22. There is also a Battle of Britain commemorative airshow plane with modern Garmin GPS systems fitted in place of the reflector site for those who want all the convenience of modern avionics in FS2004. They also provide even more paint schemes for each variant in Flight Simulator.
You get a very good paper mil-spec looking manual in the DVD case when you first open the package and several software surprises as well. The paper manual has the usual installation instructions but then goes in depth about the variants and flight procedures. If you want to use authentic starting procedures for instance, it is all in there, annotated with images to tell you where, for example, the priming pump is and how many times to cycle it. FS2004 supports mouse controls of the 3D cockpit so you can "grab" the landing gear lever and move it forward. This really burns the control movements and positions in your consciousness. It is a good step toward being there and really enhances the immersion. Cockpits in the manual are also detailed with period images and diagrams. You get performance specs, checklists, and many more bits of information that the warbird enthusiast will really enjoy. Like I said, it has the feel of a mil-spec manual and it is quite nice to have a look through if you are a real fan of the genre.
Just Flight has also prepared a detailed software "manual" that is more like a short video documentary.
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It is presented as a tabletop of period collector cards and simply requires you to run the program outside of FS2004/CFS3 and clicking on the card that interests you.
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When you activate one you will see a movie short filmed using their models and narrated by a chap with a WWII RAF accent. I am American and it sounds fine to me but my British wife thought his accent was a little over the top. These videos are great. They are prepared as real instructional videos were. The pilot is introduced to the plane, then in successive installments, taught to fly it. There is a walk around, start procedure, take-off, several features on aspects of flight, and finally landing. All done with footage taken from within the game. Each segment is detailed enough to get you a basic understanding of how to operate the plane. Seeing the plane in the videos gives you a quick way to learn the cockpits with visual feedback to learn the controls. This feature is not something I would use very often but it shows some real effort put into making this expansion. When you buy these models, you get a lot of research and educational material. It helps put you there in the experience you are trying to simulate.
Additional software goodies include a way to adjust the glare of the canopy before going into the simulation and a texture editor that can be downloaded from here. I was not originally aware of the repaint tool, it was only discovered when I looked at their web site.
Because Microsoft uses special compression on their textures you need to go through a conversion process to edit the paint schemes. This utility imports and exports them for you. Very handy if you like to do your own artwork. It only works with this product specifically, of course. The exported textures are fairly plain looking. Here are a couple of examples.
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In game, I think they look pretty good due to the great shader effects the 3D engine in FS2004 provides.
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The majority of the textures themselves are perhaps a bit flat and a little too clean looking. There is a little aging on most of the skins, paint flakes and obligatory gun port streaks but they still sometimes seem a bit sterile. Some schemes are more consistent, but most are only aged on the most highly worn areas with the rest of the texture appearing factory floor immaculate. There is a very subtle, yet complex, multicolored oxidation streak down the sides of most textures from the exhausts. But overall I think they tended to look a little too clean for a warbird. Perhaps a bit plastic looking. Some of the panel lines are overdrawn and some of the rivets are a little too pixelated. The provided textures will not disappoint and I am being very critical here, but I wonder if the mass-produced look to them was a result of trying to provide so many skins. Of course you can modify to your heart's content with the utility they provide. I noted that the custom repaint features built into CFS3 did not seem to work though as this only lets certain components be colored and is inferior to the skin painting option anyway.
Flying these planes in FS2004 is a lot of fun. As I said, the detail is great. It is not quite revolutionary but certainly compromises are made to allow frame rates to remain high. On my 2.66 GHz P4 system with a 6600GT card, the models run quite well. Models are visually comparable to any of the better models in FS2004. Sounds are great, as to be expected. The flight characteristics are very realistic and Just Flight has attempted to make each plane historically accurate to its performance. They paid particular attention to accurately duplicating stall characteristics. As far as I could tell, they did a very good job. The CFS3 stock Spitfire feels quite a bit different from the JF versions especially in roll and stall performance. I am sure the JF version is far more accurate in this sim as CFS3 had a bad reputation for arcade-like flight models out of the box. This is a great plane set to buy if you want to fly a more realistic Spitfire, or several. In CFS3 they have guns and bombs of course, but in Flight Simulator there is a gun effect added. It works for screenshots and little more as this gun effect is not capable of destroying anything--FS2002 and 2004 do not support ballistics and damage models. It is mapped to the smoke effect key, however. Here is a demonstration in FS2004. I thought this was well intended but a bit silly. It does nothing really and due to the way the key press is captured it fires once, then stutters, then repeats rapidly. So you get a Rat......tat,tat,tat,tat. This is a limitation of FS2004.
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The cockpits are some of the better prop sim cockpits out there. For comparison's sake, some of the best models I have seen are in the only other modern sim to include the Spitfire, Oleg Maddox's IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles with the Ace Expansion Pack. Here is an example provided as a benchmark since it really is that good. Please note that this one is from a different game and not one of the Just Flight models..
IL-2's Spitfire Cockpit. Click for larger
IL-2's Spitfire Cockpit. Click for larger
And here is a Just Flight Spitfire model.
Just Flight's Spitfire Cockpit. Click for larger
The model is slightly different in perspective and lacks some of the textures the IL-2 Sturmovik series models do, relying instead more on the lighting effects, notice in particular the canopy bracing. It thought they could have done a bit better here. However, the hydraulic lines are modeled much smoother and actually look like pipes where they are shown. The Maddox version is a bit too low on the polygon count in this one area to look like tubing. If you are a CFS3 flyer and not interested in IL-2 series titles, this is a way to update your CFS3 cockpit to look as good as the IL-2 FB AEP fliers enjoy. Compare that to the stock CFS3 cockpit and you will see a bit of improvement over the original. You gain historical accuracy and some detail over the Microsoft version.
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I prefer to fly warbirds even in the civilian sims just because the performance they have is a lot more fun to play with and lets you do more than just toodle around the countryside. I get more excited by the sound of a Merlin engine than a Lycoming as well. One place where the Just Flight cockpit realy shines is that almost anything that moved in the real Spitfire cockpit does move on this model, and the ability to use the mouse to manipulate the on-screen controls is fantastic. Each variant of course has its own cockpit with its unique controls and guages.
There were a few minor flaws on some models though such as the reflector sight floating in space with no attatchemnt on one model as shown below in CFS3.
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I also had this very odd bug that must have been due to a graphics card driver issue in CFS3. You will see that a Spitfire is submerged in the ground here for some reason! It did not seem to happen with any other models but it may have nothing at all to do with the JF model. CFS3 is notoriously buggy.
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Everything ran perfectly in FS2004. I think this title realy looks its best in FS2004. You lose combat but if your goal is just to enjoy pretending to fly one of these things you can get a lot out of it due to its detail.
Now there is mention that this pack works with CFS2. I did not test this because I sold off CFS2 long ago. But support is limited, I count one model with two variants that are actually listed as compatible. Unless you own one of the other titles as well, I would skip this one for CFS2.
There is one last extra provided, period scenery of RAF Duxford airfield. It looks decent, a nice place to start a flight from in your Spitfire in FS2004, or to take some screen shots of your plane as you fly by. I thought it could use some ground support population rather than just buildings and revetments, but I doubt anyone will be swayed to buy this or not by that issue.
In conclusion, you really need to be a fan of Spitfires or at least warbirds to fully enjoy this pack. The realistic model is a lot of fun to fly but most casual flyers may not appreciate all the different variations and susequent performance differences and instrumentation changes. If you are into Spitfires and enjoy FS2004 or CFS3 you have to have this. It has almost nothing against it and it will really enhance your understanding of the Spitfire production history.
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