AirDailyX: Mykonos : Hot test !

FSX/P3D. First large project from 29palms.de I like how they have started in the business, first with a few high quality freeware, then helping FSDG for Sharm-el-Sheikh. All under the professional supervisory from Aerosoft. [UPDATED] with D'Andre's thoughts and shots!

29PALMS.DE MYKONOS X and LGMK

HOT TEST

Version tested : FSX V1.0
File size : 1,04 GB
Installation : Very easy and automatic.
Manual : 13 pages, english and german . Several PDF for charts.
Utilities : Scenery manager to config the scenery level of details and framerate.
Framerates :
20-25 on the new Carenado B-200
25 and more on the PMDG NGX.
(Configuration as usual : I5 3,4 Ghz, 6 MB, ATI HD6570 (average settings), REX, Windows 7 64 bits).

The bad :

* Maybe the lack of life around the terminal.

* No AI traffic. No static aircrafts. But 29Palms will announce a small utility later to add custom flight plans.

The good :

* The price/quality ratio : an airport + several islands, 2 helipads, and a highly detailed city of Mykonos for 20 € / 26 $.

* The gorgeous harbor of Mykonos. The number of visual points of interests around, including the landable yacht.

Mykonos main folder includes all the charts in PDF, the manual and the scenery manager.

This is the very first design of Mykonos and islands in FSX. The famous antic Dilos island is designed too. And also Rineai.. Dragonisi etc.. The most interesting point is certainly the old harbor, splendid with all the fish boats and typical houses. The place is perfect for visual flights around these islands or for island hoping to Santorini, Kos, Athens, and of course Heraklion. Personally, my REX ocean textures are perfect here.

The islands are designed with many photoreal areas. There is a custom road traffic all around Mykonos. But you can see here that houses have not been placed everywhere. The autogen is really targetting the main city and the airport. On my I5 3,4 Ghz, everything went very well as long as i used my average ATI card settings. I tried all the sliders of the Catalyst manager but then, a lot of odd effects, peaks .. appeared on the scenery. Anyway, the custom manager will really help you find the right tuning.

The white place there is a parking. But i would have like real static cars there. The place really looks empty. Look at all these private swimming pools.

Probably an old quarry here. There are a lot of these details on the islands : a dam, windmills, cliffs...

The natural textures are wonderful. Very high definition (maybe 1 meter or so).

Dragonisi island with its cliffs.

The helipad at Agrari beach. But the other one, near the main harbor is the most impressive.

* * * * * THE HARBOR * * * * *

This is the jewel of Mykonos. This small fish harbor has many interesting details like sun shutters, docks, small fish boats... and very dense houses autogen.

The screenshot here is taken from the heights of Mykonos. A landable yacht, the Aurora is also sailing around the island.

Wonderful view. You will specially appreciate the harmony of colors (blues, greens...). One regret though. the textures of the waterfront could have been made with higher definition. A good point is the smoothness of the place when you fly over it.

* * * * * THE AIRPORT * * * * *

Absolutely nothing to say on Mykonos airport ! Volumetric grass all around, trees, poles, fences. Everything is there. And the terminal is fully designed and includes many small details. The only missing thing here is life, people, passengers. Fortunately, cars are moving all around.

I was talking about the details. Look at the quality of this roof. Wires, ventilation grilles, shadows...

Above, on the other screenshot, the tower unveils flakes and wear.

Very effective lights at night. I am impressed. Zoom in this screenshot and see all the enlighted parts of the terminal, the apron, the main street and parkings. This is really important for dusk/night flights when we want to see details of the airport from the cockpit.

The view here is enlarged to the vicinity.

Same amount of lights. This has been taken seriously by the developers.

* * * * *

The typical houses of Mykonos. Nice. But what has been designed already for next 29palms scenery, Skiathos, is much more promising : look at this one :

Good bye Mykonos, Hello Skiathos... planned in 2013.

Conclusion :

Mykonos is ideally located in the center of Greece. Perfect for flights in Europe but you can also plan many shorts islands hoping to Athens, Kos, Heraklion... etc.

It's a fantastic package including full textured islands, photoreal areas, two helipads, an international airport etc. Imagine the pleasure to fly here on this busy airport, in Vatsim or Ivao. And aircrafts need to backtrack before taking-off...

Although Thorsten Reichert has given a very good hand here, 29Palms team is obviously very talented and they are chasing FSDG standard of quality. Despite the number of interesting releases these last days, Mykonos X is a must have.

Thanks !

Airdailyx October 2012

Dom Mason

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D'Andre's QuickShots!

As Dom's views on the product pretty much mirror my own, I thought I would add some screenshots from my system. In the manual there are some recommend settings and I set my FSX settings as such. As you can see from my below screens and FPS I got, I am overall happy with the scenery. The only things I had an issue with are:

1. I couldn't find the damn moving yachts to land on

2. The ground textures load very slow and are mostly blurry. Once they load they are quite sharp. Not sure if this is a scenery issue or a system issue. After all, I am a FS9 guy and I hope to get the scenery in FS9. My frames may be okay, but I am sick of the constant stuttering FSX tends to do.

Besides these 2 things, it is a terrific and outstanding work and my hat is off to 29Palms!