LAGO On Line has been producing leading edge scenery with their Terramesh series for quite some time now, filling the need for high quality MSFS scenery for areas outside the United States. The recent release of Emma Field and Honolulu turned a lot of heads with it's revolutionary use of G-Max to produce highly detailed, dynamic scenery objects with low impact on frame rates. Something never seen before in the MS scenery arena. Highly detailed airports and locations have been around since MSFS98 but have always had a heavy hit on performance, rendering some of those packages nearly useless. After reading a few technical articles about the new approaches, I decided to see for myself just how good this new scenery really was. 

Download and Installation..........

The software is a direct download from the LAGO site. USA mirrors where provided so despite my over-worked 56K connection I was able to grab the files without any problems. The download is free but before you can install the program you'll need to purchase a key code. This process was painless and professional. After parting with $19.42 US, I was ready to go.

The provided installer took care of everything so all that remained was to boot up MSFS, make the suggested configuration changes (autogen to normal, ground object shadows off.) The two areas in this release are centered around Ranger Creek near Greenwater Washington and the Flying M Ranch in Yamhill Oregon. These are both very small rural grass field operations set down in narrow valleys with impressive surrounding landscape, rendered in high-resolution mesh that's just spectacular. The installer provides a canned situation for each field that's optimized in terms of time of day and conditions to show these fields at their best.  

First Look........

You start off parked next to the little FBO shack, a beat up Gulf Stream trailer and VW bus. The detail on these objects is amazing but what really catches your attention are the trees. The stock auto-gen trees in MSFS are stubby little things that might be appropriate for certain parts of the country but have little in common with the huge firs, spruce and cedars found in the Pacific Northwest. The GeoRender trees are really wonderful and just what you'd expect to see in this part of the country. As you pan around you'll see a few other aircraft and lots of little things  like detailed fencing and power lines become apparent. Right away you know this is going to be fun.

Parked at Ranger Creek Washington

Frame Rates and Performance........

Of course, the whole purpose of this exercise is to see if you can have your cake and eat it too. If this amount of detail is going to impact frame rates this was the time to find out. On my system I normally run locked at 28 FPS. There was no change in that rate in any view that I brought up. That indicates to me that whatever impact these objects might be having, it was minimal on my setup. This was extremely good news because it meant that this scenery would not only be nice to look at but would be flyable as well.

Parked at the Flying M

Flying Challenges.......

Once you get into the air and run the pattern a few times you quickly realize that these are very challenging airfields to deal with. Both strips are very narrow and not terribly long. Ground objects, trees, fences and power lines all come into play as they would in any rural location like this. Forward slips and short field techniques are the order of the day.

Slipping into Ranger Creek from the south

Flying M, not so bad but watch out for those power lines and fences!

Final Thoughts.......

It's clear to me that LAGO has made a great leap forward with this scenery and I would highly recommend this package to anyone who enjoys bashing around rural airfields in small aircraft. The strips are only 162 NM apart and are set in some of the most scenic country in the US. The surrounding countryside is well rendered with high-res mesh and custom textures for all four seasons. Impact on system performance is minimal. This package is a winner that really starts to show the range and scope that MS has built into the current scenery system.

Tony Gondola, Digital Flight, 8/02

More screen shots.............

Ranger Creek, north approach, winter

In the Stearman, heading out from Ranger Creek

Late afternoon takeoff in the 108, Ranger Creek