Carenado Mooney 201 FSX Update 2009

By Matt Hinchliffe
17 March 2009

Carenado have been faithful to their FS2004 models, upgrading them to full FSX standard including self-shadowing, bump maps and specular textures and they dutifully and swiftly upgraded their popular Mooney released last year.

   

The package contains the same as the FS2004 download but can be upgraded freely to high definition textures from ORBX for both the virtual cockpit and exterior, doubling the detail of many areas of the plane. These textures by Russell White are brilliant to look at and really make the VC pop out. When re-saved into DXT5 format the textures should also not alter performance, filesize being the same as the old 32 bit textures used in FS2004. These high resolution textures are also available for other Carenado products, some in even higher resolution.

   

The Mooney in FSX performs even better than it did already so impressively in FS2004. Flying into detailed airports with lots of autogen and high anti-aliasing settings the plane actually performed better than the default C172 with the frame rate impact being similar to the default Aircreation Ultralight which shows detail doesn't have to cost huge performance as some developers will tell you.

   

Flying is just as docile and stress free as it was last year, zooming between small airports along the coasts of Australia was great fun and it's nice that the developer has also managed to get trim right and basic characteristics such as using throttle to ascend and descend are well modelled.

Overall Carenado have ticked every box with their FSX Mooney. It isn't a half-baked port but a full FSX model at a very reasonable price. With the addition of high-res textures it makes a top class add-on for your hangar.

   

Test Specs

Test Time

Matt Hinchliffe
hinch@forum-design.co.uk

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