|
Scenery Sets
Atlanta International
Airport (July 20, 2008)
Staff reviewer Jeremy Fletcher
visits one of the wrold's busiest airports, KATL, Atlanta International Airport
from ImagineSim. "This airport has
five parallel runways heading east and west; two north of the gates, two south
of the gates, and one all by itself on the south side of the airport." "The
south cargo area of the airport is made up of a lot of hangars and miscellaneous
buildings, all of which are textured to appear weathered,
and most of which have some form of company logos or other identification.
There are some static and AI aircraft that frequent this area, as well as
a number of static and dynamic ground vehicles. If you like flying cargo
aircraft you will feel welcomed to the north area of this airport. UPS and
FedEx hubs have taken over the eastern portion of the north cargo ramps.
Both areas contain a host of ground support equipment, static and AI aircraft,
and plenty of static and dynamic ground vehicles." "In the center
of the airport is where you will find the terminal, tower, and all of the
passenger gates. The gates come complete with jetways,
Delta parking systems, and more ground support equipment. The Delta parking
system is a handy traffic light type of system that will help you to position
your aircraft properly for correct jetway docking." "ImagineSim
has modified all pavement textures to resemble well used, yet sufficiently
maintained taxiways, runways and ramps. Each runway now
has much more authentic looking identifiers, markings, and touchdown marks.
All pavement has indications of cracks here and there, some natural weathering
and discoloration, and all markings are moderately worn." "I have
very few complaints about KATL from the folks at ImagineSim. I give this
product my thumbs up, and am grateful that ImagineSim has kept
those of us still using FS9 in mind."
Austria X Professional (July
17, 2008)
Senior staff reviewer Gene
Davis visits a country on his wish list with Flugwerk Design's Austria X Professional. "What Austria X does for Flight Simulator
X is quite remarkable, as it adds the entire road network, custom buildings
and objects, landclass, photo type scenery for several cities and accurate
terrain mesh data for the entire country. Thus giving the Flight Sim user an
all-out true to life representation of Austria in FSX." "All of the
buildings in Austria Professional, aside from the autogen, are native to that
country, and if you are flying in places like Vienna,
you will see accurate landmarks and commercial buildings plucked right out
of that part of the world.Included in this package are four of Austria’s
biggest cities; Vienna, Linz, Salzburg and Graz. Each have been designed
from the ground up using aerial photographs for proper placement of all of
the buildings, landmarks and bridges, along with a photo-real overlay that
blends in well with the surrounding terrain textures." "The roads,
rivers and landclass is where the heart and soul of this product comes in
to play as it covers the entire country no matter where
you fly. If you are flying VFR, as this product is intended, then you should
be able to find your way via geographical references with little or no instrumentation.
The terrain mesh that is included with this package really enhances the look
and feel of the surrounding mountain ranges, especially in areas like Salzburg!
Salzburg is inherently mountainous, and you don’t have to go far to
find that mountainous terrain and the valleys to fly into." "Austria
X Professional is a beautiful product and it adds a lot to that particular
region of the world," says Gene, "the box calls
it an “accurate visual model” of the places in question and I
really do think they deliver on that statement. You are getting roads, landclass,
terrain mesh, custom objects and buildings, and photo real scenery for four
different cities all in one nice little package; and if that was not enough,
the product covers the entire country instead of just a portion of it."
Holloman AFB (July
3, 2008)
For those of you who remember
Brian Fletcher (aka Capn), his son Jeremy (aka Rightseater) has taken control
of the yoke and has sent in his first review.
He steps back to look at an older Alphasim product Holloman AFB and to remember
his time spent at that base. "Over the last half century Holloman has
been host to a number of support operations for a variety of aircraft, including
the F-84, F-100, QF-106, B-57, F-4C/D/F, F-15A/B, and the HH-60G among others.
But perhaps the most notable aircraft to be stationed here is the F-117A Nighthawk.
This mission will cease in 2008, however, to make way for Holloman’s
newest addition – two squadrons of the F-22 “Raptor”."
Jeremy goes into great detail reflecting on how he remmebers Holloman AFB
and how Alphasim has recreated it. "AlphaSim has got the Main ramp right,
and though I might end up adding a few scenery objects to fit my taste, I
am more than pleased with the improvements. AlphaSim has remedied the West
ramp problem by adding these hangars, which are positioned correctly facing
east and west. Some of the hangars, the open ones of course, have an AI F-117
in them that will taxi out, takeoff, and return. The Nighthawks are also
detailed quite well for AI aircraft, and add a much needed sense of authenticity
to this base. By default, the North ramp is pretty much wide open, and it
is with this add-on as well." "AlphaSim helped the BEAR Base area
out quite a bit by adding some more accurate buildings on the east side,
and though they missed the small
building to the south, they have really improved this area a lot by removing
the two story buildings that were there before. Put a few fuel trucks behind
them, add some other support vehicles, and this place would liven up a lot.
Otherwise, AlphaSim has done a great job here." "AlphaSim has done
a great job of recreating the German Air Force hangars, which are located
just east of the main ramp (some call it part of the main
ramp, which it might be). In fact, they have included all 12 of the hangars
on the ramp positioned just how they are supposed to be. The hangars are
all detailed fairly well, each with a tan color similar to the hangars on
the west ramp, though in reality they too are brown, but no big deal. They
are spaced appropriately, and as a nice surprise to me some of the hangar
doors are open and some are closed. Without this add-on the GAF is simply
non-existent."
Departing Alphasim's Holloman AFB, Jeremy comments, "I had a great
time reliving memories of Holloman Air Force Base, and I had an equally enjoyable
time exploring AlphaSim’s version of this historical facility. AlphaSim
has pretty much got it right, and have, without exception, created a far
superior Holloman than you will find in the default scenery. If Holloman
is your FS9 destination, than I would advise making a layover at AlphaSim
first."
Lanzarote
X (June 12, 2008)
Staff reviewer
David Rogers flies to a resort island that he is all too familiar with, Lanzarote
as presented by Fly Wonderful Islands. "The island of Lanzarote is part
of the Canary Islands (Islas Canarias in Spanish), an archipelago of islands
located off the North West African coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Lanzarote is
an elongated shaped island, the most Northerly of the major islands. It has
a reputation for being the windiest of the Canary Islands, with year round
sunshine. It is popular with surfers and water sports fans, as well as more
traditional holiday makers." "Lanzarote in the default FSX
world is certainly not the worst scenery area in the sim, but it is rather
bland and ‘samey’. While there
is a lot of nice sand in Lanzarote, FSX has not considered that this is a
volcanic island. It is not simply a slice of the Sahara that has drifted
off the west African coast, as FSX would have you think." "The
improvements that Lanzarote X brings are visible from the second you load
your flight. The town of Arrecife, just North-East of the Airport,
is now rendered in far more detail compared to the default FSX version. It
is clear that new Landclass detail is included and I also immediately noticed
that the coastline has been corrected. It is now representing a far more
accurate depiction of the island’s east coast. As I navigate North
West from Arrecife, I see more of the wonderful new ground textures in the
undeveloped regions of the island – the sand is now speckled with patches
of blank volcanic rock. The effect is extremely realistic and very close
to what you see in the real world when taking a Southerly visual approach
over the island, then turn and land on Runway 03."
In summation of Lanzarote X, David comments, "Lanzarote X puts the
virtual pilot into an area that is large enough to explore, but small enough
to enjoy in a 30 minute flight sim ‘window’. For the VFR GA pilot,
the scenery is heavenly. It is realistic, looks just like the real thing,
and performs superbly in FSX. As you set off from your home airport, you
have the knowledge that your approach and landing into Arrecife Airport is
going to be a real visual treat."
Lord Howe Island
X (June 7, 2008)
Staff reviewer Etienne Martin
flies way off the beaten track with his look at Aerosoft's Lord Howe Island
X. "This special subtropical destination
preserves some 565 square miles (1,476 square km) of unique coral reef, volcanic
geology, rainforest fauna and 32 species of birds. The main island itself is
only 11km long and 3 km at its widest point, and sports a lagoon 6km long." "Lord
Howe Island is majestic and the virtual re-creation is equally impressive.
Arriving at the site is reminiscent of an adventure movie scene,
especially on a hazy day where the island just appears from the middle of
nowhere. The scenery uses photoreal textures, which are very effective for
the sea and vegetation from a distance. The airport and immediate surrounding
area are rather detailed, yet the attention to detail can be sporadic outside
of a few areas (jetty, some houses, animated birds in the north east). Overall,
it makes for a good atmosphere. The FSX AI had aircraft flying in and out
of the scenery, including Dash-8s. My add-on AI aircraft package had no problems
creating traffic to/from the Island." "Lord Howe Island is a unique
product", comments Etienne about
this scenery add-on, "little can describe the approach to the island
the first time as it comes into view. The product feels right out of a movie
set, reminiscent of the helicopter approach to the island in the movie “Jurassic
Park”. The airport is a great place to practice touch and go’s
or even launch a seaplane tour with hard to beat visuals. Lord Howe Island
screams to become the perfect demo to neighbors and friends."
Ground
Environment X - USA/Canada and Ultimate Terrain X - Europe/USA/Canada (May
17, 2008)
Staff reviewer
Angelique van Campen takes on a huge challenge as she looks at Flight 1's Ground
Environment X - USA/Canada and Ultimate Terrain X - Europe/USA/Canada
and layers them separately and in combination with each other on top of the
default FSX environment.
"The main features of Ground Environment X - USA & Canada
editions are:
- Complete coverage of the United States of America and Canada,
- 1m/pixel, 1024 x 1024 Texture Size - Hand Crafted To eXtreme Detail,
- High Performance, eXtreme Density and Perfectly Aligned Autogen,
- Realistic Custom Designed Accompanying Night Textures,
- All Seasons,
- Fine tuning add-ons and ongoing updates and enhancements will be made
available through the built-in update feature, based on customer feedback."
"Ultimate Terrain
X - Europe/USA/Canada changes and modifies:
- All the roads; every available road from the chosen commercial navigation
data set, with each road accurately placed to match its real-world location,
- Enhanced railroads; greatly enhanced railroads, including rail-yards,
- Spectacular night lighting; a new night lighting environment unlike anything
else on the market. It adds actual 3D points of light to simulate street
lights and automobiles (a functionality seen only in professional flight
simulators, until now),
- Detailed oceanic coastlines; plus islands, lakes, rivers and streams. No
more roads over water,
- Accurate landclass; better representation of metropolitan areas,
- Detailed land polygons; parks, golf courses, and cemeteries are much
better represented. Their boundaries will align with the road boundaries,
just like
you see them on high quality mapping services and GPS units."
Angelique's review of these products goes into great details of how they
will affect your flying environment, how to gt the most from these products
and tips and hints about their installation with help from the product developers
themselves. It's not just a matter of purchasing all of these environmental
add-ons and start loading them in in any order you choose. It is a long read,
but highly recommended should you either own these products or are considering
adding them to your FSX software collection.
Angelique wraps up her
look at Flight 1's Ground Environment X - USA/Canada and Ultimate Terrain
X - Europe/USA/Canada with, "My general impression
about these products and their interaction gives a huge and impressive
impact on the default FSX ground textures, landclass modifications and
water textures.
UTX and GEX work perfectly together, and apart of a view minor items they
give us flight simmers a highly realistic VFR and IFR flight environment.
These products altogether change the way how FSX looks, the change of the
ground textures/scenery is really great."
German Airfields
3: Lower Saxony (May 12, 2008)
Senior staff reviewer David
Wilson-Okamura continues looking at European scenery series with Aerosoft's
German Airfields 3 - Lower Saxony. "German Airfields
products (there will eventually be twelve of them) features about fifteen local
and regional airports, plus their immediate environs." "In this package
there are fifteen airfields. The smaller airfields don’t usually have
passenger terminals, but they are all detailed and all different. There are
parked aircraft, parked cars, and parking lots.
There are lamp posts, control towers (in some places), windsock carts, lots
of gliders, glider cases, and signals squares (although the signals don’t
get updated). Most of the airfields seem to some sort of eatery or outdoor
café, and several have flight schools or repair hangars. Few of the
fields, except Brunswick, have ILS facilities, or even PAPI and VASI lights.
For on-site buildings, there is night lighting provided, but often not for
runways, many of which are grass anyway; it depends on whether the real airfield
is used at night, and many small ones are not." "All of the airports
have parking spaces (which hasn’t always
been the case with these products), but so far as I noticed, none of the
hangars could be parked in. Outside of the airfields proper, for about 2
km in every direction, there are also VFR landmarks such as would be marked
on a real-world chart. For the full effect, Aerosoft recommends that you
also get VFR Germany 1 and 2, which will fill all the intervening spaces
between airfields with glorious aerial photography and custom-placed autogen." "All
of the airports are built on top of aerial photographs, which have then been
overlaid with matching runways, taxiways, and aprons. To my
eye, the effect is seamless. What’s more, all of the tiles have matching
autogen: that’s unusual with photoscenery, because all of the placement
usually has to be done by hand. Another feature worth noting is seasons.
Most photoscenery (including VFR Germany) has only one season, spring or
summer, because more seasons would consume too much disk space. In this case,
however, the total coverage area is small enough that a second season, winter,
can be included without breaking the disk bank. The result: airfields blend
in with the surrounding default ground textures even in winter."
David says of German Airfields 3, "The question that I think many readers
will be asking is, “Should I bother with it if I don’t live in
Lower Saxony?” I’ve never set foot there (yet), but I’ve
had a wonderful time flying there. With fifteen detailed airfields, there’s
a lot of variety. It’s also possible, at GA speeds, to make longer
flights, but often we don’t have time for a long flight, and for occasions
like that, this type of package is ideal."
Sydney Professional (May
6, 2008)
Staff reviewer Laurie Aston
leaves Europe to head half way round the world to explore Commercial Level
Simulations' Sydney (YSSY) Professional. "The
airport's first runways were built in 1933. By the 1960s the need for a new
international terminal had become apparent, and work commenced in late 1966.
In the 1970s, the north-south runway was expanded to become one of the longest
runways in the southern hemisphere. The international terminal was expanded
in 1992 and has undergone several refurbishments since then." "The
Sydney YSSY scenery that is included in the default program is acceptable,
but adding “Sydney Professional” makes a world of
a difference. The terminal buildings are all in the right place, and are
well placed. The taxi-ways are well defined and traffic within the airport
is evident. Aircraft come and go and they are parked nicely in the right
terminals and at the gates as well. The runways are detailed, all the runway
crossing points are in evidence with marker boards just the way they should
be, and the lighting is great."
Laurie comments, "CLS Sydney has a lot going for it, and I wish Aaron
Clark all the success in continuing to improve Sydney YSSY, as a lot of his
work does reflect a real difference from the default scenery. CLS Sydney
is pretty good, but not nearly as good as it could be. However, the service
pack will make it better."
AUBlue - South Australia (April
19, 2008)
Staff reviewer
Chris Balmer flies "down under" and looks at Orbx
Simulations System's AU Blue - South Australia. "Orbx is building on the
advanced scenery and texture techniques pioneered with the Vista Australis
(VOZ) project first launched in December 2005." "The
scenery has the following description provided by the developers: “ Full
Terrain Experience introduces a radical new modular design with a level
of visual fidelity unprecedented in Microsoft Flight Simulator since its introduction
over twenty years ago. For the first time ever it is a pleasure to fly
low
and slow and take in the depth of features that our ground terrain textures
provide.”"
"Keep
down low and the scenery comes to life without destroying your simming
session and reducing it to a PowerPoint presentation in terms of
frame rates. Flying low and slow will really allow you to see the improvements
over the default FSX textures, and the added levels of detail that have
been put into this scenery. The roads, houses, and general buildings have
all
been blended into the scenery extremely well. Climb up to a few thousand
feet, and you will start to see the “photographic” elements
of the scenery. The vistas can be breathtaking in Australia, and they are
here
for you to see with some lovely detail."
"This is what scenery add-ons should be all about!" comments Chris
about AU Blue - South Australia. "The area of coverage is pretty vast,
and is only 1 of 4 elements of the Australian continent. Having all 4 would
be simply awesome! This will be a popular add-on for many people from all
over the world."
Lukla X (April 16, 2008)
Staff reviewer
Jon Murchison takes Aerosoft's Twin Otter X for some approaches and landings
in Aerosoft's Lukla X scenery pack. "Lukla’s runway can only be
approached from one direction due to it being snuggled up to a rather large
mountain, is on a precarious 19O angle and has a 2000 foot drop at the end.
So access is restricted to either Helicopter or STOL aircraft, which leads
me nicely into the aircraft known as the DHC-6 Twin Otter." About the
Twin Otter, Jon starts on the outside. "My initial impressions upon seeing
the Twin Otter was, Aerosoft had developed a classy model. The download and
boxed editions come with five versions that include the DHC-6-100 with wheels
and another with skis, and feature 4 liveries depicting various military, private
and airline operators. The DHC-6-300 also comes with a wheels model, one with
floats for water operations, another with a skis/wheels combination and then
11 liveries across these 3 types, like the 100, these also cover a diverse
range of operators." "Two panel types are provided as standard equipment
but these are only in VC view, no 2D panel is included. The panel itself is
well laid out. All the standard gauges are placed in front of you and given
this
aircraft was developed in the 60’s, all the gauges have that weathered
well used look about them. Both pilots have a ‘steering wheel’ which
is connected between both pilots using a Y shaped bracket that disappears into
the floor in the middle of the cockpit. Most of the switches on the panel work
but not all, given the level of detail included in the model it would have been
cool if they all did. The interior lighting is excellent, bringing atmospheric
across the panel and throughout the rear cabin." "On the taxi, I found
the Twotter to be very nimble, the throttles only needed to be open slightly
to get her moving and the effective brakes were used repeatedly until I got a
feel for her. Once lined up and I opened the throttles I was away as the Otter
really loves to fly. I did like the ability to slow my descent and approach considerably
using reverse thrust in flight, which is the first time I have actually come
across this in FSX. The Floatplane version of the Otter is a real bugger to taxi,
you either have to control it much like you would a sail boat and use the wings
to help move you into position, or, if you have a flight yoke, use separate power
inputs into the engines to help assist making turns." Moving on to Lukla, "LuklaX
is not just an airport scenery, nor is it improved mesh or photoreal scenery.
The sum of all these parts makes up LuklaX as a whole, creating a transformation
across the region with
particular emphasis on Lukla Airport and Mt Everest." "The foundation
of this package is its mesh and landclass. The area covered by these is a large
rectangle that starts just south of Phablu in the lower left corner and extends
to finish just north and east of Mt Everest. The Photoreal areas are small and
limited to Lukla Village and Mt Everest itself, with the textures used being
around 5m/pixel (5 meters equals 1 pixel). This certainly enhances both these
areas, with Mt Everest looking particularly impressive." "The terminal
facilities sit at the far end of the ramp area with various scenery items such
as freight, people and another aircraft sitting on the ramp with you, all adding
atmosphere and detail. The control tower is located on the other side of the
runway as is the rest of Lukla village that lines the walking track that heads
further up the mountains. All the buildings use what appear to be photo textures
and provide suitable enough detail. The village, and in fact all buildings throughout
the scenery, use purpose built autogen with textures more fitting the construction
types for the region." Concluding this indepth look at Aerosoft's Lukla
X and Twin Otter X Jon says, "Singularly, both packages bring enough to
FSX to make them worthwhile, but put them together and you have something quite
unique. There is no doubt LuklaX adds a level of detail to the region it covers
that leaves the default FSX scenery in its dust. Flying in and out of Lukla brings
with it enough challenge to make this a region you are likely to want to fly
around in for some time. The DHC-6-100/300 Twin Otter is the best twin engine
prop I have flown to date. Aerosoft has captured the aircraft's shape well, packed
it full of details and wrapped it in flight models that seem to be very realistic.
The quality on all aspects of the visual model show a real dedication to this
aircraft. The fact different interiors and types, such as floats and skis, have
been included adds real value to the product. I can certainly recommend both
packages, the Otter in particular, if you are looking for a highly functional
and realistic Twin prop."
VFR Real Scenery:
Vol 3 & Vol 4 (April 7, 2008)
Senior staff reviewer David
Wilson-Okamura goes on a scenic tour of England with Just Flight's VFR Real
Scenery: Vol 3 & Vol 4. "These last two
volumes of the series covers Wales and Southwest England and Northern England
respectively." "For photographic ground scenery, the main determinant
of image quality is the photo source. For VFR Real Scenery, the photo source
is identified
as GeoPerspectives, a commercial supplier of aerial photography for all of
England and Wales. The photos have a resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel;
which is to say, that the smallest object you can see in the source photographs
is about one foot. After processing by Just Flight, this resolution is reduced
to 1 meter per pixel; which is to say, that the smallest object you can see
in the finished scenery is about one yard. This is a massive improvement
over what was possible in the previous version of the sim."
David comments on VFR Scenery Vol 3 and Vol 4, "like nearly all similar
products, VFR Real Scenery has only one season, spring; again, that is standard.
At night, lighting will be visible on major roads and in towns; this is a
common feature for this type of add-on, but not quite standard, and I am
glad we have it here. Unless the product includes autogen, which this one
doesn’t, photo-sceneries tend to have better frame rates than other
types of scenery, because there’s less for the rendering engine to
calculate. Expect, then, to get better frame rates than you would have had
for the same area in the default sim. Bottom line: this product will perform
about as well as other products in its class (i.e., photo-sceneries with
no autogen)."
RAF Alconbury (March
24, 2008)
Senior staff reviewer Gene
Davis takes a look at 2 historic aircraft and an historic airfield. The aircraft
are Alphasim's F86 Sabre and Flight 1's MiG
15. The airfield, RAF Alconbury from Alphasim."The Alphasim F-86F offers
both a working FSX and FS9 model that does include some pretty nice features,
but I think you will find the FSX model
more to your liking, at least I did. With all of the new features in FSX,
this aircraft model takes full advantage of the FSX engine. Features like
self shadowing, bump mapping and bloom are fully featured. The exterior model
of the F-86F is masterfully done. Every conceivable part that can be seen
visually from outside the aircraft moves in a realistic manner; items such
as landing gear, flaps and the air brakes." "Visually, the cockpit
of the F-86 from Alphasim is one of the best I have seen from them, but again
functionality is somewhat limited in the
virtual cockpit mode. The gauges have a glazed over look that make them stand
out more and frankly make them look more realistic and 3 dimensional. If
you have used or just looked at Alphasim products of late, you will know
what I am talking about." "First off, I chose RAF Alconbury as
my original base of operation for the F-86, but decided after using it that
it had too much of a frame
rate impact on my flights in FSX with the F86. The base itself has a nice
layout and all of the objects are custom designed to match that of their
real world counterparts. Included in this package is a nice set of flying
AI aircraft, the C130E, F-4C Phantom, and the U2-R are the ones you will
see flying in and out of the base as well as parked at the many different
hangers. There are also several static aircraft, the C-5 Galaxy and the F-5E
Tiger as well as many static vehicles parked throughout the scenery for your
viewing pleasure." "This product will work with either FS9 or FSX.
This is a great base to have if you are flying any of the older military
jets in FS9. Personally,
I think that RAF Alconbury blends in better with the surrounding scenery
in FS9, as the FSX versions looks out of place. This is not the product's
fault as it is more of FSX’s fault with the texture colors surrounding
the airports." "I spent quite a bit of time with the MIG in FS9
and FSX and found that the aircraft performed best in the world it was created
for, FS9. This
didn’t come as much of a surprise. Climbing into any one of the 53
different MIG's you can’t help but think how crazy some of these guys
must have been; you're essentially riding a rocket with guns attached to
it." "The Flight 1 Mig-15 is a magnificent aircraft; it features
an array of moving parts and extra eye candy. Most impressive is the ability
to take
the aircraft apart and view the jet engine. The cockpit is 100% authentic
and is fully functional, either from the 2D panel or the virtual cockpit.
I was amazed that the aircraft was completely flyable from the virtual cockpit
as everything is accessible, and if you turn on the cockpit tags within MSFS
you won’t have to learn how to translate Russian."
In his review, Gene adds a conclusive paragraph for each of these 3 products.
Briefly: "The F-86F is one of the best add-ons I have seen yet from
Alphasim and if you don’t have it, get it. RAF Alconbury is good and
it represents an airfield that is rich in history and you have to take into
account that this add-on was built from the ground up. The Mig-15 is really
an oldie, but it is truly a goody! Made for FS9, this wonderful aircraft
will definitely challenge even the most accomplished sim pilot. With accurate
system modeling and flight management from within the cockpit you can’t
go wrong."
French Riviera
and Cote d'Azur (March 20, 2008)
Staff reviewer Angelique
van Campen continues her adventures in Europe with a flight along the French
Riviera and Cote d'Azur as presented by FranceVFR. "Apart
of the great villages, white beaches, wine, beer, excellent French cuisine,
boats, extraordinary cars like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and many more,
this piece of Franc is famous for the Film Festival of Cannes; and what about
Monaco and Monte-Carlo?"
Angelique goes into depth about this multi-faceted scenery offering. She
takes you on several flights throughout the region and has fun navigation
her way through the scenery at low level via IFR (I follow roads). As usual,
her screenshots tell a lot of the story. Angelique goes on to describe the "JetSet" package
that is also offered by FranceVFR as an add-on to the Base Pack and Autogen
Package.
Wrapping up her "Excursion Francais", she comments about FranceVFR's
French Riviera and Cote d'Azur, "you need the base pack as a minimum.
This can be extended with either the AutogenPack and/or the JetSet pack.
The JetSet creates more special buildings or landmarks or interesting places
including detailed airport buildings like at LFMN (Nice) but also smaller
ones like LFMD (Cannes/Mandelieu). According to the France VFR website, you
can – if you want to use only the JetSet package – also buy the
standalone BasePack with the JetSet and forget the Autogen Pack. Flying this
wonderful scenery is fun and it even becomes more fun when you fly cross-country
VFR flights. It's a high quality product where navigation can be done with
an official ICAO chart, but also with Michelin auto route charts.
Indianapolis X (March
9, 2008)
Staff reviewer Etienne Martin looks at DreamScenery's Indianapolis
X. "Indianapolis
International Airport (KIND) opened in September 1931, and received its current
name in 1975 after being called Weir-Cook airport in 1944. It now occupies
some 7,700 acres located 8 miles south-west of downtown. According to the operator,
the Indianapolis Airport Authority, KIND saw over 8 million passengers last
year and 1.15 million tons of cargo." "DreamScenery depicts the airport
with the new midfield terminal still under construction (the facility is scheduled
to open in October 2008). The
scenery comes complete with cranes, unfinished buildings and structures,
and even a picnic table under a tent. At first glance, everything around
the airport points to a high amount of detail and many small objects that
add to an immersive ambiance." "DreamScenery adds an interesting
twist to the rendering of ice in the virtual winter, using optional polygons
in winter time. The effect is
quite pleasing as it allows ice and snow to make it across the taxiways in
irregular lines – much more realistic and a good idea. Moving towards
downtown, we find that autogen fills the 8 miles between the airport and
downtown and does a good job filling the gap. The quality of the 3D modeling
is good to excellent."
Etienne's screenshot intensive review of Indianapolis X concludes with, "it
provides a high fidelity rendition of the Indianapolis International Airport
and adds many of the buildings and landmarks found in Indianapolis and vicinity.
The package’s ability to tune details through its configuration utility
will certainly help mitigate the frame rate hit that is sure to come. Seldom
has so much detail made it into a scenery add-on at this scale."
Europe & Asia
Landclass (March 2, 2008)
Staff reviewer Etienne Martin reforms Europe and Asia with Scenery
Tech's Landclass software. "Scenery Tech’s Europe and Asia Landclass products provide
accurate terrain mapping data for large areas of the world." "The
Scenery Tech landclass visibly increases both the variety and resolution of
the terrain type across the areas covered. The effect is drastic
in areas of the world neglected by FSX where pervasive desert textures make
the visuals rather bland and uninteresting. I also found the Scenery Tech
data refines the transitions by utilizing more classes on the Olson scale,
in particular for population areas. This makes urban areas from small villages
to large cities magically appear in the terrain, while providing a gradual
transition from rural to urban types. The new textures and texture map file
impacts mountains and rocky areas significantly. It adds “more rock” to
mountains, and second, it eliminates some of the zigzag effects on sloped
surfaces." "Because the additional landclass data must be loaded
and processed, one can expect an additional burden on the scenery engine,
primarily in load
times. This said, I did not notice any frame rate impact on my system outside
of a slightly increased load time. It should be noted that landclass data
increases the variety of textures loaded, which increases the number of textures
cached in memory for a given region."
This screenshot intense review of Scenery Tech's Europe & Asia Landclass
is one that has to be seen more than read. "In the narrow confine of
terrain classification, Scenery Tech’s landclass does the job well
and fills major gaps in the default landclass data. For these reasons, Scenery
Tech’s landclass deserves a good look if you’re looking at improving
scenery in FSX."
Zurich X (February
25, 2008)
Staff reviewer Jon Murchison
heads off to Switzerland to review FSDreamteam's Zurich X. "(Flughafen) Zürich, also known as Kloten airport (IATA:
ZRH, ICAO: LSZH) is an airport on the move, selected as Europe’s leading
airport for the fourth year in a row (World Travel Awards) and with increasing
passenger numbers (20.7 Million in 2007) Zürich has become one of the
key European hubs." "Zürich Airport is split into 6 main areas.
I was immediately struck by how compact the airport is, a lot is located in
a smallish area.
One of the first things that comes to mind is ‘modern’. There
is nothing 1940’s about this airport. Extensive use of glass in the
main hall and midfield terminal mean this airport is very open, allowing
the dramatic views of the alps in the distance to be a key feature for visitors,
and this scenery is no different." "I’ll say from the outset
that this is a true FSX scenery package, no tweaking the FS9 version to make
it work in FSX here. Every building features
reflective bump mapped textures of a very high quality, and what really impressed
me was the extensive use of transparent materials for glass. The external
models for all buildings and facilities have been done to a very high level
of detail; this is particularly evident in the main building frontage and
the midfield dock, mainly because of the detail that has been built into
these." "One of the challenges in doing reviews of airports, when
you have never visited or don’t live close by, is how do you actually
know what’s
real and what isn’t? It’s easy to say the main building ‘looks
realistic’, but how does one say that with any credibility? In this
case, I had the advantage of webcams located at Zürich which I was able
to access through the official airport website (ZURICH Airport). Overall,
I think FSDreamteam have developed a very realistic simulation of the real
world equivalent, and have done so in a way that won’t bring your PC
to its knees." "Zürich is quite literally alive with animation.
Whether it's the distinctive red airport buses moving throughout the airport
grounds,
security cars, vans or tugs, the activity levels right across the airport
is extreme. Being an area of the world that experiences truly freezing winters,
you also have the opportunity to interact with de-icing crews prior to departure."
Concluding his tour of Zurich X, Jon closes with, "Overall, I was very
impressed with ZürichX. FSDreamteam have bought together all the elements
and produced a scenery that is realistic, alive with animation, and allows
FSX users to enjoy the enhancements the latest version of our favorite sim
offers. ZürichX caters to machines of varying performance in terms of
the ability to not only adjust scenery settings in-sim, but also adjust the
config file settings with regards to autogen etc, through the Add-on Manager.
If you are a regular flyer through Europe, this is a must have add-on to
enhance your Switzerland stop-over’s."
Venice X (February
18, 2008)
Staff reviewer Allen Lavigne
heads across the pond to review Aerosoft's VeniceX. "Did
you know that Venice was built on 117 small islands, many of which are artificial?
Being a walking and boating city, there is scant room for cars and even the public
transit uses water buses." "There are two custom airports included
in this package: Teressa (LIPZ) is the main local airport, and San Nicolo (LIPV),
a small island airport south
of the city. It is suggested to approach Teressa via the Alps which are a visual
treat in themselves, then to hop over to San Nicolo using your general aviation
favorite." " LIPZ is a package in itself with local terrain made
from satellite imagery, this nice airport makes for a fine destination. LIPV
is a smaller
airport and has a tower, so you may want to follow procedures for a visual
approach according to the supplied charts. The runway is grass and makes for
a rough landing and bumpy when taxiing, but it is worth visiting."
Concluding his tour of VeniceX, Allen closes with, "This must be one
of the more impressive packages I’ve reviewed lately. Covering the entire
island areas of Venice, this was indeed a lot of work on the part of Aerosoft.
The main airport is practical and makes for an interesting destination when
flying around the European continent. This is indeed a work of art, as is the
real Venice."
MegaSceneryX Las Vegas (February 12, 2008)
Staff reviewer Angelique
van Campen buzzes the Strip and the outskirts of town in MegaScenery X Las Vegas. "MegaSceneryX
does not add custom 3D buildings but instead adds photo scenery around the buildings.
A great, impressive looking ultra realistic scenery of the surrounding area and
of course all the highways, local roads, parks – as far as possible in
this desert area – mountains, mountains and more mountains." "Even
though the covered area is limited, there’s still enough
to see. 2100 square miles of Las Vegas and surrounding area (approx 45 x 45
miles) created from 1 foot per pixel aerial photos and displayed at 1.19 meters
per pixel and includes 10 meter high resolution terrain mesh. Megascenery X
provides as realistic a scenery display of the area as is possible by today’s
standards. It includes an equally realistic night, dusk and dawn flying experience."
Angelique takes you on a descriptive day and dusk VFR tour of the area covered
in this add-on. Summarizing her review she says, "My overall impression
is that it is awesome. The only thing you have to keep in mind is the fact
that it doesn't cover a large area but a relatively small area of Nevada. The
name says “Las Vegas” and nothing more, so in other words; you
shouldn't expect anything else."
FSGlobal X
2008 (February 1, 2008)
Staff reviewer Etienne
Martin covers the world with Flight 1's FSGlobal X 2008. "FS Global 2008
delivers a completely new flight experience in the virtual skies by adding a
massive topographic database to the default scenery in Flight Simulator. The
package contains four DVD's, a double-sided pair for the FS9 version, and a pair
for FSX. FS Global 2008 is all about enhancing the simulator’s visuals
and bringing the terrain to life."
Since this program enhances your scenery files, the majority of the review
is explained through screenshots and commentary. Etienne says, "FS Global
brings an incredible level of detail to the entire world except for the Arctic
and Antarctic, and this should entice anyone to fly outside the high detail
areas included in the default scenery. I found myself leaving my high altitude
heavies in the hangar in favor of the down low, down slow exploration. This
is definitely a product that once installed will not likely be removed."
German Airfields 1 - Island Hopping
(January 22, 2008)
Senior staff reviewer
Bert Pieke heads back to a place of his childhood as he looks at Aerosoft's German
Airfields 1 - Island Hopping. "Because these airfields are situated on a
string of narrow islands off the northwest coast of Germany, Aerosoft made the
fortunate decision to not just package up the airfields, but also the islands." "Immediately
obvious is the great detail with which this scenery is crafted. All the airport
buildings are custom designed and additionally, there are cars
and people to complement the airfield. The custom objects, houses, trees etc
are so well done and so carefully placed, that it is a real pleasure to look
around and admire the scenery. As you fly from island to island, you notice
that there is no simple repetition of scenery from place to place, but that
each airfield is custom designed with taxiway textures, runway lights, and
buildings etc, to match the actual location."
This quick tour of German Airfields 1 is summed up with, "This is a truly
enjoyable scenery package. I was expecting an impressive product and was not
disappointed. The area looks exactly the way I would expect these islands to
look; wind blown and rugged, perfect for some peaceful time away from the big
city. The authors have produced another winner in my books!"
San Juan, Peurto Rico (TJSJ)
(January 12, 2008)
Staff reviewer Juan
Llobera takes us to a different part of the USA, San Juan, Puerto Rico (TJSJ)
as presented by Imaginesim. "The San Juan, Puerto Rico Airport's real name
is actually Luis Muñoz Marin, and it's the biggest and busiest airport
in Puerto Rico." "After comparing both the airport diagram and
the scenery, I couldn't notice many differences. It seems that every taxiway
has been reproduced. The
runway textures look just great. Lots of skid marks have been added and that's
exactly what you would expect to see at an airport that is operated mainly
by heavies." "Terminals have been modeled to the latest detail. They
look really good and near every gate you will see some trucks ( cargo and catering
), GPU’s
and luggage carts which really gives you the idea of a real airport. Also I’ve
noticed that near the terminal buildings dozens of ground personnel were added
to the scenery. At certain gates you’ll have the option of using the
operating jetways." "One of the best things about this scenery (
and maybe about every ImagineSim product ) are the night textures. The guys
at ImaginSim have achieved a level
of realism that, in my opinion, is just amazing. The airport is fully illuminated
with some smooth lights in order to help ground personnel during nighttime.
3D taxiway and runway lights are also included in the scenery."
Wrapping up this jaunt south, Juan says, "San Juan (TJSJ) has been modeled
to the latest detail, it has nice textures and awesome night lightning. Plus,
it's the perfect scenery if you are the kind of simmer that enjoys the sunny
destinations of the Caribbean area."
Dortmund
(January 12, 2008)
Staff reviewer Robert
Mariani gets back into the aerial cockpit and heads to Germany for a look at
Aerosoft's Dortmund Airport. "The scenery of Dortmund Airport includes only
the airport and the immediate vicinity, but is compatible with other Aerosoft
add-ons such as Scenery Germany 3 and World Cup Stadiums." "The
scenery of the airport itself is very detailed and includes photorealistic ground
textures and numerous custom buildings at the airport as well. In addition,
the airport comes with the option to install static aircraft. At the aircraft
parking positions 0-4 there is an AGNIS docking system which worked well on
a couple of freeware Airbuses and 737’s I experimented with." "The
textures that come with the airport are just amazing. There is a mixture of
several textures of grass and dirt, and the runway surroundings
appear very realistic. The buildings are done well, but the inside of the terminal
is non-existent. The buildings all have custom textures and just like the ground,
and they are done extremely well. The runway at EDLW is fairly short at 2000m,
but long enough to accommodate your typical A319 or 737. Runway textures are
also custom made and really well done, and so are the approach lights and satellite
buildings surrounding the field." "In the performance department,
this scenery is a winner all the way. Even with all the dynamic add-on scenery
turned up, and autogen at very dense,
I had little or no frame rate impact while flying or driving around Dortmund.
If you live in Germany or have any sort of tie to the airport (EDLW), you ought
to go get it. You should also get it if you plan to fly there often, and on
approach while watching the moving cars, it is really immersive."
Mega Airport London Heathrow X
(January 9, 2008)
Staff reviewer Jon Murchison combines 2 legends of aviation in
this double review. The 747-400 X from PMDG and Mega Airport London Heathrow
X from Aerosoft/Simwings. "Neither
the 747-400 nor London Heathrow is new to flightsim. PMDG ‘talk’ about
their original intentions to ‘patch’ the 747-400 for FSX and how
the project they expected to take a few weeks took 18 months. Aerosoft had already
released Mega Airport London Heathrow for FS2004; the question was what would
they do for FSX?"
About the 747-400, Jon says, "Everything about this model is highly detailed,
and I was unable to observe anything that was out of place. Clearly the attention
to detail achieved in the FS2004 model has been replicated and advanced in
FSX. Systems and panel wise, the 747-400X is no different than the FS2004 version,
at least at face value. One of the enhancements in FSX is additional views
in the VC, and close ups of the FMC, overhead panel and the throttle/comm's
panel. The flight dynamics of the 400X feel great and users who are familiar
with the FS2004 version will notice no difference in FSX. Personally, I found
the aircraft to feel like I imagined a 747 would. It's heavy but at the same
time sprightly, surprisingly so at times."
Landing at London's Heathrow, Jon comments, "The quality of the buildings
and other scenery objects throughout London Heathrow X is excellent. It's clear
a lot of time and effort has been spent researching and then making the various
airport structures, and given some are based on buildings that have yet to
be completed, the final result is very effective and realistic. Simwings have
included FSX effects in some of the buildings. Terminal 5 has the reflective
glass effect, and at the right time of day when you catch the sun just right,
the glory of bloom can be seen across most buildings. The more I explored in
and around the terminals, the more the depth of the detail that has been included
revealed itself, and many times I was struck by the detail that Simwings had
managed to get into the scenery."
There's a lot more detail about these two releases within the review. Summarizing
PMDG's 747-400X and Aerosoft/Simwings' Mega Airport London Heathrow, "I
come away from just over two weeks of flying the PMDG 747-400X in and out of
Mega Airport London Heathrow X, and feel I have experienced two add-ons that
truly start to show what FSX is capable of. The 747 is nothing short of a must
buy in my view; it captures the physical presence of the 747 magnificently
with an external model and VC that is truly second to none, and a sound set
that puts you in the left hand seat and keeps you there. It has all the bells
and whistles for those who enjoy working complex aircraft systems, but is also
easy enough for the average flightsim aviator to access and get flying quickly.
A very clever scenery design means you won't get many fully realized simulations
of a real world airport this size that are much more FPS friendly than this.
The overall quality and attention to detail are certainly highlights of this
scenery, and if you can manage some AI, then its just as much fun spending
a day watching as it is flying."
Vancouver+ for FSX
(December 29, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer Jeff Shyluk stays locked in his hometown as he explores FSAddon's
Vancouver+ for FSX. He adds a new element to this review with a personal interview
with product developer Holger Sandman as both Jeff and Holger were in attendance
at this years Conference and Exhibition in Seattle. "FSAddon is a small
third-party developer with some big ideas. Their latest creation is Vancouver+,
a beautiful re-working of the city of Vancouver,
Canada. This is a fully featured add-on that utilizes LOD11 custom mesh, landclass,
photoreal textures and three-dimensional models. AI aircraft, boats, and land
traffic are included as well. Vancouver+ extends far past the boundaries of
Metro Vancouver, the main population center. Mountains, rivers, fields, and
valleys are rendered in a rectangle 200 by 150 kilometers (124 x 93 miles),
well past Vancouver's boundaries. High altitude lakes are carefully placed
in this region, and they will even freeze over in the winter." "The
scenery includes two popular regional airports in detail, plus literally dozens
more are spruced up as well. The two airports that get the full treatment
are CYPK (Pitt Meadows) and CYNJ (Langley). CYVR, the Vancouver International
Airport, is left untouched by Vancouver+, though. Heliports, floatplane bases,
and unlisted airstrips are sprinkled throughout the region, and are there for
you to discover." "There are hundreds of fine-tuned details in Vancouver+
that makes this add-on especially attractive for sim pilots who like to explore
rugged terrain
in FSX. If you like big-city transport hubs, small regional airstrips, a glacial
lake at the base of a mountain, or a private airstrip with a log cabin as your
base of operations, you will find all this and more in Vancouver+" "The
Vancouver+ add-on is virtually bug-free, and it runs well on Windows XP, Vista,
and in FSX SP1 or SP2. This version of Vancouver+ is for FSX only,
and not FS9. It is compatible with other scenery packages, including the freeware
Victoria+. If Vancouver+ has a downside, it's that it takes up a large amount
of hard drive space, and using it will probably cost you a small amount of
frame rate." "I highly recommend Vancouver+ for FSX to sim aviators,
especially anybody fond of exploration in flight. I have spent hours upon hours
over this virtual
countryside, and there's an incredible wealth of things to see and do in Vancouver+.
Beyond being gorgeous, a lot of effort has been made to make this add-on immersive
and thought provoking. Following the links in the manual and the suggested
pre-saved flights will give any avid user many more hours of discovery and
adventure: you can check out the history, culture, and geography of Vancouver
on-line, and then you can see for yourself what it looks like in Vancouver+.
This is a very high-quality add-on that might just spoil you for flying anywhere
else in the virtual world."
LaGuardia (KGLA)
(December 27, 2007)
New
staff reviewer Etienne Martin submits his first review, ImagineSim's LaGuardia
(KLGA), which has been updated for FSX. "At 680 acres, LaGuardia is the
smallest of the three airports serving the New York City metropolitan area. Its two 7,000’ runways, 4 terminals
and 72 gates serve among others Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier,
JetBlue, US Airways and Air Canada." "The marine terminal, the main
terminal with its four concourses, the US Airways and Delta terminals are depicted
faithfully. Located on a strip
of land between the Grand Central Parkway and the East River, the airport is
void of much greenery. It favors the utility of concrete, heavy fencing, blast
shields and 40s-era hangars mixed in with modern terminal buildings. The ground
textures are particularly well done, especially up close. The ground shows
the appropriate wear and tear expected for a well traveled airport." "LGA
for FSX does not use the animated jetways found in FSX. The scenery only has
a handful of selected gates that have FS9 style animated jetways triggered
only when you enter a special frequency in the nav radio with your aircraft
at the door. Each gate either has a parking system or the “2D” ground
crew, or both. Each responds appropriately to the aircraft position as it nears
the gate and helps guide the pilot to the proper parking position." "While
slower than the default scenery, I didn’t notice a significant
drop in performance. I did notice significantly higher levels of traffic, both
airport and airline in the FSX version compared to similar traffic levels selected
in the FS9 version. As with other large airports, this add-on can lead to very
slow frame rates if the AI traffic is high."
Concluding his tour around LaGuardia, Etienne remarks, "Imagine Sim provides
a faithful rendition of the LaGuardia airport and a significant improvement
over the default scenery. The level of detail is pleasing without a major hit
to performance, although at the cost of simplified building textures and low
outlying detail outside of the airport flight area. The tarmac itself is nicely
done with detailed markings, with static and moving objects."
VFR Germany 1: West
(December 23, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer travels back to Europe to fly Aerosoft's VFR Germany 1: West. "Last
summer I reviewed the last three titles in the Scenery Germany series for FS2004,
I only wish they worked in FSX. So now I'll look at the first FSX installment
of the base layer, VFR Germany 1: West." "The bread and butter of this
package is photographic ground textures, taken from airplanes. With FSX, the
resolution can go up to 30 centimeters
per pixel. With FS2004, photographic ground textures looked blocky up close.
With this product, the coverage area looks much, much better than you’ve
ever seen in Flight Simulator." "As for blurries, they are no better
and no worse than any other photographic scenery product I have ever seen,
owned, or reviewed. If you fly too fast,
the textures will blur; it’s a limitation of Flight Simulator. If you
like flying the Cessna 172, this won’t be a problem. If you primarily
fly jets, this product is probably going to be frustrating, and so will every
other product that uses photographic ground textures." "Photoscenery
is not new for Flight Simulator, although with FSX we are seeing more and more
detail. Ideally, you want a 3D house object to be placed
on top of a 2D house, a 3D tree on top of a 2D tree, and so on. With VFR Germany,
you get this effect for the entire coverage area. This is a big deal. I know
that, with FSX, a lot of people have given up on autogen because turning it
off improves frame rates."
Concluding his latest European tour, David concludes that with VFR Germany1:
West, "you can keep looking at it, for hours even, and notice new things.
You can fly for days, even weeks, and not exhaust everything there is to see."
Arturo Merino Benitez
International Airport (SCEL)
(December 21, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Roger Curtiss goes to South America to review Skymaker's Arturo Merino
Benitez International Airport (SCEL). "SCEL utilizes 2 parallel runways
of 10,500’ length in a north/south configuration (17L/35R and 17R/35L)
with the terminal area located midfield in between them. Runway 17L/35R is certified
for CAT III and ILS IIIA operations." "I started my tour from the southwest
corner of the ramp area where there are 2 open-air parking spots. I proceeded
northbound past the terminal area
and it was obvious that the terminal textures went beyond the standard FS airport
buildings and certainly appeared to represent actual buildings. This impression
was confirmed when I viewed some photos of the actual airport provided to me
by Skymakers and this allowed me to appreciate the attention to detail that
went into the product." "The taxiway lines were “freshly painted” being
quite vivid and clear and the taxiway signs were large and easy to read. But
not every
taxiway was marked with a sign. I passed one of the two fire stations where
a few green trucks sat outside and took a look at a large LAN Chile hangar.
The hangar was open and the airplane could be brought inside but it and others
at the airport were generally of a generic construct and devoid of any interior
appointments." "For the return taxi to the main terminal area I reset
the clock to night hours. The taxiways were beautifully illuminated with green
centerline lights
clearly showing the main and low visibility routes around the airport. But
I did come to some taxiway intersections that did not have signs so it is imperative
to maintain great situational awareness in order to avoid getting lost."
Roger sums up his tour of SCEL with, "while SCEL appears to be a sincere
attempt to depict the Benitez Airport, it falls short in a few areas and offers
few surprises and for those reasons I cannot place it in the same category
as other titles that do offer these amenities. But I believe the Skymakers
crew has room for improvement and enhancement that I hope will be forthcoming
in updates or new offerings."
Tatra Photoscenery for FSX
(December 17, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Jon Murchison goes mountain flying with SimDesign's Tatra Photoscenery
for FSX. "Simdesign offers a pixel resolution of 2.4 m (that means each
pixel equates to roughly to 2.4 meters on the ground), double that available
in the FS2004/2002 version, and digital terrain mesh at 19m’s."
"Textures
for all four seasons and custom night textures are provided with TATRA; this
adds character and depth to the scenery and really shows off
these mountains in all their glory as they change so much depending on the
time of day and year you visit them. I have to say that TATRA highlights
why including all the seasons is such a smart move, and I hold TATRA up as an
example
of exactly why doing them is worth it. But, including them and doing a good
job of it are two different things, and I’m pleased to say Simdesign
have achieved a stunning result with their seasonal and night textures."
"To be totally
honest, initially I was a little skeptical about this package and wondered
why I would get excited about some rocks in Europe. But
TATRA is stunning. The mountains and the surrounding land slowly began to
reveal themselves to me in a way I hadn’t expected as I explored the
seasons and different areas of the region. The quality of the mesh and photo
real
is excellent, good enough in fact to draw me into the scenery and begin to
move
it away from being a simulated environment and into something a little more
special."
Concluding his
exporation of the Tatra mountains Jon says, "TATRA
won me over and does exactly what it says it will, so you do get what you
pay
for. The more I flew and explored, the more I wanted to continue. The attraction
is the mountains, they are not on the way to a destination, they are the
destination.
I whole heartedly recommend this scenery to anyone who enjoys VFR flying,
and has the time and inclination to spend exploring and delving deeply into
a region.
TATRA needs and deserves to be explored to maximize the potential this scenery
offers."
MegaScenery X - Southern California
(December 16, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Angelique van Campen continues her treks around the globe. This time
she explores MegaScenery X - Southern California. "The MegaScenery Team
raises the realism ante again with the first "LARGE AREA" MegaScenery
release - MegaSceneryX: Southern California For Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
At 18,000 square miles (135 nm x 135 nm) this new title for Flight Simulator
X displays scenery at 1.19 meters per pixel - 16 times the resolution of Flight
Simulator 2004." "The covered area contains no more then two large
and famous cities between mountains, mountains and more mountains with some rocks
and small deserts.
Although it depends a little in which direction you want to fly, still what
you see is beautiful. Although this scenery is mainly for VFR flights, you
can still enjoy its beauty during an IFR approach or departure." "First
the offered airports, KLAX and KSAN. They give me a good impression of what
kind of busy airports these are with some details. Remember, MegaSceneryX
is a photorealistic scenery enhancer and not a complete package with many airports.
If you’re not satisfied with the offered airports, you’re always
free to add other airport sceneries." "Focusing on the ground textures,
I see that the higher we go the more realistic and beautiful this area becomes.
This is mainly due to all the added
ground textures and I’m impressed. Entering the mainland via the ocean
gives also a very good idea about the quality of this MegaSceneryX software."
Concluding her LA to San Diego trip with MegaScenery X - Southern California
installed, Angelique comments, "the only thing you have to keep in mind
is the fact that it covers a large, and at the same time, a small area of the
United States. This is an excellent product, extremely highly detailed scenery,
lots of charts, VFR Terminal charts and Sectional Charts. Let’s hope
Northern California will be available soon."
DillinghamX
(November 24, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Angelique van Campen goes on a Hawaiian vacation to check out Aerosoft's
Dillingham X. "Dillingham is located on the north shore of the island of
Oahu near the unincorporated town of Waialua. It is primarily used as a recreation
facility, a base for glider soaring, hang-gliding, parachuting and sky jumping." "The
photo scenery underlying Dillingham is sampled at 60cm/pixel. To get the most
out of it, set your Texture Resolution in the sim to 60 cm. Setting
your road traffic to 15% or so mimics the amount of traffic the road to Dillingham
gets on an average day. The 3D objects in the scenery are activated in two
stages of complexity. At "normal", you see the buildings, some cars,
and a few humans. “Dense" shows the rest." "Although it
is a local glider airfield which, under certain conditions is also used by
the US Air Force, it is full of details ranging from static
airplanes, gliders, buildings, trees, bushes, lost history parts and so on.
So how does DillinghamX look compared to the default FSX scenery? Amazing when
looking at the default FSX pictures. I'd think seriously about adding this
to MegaSceneryX Hawaii (if you have it). It makes it all complete!"
Angelique sums up her visit to DillinghamX with, "When comparing the
default FSX Dillingham airfield with Aerosoft’s DillinghamX scenery,
we can only conclude that it is a worthy product. Although it is a very small,
simple airfield without any jetways, passenger busses and carts driving around
etc, it looks very realistic, with lots of details, nice looking trees and
bushes and perfect looking cars."
North America Landclass v1.3
(November 22, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer goes hog wild over Springfield in his review of Scenery Tech's
North America Landclass v1.3. "SceneryTech is a new developer of scenery
add-ons for FSX. Previously, SceneryTech published a landclass that covers Europe,
so this new product hopes to build on that success." "The SceneryTech
North America Landclass is a data file for FSX that re-arranges the landclass,
which is an information table that FSX uses to decide
which land texture goes where, like a big jigsaw puzzle. It doesn't actually
add any new textures to FSX, but it does arrange them in such a way as to look
more logical and realistic from the air. It's simple to install, and integrates
completely into FSX, so once it's there, you won't have to worry about it." "The
effect the SceneryTech North America Landclass has on FSX is dramatic. Farms,
forests, cities, towns, ice fields, tundra, and even deserts look more
realistic. Many small towns and even some cities that were omitted in FSX are
now depicted properly by SceneryTech. In my opinion, this makes sim flight
more enjoyable: the low-flying general aviation sim pilot has more places to
visit, and the high-flying jet jockey can spot more urban and rural landmarks." "SceneryTech
uses a system called ISL (Improved Slope Landclass) to make mountainsides look
more realistic. As well, SceneryTech controls "desertification",
the process where FSX assumes that if a location is dry, it must be covered
with sand. Arid regions now look more realistic than before."
In conclusion, Jeff says, "the SceneryTech North America Landclass is
a high quality product. A lot of good work has gone into making this landclass
easy to install and appealing to look at. It's rare that a scenery product
will cover as large an area as a continent but not have problem areas. For
the SceneryTech North America Landclass, I believe that the parts of it that
I don't like are greatly outweighed by the things I do like. Overall, my feelings
towards this product are very positive!"
Brussels 2007
(November 17, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Kevin Boydston travels to Europe to take a look at Dream Factory Studio's
Brussels 2007. "Brussels is home to the Headquarters of the European Union,
thus having many government flights from all around the world. In addition, Brussels
is one of the biggest Cargo hubs in Europe, and has many cargo flights including
DHL, Saudi Arabian Cargo, Singapore Cargo, and Korean Air Cargo." "Brussels
contains one passenger terminal with three concourses, A, B, and C. Concourses
A and B are fully operational with AES functionality. All
cargo complexes are modeled fully as well, creating a great visual experience
when pulling up to the ramp in your freighter." "AES adds dynamic
scenery to Brussels, such as moving jetways which dock perfectly with the aircraft,
cleaning trucks, air stairs, cargo loaders, and
catering. You can see clearly where the DHL area is, where the other cargo
area is, and get a pretty general idea of the domestic European area with a
few internationals here and there." "I can say that if you like being
a "Trash Hauler", Brussels
2007 would be a fantastic addition to your library, with or without AES. Even
if you fly small European carriers, this is a great airport to purchase. I
also recommend AES along with it."
Pyrenees
(September 6, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Angelique van Campen takes us on a scenic tour of the
Pyrenees
mountain area as presented by FranceVFR. "The Pyrenees are a range of mountains
in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They
separate the Iberian peninsula from France and extend for about 430 kilometers
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea." "It is indeed very,
very photorealistic. It doesn’t make any difference
if it's daylight, sunrise or sunset. Some screenshots look so unbelievably
real, it’s scary! As with every photorealistic scenery, it shows you
what is possible and with the additional autogen package, it makes it even
more compatible with the real world."
Angelique taks you on a VFR tour of the area included in this add-on and words
cannot describe the screenshots along the way. Although, Angelique does a very
good job with her descriptive flight route. How does this add-on perform? "No
frame drop at all. At least it was not noticeable by me if I had any frame
rate drops."
Summing up FranceVFR's Pyrenees, Angelique says, "For this photorealistic
scenery I can say, it is and it stays impressive. I think it’s mainly
because of the reality. If France is your favorite country and you want to
spend a little more money, I can recommend you to buy the Mediterranean Base
and Autogen package and the Riviera packages as well. Based on these flight
experiences, I can conclude that this package is definite a worthwhile investment."
MegasceneryX
- Dallas/Fort Worth
(August 11, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Angelique van Campen takes us on a scenic tour of a small part of Texas
with PC Aviator's MegasceneryX - Dallas/Fort Worth. The website says, "Every
highway, road, interchange, street, house, factory, warehouse, mall, stadium,
ball field, golf course, sand trap, playground, river and stream is visible and
identifiable from your Flight Simulator skies as if you were actually there flying
over the skies above Dallas/Fort Worth." "Included in the installation
you get a detailed booklet on how to use this scenery and how to make final adjustments,
but you also get more then
100 pages of official charts from every airport covered in this area. You get
airport diagrams, SID and STAR charts, ILS, VOR/DME, and GPS approach charts
and last but not least, a full colored Sectional Chart of Dallas/Fort Worth." "When
flying at an altitude of 3000-4000 feet, you can sit, relax and enjoy the outside
view. It’s astonishing! When using MegaSceneryX for
IFR flights, you also get a great view of this photographic scenery. The details
of this megascenery are so incredible that you can fly via roads, crossing
rivers, lakes, railroads etc."
Angelique takes us on a VFR cross-coutry flight so we can see the extent of
this add-on. "One thing is for sure, I’ve got an excellent impression
of the VFR details from MegaSceneryX Dallas/Fort Worth scenery. The offered
Dallas/Fort Worth area just covers 8000 square miles (21.0000 square kilometers),
which means in combination with an IFR flight, it's a little limited." "When
flying north, passing some lakes, it’s shocking what Microsoft
thinks about inland water color. It’s such a strange blue color while
the MegaSceneryX gives you a truer water color, which reflects the reality.
Don’t believe me? I confirmed it with Google Earth and the water color/reflection
of MegaSceneryX is what is should be."
Concluding her review of MegasceneryX - Dallas/Fort Worth, Angelique comments, "My
first reaction is, after a thorough review related to the question “is
this a worthy add-on?” … yes, absolutely! You get an excellent
product, extremely highly detailed scenery, a lot of charts and even a VFR
Terminal chart. If that’s not enough, you also get the MegaCity Dallas/Forth
Worth 2005 product, in case you want to swap between FS9 and FSX. Above all,
it’s very frame rate friendly!"
Rio de Janeiro International Airport
(August 4, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Angelique van Campen heads to South Ameerica to check out the Rio de
Janeriro International Airport from TropicalSim. These developers state, "the
sceneries must be extremely detailed and similar to the real thing, may not have
impact on frame rates, must bring an enjoyable atmosphere when in use, and our
support service has to be fast, effective and transparent for our customers.
We do not reproduce adjacent and nearby areas, nor hotels, restaurants, resorts,
cities and things like that. The target is just the airport!" "I checked
the three default FSX large worldwide airports that have more or less the same
complexity as Rio de Janeiro. Conclusion, the frame rate impact
of this TropicalSim scenery of SBGL (Rio de Janeiro), is kept to a minimum!
In other words, the FPS reduction due to this add-on scenery is more or less
the same as the default airport sceneries from FSX itself, so that’s
ok! Since we are busy checking FPS, let’s have a quick what the impact
is in Flight Simulator 9. It’s amazing! With a default FS9 airplane standing
on several locations at the airport, an average of 20 FPS is reached and that’s
good." "Apart from the missing dirty spots on the aprons and the
missing carts, belts and others vehicles, I have the feeling that this Flight
Simulator 9
airport scenery is a good detailed representation of SBGL. Personally, I think
it’s quite detailed although others will always want more, but it gives
a very good impression what’s happening there. Close to runway 15/33,
we find the local cargo terminals with the postal/logistic distribution centers
from Correios and VARIGLOG. Some of the buildings are not bad, although I have
my doubts if the flight simmer is coming and parking here, except for the cargo
freaks." "The airport scenery doesn’t look different in FSX.
One thing that FSX offers is the creation of extra cars, baggage carts, belts
etc. The upcoming
free patch not only solves the disappearance of buildings at the airport, but
it also makes movable jetways possible." "For €18,00 / $24.77
you get a realistic impression of the Rio de Janeiro International Airport
and you can download both Flight Simulator versions
while using the same registration key. We cannot complain about the fact that
it’s only the airport scenery itself and nothing around it. TropicalSim
informs you on their website what this scenery is really covering. Making the
airport aprons and runways look more realistic by introducing more dirty spots
and touchdown stripes on the runways is in progress."
Megascenery X
Phoenix
(August 1, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer Gene Davis heads south to visit Phoenix Arizona with PC Aviator's
Megascenery X Phoenix. "What you get with Phoenix is not only 7000 square
miles of scenery of the Phoenix area and its surrounding rural areas packed onto
two DVD’s, but you also get 96 approach charts, SIDS, STARS and airport
diagrams for the entire coverage area of this scenery package as well as a full
color VFR chart and a full color terminal chart for quick and easy reference." "Megascenery
X Phoenix offers up a high resolution representation of Phoenix Arizona and its
surrounding rural areas at a whopping 1.19 meters per
pixel reformatted from 1 foot per pixel photo scenery derived from actual aerial
photography. Not only are the day textures enhanced, but the nighttime textures
have been given the same attention to detail. As you fly around the region
you will notice that all of the surrounding airports and airfields have been
given some kind of special attention and are remarkable realistic looking when
compared to actual photo’s of the real deal. I mean after all, you are
essentially looking at a photo of the real thing! I was ultimately impressed
with the overall look of Phoenix Sky Harbor, the buildings have all been placed
correctly and the surrounding textures are pretty amazing looking." "The
Phoenix scenery looks and performs well within FSX; in fact, I have experienced
some of the best frame rates with this scenery package and FSX.
With the Phoenix scenery I can turn up my autogen and scenery sliders as well
as turn on the moving vehicle traffic and experience some of the best looking
Flight Simulator flying I have seen to date in that sim and it really has to
be seen to be appreciated. Also included in this package is scenery designed
for FS9 of this region. This scenery is displayed at a lower resolution than
that of the FSX scenery package but nonetheless looks good in FS9."
Getting back on the ground, Gene comments, "I have come to one realization
and that is I find FSX is my home for any and all of my photo scenery add-ons
as it has produced an excellent engine for such titles. I was in no way disappointed
by this title and if this is the future of Photo Scenery titles, then I can’t
wait for the next one!"
La Guardia - KLGA
(July 19, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Juan Llobera tours one of New York's busiest airports, La Guardia (KLGA)
by ImagineSim. "KLGA New York La Guardia is the smallest of three airports
serving New York. "One of the first things I do when I check out a new scenery
is to go to the top-down view and compare the scenery with the real airport diagram.
This is really useful because it will rapidly give you an idea of what level
of realism you are going to find. Because I'm afraid nobody actually cares
about how well done the runway textures are if runway 22 is heading 320, or
how many details the taxiways have if some taxiways are missing. The good news
is that every single taxiway seems to be present. The airport’s layout
is exactly the same as in real life." "Buildings look incredible
real, and the glass textures are just fabulous. Every single terminal has been
reproduced as well as the fire station, hangars
and maintenance and base facilities. You’ll find every single gate with
their number, jetway and everything. Another feature you’ll get is the
Automatic Docking System, which is nothing more than moving jetways. This is
really cool and it's a detail that I feel should be a standard feature in every
single payware scenery. Probably one of the things that I love about this scenery
are the night textures." "Considering you have the chance of actually
testing this add-on before buying it, I’ll just say that overall it runs
great on my PC. LaGuardia is an over-crowded airport, and when I say over-crowded
I mean waiting in line
for half an hour in order to get your take off clearance. Now that's "as
real as it gets!".
Wrapping up ImagineSim's La Guardia, Juan comments, "is ImagineSim’s
KLGA worth the money? I'd definitely say it is. It has every single building,
light, taxiway and detail you’ll find at the real LaGuardia. Plus, the
high density of vehicles and cargo containers really gives you the feeling
that you are “there”. If you love to see a real crowded airport
or simply love challenging approaches and adrenaline-charged take off’s,
then I would recommend this one to you."
German Airports 2 - Munster/Osnabruck
(July 17, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Marc Radford explores the Munster/Osnabruck Airport as part of the Aerosoft
German Airports series. "Münster/Osnabrück Airport is currently
the 4th largest International commercial airport in the North Rhine-Westphalia
area, located 25km from Münster (Westfalen), and 40km from Osnabrück." "There
is little doubt Aerosoft has been successful in recreating the airport and surrounding
areas. On final to runway 25, you can see the dynamic
scenery cars zooming by on the Autobahn! It is amazing the added sense of realism
you get when you are trying to focus on your instruments; you almost get distracted
by the variety of cars zooming along the road underneath you." "On
the ground things are quite lively around here with buses, trucks, Exxon Mobile
Tractor Trailers, and Lufthansa Service Trucks, just to name a
few, which are all busy doing their jobs. When the models are viewed up close
they really stand their ground. The same goes for the static aircraft, when
zooming in it's surprising the level of detail. I found the night effects to
be satisfying, and aligned to the quality of the overall package." "When
the airport first loaded, I was shocked with next to no difference in my FPS
from the default scenery. I was surprised to see Münster/Osnabrück
did not have any large or heavy gates. I did some checking to see what kind
of airplanes usually take off from there, the majority of the jets are Boeing
737’s."
Wrapping up this review of Aerosoft's Münster/Osnabrück Airport,
Marc says, "I have tried a handful of add-on airports over the years,
they all looked great but killed my FPS. This package started impressing me
right from the manual, and followed through like a champ all the way to the
end."
USA Extreme Landscapes V2
(July 7, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer Jeff Shyluk takes us on a photoscenic journey over North America,
with USA Extreme Landscapes V2 from Abacus. "This is a very large add-on
for FSX, which does not promise the world, but it does try to give you a more
lifelike North America." "USA Extreme Landscapes V2 is a high-resolution
terrain mesh for FSX that covers the United States, Mexico, and Canada in detail.
This means that
three-dimensional landforms such as mountains, hills, valleys, and canyons
will all show up in your flight sim in greater detail than ever before. USA
Extreme Landscapes is a re-packaging of the North American terrain mesh from
FSGenesis. It can be purchased on DVD only, and in fact, comes as a set of
three disks. When installed, USA Extreme Landscapes will take up 10 GB of hard
drive space, but in terms of performance, it should not have a large negative
effect on simulation frame rates. USA Extreme Landscapes installs easily on
FSX, FSX+SP1, and FSX on Vista systems." "As a bonus, Eaglesoft’s
fine Liberty Aerospace XL2 touring aircraft is included in the USA Extreme
Landscapes package for free. You may use this
modern and engaging little prop-driven plane to follow Abacus’ excellent
flight plans, which cover some of America’s most beautiful scenery." "FSX
significantly boosts the visual resolution of the terrain mesh from the default
levels of FS2004. USA Extreme Landscapes increases the resolution
of the terrain mesh for FSX up to 9.6 meters for the United States. Is the
boost in resolution enough to justify paying out for this add-on? That’s
a bit hard to say. If you are not satisfied with the level of terrain mesh
detail in FSX, and want to see more contours in the land, and you primarily
fly over North America, then you might want to try this product. USA Extreme
Landscapes is about as good as I would expect to see from a newer terrain mesh
for FSX."
Cape Canaveral X
(June 26, 2007)
New
staff reviewer Angelique van Campen flys around a US restricted area as she takes
an in-depth and up-close look at Aerosoft's Cape Canaveral X. "During special
NASA activities, a 30NM circle is drawn around, let’s say the main building.
Any flight within this 30NM circle is strictly prohibited and elevates from AGL
(Above Ground Level) to unlimited flight levels."
Angelique takes us on a complete tour of the area and describes what we see, "Flying
along the coastline at an altitude of 2500 feet, we fly south where we reach
R-2934 (R-Restricted) area. The first thing we notice is the smooth change
from the default to the Aerosoft scenery. Looking out of the window, we first
see the Space Shuttle landing strip, KTTS and the huge Vehicle Assembly Building,
located close to the strip. Flying above Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
park, we see that the Aerosoft's swamp looks very close the real swamps. One
thing already mentioned is the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the space shuttle,
fuel tanks and rockets are mounted together. The default FSX scenery shows
these as well, but with fewer details."
Summarizing Aerosoft's CanaveralX, Angelique comments, "The scenery or
green areas representing swamps and lakes are not that bad. The only limitation
compared to the FS2004 version, is the level of detail and the performance
on your PC. The three runways on the other hand are realistic when I compare
these with actual pictures from Google Earth. It’s a nice add-on, but
to me after comparing the Aerosoft FS2004 with the FSX version, it appears
Aerosoft just transferred the old FS9 version into a FSX compatible one without
any additional features and/or improvements. However, you have to keep in mind
that it only covers Cape Canaveral."
VFR Real Scenery - Vol 1
(June 21, 2007)
Staff
reviewer David Rogers takes us on ascenic tour of a section of his home country,
the UK, with Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery Vol 1 for FSX. "Up until now,
photographic scenery in general has held something of a love-hate status among
flight sim hobbyists. Enter FSX." "So we know it’s scenery,
but what exactly is all the fuss about with this new type of photographic scenery
in FSX? Well, although Just Flight
may have replaced the word photographic with ‘real’, make no mistake,
the main feature of this type of scenery is that it is based around digital
aerial photographs of the featured area." "The area covered by this
volume is a rather slim but tall Easterly slice of England. The most obvious
area to mention in terms of the coverage provided,
is that it includes the City of London. But when you tire of checking out the
City, you also get the eastern section of the South Coast area of England as
well as the flat and generally rural East Anglia region. (The ‘hip’ of
England!). As well as the Capital, towns and cities such as Brighton, Folkestone,
Dover, Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough, Cambridge and Luton are also featured
in this area. The Counties covered being Kent, East Sussex, Essex, Suffolk,
Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and parts of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
Surrey and West Sussex." "I decided that a good way to check out
the eye candy, and try some true VFR navigation, would be to start from an
area I know and check out some references
on the ground that I know. While FSX has reasonably accurate main road placement
for the UK, what I immediately noticed was how better the Just Flight Real
Scenery sits alongside the main roads. As I reached 600 ft, I was exceptionally
pleased to note that the quality and focus of textures are immeasurably better
at this low altitude than they were in the previous VFR Photographic Scenery
software for FS2004. I noticed that the coastline is far more accurate and
detailed with VFR Real Scenery, as opposed to FSX’s default scenery.
Flying over London is a treat and you could spend hours hunting out the sights.
It really is great fun and about as good as we’ve seen yet for VFR flying."
Summing up this first Volume of Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery, David concludes, "Whether
you want this scenery on your hard drive will largely depend on your preferences
within the hobby. If you are into low and slow VFR flying, then I could not
recommend this product highly enough. The world of photographic scenery within
the sim is a developing technology and this product is not perfect. But generally,
this is an awesome add-on that will transform the way you see and even think
about the ground below you."
St Maarten
(June 17, 2007)
Contributing
reviewer Chris Kiehl takes us on a Carribean tour of St Maarten from FlyTampa. "St.
Maarten is the smallest island divided by two nations - France and the Netherlands.
The French control the north side of the island, while the Dutch retain control
of the southern portion and the international airport." "Many features
of this scenery make the whole experience into a visual show. At each airport
and the immediate surrounding area, there are highly
upgraded and detailed textures which add so much to the immersion. The runways
have a very realistic appearance to them, and to me, appear as real asphalt
or concrete. This gives you the sensation of speed on landing and takeoff which
the FS default runways and taxiways simply fail to do. On top of these taxiways
and runways is the yellow and white paint, which actually appears to have been
painted on and not floating on top of a good base texture." "Princess
Juliana International is a world famous airport for everything that makes it
special, and even more for that seemingly daunting approach that
airliners make at 50-100 feet over the fence. All of these details, at least
the ones that I can think of, are seamlessly represented. St. Maarten itself
is done remarkably well. The ‘Sunset Beach Bar’ at the end of the
runway can be seen where many of those famous low flying airliner shots are
taken; along with little beach chairs and umbrellas and a few people here and
there enjoying the festivities." "St. Barth’s airport is located
right on a little bay, next to a hill surrounded by dense jungle and is highly
detailed in this scenery package.
The graphic of Barth’s terminal and surrounding towns of Gustavia and
St. Jean is simply amazing in my opinion. Saba is the show stealer. A small
runway and airport out on a small peninsula, perched atop a 200 foot island
cliff. The whole island is really spectacular, as the peak of the island simply
climbs out of the ocean, almost like an island out of a movie like Jurassic
Park when flying to it." Summizing FlyTampa's St Maarten, Chris says, "I
think anyone who buys either the St. Martin/Juliana standalone, or opts for
the whole package, will
greatly enjoy them. If you’re simply a fan of flying in this region or
these islands specifically, get this scenery as it will greatly enhance your
flying time here."
MonacoX
(June 14, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Allen Lavigne takes us on a tour of the glamorous micro-state Monaco
as presented by Aerosoft. "Also known as the Principality of Monaco, it
is where royalty is still glamorized and where the noblest amongst its 30,000
inhabitants live in Monaco-Ville’s palaces." "Since Monaco
does not have an airport, you will have to fly to Nice’s
LFMN and take a helicopter from there. I prefer the long route and will come
in from Nice using the visual approach charts provided. Another way, is to
approach from behind the hills with a suddenly emerging Monaco making for a
pleasant surprise." "The autogen (AG) is custom made for MonacoX
and follows the graphic slider like other AG does. A full right position is
desired, if possible, as
a lack of AG will severely thin the scenery detail. There are a lot of buildings
in this small area, which makes for a nice view while doing a slow approach
in a helicopter. There are also ships, with schedules, included in this package." "There
are 2 missions included with this package: Part 1: Helicopter flight from Monaco
to Nice. Part 2 is the reverse of Part 1. Helicopter flight
from Nice to Monaco"
Concluding our tour, Allen notes, "With SP1 installed, I found helicopter
handling much better, with frame rates often 20+ and smooth as opposed to 12-
without the SP1 patch. This scenery is ideal for helicopters, usable for amphibian
craft, but somewhat limited for fixed-wing aircraft. I appreciated MonacoX
for its beauty and fluidity fps-wise, but found it somewhat limited to sightseeing.
The two included missions were useful in getting familiar with the local approach
and departure procedures from the helipads, but that was all there was."
Cincinnati-North Kentucky Int'l Airport
(May 24, 2007)
Senior
staff reviewer Alexis Esguerra tours ImagineSim's Cincinnati-North Kentucky International
Airport. "Famed moonwalker Neil Armstrong once referred to the ICAO code
of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky as meaning “Cincinnati Very Good”.
It has consistently rated quite highly in numerous independent customer surveys
over the years, serves as Delta Airlines second largest hub, and currently runs
better than 500 flights per day." "The airport itself is brought
to current standards in both FS9 and FSX; updated to reflect the appearance of
the airport circa late-2006. Three terminals
along with three concourses, forming the basic meat and potatoes of the airport,
are present; as are the numerous outlying tenant and airport structures and
aircraft plots. The scenery also includes the basic set of aircraft (big surprise
that the majority are in Delta colors), ground equipment, and the occasional
ramper hanging out on the tarmac, adding the general populated feel to the
field. Standard flair of animated jet bridges, guidance signs, marshallers,
and ground traffic are present (the first three at specific locations), either
further lending some credence to the operational appearance of the field, or
helping the virtual pilot get to where he/she needs to go." "Which
one is better, FS9, or FSX? At first glance, I might’ve
said neither; ImagineSim did use the same textures for both renditions, so
when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. In many respects, both
FS9 and FSX get a badly needed shot in the arm from the installation of KCVG.
Be you a die-hard FS9 user, or a hardcore FSX user, KCVG has something in store
for you."
Wrapping up this tour, Alexis comments, "When boiled down to its essentials,
I found that KCVG performed as advertised. After all, it is a scenery package
that was designed to bring its subject to a whole new level of realism, and
from what I saw, there’s no question that it did so. Given its merits,
KCVG stands well on it’s own two feet, both FS9 and FSX."
XCity Rome
(May 12, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Allen Lavigne takes us on a tour of Roma with Cloud9's XCity Rome. "Rome,
an entire city with widely varying complex buildings rendered in 3D, covering
an area of 100 square miles." "My first impressions are that
Xcity Rome meshes well without a drop in fps at all. Although it is quite visible
and in its entirety, it does not
clash with its surroundings, which to me is a very important requirement for
quality. Approaching outlying neighborhoods of XCity Rome for the first time,
entire blocks are wrapped around with one wall touching the outside of streets.
What makes the illusion work is that the rooftops are actually cutouts from
the underlying area of the matching satellite photo for that rooftop. They’ve
made for a fairly good resemblance in my opinion." "Placement accuracy
in the city center is remarkable.Most roofs are simply the section of a satellite
photo of what should be underneath that block of
buildings. When the building actually does occupy the entire block, this works
rather nicely. LIRA, the old Ciampino airport southeast of Rome, has little
to offer the candy hunter. With simple generic buildings and an ILS approach
for runway 15, its only attribute being that XCity Rome is within sight as
soon as you depart from 33." "There are two customized heliports
included in the package, with nice night lighting added. Many bridges along
the Tiber river were reproduced, with
a couple near the Vatican made in very nice detail, even underneath, and at
night are quite pretty. The others are still similar to their counterparts
in the real world."
Closing out this tour of Cloud9's XCity Rome Allen notes, "I would strongly
recommend getting Xclass for Europe from Cloud9 first, and then if you want
to visit Italy, get XCity Rome. Especially if this is a regular stop of yours
with enough visits to merit a purchase. The overly generic facades and rooftops
could use some work, but that might raise the price of development and affect
fps performance which I found to be on par with what FSX default was giving."
Helgoland
(May 9, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Allen Lavigne flies around a "chunk" of land off the coast
of Germany with Aerosoft's Helgoland. "The island’s ownership, simplified,
has gone back and forth from Denmark to England to Germany over the past 250
years. It was heavily fortified during both wars, and has even been used as target
practice by the British." "There are 3 small runways, of concrete
surface: 15/33 (the longest), 03/21, and 06/24 (way too small), without lights,
no FSS, no working tower
although there is one on top of the terminal building, not even a local traffic
advisory frequency. There is a VOR, with the ICAO code DHE (116.3), but no
NDB nor ILS. Doing a complete circuit around the islands, there was never the
slightest blinking of any object or building. Very well done and quite smooth.
The level of detail was beyond my expectations, with numerous detailed buildings,
structures, and sailboats." "One way Aerosoft helps you tour the
island is using the supplied mission called “Helgoland Tour”. In
this mission an accompanying tour guide talks you around the island, pointing
out the various highlights just like
a tour operator would do. Very helpful in getting to know the various aspects
of this island: the frigate, the piers, the heliport, the lighthouse, and that
popular rock extrusion known as “Lange Anna”. The second mission,
called “Helgoland SAR Oilrig” is a harder challenge where you are
sent to rescue an injured worker on the oilrig Mittelplate (EM08) using a Bell
206 under difficult weather conditions." "If this product is any
indication as to the quality we can expect from Aerosoft’s upcoming small
but detailed scenery packages for Monaco, Aspen, and others, they will be indeed
worth looking into. I will continue using Heligoland
for my own amusement. Its visual isolation from any adjacent bland default
land textures in FSX allows you to totally immerse yourself in the illusion
of realism. Aerosoft has done a magnificent job on this small island, and I
dare say they achieved the highest level of realism available to date in FSX.
If you like a half hour flight of distraction once in a while, Aerosoft's Helgoland
is ideal for you."
XClass Australia
and Canada
(April 10, 2007)
FSCloud9
covers Australia and Canada with their X-Class series, and staff reviewer Fred
Clark covers these releases. "What the X-Class series does is “render
a better visualization…of the terrain making it more close to reality…adding
many more small urban areas and recreates more faithfully the big urban areas”" "After
an hour or so over an area, the change was noticeable. In particular the industrial
zones. These were greatly cut down on, and I found them in more
appropriate places. FSX seems to use the industrial style ground textures too
much, including in the middle of cities. After X Class was installed, they
began to appear in more appropriate locations, such as on approach to an airport.
Not only this but all texture areas were of a much more believable size." "It’s
all very well and good taking a quick look at areas, but how does it feel to
actually fly over areas of newly reshaped terrain? Well
first of all, flat open areas are no longer lifeless. Especially in the far
north of Canada. There is far more ruggedness to the surroundings and it is
far more believable. It's also far easier to fly VFR. Instead of having to
spot towns by kinks in the road, it is now possible (in the majority of places)
to spot them by buildings and in some cases even the layout! Although in many
places I actually noticed more autogen after the X-Class install, there is
no frame rate impact."
Concluding this scenery review, Fred says, "Is it worth buying? Well,
at the moment I would say yes. What it does is something that should have,
in all honestly, been done in the original Microsoft release. There is very
little difference to be seen at 33,000 ft, on the other hand, if you love flying
VFR in FSX (as I do) then this will make your experience even more complete."
German Landmarks X
(April 9, 2007)
Staff
reviewer Allen Lavigne takes us on a scenic trip around Germany with Aerosoft's
German Landmarks X. "I was amazed at the number of additional oblects that
can be placed within my flight sim environment." "You can use the MapViewer
to see just where you are in relation to all these hundreds of landmarks (it
shows regular airports too) andd FSX does not
have to be connected in order to use the MapViewer. When flying, the MapViewer
can connect (through FSUIPC) to FSX and display your aircraft position as a
small red cross on the map." "The term “landmark” is
used in the VFR navigation sense, not in any historical “tourist” context.
It can be any visual aid to navigation such as a mountain, a tower, a windmill,
buildings, etc… Added
airfields and heliports are, for the most part, generic and are in no way meant
to reproduce the actual site. There are reportedly 5000 VFR landmarks featured
from more than 800 different objects. New airfields are included in the FSX
GPS database and can be loaded as the “direct-to” destination.
By doing a search in the airfields list for the nearest large city, it is then
easy to find nearby airfields for gliders and helicopters." "Landclass
and terrain features are greatly improved over the default scenery for the
entire area. Railways and railyards are properly placed and
cities and towns are better represented overall. It seems that most cities
have something added to them in the form of large buildings (some custom designs,
some generic), port facilities (these are mostly generic with customized layouts),
industrial sections, factories, railyards and rail terminals."
As far as performance goes, Allen comments, "Flights between small cities
and during departures/approaches to and from them showed fps performances that
were acceptable to me, but in the areas of large metropolitan cities and larger
airports, it certainly was not great, as can be expected in FSX. A high-end
computer is an advantage, as usual. German Landmarks X is an excellent VFR-navigation
scenery enhancement best used with slow moving aircraft or helicopters. I enjoyed
using this add-on and would recommend it to anyone with the right equipment.
I really enjoyed playing about with this add-on."
|
