US Cities L.A. : Hot test

 

FSX. The names ring a bell ? Anaheim, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Long Beach, Mulholland, Warner Bros studios etc etc.. Yes. Questions about this scenery ? Oh yes.

  

LIMESIM AEROSOFT US CITIES L.A.

 

HOT TEST

Version tested : FSX V.1.0.
Size file : 2,44 GB
Installation : Very easy. All automatic.
Manual : 19 pages.
Utilities : A complexity swictcher
Framerate :

.An average of 13-30 on my machine, depending of the aircraft, which seems acceptable
but this time, I reduced the traffic to 10 plus autogen and scenery complexity to 90 %.
Note that the scenery was unsupportable with all my ATI sliders at 100 % and with AI traffic.

(Config : I7 3,44 Ghz, 6 MB, Windows 7, ATI HD6570, REX).



The bad :

* Lack of night enlighted buildings.

* Texture quality of some buildings.

* According to the manual, the scenery requires an Intel I5 as a minimum requirement. In Simmarket product page, it is mentionned "core 2 quad advised" which is obviously not enough.


The good :

* The seamless integration with FSDT Los Angeles Intl.

* The huge amount of 3D models, photoreal textures, details...

The .kmz file gives a good idea of the coverage. Some areas are enhanced with detailed buildings and photoreal textures.

According to your processor and performances, you can switch between maximum buildings are less buildings and more autogen. Even with my I7, i quickly changed for the second solution... And that improved a lot the framerate and the stability.

This shot was taken while approaching L.A. for a landing to KLAX. During one of my test, with "max buildings" settings, i got a FSX memory leak. Need to test another flight.

 

Flying over the Port of Los Angeles. Really nice but some photoreal textures can be blurried sometimes. The constant switching between virtual cockpit and external view does not help...

 

Here, i have got a rather good quality of definition but i had to put FSX on slew mode to update the textures...

John Wayne airport is rather nice. The terminal has been modelized but if you can't use the best possible settings of up-to-date computers, you will not enjoy it very much. From a short distance, when parking your aircraft, the textures of this terminal are quite basic. Of course, Limesim has enhanced many airports in the area but i am not shure this must be the real purpose. John Wayne airport for instance, will be probably be designed in a much better way someday. The quality of terminal is just good enough to fly over it, not to take off from one if its gates.  

 

There are dozens of Photoreal areas like this one. Very effective.

This view is taken with the option "less buildings, more autogen", to preserve the framerate. There are normally 10-20 % more buildings.

This aerial view shows the number of helipads in L.A. center town.

 

 

There are probably more than a hundred of helipads.

Here on Sunset Boulevard, several hospitals are equiped with helipads (4).

A brief comparison between FSX standard autogen for L.A. and US Cities L.A.

But remember that US Cities L.A. is not changing all the textures of Los Angeles area and suburb.

Warner bros studios.

 

 

According to the KMZ file, Marina Del Rey is not covered by US Cities L.A.  And next screenshot prouves it easily...

 

Marina del Rey still under defaut FSX....

 

Seamless integration of FSDreamteam KLAX.

 

This is an example of very detailed models. How many of them in the scenery ?

I would say 75 to 125 ? These ones are highly detailed.

 

Conclusion :

 

Los Angeles area is going to be a nice place to fly since some other projects, around, have been announced : Latin VFR San Diego, Aerosoft Van Nuys, and Palm Springs (that should be done sooner or later, too). So this area will become a must have, especially with FSDT KLAX.

To say the truth, if the developer can improve the framerate by 10 % and fnd a way to have night textures on buildings, this will be the ultimate destination. But i have no regret. This product has a very long spin of life and the island and airport of Catalina are great !

 

 

 

Thanks !

  

Airdailyx, September 2012
Dom Mason