Vista Austrails aka ‘VOZ’ Review

Vista Austrials aka ‘VOZ’ Review

Australia is the only country in the world that is as big as a continent and with such a huge land mass comes a huge range of diverse scenery; from rocky mountains to sandy beaches and from dry desert plains to busy metropolitan cities. On the 26th December, “Vista Austrails” was released, becoming the first ever freeware virtual re-creation of the whole country for Flight Sim. I have downloaded it and installed it myself and I have to say amazed at the outcome! Here is my review:

Like more than 16,000 others this week, I have downloaded the 63mb zip file Avsim, which includes a very user friendly manual and a professional, easy to follow installation process. This version takes up 280mb of hard drive room which is hardly anything compared to many other scenery add-ons I have.

The package also includes photoreal landclass, which is compiled of many small photos joined together in random sequences to create separate textures for separate areas instead of merging them all together. Before Australia looked like a state of America, and you wouldn’t know you were in the southern hemisphere unless you checked your GPS, but now you instantly know where you are. Australia has been dived in four main sections, South, North, West and Central each with its own unique identity. You have everything from lush rainforests, lively suburbs, rural farms, to tropical islands, ski fields, grassy meadows and dusty sand dunes. There is so much new eye candy, it makes you never want to fly anywhere else again, and it is almost as if there is a little part of the whole world placed inside Australia.

Another great point about ‘VOZ’ is that it ISN’T photoreal. Before I have wasted many dollars on payware photoreal packages which ended up blurring and causing the game to lagg with long loading times. None of this happens now, because ‘VOZ’ replaces the default Microsoft textures enhancing your world no end, running smoother and not creating a distracting blurred horizon! Unlike many photoreal add-ons, ‘VOZ’ also includes loads of custom Ozzie built autogen objects like Eucalyptus tree forests and real life city towers. I have photoreal scenery which covers England and Wales, taking up about 10 GB on my harddrive room, this scenery now, which covers all of Australia (something like 25x the size of the UK) only takes up 280mb!!!

The zip file also includes 50 demonstration flights, refurbished roads, coastlines and mesh as well as a new weather theme with new cloud patterns and wateclass textures. Beforehand, when flying in the simulator, you only really see a good default sunset once or twice a month, but in VOZ, you see jaw dropping sunrises and sunsets everyday, with brilliant pink and orange skies reflecting on the all new custom built water package every day! And you can use this weather theme all over the world, as well as the stunning new waters, which enhance my REAL NZ Auckland City add on heaps

And, If for some strange reason you don’t enjoy stunning skies, lovely landscapes and wicked waters, you can simply ‘UNVOZ’ the simulator at a click of a button which turns the textures back to the default in a matter of seconds. Then once you realize what your missing, just simply click the button again to ‘VOZ’ it back to life. It’s so simple!

I recommend you all download this, trust me, once you VOZ-it, your world will never be the same again 😀 Plus, this is only version 0.99, in the New Year, loads of further upgrades will be available says “Koorby”, the VOZ author: “We are just getting started. VOZ 1.1 will BLOW YOU ALL AWAY, and 1.5 will make payware developers have nightmares. You will not believe the quality of the textures that I have in alpha right now, and the autogen will redefine the word "detail". Take a flight over Melbourne in VOZ today. Now multiply the detail by a factor of 10.... yep - no bull. See those ugly textures on the default office towers? Gone! Banished forever. There will be over 2,000 buildings in the greater Melbourne area alone. 2006 will be a fantastic year for Flight Simulation in Australia - come along and join us for the ride!”

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Enjoy these screenshots-