Carenado C172N Skyhawk II here now

[steven winslow]

Check it out!  Carenado's latest X-Plane offering is available now.

http://www.carenado.com/CarSite/Portal/index.php?accion=product&correl=61

[woweezowee]

Just purchased and downloaded (after Carenado were fast as light to fix a download problem for me). I just like their planes, love the C152, and am sure the C172 is a good one, too. Will know tomorrow evening when I take the plane for a first spin

[eaglewing7]

I'm still firmly on the fence as to whether or not I want to purchase Carenado's X-Plane offerings...

I've heard both sides of the conversation, photorealistic textures, versus 3D texturing, etc...

They could win me over if they released the Cessna 185F, Cessna 208, and the Piper PA28RT Arrow IV.

My question for Carenado users is as follows, is there any noticeable lack of definition and crispness in the use of photo textures, or is the quality similar to 3D texturing?

[steven winslow]

I own all of Carenado's X-Plane offerings.  I also own the Sundowner, the Duchess, the MU-2, the Mentor, the Falco, the Corvalis, the 4Forces C152 and the Tecnam P92.  There is no lack of definition or crispness in the Carenado textures.  Of course, your settings in X-Plane rendering options will dictate what they look like on your system.

 If you like the Leading Edge aircraft, you'll like the Carenado offerings, too.

[simbabeat]

Has the .org stopped selling their offerings?

[woweezowee]

+1 what steven said, and @simbabeat: they always are something like 1-2 weeks later than Carenado themselves.

[Jack Skieczius]

I believe Carenado sells for at least a month on their website first. I am sure they do this since they take a larger cut of the sales that way. I am sure it will be at the org and every other place Carenado sells at in time. They sell them over at Aerosoft as well.

When I have some time to play I will pick up the their 172N.

Most of there planes i have picked up so far for x-plane are great. They may not use as many polygons to get the detail into their models, but the texturing is great. Also, i would say that their user friendlyness is up there as well. not that hard to use the 3d cockpit and for the most part, they fly right.

If you had to count them as a set, all the planes from Carenado so far are among the best GA planes available right now for X-Plane.

For those of you who get the 172n, what do you think so far?

[Leen de Jager]

I have the Mooney and I must say , I really like the airplane.

The way they mapped the textures is however a missed chance.

For FSX Carenado uses three 2048x2048 files for the outside texturing. ( they could have used 4096x4096 as well to achieve a real insane level of detail )

For the X-Plane version they use one single sheet 2048x2048 containing all three texturesheets in 1024x1024.( Waisting a piece of 1024x1024 for some tiny unimportant parts)

In other words there is 75% less pixels available for the texturising of the exterior.

Compared with FS9 wich only uses 1024 x 1024 the quality in X-Plane is better because we have normal mapping as well in X-Plane wich is something FS9 does not have.

I made two repaints for the X-Plane Carenado Mooney and I added specular layers to them as well.

Alltough the amount of pixels is less than in FSX this model can be painted in alsmost FSX quality.

Click my signature to see the my Mooneys.

Leen de Jager

[MdMax]

Just purchased and downloaded (after Carenado were fast as light to fix a download problem for me).

I had the same download problem and they fixed it !  8)

For those of you who get the 172n, what do you think so far?

If you like the previous Carenado planes, you'll also like this one. For now I noticed only 2 small issues: the shine of nav and bcn lights is very small. It's not easy to see them and I always think I forgot them. But it may look more photo-realistic than default exaggerated lights. The second issue is the texture near all the switches on the panel. The resolution of the text is very low.

It's a very beautiful add-on. I also bought their Mooney and Saratoga. It's not my favorite Saratoga in X-Plane, but with Carenado you get photo-realistic textures and well used planes, very nice effects like the yoke reflection in the glass of the gauges.

[woweezowee]

just flying it: can anyone confirm the ADF needle not working? I can tune to the audio signal, but the needle won't move. does work after xplane relaunch

[MaidenFan]

How's the flight model? I'm strongly considering this ACF.

[woweezowee]

I only had 2 flight now. It "feels" good and seems to hit numbers right, overall just as good as the C152.

[MaidenFan]

I only had 2 flight now. It "feels" good and seems to hit numbers right, overall just as good as the C152.

I just bought it! The flight model feels a lot like the 152, which I love!

My only gripe is the lack of clarity in some of the cockpit text. Otherwise, excellent ACF...

[MdMax]

More about this add-on:

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/first-look-at-carenados-cessna-172-skyhawk-ii/

http://arealityofmyown.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/cessa-172n-for-x-plane/

[woweezowee]

say what you want, I am having a lot of fun with it. Did some Vatsim VFR with, great

[woweezowee]

For those that had purchased as early as me: By chance I found out yesterday that there were two updates published by Carenado, one of the adding 3D circuit breakers - nice. Just log into your Carenado-Account and click the tab "updates". The download link on the website did not work for me, but you can send the link via Email to yourself, wich did work.