Aerosoft’s CasblancaReviewed by Ludo Lambrechts
The world is made up of 7 different continents. 6 of these continents are abundant with flight simmers. The countries of Germany, Italy, USA, and Japan have been spoiled with the amount of add-ons for their countries. Also arguments can be made for Canada, Switzerland, and many other European countries. However, how many scenery add-ons for Africa have we seen? A couple for Cape Town, which not many know of and that is about it. Does the lack of add-ons in Africa mean there are no simmers in that region? No, and that is why Aerosoft has developed and released
Casablanca is the economic capital of Morocco, but not the political capital. Being the biggest city in Morocco, Casablanca holds 3.5 million people. It is located on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco. It serves as the chief port city for Morocco which drives that whole economy. The local architecture is extremely unique and there is a wide assortment of landmarks. The importance of this city is extreme and the particular architecture makes it a perfect choice for a scenery add-on.
So far in this review I have been discussing the city of Casablanca but Aerosoft has gone beyond just the city and has included two airports. Mohammed V International Airport and Anfa Airport are both included in high quality. Both airports are built on high quality photograph texturing and accurate building dimensions. The Mohammed V airport is a terrific showing of the way developers can make ground textures one of the most appealing part of the add-on. The merging of the concrete and surrounding grass is near perfect. Add on top of that high resolution taxiways and you’ve got ground textures that would rival the best of scenery add-ons.
The terminals at the Mohammed V airport is one that you’ll always remember, The jetways, textures, and other details are extremely appealing and will make this one of your favourite airports to visit.
The second airport that has been included is Anfa. Located on the south west side of the city this airport is a small field that is perfect for practicing your touch and go’s. The field is small, with a few hangers. The hangers are created with photograph material and so are the ground textures. This airport is nothing that would stand out as an independent product but is an amazing value in this package.
The city of Casablanca as I stated earlier has adopted a very unique architecture. But in default there is no sign of this architecture, there is just a basic autogen. The city is rendered along photographic material. The autogen has been created to match the natural autogen of Casablanca, and the mesh has been adapted to match photographic materials.
Many Casablanca landmarks have been included. These models where independently rendered with both quality and performance in mind. Included are buildings such as the Hassan II Mosque, the Casablanca Technopark, a 67,000 person stadium, and many more landmarks. The landmark that stands out the most in this scenery is the port. It has ships included, as well as all other things you’d see at a port.
The performance of an add-on like this is a big part of consumer’s choices. It is undoubtedly a big leap over the default area but to be able enjoy it you need to avoid lagging. It is hard to tell if an add-on like this will lag your system as there are a lot of variables in regards to systems, and settings. I have a monster system with my AMD Athlon 64X2 4800+ and the XFX Geforce 7950GX2. It does not lag for me, but neither does Aerosoft Manhattan. However the add-on was built with frame rates in mind. The airports are big enough but do not cover a lot of area which helps a lot in the frame rates issue. All models are made to look best from further away which helps for people with “lower-end” systems. Your frame rates will never fall lower than any other default city out there as it has been built with “optimization” in mind.
The Casablanca is a terrific add-on which has exceeded my expectations of it. At less than $20 Canadian there is not much to expect. The scenery is a terrific example of how to use photographs in Flight Simulator. Two great airports plus a high-quality scenery makes this scenery a top notch advocate for value in add-ons. Maybe it doesn’t come in quality to the Manhattan add-on , but Casablanca does a much better job in respect to value. For the outstanding features of this package I award Aerosoft a 9.5 out of 10 for the Casablanca scenery.
Reviewed by Ludo Lambrechts for Aerosoft
Aerosoft’s Casablanca
[GK-customfield]FSX[customfield-GK] 
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[GK-customfield]FS9[customfield-GK] 
