Aerosoft BeaverX review

You could argue that Aerosoft have been brave releasing the Beaver as their first Flight Simulator X compatible aircraft, given that a Beaver is supplied as a default aircraft in FSX, but let’s look at what you get with this package:

• Fully FSX compatible, with all features new to FSX
• Separate internal and external MDL’s (40 in total!)
• Reduced polygon count because of careful use of bumpmaps textures, even
  though far more details are shown (= better frame rates)
• Fully supports extensive damage/failure model of FSX (check out the engine fire)
• FSX specific effects for snow, crop dusting, fire fighting
• All textures in DDS format
• Includes specular, bumpmap, fresnels effects
• Additional VC views defined
• Extensive use of texture fall back folders
• Solid and dependable flight model
• Leather seats and electrical flap system (luxury!) on most models
• Five models (ski/wheel, floats, amphibian, wheels, tundra wheels)
• Seven different pilots, six different interiors
• Forty-five textures (plus paint kit)
• Extended manual, thirty-four pages, many illustrations
• High definition and fast Virtual Cockpit (defined as main view, no 2d panels provided)
• Signed gauges (so perfectly safe)
• San Francisco sea plane base
• Light on frame rates
• The FS2004 version was our best selling aircraft online and got near perfect reviews
• A perfect introduction to FSX because this aircraft is relatively simple in setup and configuration. Following the simple guide in the manual you will even learn how the texture fall back system works (and end up with your own personalized beaver).
• Gets you everywhere, snow, water, soft runways or tarmac, there is a Beaver in this package for every terrain.

Given that you only get the float-plane variant as a default in FSX, if you’re a fan of this aircraft, you may well be tempted by all the extras you get with this package.

I’ve not flown (or even been in) the real aircraft, but the Aerosoft model has a nice “heavy” feel to it, which is exactly how I would expect an aircraft of this type to feel. This compares favourably to the handling of the default FSX Beaver, which seems just a little too sensitive and sprightly. I personally found the virtual cockpit to be a little dark, but not so dark that it detracted from the overall enjoyment of flying the aircraft.

The attention to detail on the models is terrific, well up to Aerosoft’s usual high standard with very crisp textures and weathering detail around the airframe. There are some nice additional animations on some of the models, such as the engine cowling removal and the small prop on the belly of the crop spraying variant.

The crop duster and fire fighter operations are carried out by using the “I” key. As can be seen from the screenshots above and below the fire fighter drops an orange “substance” when opening it’s valves and the crop duster throws it’s chemicals onto the earth. Some fun can be had when carrying out some hard turns whilst delivering either of these cargo’s in external view mode.

Aerosoft have provided some modified scenery to go with the aircraft. From the manual: “We will always try to deliver a small scenery with an aircraft to give you a starting point for your explorations. We decided to use the small seaplane base at Pier 39 in San Francisco. This proved to be a bad choice as it was very hard to make a small scenery there without having to redo a large part of the San Francisco harbor. So there are limitations, partly due to the location, partly due to the incomplete SDK‟s from MS, but our beta testers told us it was still fun enough to be used. Chris Brisland painted the correct beaver that flies (or flown, we are not sure) from this pier. You will find a startup file with the other flights of FSX. We are aware that some objects could be appear floating and that glass fences are not transparent. The moment we have better tools we will solve these issues.” To be honest, it’s not that great and it looks like they’ve merely added it because they perhaps felt they should. Still, it’s effectively something for nothing, and you’re not obliged to use it. It certainly doesn’t detract from the package as a whole.

The package comes with a very good 34 page manual, which provides a little history of the aircraft, details about which keys can be used for the various animations and aircraft operating procedures. It also explains how to alter the interior and pilot appearance. Interestingly, this is done by manually altering configuration files, rather then being
supplied with a utility to do so. As the manual explains, “it will teach you something about the inner workings of FSX”, which is true, but I can’t help feeling some people wouldn’t be too comfortable with the idea of manually changing the files.

The sound set provided with the aircraft is wonderful. I just love the sound of large single-engined props and this one doesn’t fail to put a smile on your face.

Installation

I installed the downloadable version of the BeaverX from the Aerosoft web site. Installation was very simple, only requiring you toenter your registration codes and path to Flight Simulator X.

System Requirements

Aerosoft quote the following as the system requirements for the Beaver:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator X (NOT compatible with older versions)
• Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (NOT compatible with older versions)
• Pentium 2 GHz (Duo2Core Intel advised)
• 1 GB RAM (2 Gb advised)
• 256 Mb DirectX 9 graphics card
• Sound card
• Adobe Acrobat® Reader 6 minimal to read and print the manual (1)
• Download-Size: 245 MB
• Installations-Size: 700 MB

I tested the application using Flight Simulator X on a machine with a 2Ghz Centrino processor with 1Gb RAM, a 256Mb nVidia 7800 graphics card and around 200Gb free space on my FSX install directory. Frame rates were acceptable. I noticed an approximate 10% drop in frame rates compared to the default aircraft supplied with FSX.

Conclusion

When I first heard that Aerosoft where releasing the Beaver for FSX, my initial thought was “Why?”. However, during the review it became obvious that a lot of time and effort has gone into its creation and I certainly had a lot of fun with all the variations and additional features this add-on provides. Since starting with FSX, I find myself doing many more shorter flights using GA aircraft, compared to the many long-haul flights I carried out with earlier versions of the sim. Aerosoft’s BeaverX is the ideal tool for these short flights.

The aircraft have a very convincing “atmosphere” to them, giving you a real feel for the age and type of aircraft you’re flying.

I have no hesitation in recommending the aircraft to anyone who enjoys this type of flying and you do get rather a lot for the asking price (at the time of writing, 16.95 Euros).

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