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Lugano AirportPublisher: AerosoftReview Author: Stuart McGregorSuggested Price: $29.95/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.pngLugano Airport (ICAO Code LSZA) is inone of the most beautiful spots in Europe if you enjoy mountains andlakes. Nestling near the Swiss city of Lugano, the airport is justnorth of the Italian city of Milan and sits at an elevation of justover 900 feet or 270 meters. This area is well worth a visit if youhave never been there. The landscape is peppered with lakes andwaterways, which in combination with the surrounding hills andmountains, makes the whole area a fabulous area to fly in. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_11.jpgNot only is it a beautiful part of the world to explore, Luganowill also provide even the most experienced pilots with a challengewhen approaching runway 19, due in part to the challenging terrain.The steep sided hills may look nice from the rear cabin, but I'm surethey keep every pilot on the edge of their seat until they are safelyon the ground. By comparison, the approach to runway 01 is a littleless stressful, and this time you can take a few minutes to enjoy thebeautiful scenery as you line up to land over the large lake belowyou. Just watch out for the road at the beginning of the runway! The actual airport is a busy place with approximately 2,400 flightsreported each year, with somewhere in the order of 200,000 passengerscoming through its doors annually. When you look at the surroundingscenery I can see why. The following review is based on the recently updated X-Plane 11version of Lugano, and the thoughts and observations being offeredhere, are based on my experiences over several short test flights toand from the airfield. Hopefully they will provide you with aninsight into this scenery pack from Aerosoft. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_2.jpg /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_3.jpgPurchase, Download And InstallationMy copy was purchased fromwww.fspilotshop.comand the good news is that if you have previously purchased the X-Plane10 version, you will be entitled to a significant discount. Thediscount price is only $4.99, compared to the full price of $21.99.In this post X-Plane 10 world where there is lots of debate about therights and wrongs of upgrade charges for X-Plane 11 add-ons, Ipersonally found the discount on offer a nice compromise from thedevelopers, as I am sure some additional work has gone into theupgrade process. The total file size is 45 MB, so only takes a few minutes todownload if you have a decent internet connection. When you unzip thefolder, you will be faced with three separate folders (1. VolumetricGrass, 2. Roads, 3. Scenery) all of which are then transferreddirectly into your Custom Scenery folder. The description at thedownload site explains the minimum requirements needed to get themost out of the scenery, so like all add-ons, it's best to check thatyour hardware can handle the product prior to purchase. Nothing worsethan that rush of adrenaline when you buy the latest and greatest tolater find your frame rate is in single figures. Not that I have beenthere of course...hmmm. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_4.jpg /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_5.jpgDocumentationInside the Scenery folder you will find a short manual thatsummarizes bug fixes, explains the install process, provides adviceon the best graphics settings and how to interface with X-Life.Unfortunately, as I do not use the X-Life AI traffic plug-in, I amunable to comment on how well it dovetails with the scenery, howeverit is good to see developers working together to improve the overallexperience for end users. I did try the scenery alongside WorldTraffic 3.0, and it seemed to work well, and I did see a few flightscoming and going during the short tests I carried out. There were noobvious errors with flight plans and ground route generation, althoughsome of the taxi routes didn't quite work as they should (aircraft onthe grass), however aircraft came and went as I sat and observed. One final area covered by the manual is the use of the VolumetricGrass feature as it is clear from reading the text that for someusers, the extra load placed on their graphics hardware can beexcessive. Being able to switch this feature off by modifying yourscenery.ini file means that if frame rates suffer, it can be switchedoff. You can also just not install the folder, and I found no issuesin doing this. Throughout my tests, I left everything as intended bythe developer with the Volumetric Grass folder in place and switchedon. In my tests, the frame rate never dipped much below the mid 20'sand generally it was hovering about 30 as I taxied around theapron. Although not much to shout about, the manual is simple andwell-presented, although a few photos would have been nice. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_10.jpg /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_7.jpgSystem PerformanceMy assessment of Lugano was using X-Plane 11.10 and the defaultSikorsky S-76 and Cessna C172SP. I am lucky enough to have a prettypowerful system with an Intel i7 5820K 3.3 GHz CPU (overclocked to4.0 GHz), GTX1080Ti 11GB GPU and 32GB of Kingston RAM at its core, sothis helps maximise what can be achieved with scenery like the one onoffer here. With the default mesh installed, 'Runways set to Follow TerrainContours' in X-Plane's settings (avoids some strange terrain effectsaround the airfield), objects set to max, HDR on high and parkedaircraft visible; frame rates were good throughout and I had noissues. Everything ran smoothly. Look And FeelBased on the real-life photographs I have seen of the airfield andsurrounding area, the Aerosoft development team have created a veryaccurate representation of Lugano airport. The authentic airportbuilding layout in combination with nice touches like the adjacenttennis courts and tennis club, football pitches, cafe, World TradeCentre, industrial areas, maintenance buildings, static aircraft,flight school, fire and baggage trucks on standby and general clutteraround the airfield, are all excellent. The photorealistic texturingof the buildings and the realistic night textures truly make youbelieve you are at the real airfield. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_8.jpg /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_9.jpgThe terminal building, through to the various other industrialbuildings dotted about the airfield, provide you with an excellentplatform to explore the stunning surrounding scenery. If you areinterested in this area, Lugano is a great spot to start out from.Taxi signs and lines are easy to read, making for easy navigation, andthe numerous runway, ramp and helipad start options provide amultitude of embarkation points if you wish to vary your flights.Static aircraft can be switched on and off to suit personal tastes viathe X-Plane graphics menu, for example if using X-Life or WorldTraffic. To get the animated apron vehicles to appear I did have touse the default X-Plane AI aircraft, however this worked well, and itwas nice to see some movement on the apron. In my view, the additionof animation like this, makes all the difference in the userexperience. In a relatively small airfield such as Lugano, there wasjust enough to make it feel authentic. Final ThoughtsWhatever way you look at it, and I tried a few, Lugano Airport fromAerosoft is indeed a quality product, doing exactly what it says onthe box. If you're looking for a realistic representation of thisairport, then you really can't go wrong if you were to purchase theAerosoft X-Plane 11 version being reviewed here. An accurate airportlayout, with challenging and enjoyable approaches, quality texturing,excellent details, warm and authentic night illuminations, as well asoptions to interface with add-ons such as X-life, all make thisscenery package one to add to the birthday or Christmas wish list.If you are also lucky enough to be able to benefit from the $4.99upgrade price, it all seems like a total bargain in my opinion, buteven at the full purchase price, I believe this package really doesprovide value for money. /images/reviews/lugano/t/s-76c_6.jpgIn saying that, there was one detail missing that stopped it frombeing perfect, and that was the lack of people. I appreciate that itmay not make much of a difference to many users to have people around,however I really like to see life in the way of homo sapiens goingabout their business. Having a few people around adds that extrafinal touch of realism, and in my opinion, an airport withoutpassengers is like Laurel without Hardy, Tom without Jerry, Scotlandwithout the Loch Ness Monster, or even your favorite burger withoutfries or ketchup, it just doesn't feel right... However, even with this omission, the combination of stunningsurroundings, a good quality representation of the airport, animationon the apron and some fun flying, makes Lugano well worth consideringfor your next payware scenery. /images/notams/notams17/luga0920.jpgStuart McGregor Purchase Aerosoft - Lugano Airport for X-Plane 11