FSDG Heraklion X : Hot test !

FSX. Greece is becoming a nice country for simmers. After Fly Tampa's Athens and Emilios's Corfu X, now Heraklion, done with FSDG's touch.

FSDG - AEROSOFT - HERAKLION X - LGIR

Nikos Kazantzakis

HOT TEST

Version tested : V.1.00 for FSX.

File size : 295 MB

Installation : Very easy. All automatic.

Manual : 10 pages in  english. No charts.

Framerate :
18/20 fps on apron, aboard PMDG NGX.
Tested on I7 3,44 GHZ, 6 MB, main FSX sliders set to 100 %. REX installed.

ATI HD 6570 at medium settings.
Besides, the developer has included three configuration managers to set the city density, the 3D objects and animations in the city and in the airport.

The Bad :

* In a few places, resolution texture is rather low.

* The manual advises you to settle the mesh resolution. But are we really changing the mesh defintion every time we start a new flight ?

* A chart of runway 27 approach STAR and landing would have been a plus.

 

The Good :

*  The level of details included in the scenery and the amount of buildings.

*  The high level of animations, cars, bus, ferries, birds, trucks on the apron...

* New destinations ! Sharm-el-Sheikh (FSDG), Larnaca, Athens (Fly Tampa) and other airports developed by Emilios, the main developer (Corfu, Zante).

Aerosoft configuration tools.

Three utilities to adjust details and improve the framerate if needed. 

The view here at maximum level of details. Hundreds of buildings. Most of them are more or less customized, and dozens more are very detailed....

 

... like these ones, near the harbor.

The 3D models are simple here but every building has its specific textures.

Colorful harbor here and seamless integration with REX ocean textures.

 

There is at least one ferry moving upon real schedules. For instance, the floating palace of Minoan Lines is leaving Heraklion at 11'clock saturday morning to Athens Pirae, for real !

* * *

The main terminal entrance. This is definitely the best place in the scenery. A lot of cars and coaches are moving around. And the place has been designed with a great deal of details.

The airport will be soon past history since it wil be decommissionned in 2015...

The next two shots are taken near the terminal. You will find many static cars, parking lots, small bus cabins with Greek markings. Many textures have been designed to show fatigue wear.

A "funny" detail of the main tower. A photoreal texture shows a broken window.

 

 "The city of Heraklion looks like the postcards the thousands of tourists send", said Mathijs Kok, Software development manager, Aerosoft. I agree !

* * * * *

I tested the airport with a traffic manager, the old MyTraffic Lite and its working perfectly.

All the quality of the airport in this screenshot : the shadow of the lighting pole, wear traces, dirts on the jet blast barrier etc.  

Shades of lights on the apron. As a matter of fact, the airport has different kind of lights and effects on apron. Imagine the time spent to adjust the light intensity and the ground textures. Unless developers have found new tools...

A better angle to see lights impacts on ground textures.

The final approach on runway 27 cannot be more realistic, especialy with the rock wall. Realistic textures are really giving the impression.

The same view at dawn and here, textures are displaying the tones and the rugosity of rocks.

Threshold of runway 09  and in the backstage, the city and harbord at dawn.

Conclusion :

The main developer was not alone to design this scenery. He was helped by Thorsten and many other people. If FSDG keeps the good work like this, this is the promise of a new dream team. And i don't want to push the comparison more than that. Is Heraklion perfect ? Oh no, it can give headaches to adjust the framerate (on low processors i mean) but configuration tools have been provided and the price is fair. Oh, and the scenery is signed by... Emilios.

Airdailyx, August 2012,

Dom Mason