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Scenery Preview: LIME - Bergamo by Aerosoft


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LIME _ Bergamo_Header.jpg

 

Scenery Preview: LIME - Bergamo by Aerosoft

 

There are three airports for Milan, Malpensa which is the big international one, Linate is the one close to the city and the third one is the one no one really knows about which is 45 km (28 mi) north-east of the city of Milan and it is called Bergamo or to give it it's full Italiate name Orio al Serio International Airport and it is actually the third busiest international airport in Italy. The airport is also named after it's local hero in Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio or Il Caravaggio... all very impressive, we will just call it Milan/Bergamo like everyone else does. 

 

Bergamo is an airport beloved by Ryanair, and yes they fly here in numbers. It is cheap to fly here because it is as far away from the actual destination as you can get, but still close enough to say "I went to Milan", but it is also very handy if you are going to stay around the lovely Italian lake area.

 

This is of course another Aerosoft redevelopment airport for X-Plane. One scenery that has been around on the Aerosoft product pages for FlightSim as long as anyone can remember, or forgot about. So here it is dusted off and given the X-Plane transformation, like Aerosoft's Genoa was last month. 

 

LIME - Bergamo


Orio al Serio International Airport
Il Caravaggio International Airport

 

IATA: BGY - ICAO: LIME

 

10/28 - 2,934m (9,630ft) Asphalt

12/30 778m (2,552ft) Asphalt

Elevation AMSL782 ft / 238 m

 

The alpine Lombardy city of Bergamo surrounds the airport, so the autogen has a big part to play in creating the mood and feel of the scenery. First impact is the far more higher saturation of the textures around the airport, almost a very darker tone than the rest of the feel. Yes the Google images show the same, but it is grating to the eyes, in saying that the scenery is well inserted into the surrounding mesh. The Alps in the background do provide a nice frame around the airport visually.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Head 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Head 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Head 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Head 4.jpg

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Head 5 LG.jpg

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Head 5.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Head 6.jpg

 

From these external aspects then Bergamo looks really good and is a great looking scenery visually. A large cargo facility for DHL and UPS dominates the eastern end of the airport. The very iconic and distinctive control tower dominates the central area....

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Head 7.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Head 8.jpg

 

Ground textures are excellent with great detail and authentic construction materials, Lineage and navigation is also rated high and very good...  grass is a feature.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Textures 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Textures 2.jpg

LIME _ Bergamo_Textures 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Textures 4.jpg

 

The International Terminal is modern and not only in it's real design but in X-Plane scenery design, because the building has a lot of new dynamic features... like great reflective see-through glass, materials, active traffic and....

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 4.jpg

 

... a very good internal layout, so the full modeling of the terminal here is very good. A note in that the terminal's position to the light, as it makes it quite dark on the airside and no matter what the season, and so in the shorter winter months it is really very dark.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 7.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 8.jpg

 

SAM is here!... the active SAM runs only two gates in 207 and 209 as per the real layout, but they are sensational as well, with their long fully reached boarding arms that are correct to the local airport signage.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 5.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 6.jpg

 

Bergamo is a significant cargo hub for the area, and as noted DHL and UPS have a big presence here. In the scenery this freight area is really well done and well laid out in detail and clutter.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Cargo 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Cargo 1.jpg

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Cargo 3 LG.jpg

 

The distinctive control tower totally dominates the scenery... very Italian, but also well designed here and again it comes here with internal layouts and reflective tinted glass.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Tower 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Tower 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Tower 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Tower 4.jpg

 

But the developer has got confused between the ramp tower (also well done) and the field tower (hint, it is the bigger one!) so the tower view is looking straight at the larger tower, great for the internal tower viewing, but useless for watching the RWY 28 approach.

 

North Boundary

On the north side of LIME there are two areas, one is a general purpose area with some stored Fokker F27s, the second area is the General Aviation area next to the smaller 12/30 runway, which again has a great surface and texture layout.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_North 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_North 1.jpg

 

Note the very colourfully painted hangar....

 

LIME _ Bergamo_North 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_North 4.jpg

 

Field radar is animated and their is a significant amount of custom buildings set out around the airport's (mostly southern) boundary.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 9.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Terminal 10.jpg

 

So from the outset then LIME - Bergamo looks like sensational scenery, but it is about here...   it all gets a bit frustrating and even confusing as well.

 

The point is the main ground textures and all the modeling in the scenery is absolutely first rate, or even exemplary within the airports boundaries.

 

But the photo mesh is horrible, and yes Aerosoft can seem to not to learn to change their out of date source (see Genoa for more) and in most areas it is all over saturated as mentioned. On the final approach to RWY 28 you get this eyesore (below left) and you are distracted by it...  no bridge, then a 3d bridge will do the job...  not.  Roads don't match the horrible grass green ones, and most flat areas are saturated to the extreme, but we have seen all these once too often now from Aerosoft. 

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 2.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 8.jpg

 

Where the underlay was simply too bad, then they just use plain old X-Plane textures (below) to cover the mess up, and yes it looks horrible and unauthentic.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 4.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 7.jpg

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 9.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 10.jpg

 

Nicely modeled buildings are ruined by their placement as well, and there are a few custom urban commercial areas. The replaced roadway is nice, except it is empty of life past a busy airport, so X-Plane puts a join in there to make it all worse with the disappearing traffic of course.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 5.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 6.jpg

 

In  the few areas the X-Plane autogen (below) is allowed to work it does a very nice job, so why not use it more effectively?

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 11.jpg

 

Landside areas come across as bland, more than realistic... and there is the odd parking of a static aircraft on the departure line of the Italian in-out system of stand parking and it ruins your taxi flow on departure...

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Average 13.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Average 12.jpg

 

Lighting

The lighting is a bit haphazard as well...  Approach lighting, runway and taxiway lighting is all very good.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 1.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 2.jpg

 

The main aprons and in front of the terminal parking is passable, but the cargo apron is in complete darkness? so when do cargo operators operate... at night of course.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 3.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 4.jpg

LIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 5.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 6.jpg

 

Terminal lighting is again just passable but not too bad, the central tower zone is very good and the highlight of lighting here with the...

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 7.jpgLIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 8.jpg

 

.....  very well done Orio Centre that is brighter than the airport itself. Shame about the cargo ramp lighting as the freight terminal looks nice at night.

 

LIME _ Bergamo_Lighting 9 LG.jpg

 

WT3: No WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are provided, and no ATC traffic routes are set in here either? so you can't even generate a set...  bum!. There are some old LIME ground routes, but they are way out of date and the aircraft disappear on landing? Traffic is here of the LCC catergory. Parking here is split between nose in for the airbridge and terminal gates and the in-out parking favoured by the Italians on most of the outer aprons...

 

Preview Notes

The pattern is very strong. When Aerosoft sceneries are good they are brilliant like EDDF-Frankfurt and ENGM-Oslo. But the when they redo an original Flightsim scenery for X-Plane the results are very hit and miss and mostly a poor update of the original because the original is already outdated.

 

The really big frustration with this LIME-Bergamo is that it could have been a real showcase for Aerosoft in quality and detail for X-Plane scenery, but it in fact shows that these sceneries are just being rolled over quickly to fill in a niche with as little money spent on them in development as possible. The basics that are all in here are really, really good to even great with top rate 3d modeling and textures, the ground runway, taxiway and apron layouts are again sensational... but the rest is simply horrible and those photo mesh textures are out of date and over saturated, in other words years old... yes wonderful in 2009, but horrible in 2019. Expensive for the money that has been spent on the conversion and you expect more.

 

Features

  • Custom jetways (using SAM plug-in)
  • Custom lighting
  • 50cm/pixel aerial image with hand-placed autogen
  • PBR ground textures
  • Animated radar
  • Animated ground traffic
  • Animated windsock
  • All airport buildings including surrounding buildings
  • Dynamic lighting
  • High-quality ground and building textures
  • Static aircraft
  • Volumetric grass

 

Positives: Main building modeling is very good with good airport ground textures, Nice grass. Distinctive control tower is a standout. SAM plugin activity (Two gates), and with a well laid out cargo area and good clutter.

Negatives: Poor old underlay texture mesh quality is horrible as is the ideas to cover it all up, poor detailing landside. Lighting is good in areas but sporadic and patchy in others, no cargo apron lighting is a hanging offence. No ATC (WT3) built in ground routes is another offence and a requirement for any payware scenery. Static aircraft is parked in the wrong place for traffic flow. Expensive for an old scenery.

 

____________________________________________________________________

 

X-Plane Store logo sm.jpg

 

Yes!... LIME - Bergamo by Aerosoft is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :

 

Bergamo XP

 

Price is US$28.99

 

Requirements :

X-Plane 11
Windows, Mac or Linux
2Gb VRAM Minimum - 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended
Last updated Feb 8th 2019 Version v1.0 and review copy
Download Size: 1.1gb : Install Size 2.02gb

 

Installation
Installation is with only one single airport folder that is inserted into your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder.
 
Extras and Documents:
Manual in German and English (24 pages)

  • Manual_Airport_Bergamo_XP11_de-en_web.pdf

______________________________________________________________________ 

 

Preview by Stephen Dutton

13th February  2019

Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews 

 

(Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)

 

Review System Specifications:

Computer System: Windows  - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD 

Software:   - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.31

Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose  Soundlink Mini

Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free

Scenery or Aircraft

- E-Jets 195 Evolution by SSG  (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$44.95
 

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