Aerosoft's Mega Airport Budapest X

By Kevin Glover
26 November 2008

This is one of the first ultra high-detail sceneries that I have flown, and I must say that I am somewhat overwhelmed and blown away. From a reviewing standpoint, I'm aware that I got myself into a good deal more than I thought, and there's an overwhelming sense of 'where do I start?'. There are a total of six small airports around the scenery that I counted, the whole thing is covered with photographic textures, and on top of that there's the airport itself. While I'll try to cover what I consider the most important aspects, just remember that for every flight you'll take here, you'll find something new.

First Impressions

The product came in the form of a large, 600MB download from the Aerosoft servers. The download and installation was uneventful, and I found some new files in my Aerosoft folder and the group in the start menu. The manual is nicely done, and includes some information about the airport, suggestions for optimizing your simulation, and a large number of informational charts. Naturally, I immediately booted up to see the product. To my surprise, the product maintains a fairly stable balance between detail and performance. I was greeted by a mass of objects, and at first had a bit of a slideshow, but when I tweaked a little I was happy with the result. Overall, I was able to run scenery settings at max, with no traffic and default aircraft, and still maintain at least 20 FPS.

Budapest

On the product page, Aerosoft does indeed tell you that they cover the city of Budapest in photoreal textures, but what they don't mention is the staggering quantity of autogen and the fine placement thereof. I'll admit the photoreal textures in this area aren't the best that I've seen, but one cannot complain as this is simply described as an extra. All of the houses are placed in orderly rows and have a realistic feel about them. Please note that in some of my review images, the top of the house will be replaced with images of two gables. This is not a problem with this product, but something that has gone wrong in my sim. The textures on the buildings are perfectly fine, and there are a lot of realistically drab apartment buildings and the like. Naturally, some of Aerosoft's superb custom buildings show up here. There is a statue on a peak overlooking the city, a palatial building on the banks of the Danube, and numerous bridges, gas stations, and everything else all over the city. In my flights, I discovered an animated hot-air balloon making its sedate way up and down over the city. Some of the buildings do float, and some are sunk into the terrain. Also, the bridges don't always match up to the terrain. The only complaint that I have is the quality of the photoreal textures. You can make out basic distinctions like buildings and roads, but overall the quality is somewhat mediocre. While it would be nice not to see these issues, I still can't complain as this is all just icing on the cake. The only complaint that I have is the quality of the photoreal textures.

Budapest Ferihegy

As the focal point of this add-on, there it little left to be desired. Ferihegy is a bustling airport which, while being a significant European hub, seems to lack the complexity and confusion of some of the largest airports. For the most part, the airport is divided into three parts: terminals 1, 2a, and 2b. All of the buildings and objects are modeled with top-notch texture quality. Many of the informational signs around the airport are crisp enough to read. The area around the terminals is certainly the busiest. A road travels along the terminal, going underneath the rows of jetways, and this is usually occupied with an airport official car, a bus, or perhaps a fuel truck. For that matter, all of the AI road traffic really brings this airport to life. There is a great quantity in and around the airport. The quality of these vehicles varies; once I saw one driving happily along about ten feet in the air, but it's just about at the same level of the FSX default traffic.

Both of the terminals are modeled quite attractively and consist of fairly bland textures of greenish-tinted windows and greyish walls. While this might sound like your average office type building in FSX, the high-quality textures really add a lot. At each individual gate, you're greeted by a hoard of objects to welcome your jetliner. Unfortunately, the jetways aren't animated, but when you first boot up at a gate, the jetway will be positioned near enough to the aircraft to look like it's about to connect. One feature which I think is frankly quite incredible is the parking system. As you pull up to a gate, there will be a screen mounted on a pole which shows you how to park your airplane. If you're too far off to one side, it'll correct you. Additionally, it'll have a column which grows shorter as you get closer to where you stop, and it'll stay 'stop' when you're on the spot, and 'too far' if you're too far. This is just plain genius in my opinion, and since I've scarcely seen this, it was quite a neat experience for me.

Other than the terminals, there is plenty of detail in the less-important parts of the airport also. There are some huge Lufthansa hangars on a lonely strip of tarmac, as well as some odd conical buildings which are covered in aluminum plate. There are plenty of details around, such as 3D marker poles, high-quality taxiway signs, and taxiway lights. All of this is on photoreal textures, and I'm simply astounded that I can run this much detail with acceptable frames.

The scenery comes with night lighting and winter textures. Both of these are done quite as well as the daylight and summer textures, and all of the lights at the airport are 3D. The night scenery is probably my favorite, and the buildings of the city are all lit up nicely. The winter textures are just fabulous, and there's even visible frost on the tarmac.

Farkashegy

Farkashegy is one of the two other Budapest airports that Aerosoft modeled. Farkashegy is a quiet little retreat from the city life of Budapest, and you can see a plume of steam rising over the hill from where this city is located, marking one of the industrial plants in the city. The airport is just a small grass strip with some buildings located nearby, and there are quite a few static gliders around, denoting this airfield's main occupation. There are plenty of custom details, of course, such as cars, a fire extinguisher, gliders in hangars and around the airfield, and small flower beds.

Harmashatarhegy

Harma.....Harmash..... Well anyway, this airport is located just northeast of Ferihegy. This airport has many of the features of Farkashegy with safety cones and the like and is even similarly located; up on a hill set apart from the city, although this one is surrounded by houses. I'm happy that Aerosoft chose to add these small airports, and my astonishment continues to grow considering the detail for the amount of money that I spent. As with all of the objects in this scenery, the texture quality is really top-notch.

Budaors

In my mind, this is the epitome of an industrial airpark. A grimy, dirty building supervises the odd taxiway arrangement which leads to the two dirt runways. The buildings have some animated birds swirling and diving above them, as do many of the airports in this package. This is again in the city, but not in an area quite as congested as Ferihegy. I find little else to describe here other than the photoreal textures look a little odd because of what looks to be small trenches. However, this is a photoreal texture, so it obviously doesn't look too fake. It just struck me as odd.

Dunakeszi

This is my favorite of the airports as it's little more than a cleared field for aircraft. The airport has its grass runways marked out by some simple paint and markers, and the buildings are neatly kept with decorative hedges, some aircraft lying around, and the usual custom objects. I think you have a good idea of what the airports are like now, and even though there are two more, I think I'd become a little redundant if I went into detail about those. One of them is a neat little military base, and I'm going to enjoy taking screen shots around it.

Final Word

Aerosoft's Budapest Ferihegy leaves me with a certain amount of medical bills to pay for my damaged jaw and keyboard. I entered this review with an expectation of a nice, detailed little airport scenery and came away with an astounding rendition of Budapest and its airports. Absolutely no complaints can be made regarding this package when you consider the price, and my admiration for Aerosoft products rises another notch with this scenery. This is, in my experience, one of the most complete packages for the price, and I still can't believe the amount of detail here. What can I say, other than that to fully experience this city, you must try it for yourself.

Kevin Glover
kevin.glover@hotmail.com

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