US Cities X - Las Vegas

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1 AVSIM Commercial FSX Scenery Review US Cities X - Las Vegas Publishers: Aerosoft Product Information Description: High-resolution mesh terrain for Las Vegas that also includes the Grand Canyon plus nearly 4000 major buildings. Download Size: 1.84 GB Format: Download Simulation Type: FS9/FSX Reviewed by: Peter Hayes AVSIM Staff Reviewer - November 7, 2011 Introduction Aerosoft are renowned for their quality add-on software for FSX and this no exception, being one of the seven 'US Cities X' series including: Cleveland, Niagara Falls/Buffalo, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Indianapolis. In FSX, Las Vegas & the surrounding area is pretty bland with some good features, but install Aerosoft Las Vegas and see this FSX area transform into something that is relatively full of life and detail. The airport is fully modeled and so is the famous 'strip' (all 4.2 miles of it) with all of its iconic landmarks plus the surround Mojave desert and (1 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

2 mountains, ie the Spring Mountains (west), Sheep Mountains (north), Muddy Mountains and Lake Mead (east), and the Black Mountains to the south. Las Vegas X appears to blend in reasonably well with the default FSX scenery. Night and/or seasonal textures are included, with the strip being brightly illuminated which gives the whole scenery a nice effect. I experienced some impact on frame rates but the scenes were never choppy, being quite smooth. These Aerosoft add-ons enhance the default scenery and are worthwhile for areas that you want to explore more fully. Las Vegas Strip Courtesy Wikimedia commons Las Vegas is well known for its gaming (aka gambling) for over 80 years starting in March The casino industry has made LV, which started as a desert strip town and one that has grown into an internationally renowned city. Gaming revenue is now thought to be around $10 billion per annum with each visitor to LV spending around $500. A lot of development occurred in the 1960s continuing up to the present day which makes LV a desirable tourist destination. Las Vegas is set in the desolate beauty of the desert and is surrounded by canyons and mountains including Red Rock Canyon and The Grand Canyon plus Lake Meads and the famous Hoover Dam. The Wikipedia has a nice entry here: The population is around 600,000 and its metropolitan area has a population approx 2,000,000, making it the 28th largest city in the USA. Las Vegas is 270 miles from Los Angeles and the same distance from the Grand Canyon, 570 miles from San Francisco, 470 miles from Reno, and around 760 miles from Denver. As you can see from the list of features below, Aerosoft has modeled most of the important parts of the area. This site is an excellent source of information about Las Vegas with tons of interesting facts and pictures: The photographs that I display in this review are courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau. Remember the take home message from this review: "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas", with acknowledgments to R & R partners for creating this renowned slogan. Features from Aerosoft: Aerial image coverage in Google Earth via kmz file Test System Computer Specs More than 3,930 major buildings included Billboards and customized palm trees along "The Strip" Semi detailed scenery of "Area 51" High-resolution mesh terrain that also includes the Grand Canyon (you don`t know what you missed!) Major airports in and around the city are covered with new high res ground images with customized mesh terrain (no new building structures added) McCarran International North Las Vegas (including new east apron) Henderson Executive Boulder City Municipal (including new apron layout) Nellis AFB Indian Springs AF Aux Desert Rock Flight Test Time: Yucca Runway (rather new secret runway not reported in official NOTAMS) 32.5 hours Yucca Airstrip near the runway on a salt lake Echo Bay Perkins Enhanced terrain of Yucca valley and all the surrounding salt lakes based on Landsat imagery Las Vegas Speedway Heliport Intel i GB DDR 1600 RAM Windows 7 64-bit nvidia GTX560TI 1GB Driver nvidia Control Panel FSX SP1 + SP2 (Gold) 120GB SATA II OCZ Colossus SSD Saitek X52 + Pro Pedals, No tweaks all standard and no over-clocking. (2 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

3 Sound effects like downtown- and highway traffic Traffic on most major roads Low price, very good value for money Includes a separate Scenery Density tool Night textures now included! Installation and Documentation The installer system was reasonably complex, (I guess to avoid piracy), with the installation being performed via the new Aerosoft installer (WEEZE X) and launcher. To install the software, you need to be connected to the internet, logged on as administrator, allowing for online activation so that you can then install the scenery in FSX. The Aerosoft launcher now starts, you then need to click on the sceneries section and choose the scenery just loaded, enter your buying address, the serial code and the online activation process starts. If you are successful, you get the 'green' light to use the scenery in FSX. You can also install and activate without an active internet connection, but I have no experience of that process. The total download size in FSX is around 2.2GB and in FSX, it places a scenery file at the top of the FSX listings. Note: You need to have FSX SP2 (Accel/Gold) installed for this scenery to work. Aerosoft Launcher and File installed size The Manual/Documentation The manual is concise, comprising of 17 pages. It covers an introduction, system requirements, copyright data, support, Aerosoft installer and launcher, display settings, compatibility, credits, airport and heliport information, and FAQ's. I did not test to see if this airport works with AES. The manual also contains links to the web for the airport charts for the various aerodromes and airstrips. No links are given for the heliports/pads. During the installation, a kmz file for Google Earth is downloaded to the Aerosoft\US Cities X folder in FSX, detailing all of the features of this package. Coverage area Las Vegas X Aerosoft Launcher As well as controlling installation, you can also tweak the autogen settings in Las Vegas X using this app. In LV X (3 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

4 you can choose between More autogen less custom 3D buildings for slower systems or More custom 3D building the latter being recommended for faster systems. I used the latter and I only experienced minimal impact on system performance. Autogen density settings Advised Display (Graphics/Scenery) settings: In the manual, there is a comprehensive section on the advised display settings. With this scenery package, I did note a fall in frame rates, but it was still reasonably smooth. The setting that might impact a system most adversely was setting the "autogen density" to "extremely dense" and the "scenery density" also to "extremely dense". "Water effects" were set to "Max 2" and this may also have an impact on lesser systems. There is also a section on road vehicles using a setting of around 20% or higher, but inexplicably the airline and general aviation traffic densities were not mentioned but set to "zero" in the manual screenshots and airport vehicle density was also set to 0. Using the advised settings, I did not see any AI traffic (aircraft or road vehicles) at the airport so I had to set the airline traffic density to 80 and the general aviation traffic density to 50, and the airport vehicle density to low. Graphics scenery settings The SimVisual Experience: As I stated above, there is quite a diverse amount of scenery in this package, ranging from metropolitan scenery in Las Vegas to the desert, mountain and canyon scenery surrounding the city. Much of it is well done, but I did find that some of the buildings are not as clear as I would have liked them. I think that the thing that got to me the most was that some of the buildings were grey, almost featureless, and very blurry close-up, but others had excellent detail. As with Cleveland-X there seemed to be a mixture of flat photo type scenery mixed in with 3-D rendered buildings and textures, this was quite disconcerting when moving around the various objects. Therefore, as I stated in the Cleveland-X review, while you get lovely 3-D images in most of the scenery you also got these flat "texture less" type areas that only became alive when viewed from above 200 feet or so. Similarly, at KLAS some of the buildings have great detail others are a little out of focus and that sort of mixture can be quite disconcerting. (4 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

5 Again I reiterate, that from a height of 200 feet + the roads are excellent, they re smooth with nice curves and excellent elevations, but travelling at road level showed that the textures were anything but smooth with large bumps and humps experienced as I moved through the city streets. In the end, I tended to use the helicopter to explore the various areas of the airports/city. (5 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

6 Various views of the Las Vegas strip The Airports: (ref Wikipedia) The airports included with Las Vegas X include: McCarran International KLAS This is the major airport in Las Vegas as well as serving the surrounding areas. The airport is located five miles (8 km) South of Las Vegas, and it covers an area of 2,800 acres (1,100 ha) with four runways, 1/19; 7/25 at an elevation of around 2,220 being constructed of concrete and asphalt. The runways, taxiways and aprons are well modeled in the Aerosoft software. In 2010, around 40,000,000 passengers landed or left KLAS, which makes it 22nd in the world for passenger traffic. The airport ranked 9th in the world for aircraft movements with 505,591 takeoffs and landings. The markings on the runway indicate that this is indeed a busy airport, However, due to my problems with AI traffic I could not populate the airport to reflect this amount of movement. Aerosoft have not modeled any new buildings, but what buildings are there, are realistic enough for most simmers. Night lighting of the terminals, taxiways and runways is good. There are 3 terminals at KLAS and again these appear to be in the correct positions and reasonably realistic. All in all, the airport is well done and again superior to the default version. (6 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

7 KLAS showing day and night textures, layout and attention to detail North Las Vegas KVGT This is a regional airport located three miles (6 km) NW of Las Vegas, it is the second busiest airport in LV covering an area of 920 acres (372 ha) at an elevation of 2,205 feet (672 m), plus it has three asphalt runways: 7/25 and 12L/30Rm). The Aerosoft version is very realistic and includes the new east apron, and it has all of the relevant buildings, aprons, taxiways and runways. All navigation settings are accurate, and night textures are well rendered. (7 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

8 KVGT showing a Google Earth image, then the Aerosoft layout and the day/night textures Henderson Executive KHND KHND is a public airport located 13 miles (20 km) South of Las Vegas, in Clark County, Nevada, United States, and is used as a reliever airport for McCarran International Airport, KLAS. Henderson Executive Airport covers an area of 760 acres (310 ha) at an elevation of 2,492 feet (760 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt-paved runways: 17R/35L & 17L/35R with around 70,000 aircraft movements each year. Again, well modeled in the Aerosoft version. KHND in real life and in Las Vegas X (courtesy Google Earth) Boulder City Municipal 61B 61B is a public airport located one mile (1.6 km) SW of Boulder City, in Clark County, Nevada, United States, it is approximately 30 miles from Las Vegas. Boulder City Municipal Airport covers an area of 530 acres (210 ha) (8 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

9 which contains three asphalt runways: 9L/27R, 9R/27L and 15/33 at an elevation of It has around 50,400 aircraft operations each year. Well done in LV X, again with the new apron layout. Boulder City in real life and in Las Vegas X (courtesy Google Earth) Nellis AFB KLSV KLSV is a USAF Base, located approximately 7 miles (11.4 km) NE of Las Vegas. It has two concrete runways 03/21/LR at an elevation of 1800, with the AFB covering 14,000+ acres (57 km2), providing 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2) of airspace for flying operations. Nellis AFB day and night Indian Springs AF Aux (Creech AFB) KINS Creech Air Force Base, formerly known as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, is a USAF base located about 35 miles (56 km) NW of Las Vegas and 45 miles (72 km) NW of Nellis Air Force Base. It has two asphalt runways 8/26; 13/31 at an elevation of (9 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

10 Creech AFB Desert Rock DRA Desert Rock Airport is a private airport located three miles (5 km) SW of Mercury, Nye County, and is about 75 miles from Las Vegas. KDRA covers 100 acres (40 ha) and has one asphalt runway, 2/20. Deep in the desert, not too much to remodel here but Aerosoft have done a creditable job. Desert Rock Dawn Yucca Runway NV11 Yucca Airstrip is a private airport located 17 miles (27 km) N Mercury, in Nye County, Nevada, about 100 miles from Las Vegas. Yucca Airstrip Airport covers an area of 41 acres (17 ha) with 2 runways, one located on the salt flat and a shorter asphalt runway, 01/19 and 14/32 at an elevation at around 4,000. Not too much info here as Aerosoft say, rather new secret runway not reported in official notams. End of story! Yucca Airstrip and salt flats Echo Bay 0L9 Echo Bay Airport is a public airport located in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 14 miles (23 km) S of Overton, and is approximately 60 miles from Las Vegas. 0L9 covers 11 acres and has one asphalt runway, 6/24 at an elevation of around (10 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

11 Echo Bay on the shores of Lake Mead Perkins (aka Overton Municipal Airport) U08 U08 is a public airport located 2 miles (3 km) N of Overton, in Clark County, Nevada, and is about 70 miles from Las Vegas. U08 covers 250 acres (101 ha) and has one asphalt runway, 13/31 at an elevation of U08 Approach Las Vegas Speedway Heliport, 0L6 This is located at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ie a landing pad located outside the racetrack at turn 2. The speedway complex looks great and like most items in this scenery, it is best viewed at a height rather than at ground level. In DX10 preview mode, I did have a problem here visually with a large blue triangle with Flight Simulator X being superimposed on the heliport but this disappeared once I had deselected DX 10 Preview. 0L6 day and night plus stadium Night Textures In the FAQ section of the manual it is stated that the night textures are now included, and in general the night textures are well done adding a degree of realism and complexity. (11 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

12 Las Vegas at night IFR Flights As in my Cleveland X review, I flew an IFR flight this time from Chicago in poor visibility (overcast all of the way), in a default B737 and using the GPS for navigation, I had no issues in finding the correct runway at KLAS and being directly in line when I burst out of the gloom. Airport Textures General From what I can discern from Google Earth, the taxiways are accurate. They have excellent textures and clear taxiway signs guiding you to the departure or parking point. Again I make the same comments as I made about KCLE, in that at KLAS the runways looked slightly too "new". In my mind they should have been dirtier and shown more tire and oil marks, but this is a minor criticism and again it could have been as a result of my settings. Further, I would also like to have seen better grass textures around the runways and see the car parks with 3 dimensional cars as opposed to flat packed cars. Hoover (Boulder) Dam The Hoover Dam, (Boulder Dam), is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and Nevada. The water textures are extremely good for the various surrounding lakes and the Hoover Dam at Boulder City is nicely reproduced on the Colorado River and great views of Lake Mead. Likewise, Lake Mead looks excellent, with good color depiction, wave flows and cloud reflections at the higher water settings. There is a nice article on Wikipedia: It really is great to fly around this area low n slow in the default helicopter(s). (12 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

13 Hoover Dam Virtual and real Aircraft Taxiing and Parking I tested this feature at some of the airports, but mainly at KLAS McCarran International airport and as in my review of KCLE I used the default B737 from the runway and taxi to the gates via the taxiways and vice versa. Take-offs and landings were performed with a default A-360, and I found no issues in either situation. There are several air-bridges or jet ways at Las Vegas and these work quite well. Again as with KCLE, I did not have the opportunity to test to see if AES works at this airport. AI Traffic At KLAS, the major airport, there was a certain amount of movement of vehicle and aircraft traffic, which lent itself to a realistic experience. Obviously, there was less traffic at the other surrounding airports. With the Aerosoft recommended settings AI traffic movement plus vehicles are well represented. Las Vegas surrounding scenery Aerosoft have done a very good job in seamlessly integrating in with the surrounding scenery, and as a famous British comedian (Eric Morecombe) used to say, You can t see the join. Nuff said. Sounds As with many of its X cities, Aerosoft provides its own sound effects for downtown and highway traffic, i.e., around the city and the airports and the various highways that are modeled. In general, the sounds are excellent and they do enhance the simming experience Support Support is via , support@aerosoft.de, and there is also a forum, and the homepage is at, Summing Up Like all of the X sceneries from Aerosoft, this is a competent scenery/airport add-on from Aerosoft, built for a price, ie value for money. The airports, airfields, helipads, etc are well modeled and the accuracy is good. There is a lot to see, easy to fly with great visibility for miles around, and the desert textures and salt flats are well rendered. The lack of detail ie a fuzziness in some the buildings when others were built to a very high standard has to be expected at this value price point. The night textures are good, and it is very nice to see them included. My final thoughts (reflecting my Cleveland X comments) are that Las Vegas X is a very nice competent package, and as I have said many times before, once you fly around, into or out of US Cities-X Las Vegas (like Cleveland) (13 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM

14 you will find it very difficult to fly in the default FSX scenery. What I Like About Las Vegas Value for money Better than default scenery Looks great in DX10 preview Good integration with the default scenery Wide variety of scenery/airports included Lots of places to fly Good for helicopter simmers What I Don't Like About Las Vegas Out of focus appearance of textures on some buildings some ground textures eg parked cars have no detail at ground level Printing If you wish to print this review or read it offline at your leisure, right click on the link below, and select "save as" US Cities X - Las Vegas (adobe acrobat required) Comments? Standard Disclaimer The review above is a subjective assessment of the product by the author. There is no connection between the product producer and the reviewer, and we feel this review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment as experienced by the reviewer. This disclaimer is posted here in order to provide you with background information on the reviewer and any presumed connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party. Tell A Friend About this Review! AVSIM Online All Rights Reserved (14 of 14)08/11/2011 6:02:38 PM