Stephen Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 News! - New X-Plane11 Scenery Version : LFMN - Nice v1.3 by JustSim Just over six months ago X-PlaneReviews did a comprehensive back to back Review of JustSim's LFMN Nice Côte d'Azur Airport and LFKC Calvi - Sainte-Catherine, Corsica by Aerosoft. (review). Both sceneries were excellent, certainly as a matched pair for point to point services. But already we have an update of the LFMN - Nice scenery from JustSim that is now X-Plane11 compatible. The scenery is also one of the first to take in and use the new X-Plane features so it is worth having a look at. LFMN - Nice Airport is on the French south Côte d'Azur just 3.7 miles west of the city centre of Nice. It is a very good scenery with great intergration into the X-Plane landscape. Service wise it is highly usable because of its excellent position for not only Europe, but the many Mediterranean destination and even North African ports also right on your doorstep. X-Plane11 Reflections The big new feature at LFMN from X-Plane11 is glass reflections, using "Physically Based Rendering" or "PBR". This new tool can finally give X-Plane real looking glass, which has always been one of the most hardest areas to get right from X-Plane scenery developers, many have been very successful, but in a lot of sceneries the glass areas have been woeful. The reflection feature works extremely well at LFMN, because of the large wall glass areas. But the real experience is as you move around the terminals as the reflections are excellent and they move with you. This is certainly nothing new in X-Plane as we have had cockpit panel reflections for years, but it is a new reality feel to use in scenery. The UFO saucer shaped T2 makes the most of this feature because of it's unique shape. So naturally this comes off better than most in the scenery. While still on terminals the LFMN scenery now has a many autogates (marginal) working, but you are required to have the plugin installed. Regional Autogen In the release version of LFMN. You had the option of downloading OSM (Open Street Map) w2xp scenery converted to 3d objects. I noted I didn't like it and mainly for the nasty framerate kill of 15-20 frames, it didn't look right either. In this 1.3 version the 3d objects have been dropped for the newer X-Plane11 autogen region system. Efficiency is the biggest benefit as the built in autogen is far (far) better better than the old OSM 3d object version, it looks better from the air as well. The X-Plane11 regional system allows terraced buildings and that has been put to great effect here, but the German autogen is slightly off, but still at least it is now European. A note on this regional autogen is that it is very early days yet on how good this visual tool will be, it is still quite basic, but I hope Laminar Research with external 3rd parties do put a lot of attention its way as it has the potential to be a great feature for X-Plane. On installing, make sure the old "- LFMN_Nice_JustSim_City" folder is removed before running the new version, if required the old w2xp-scenery is still available for download. X-Plane11 Parked Aircraft Static parked aircraft comes with X-Plane11 as well. And LFMN has been well configured to take advantage of the feature. The static aircraft feature works but only to a point? One is that here I am in the South of France, but LFMN is dominated by American and Canadian aircraft, and two there is a huge military DC-10 on the ramps. You can of course select the DC-10 out, but not the choice of liveries? I still use as in the review WorldTraffic by Classic Jet Simulations as it gives you more ramp control. And a very animated airport comes as a bonus. Wet (Reflective) Runways Another great feature is reflective runways. Bring down the rain and you get a wet look on the runway surface, it looks brilliant in the right light and conditions, be prepared to see more like this. All the rest of the features with this JustSim LFMN - Nice scenery are all still in there with excellent textures and lighting and great ground animations. X-Plane11 is already known for its great atmospheric feeling and that it is all highlighted here. In a few months most of which is noted here will be second nature in X-Plane11, even almost background noise. But it is exciting to see and use for the first time. It is an exciting time for developers as well in the way they can use these great new features, and no doubt they will to their utter most limits.... that is exciting as well. The LFMN v1.3 scenery is priced at great value at US$19.50, for earlier previous owners of JustSim's LFMN Nice Cote D'Azur you can buy this new XP11 version for only $5 or the cost of a cup off coffee: Check out your original LFMN invoice at the store in your account, as the discount code will be listed there. You can still use the scenery in X-Plane10 as well as X-Plane11 but without the above mentioned features. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Version v1.3 LFMN Nice Côte d'Azur Airport by JustSim is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LFMN - Nice Cote d'Azur Price: $19.50 Features: New version with support for X-Plane 11 (X-Plane 10 still supported) Support for Autogate Windows and glass have reflection (XP11 only) Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution photo scenery near airport and city. All objects are manually placed. High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures Runway reflection effect Custom apron lights High resolution building textures Optimized for excellent performance Animated custom ground vehicles X-Life traffic compatible Requirements: X-Plane 10 and X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac, Linux - 800Mb HD Space Available 2Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum - 3Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current Version: XP11, v1.3 (last updated January 10th 2017) _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 11th January 2017 Copyright©2017: X-PlaneReviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe US$14.95 : WorldTraffic US$29.95 : Weather Engine xEnviro US$69.90 Scenery or Aircraft - CRJ-200 by JRollon Planes (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$49.95 : CRJ-200 Sound Packs by Blue Sky Star Simulations (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$20.00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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