When you are happy with the theme you have made, you can then save it to use again and again. The only drawback to the configurator, if you can call it that, is that it does take a few minutes to apply the textures to FS (also done at the click of a button). But when you know that the results will be breath taking, it's more than worth the short wait.

If you cant create your perfect theme, fear not. The forums over on the BEV site have a dedicated forum where other users make their theme available for others to download and use, so there is always going to be something new in a theme.

Quite often I have flown in the US, but nearly every time it has been at FL350 and at 450kts, so not much chance to have a look at the ground below. So for the purposes of this review, I went back to something I normally do around my home country of England, and go low and slow. I picked aircraft that I was familiar with, so that I could focus more of my attention on the outside world. Over the 4 weeks I have been flying around North America, most of the hours were racked up in the fantastic Wilco C208 Caravan.

Before each flight I selected the textures I wished to use via the BEV configurator and waited for it to apply them to FS. The application of the textures takes a few minutes, but is worth the wait and gave me time to get a cuppa! You are notified when the textures have been applied and you can then either decide to load FS from the configurator, or load the Active Sky Graphics engine.

When you load up FS and sit at the gate, the change to your FS environment is immediately noticeable. I started at a municipal airport, and straight away there were lots more buildings and trees around the airfield, and as you enter the runway the textures of that have been changed as well, and look a lot better for it. As I departed the airfield and looked back and below me, the changes to the terrain below were amazing. It was almost as if cities had been built over night with the vast array of buildings that had sprung up, and they look realistic too. The whole environment within FS comes to life instantly. The ground textures look great, and it's easy to tell the seasons apart; summer brings lovely lush green fields, pass over into autumn and the ground and trees turn to a range of browns and oranges, far better than the stock FS textures. Cross over into winter and you can tell that it's cold outside, such is the feeling this package gives you. I was spending more time looking around the aircraft in spot mode at the ground than I was actually flying the aircraft, you'll become totally immersed in BEV, you almost feel as though you are flying over real houses.

You may now be thinking 'ah yes, but what about my system's performance?'. On my system the average frame rate actually IMPROVED after installing BEV. I noticed every now and again that some texture tiles took slightly longer to load than others, but the odd tile here and there is acceptable in my eyes, and the load time was only a fraction of a second slower than the surrounding ones. BEV is described as having 'Zero impact on frame rates; Massive impact on wow factor'. And it does this with ease. It was great to fly into airports and actually have something to look at as i descended to the runway. One approach I flew had trees lining either side of the approach path and buildings underneath me. One of the main stipulations Bernardo places on the reviews is that lots of screenshots are made available to help illustrate the review. I think my Print Screen key is almost worn out, it took me over an hour to filter through all the pictures I had taken across all 5 volumes, and I still had over 60 left, I was spoilt for choice. I didn't really need to write this review, i could've just posted the screenshots and let them do the talking! With the superb configurator providing endless options to how your FS world looks, you will spend less time at FL350, I can' remember the last time I was in a commercial airliner within FS.

I could sum up BEV in one word: WOW. If you fly regularly in the US, you cannot go without this add-on. I have many add-ons, and there are only two I could not go without. Active Sky and now Birds Eye View! And for the relatively small price for what you get, it's well worth the investment. Some add-ons are hideously over-priced for what you get, this one is a bargain! I just hope that they release a package for Europe soon, and when/if they do I'll be one of the first in the queue. Oh, and when FSX is released, registered users of BEV will get a free upgrade.

Buy it, simple as that!

Birds Eye View Homepage

http://www.flightsim-bevs.com

Until next time....

Rob Scott

PAY8156