Recently, I’ve got my hands on the FlyDesign’s Cannes – Mandelieu Airport scenery for X-Plane 11. First of all, I would like to thank the FlyDesign for making this possible. Don’t worry, even though we got a free review copy, the review will be honest and expressing our true opinions.
The first thing I’d like to talk about the performance of the airport, which is, on my rather slow computer great, even with the FlightFactor A320, which is considered not the best performance-wise, I get stable 40-45 fps.
Surrounding area
The surrounding area of this airport is pretty good. Even though I didn’t like the cut road north from the airport since it looks a bit weird and I don’t really like these little bugs, even though some people do not find it important. I didn’t like the lack of parking place buildings as there is only just a flat texture from the ortho included with the airport and not a complete model.
Unfortunately, I was not able to test the surrounding area with an ortho tile, and how it blends.
Textures
The textures of this airport, in my opinion, are absolutely awesome. As you can see from the screenshots below, it looks great and FlyDesign did obviously a great job. Not only the ground textures are good, but also, the texturing of the terminal or the static aircraft, for example. The textures are really sharp.
What I didn’t like is the texture resolution difference at one place of the airport of which an example can be seen below in the screenshots. The next thing I didn’t really like is the tree texturing on the approach path which, in my opinion, look absolutely horrible.
Hangars 
Terminal 
The resolution difference
Modelling
I was a little bit disappointed with the modelling of the airport. Even though overall the scenery looks good, but if you look closer, the modelling is not as great as other aspects of the scenery are.
What I didn’t really like is the tower modelling, which just seems a bit weird, or the lack of volumetric grass before the runway threshold at the north side of the airport. There is also a big colour difference between the volumetric grass and the ortho tile. There are no vehicles on the airport or no animated people which is a bit a shame.
Tower 
Hangars 
Grass in front of norhern threshold
Night Lighting
The night lighting is simply great. When landing at night, you will have no problem seeing the runway from a distance, so there shouldn’t be a problem visiting the airport at night. The apron lighting is bright as well as very realistic, and I didn’t experience any issues with it.
Conclusion
I would definitely think twice if I were about to buy this scenery. Even though the scenery looks fine, it still has some imperfections and for its price tag of €15, it is, in my opinion, a bit overpriced. If you would like to buy this scenery, you can do so on the FlyDesign website here.
