Stephen

Yes it is, the link is right there? CZST Stewart? It is at the (X-Plane.Org - store)... not the X-Plane.Org

Aircraft Update : Boeing 787-900 v1.6.0 by Magknight Certainly the year 2020 will go down in history as a year of unforeseen if required change. Not many people like change, some hate change, but change is always going to happen, and the results are sometimes unexpected. Magknight has timely released their latest v1.6.0 version of the Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner, just another update or a reaction to the announcement by FlightFactor, as that yes indeed their next "Pro" aircraft is going to be also a Dreamliner. Either way X-Plane needs all the Dreamliners it can get, pilot's want to fly the latest aircraft and currently with the Airbus A350-900 then the Dreamliner is it. But the development process of Magknight's project has been a long one, if even a confusing one at that... what started out a small Dreamliner freeware project, became a payware project and then a sort of "Pro" (nee expensive) project. Users followed like devotes to some religion, but their dedication has been rewarded, if only by going the really long way around than a straight forward development process. The external design or modeling has gone through I think about three incarnations, as also has the internals, from average, to good, to far better.... The externals were again (if finally) updated in version 1.4 so any of the extensive list of earlier liveries won't work and they went straight into the trash bin, so a completely new paintkit and anything past v1.5 now has to be redone, but all for the better mind you. v1.4 also gave you (another) cabin revamp and new GE engines, and then v1.5 dropped an experimental version of the RR Trent 1000 engines... although someone here is not at all impressed with your engine choice! And ACARS the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System was also introduced on the v1.5 release. Boeing 787-900 v1.6.0 Gradually the Dreamliner has been molded into shape, from a far better external shape (and that early nose profile?) to a far better cabin and cockpit. But here again in v1.6.0 the cockpit gets another complete revamp, another remodeling to get closer to the Dreamliners office in realism. Outwardly at first glance the 787 cockpit does not seem THAT different... .... but once you start to dig, you see a lot of changes. The detail of the switchgear is now quite superb, detailed and has that lovely plastic quality, even the attachment screws are clearly visible. Now Mousewheel Manipulators (scroll) work as is all of the manipulators and animations across all buttons are now also all new... I however found a few halve arrow adjustments, like for the heading just far too small and tight to use effectively and efficiently, and as many click and as quickly disappear from view? The glareshield is more better textured, and so is the main instrument facia surround, you are now starting to see a realism, rather more than the earlier modeling feel to the aircraft. The problem has that the changes have been introduced at a glacial pace, a few here and a few there over countless updates, but suddenly you look around you everywhere and you are noticing that this is now a seriously nice cockpit. That once missing authentic detail is now starting to pour out of the aircraft, it is losing that cheapness (freeware) look and it is slowly now being replaced by a quality feel. What was once looking like a bad price deal, is now starting to look like a really good value for money experience, the Dreamliner is quite not totally up there yet, because of one big infraction... the FMS, as it is still the old Laminar version in a glossy interface... note there is no actual FMS facia as the system is built into the lower monitor display (you can also move it to the upper displays), and the display does have that grey interface, it looks actually odd in context, but it is correct. It works well with the new double screen WebFMC Pro interface as well. But with added in system interactions it is now getting way along on the road to being a study aircraft, certainly there is still far more that has to be installed, but you finally feeling that you are flying and interacting with a new-era cockpit, rather than a 60's relic.... or worse a basic PlaneMaker interaction. EFB - Electronic Flight Bag The Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) has been a "Work in Progress" over several update releases, originally it was quite basic (and buggy), but this v1.6.0 version is now starting to to be far more comprehensive and more importantly a more mature system to use. Both left (Pilot) and right (First Officer) EFBs work (but not independently of each other)... ... there is a direct (mouse) cursor control (you have to touch outside of the EFB screen to regain cockpit manipulator and view control), and the same cursor system works on the other direct access displays in the FMS and Main MFD (Multi-Functional) display) And the cursor idea works very well with selection and general EFB use. New (besides the general better layout and use) there is a better WTBAL (Weight/Balance) calculator... "PERFORMANCE" won't activate unless you set up your route and INITIALIZE (Initialise) the EFB, the aircraft's weight and loading also has to be done first as well to get the correct fuel/Weights loadings for the flight. Then press the PERFORMANCE tab... Adjust any details you require for the Takeoff (performance) then press the CALC button, then the correct takeoff data is displayed lower section... change any parameters and the CALC will readjust the performance data to match the changes, and excellent it is. ... same with the Landing (Performance), but as you know, in a lot of scenarios, you don't know the landing data until you get closer to your destination (Wind/Air Pressure and even the aircraft's weight), so you may get a negative display. Calculations included are: Takeoff calculator, Automatic derate calculation, Automatic trim calculation, NTX and runway slope support (using extremeData) and Max weight for runway, and the same for the Landing calculator. Also noted is now the full selection of autobrakes RTO, 1-4 and MAX selections, and if you are using on landing Full Reverse, Thrust or Auto Spoilers settings... very impressive! We did see part of this Performance Calculator working in earlier versions, but not to this now a far more finished and polished interface. Aircraft Configuration Loading the aircraft (weights) is also now a far more polished interaction. Access is via the AIRCRAFT CONFIG tab... ... and the first tab gives you the aircraft's current loading situation. The rest of the tabs then give you access to Crew, PAX (Passenger), Cargo and Fuel loadings. The detail is excellent including even the selection of Crew baggage (weight) on a Domestic or International Flight (Long Haul), the selection is via the number of crew on board or 15kg if International. Passenger baggage weights are automatically calculated with the numbers carried, and as I am doing here only a domestic service (Brisbane to Melbourne) then the fuel load is not very high either (15,000kg) as per SimBrief. When you have sorted out your loading, then press "Apply Changes" to set the required loads and weights, which are then detailed as your ZFW (Zero Fuel Weight), Takeoff and Landing Weights with you Centre of Gravity (MAC) percentages. Interesting tab is the "GALLEY" tab... here you can set the weights for the "Galley Code" in LR (Long Range), International, Short-haul One Way, Short-haul Return and No Galley Fitout. Loading weights are quite surprisingly quite different between the domestic and long-haul choices, a really nice to have and clever feature. Another new change on the EFB under the "Settings" tab is that you can now set the windows and cockpit (panel) reflections On/Off. ACARS In version v1.5.1 there was the introduction of the excellent Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System or ACARS, under the COMM page. There was a ACARS message formatting issue and an ACARS spelling mistake, and both have rectified in this update version, excellent, but it would be nice to have the Oceanic Clearance work, can it work in X-Plane? Very handy... EICAS - Engine-Indicating and Crew-Alerting System has had bugs attended to with Stab trim indicator is now correct, EICAS settings too high now adjusted, and the EICAS warning/caution reset now fixed. and the PA volume has been made a bit louder, and noted more persistent. Lighting As per Boeing panel layouts the Boeing 787 has several lighting selections that all do really the same action... DOME will bring up the main cockpit (rear lights), but STORM does the same thing but is not adjustable, there is a third full cockpit lighting adjustment with MASTER BRIGHT, and the button at the bottom will do a full override of the adjust knob. I always really loved that LED dropdown panel lighting, and it is still as brilliant as ever, more so with the better switchgear... There are two forward overhead spotlights for MAP lighting and nice fillers they are... The B787 is a long hauler, so you have to be seriously comfortable in here over the long hours in flight, it is now perfect. As you know I am funny about light bleed into the cockpit, but the Magknight B787 is getting extremely good at finding the right settings for the right situation, so there has been some significant improvements to the lighting here in v1.6.0, and all to the very good. Cabin lighting is very good as well, still not adjustable, but I have no doubts that option will come in future releases, but what we have is still nicely done... oddly I found the Dreamliner cabin feeling a little small for a twin-aisle aircraft, more a A332 than a wide B777. The cabin is now blue throughout, and the horrible rainbow lighting effects has been dropped in First and Bus class, thank god. External lighting aspect is looking pretty nice as well, and very realistic from every angle. Flying the v1.5 Dreamliner I had a very long list of complaints when I did the last v1.4 Boeing 787-9 Aviator review... I expected a lot to better this time around... but it is not? Dynamically there are some serious basics wrong here... a lot of time early in the flight after pushback was wasted trying to get the tiller to work... you can set the tiller for a manual control, what the "settings" need to be though is for the "Use Roll for the NWS" to be ON to actually get nose wheel control, this should be default and not the other way around, reload the aircraft and it switches it back off again, annoying. Sound are very good, but you don't have much control over them... in taxiing they are too low in volume (The Dreamliner is amazingly very low acoustically internally) but there is almost nothing you can hear here at all if you want to hear those lovely GE engines (or RR if fitted). Power up and the sounds do come in, but still very, very low, even from the cabin perspective. at v1 - 129kts and "whoa" the nose lifts... ... 5º of flap should not lift the nose at v1? so suddenly you are fighting the aircraft to keep the nose wheel on the ground (unsuccessfully), the aircraft is now twisting on you as well (note, the Dreamliner is a very automated aircraft, but this "I will fly the aircraft for you", is certainly not realistic?) At v2 and then v2+10 I'm already well off the runway, then fighting the aircraft in the air to keep it level? It is twisting on me like it is in a 18kt - 20kt crosswind, but I only have an almost head-on 9º wind force, the B787 should not twist like this hard in these conditions? It feels like the engine power is completely out of balance? Climbing out the B787 is unstable? and worse I am running out of pitch to keep the nose down, the aircraft just wants to go vertical nose up... I fixed this by adjusting the pitch trim (manually from the keyboard)... a lot, in fact far too much adjustment was required to bring the nose down to an acceptable climb rate. I am fighting to keep this aircraft in the air... take a look at the FCTL of the elevators, and that elevator position is not normal.... Switching to automation or using the autopilot is tricky as well, as some commands over-ride others, if you press the A/T (Autothrust) it should stay switched on, but it doesn't, and neither does the A/P Autopilot itself... so you are constantly fighting the aircraft to get to do do what you want it too, it simply has a mind of it's own and of what it thinks you should have and not what you actually want, so who is in control here? I finally got the aircraft sorted to follow the LNAV (route), and start the climb (40,000ft) but now there was then an odd bank to the left? ... more weirder is the situation that the PFD Artificial Horizon is showing a bank to the right? I do actually remember this one from flying the Dreamliner last time... Turn the A/T on (Auto) and the B787 banks, Turn the A/T off and you get control back, and I then remembered how I fixed it as well... You run the right starboard side engine at far higher thrust than the left port side... odd yes, but it works in keeping the Dreamliner at least level in flight. So in level fight you have very odd power settings. Should you have to do this, of course not, and should you still have to do this after six months when it was wonky then... absolutely not? At altitude the sounds are very good, but still sound the same in the cabin as in the cockpit, but I do really love the in flight hum. Annoying is the fact that the Magknight B787 is so really good now in the cockpit, as this place is now a seriously nice place to be, it looks and feels excellent. The Great Southern Land But overall the dynamics and flight performance just don't match the looks. I then re CALC the landing data with the more current information. Then a scan of the instruments before landing noted the fuel display was not counting down, was the fuel inbalance my bank issue? no, with the fuel adjusted (manually) or leveled between the tanks it was still just the same. I remember now how I missed the fuel crossfeed coming from Hong Kong- HKG to MEL as well, still the same non-working fuel pumping system? With one engine on idle I arrive at Melbourne, now banked the other way, right.... this was going to be interesting! Whoopsy Daisy... .... finally some control and facing directly at YMML's RWY 16, but look at my yoke position to keep the B787 straight, is that normal in a 7knt head-on wind? in reality this is a one engine out landing... with two perfectly running engines? Dreamliners land really sloooow at here 136kts... "touch" is really good, but under the thrust-reversers the B787 becomes a real handful.... .... full right rudder and a lot of yoke movement keeps the aircraft finally finding the centreline, well sort of.. ... as I am fighting the aircraft right down to the taxi speed... "Welcome to Melbourne". I record my reviews directly from the flight I have in the simulator, good or bad. What I detail here is how the simulation unfolded in front of me, so I am hiding nothing from you... so the question has to asked. Did I have a bad download of the aircraft?, did I set up the aircraft wrong? and am I really missing something fundamental in the way that I am using the Autopilot? all good questions, but I did do a quick test flight the day before (I always do a quick recollection flight to reset me into the aircraft) and the B787 was quite a handful then also. But my gut feeling says the developer is focusing too much on the auto side of the Dreamliner, and missing the basics of flying the aircraft manually, or correctly. So in trying to give you.. the user an experience, they are not adjusting the aircraft for even the very basics of flight. You should not be landing on ONE engine to keep the aircraft straight! __________________________ Summary This is the ongoing development of the Boeing 787-900 from Magknight. It started out as a basic freeware version, became a payware, and now a pro-payware. You accept with the purchase that the aircraft is still in an on-going development format, this is v1.6.0. This v1.6.0 update focuses on a (again) a new cockpit redesign, with far better textures, PBR and better switchgear. Lighting has also been highly upgraded. EFB - The side Electronic Flight Bags have also been mostly now finished off from their "in development" early stages, and the results are excellent with great weight/loading features, performance calculations and other new features added and in areas like the crew baggage and galley loading weights are very clever. Overall the aircraft designwise now is excellent... but I expected a big step forward in performance, flight dynamics and even by now a replacement for the default MAP screens and basic X-Plane FMC systems... but in these areas the aircraft is still quite average. It looks sensational, sounds sensational, but very average to fly. The focus is too much on the automation and not on the actual basics of flight, in this area Magknight have a big significant hole in the aircraft's development structure, and with the now coming FlightFactor Boeing 787 Dreamliner Pro... they are now also running out of time to fix it.... this should have been a far better simulation than it is, and I am disappointed about that, because I really like the aircraft. I thought this update was sensational, until I actually flew the aircraft... the update is that good, but not in the required fundamental areas of just having a great aircraft to fly. Put the two points together and it will BE sensational... but it is very far from that aspect at this point in it's development. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Boeing 787-900 Aviator Edition Dreamliner v1.6.0 by Magknight is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : B787-9 Aviator Edition Price is US$44.95 Upgrade cost to the "Aviator Edition" from the original payware release version is US$10, see your X-Plane.OrgStore account for the upgrade. Features General Brand new flight model built for X-Plane 11.40 and 11.50+ Improved wingflex Custom IRS simulation, with quick align Auto-update for the lifetime of X-Plane 11 LED exterior lights Pause at top of descent and jump to waypoint 3D cabin New: Next-Generation Cockpit Comprehensive cockpit lighting options High resolution textures with PBR throughout the cockpit and cabin Optional tinted cockpit and cabin windows Realistic Panel dimensions New: Integrated EFB Comprehensive weight and balance calculator, with per-livery cabin configurations Takeoff and landing performance calculators Multiple engine choices Choose from the mainstay GE engines, or the new experimental RR engines Each engine has different flight characteristics Custom flight controls 5-setting autobrakes with RTO capability Dynamic flap timing and order Roll spoilers based on speed and wingforce Surface droop on hydraulics loss Surface fadeout by speed Hoppie ACARS intergration Intergration with the Hoppie ACARS network Allows uplink of pre-departure clearances and weather information FMOD soundpack by audiobirdXP Fully custom FMOD soundpack for the GENx engines Extensive integration with systems Cockpit switch and button sounds 3D cabin and fuselage Ground-up exterior fuselage model including optional tinted windows 3D cabin with optional seating Cabin is optional, configurable in EFB for performance Liveries Blank livery included by default Other liveries available at https://magknight.org/liveries Liveries from before 1.4.0 are not be compatible due to change of engine and fuselage models Auto-Updater Uses the Skunkcraft Updater for Automatic updates Requirements: X-Plane 11 Fully updated Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM recommended Current and Review version : 1.6.0 (September 23rd 2020) Installation : Download is 587.30mb which is unzipped and is inserted in your Heavy Aircraft folder as a 1.91gb folder Note: liveries are not included, but can be download... only v1.5+ liveries will now work with this aircraft Documentation : Manual (partly completed?) v1.6.0 changelog (attached) B7879 - 1.6.0_Changelog.txt ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 6th October 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews  (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30b2 (aircraft will only fly in 11.30) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 - Free : BetterPushBack - Free Scenery or Aircraft - YBBN - Brisbane International - 2020 1.1 by CDG (X-Plane.Org) - Free- - YMML Melbourne 1.01 by ISDG (X-Plane.Org) - Free

MagKnight was very clear in noting to do a complete redownload from the store you purchased the aircraft from for this update... there are issues with the Skunkcraft's updater.

Scenery Review : KPWM - Portland International Jetport by AeroDesigns This is Portland International, but not that Portland International? Confused, this is the other airport across the country of the United States in Maine, not of Oregon State. Portland International Jetport is a public airport two miles (3 km) west of downtown Portland, in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is owned and operated by the City of Portland. A portion of the Jetport's property, including the main runway, is in the neighboring city of South Portland. And the city is 108 miles or 174 km north of Boston. The Jetport airport is the busiest in the state of Maine. In 2018, the jetport handled more than 2 million passengers for the first time, breaking the previous record of 1.86 million set in 2017. In recent years, the Jetport has benefited from service by low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, as well as Portland's increased popularity as a tourist destination. AeroDesign's first scenery was the John Glenn Columbus International Airport (KCMH) for X-Plane 11, and also with a collaboration with X-Codr (KDEN) on Montgomery Regional Airport (KMGM) which is a free download here: KMGM - Montgomery Regional Airport 1.1. This Portland International Jetport (KPWM) is now AeroDesigns second professinal release. KPWM-Portland uses an off-set cross runway layout, with the terminal area set north central in the cross. Portland International Jetport IATA: PWM - ICAO: KPWM - FAA LID: PWM 11/29 - 7,200ft (2,195m) Asphalt 18/36 - 6,100ft (1,859m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL - 76 ft/23 m First to note that the scenery requires two downloads of first the airport (KPWM - Portland International Jetport) and then two sets of ground textures in: Y_KPWM_Overlay and Z_KPWM_Mesh. Obviously they have to be set up correctly in order in the X-Plane scenery .INI file so the overlay and mesh is set below the airport scenery folder. Terminal Portland Jetport has a single terminal, with the main multi-tiered entrance to the west. The apron layout is fifteen stands with 10 airbridges, the stands 1A, 1B and 1C are walkon-walkoff gates and stand 11, 12 and 14 are west remote stands with a covered walkway. The terminal modeling and overall work is very good, but there is no "Feel" to the building. Oddly a lot of American airports come across like this, maybe it is the combination of the wide white concrete ramps and white buildings, there is no depth to the bright detail, you could even say outwardly bland, but the work is however good on close inspection.... .... rooftop air-conditioning units are animated and well done. Portland scenery has the SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) system and that gives you airbridge control, however the parking positions of the airbridges are dead straight and in certain gate parking situations they intrude directly into the parking zone? So A.I. traffic aircraft can also be seen to be buried head first into most of the airbridges on parking? Clutter of ground service vehicles is good, but not PWM branded, and mostly generic designs... There are a few nice vehicle animations that run around and the numbers are well balanced for this size of airport, highlight though are the highly reflective chrome fuel tankers. Landside is the same, very good... but you are missing that nitty-gritty of detail and furniture, the absence of any advertising is highly noticeable as well... so spaces seem empty, clean and open. Terminal internally is done as well... again it is very good with some very nice wood texturing and support columns, and the escalators that are a highlight of the real terminal... .... glass is very good in being correctly tinted but still see-through, but again there is that feeling of it all is simply not finished, in that the details are missing, like gate numbers and advertising or the passengers themselves... it all feels like an airport that is currently closed because of the Covid19 restrictions! There is only one major large covered carpark at the Jetport. The carpark is very well modeled and detailed, but there are a couple points that don't work... First is that the top cover (blue) shade awning shadow is replicated on each floor and so it looks odd... .... top floor texture is a photo-ortho that has been processed, but it is too white and too unrealistic to work... this seems to part of the overall image of the terminal upper roof areas in that ortho textures have been used to convey a realism, but in fact they have the opposite effect in blanding out the building. The entrance and floor tower are however really well done. The control tower is a basic design and hard to get any realistic detail into, but again it feels a bit too white and clean here. Earlier the tower had a blank strip effect downwards to cover the lower windows and had a black glasshouse top, that design would have given Aerodesign more to work with.... Tower view is not set either.... naughty! North and along the west side of Runway 18/35 is Taxiway C (Charlie)... This is the main set of General Aviation aprons and there is a lot of parking areas. Dominant here is the NorthEast Air (Air Elite) personal jet services, there are two sets of hangars and a private jet terminal. Far north Charlie is four large maintenance hangars, and plenty of parking area. The point is it feels again empty because there are a few vehicles but also no static aircraft. Behind are two Hilton hotel properties... one is the larger "Embassy Suites" by Hilton Portland Maine (no name?), and the second is a cheaper budget GardenInn property. Going West are two areas with a well done fuel Depot and Maintenance area by the threshold of RWY 11. East in the north of the small cross of RWY 29 and RWY 18 is a small cargo FedEx facility and customs. The area is well done here with more colour and detail, the PWM Airport Maintenance Facility is over here as well. There is a very large MacJets facility south with another very empty large apron, but it is well done. A few areas off field (mostly to the south) have had some custom buildings completed, housing and a nice shopping mall... .... a nice addition is to use the Short Final's SFG Global plugin to create regional housing, here you get a very nice Maine architecture visual feel that really works in completing out the scenery. Ground Textures Ground textures overall are only average... Portland PWM main apron has different concrete variations in depth of wear, it is lightly touched upon here and you can see the darker zones to the newer cleaner zones, but it is nowhere near enough depth the of wear and tear of the real apron (on google maps), get closer and the concrete surfaces are actually quite bland. Surprising really because AeroDesigns worked with X-Codr who did excellent work on the latest KDEN update with making at Denver the very bright concrete breath with some grungy realism. The runway, taxiway textures are not too bad, but there seems to be a disconnect between you and the surfaces, oddly the cargo area surfaces are really good? There is good burnt-in ambient occlusion, that sort of brings life to the surfaces... but everything is bit too squared off and sectioned to be totally realistic. There is a very big (over) reliance on the photo-ortho textures within this scenery, not only for the actual ground images but as already noted on buildings as well. Problem is there are a lot of flat and very wide areas (mostly southwest) that are highly noticeable as being plain flat and photo only. The well done tree and fauna work does hide a lot, including the boundaries of the scenery, but that just highlights these areas even worse, as they look like holes in the ground... the colourisation of the ortho-photos are not great either, so you get this yellowy-green feel around the airport, and in areas a completely washed out bright look. Deep down this is core of the biggest visual look of Portland Maine. Lighting Overall the lighting at PWM is very good, approach, runway and taxiway lighting is up to the required standards. Apron lighting is well lit and nice different variations of tone, so it feels realistic... a nice area to depart or arrive to after dark or in twilight. Internal and landside terminal feels abandoned, empty and with only the overhead lights switched on.... Covid19 shut? The clear glass comes across as grey, it is not too bad, but it feels a bit lifeless as this style of glass transparency can do. Other building lighting is the same, blocks of colour in shades of grey or in many cases even completely dark, as are both the Hilton hotels? Most building, carpark and street lighting is good and well done to complete a full nighttime scenario. ______________________________ Summary Portland International JetPort is the biggest airport in the state of Maine in the United States, and averages 2 million passengers per year. This is AeroDesign's second professinal scenery under their own banner after the John Glenn Columbus International Airport (KCMH), and a collaboration with X-Codr (KDEN) on Montgomery Regional Airport, that was a freeware scenery. In scale PWM is a mid-sized airport with a single terminal, and overall the scenery is well done with some good work done here... But there are areas which you would note as workmanlike, modeling is good but bland, mostly in texture realism, again textures come up with their overuse and poor colourisation procedures, and flat open areas of ortho textures make the area feel more MSFS2020 than X-Plane. In other areas the scenery feels underfinished with very empty internal areas and little colourful advertising and passenger direction signage, little static aircraft and empty aprons and the SAM airbridges are not positioned correctly, and so it feels overall like a closed and not an open bustling busy city airport. Bonuses are custom modeled SAM (Scenery Animation Manger) airbridges, local Landmarks, baked ambient occlusion textures and very good World Traffic 3 support and animated vehicles (Windows). Worthy scenery, well yes, this Portland International is a nice scenery and should be actually be far better, but you are faced today with quality work of highly skilled developers and you have to deliver to a standard that payware demands, Portland does however get across that line, but only just as it is a sub-US$20 price... a nice scenery to have and use if you fly a lot on the east coast of the US and east/south Canada and if like hub and spoke services as Maine is a very nice destination... and for that aspect KPWM is very good. _____________________________________ Yes! KPWM - Portland International Jetport by AeroDesigns is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : PWM - Portland International Jetport Price is US$19.95 Features: Highly accurate and detailed 3d model of the Terminal and surrounding airport buildings with high-resolution textures Normal mapping and reflections for an enhanced user experience Custom modelled and textured SAM Jetways Custom accurate 3D Mesh Baked Ambient Occlusion HDR and accurate night lighting Custom high-resolution ground textures and markings Rain Textures for the ground (requires scenery reload) High-resolution and color-corrected orthophotos (9cm; 0.3 foot) Performance friendly 3d models for the entire airport Landmarks in the vicinity of the airport Animation plugins supported: World Traffic 3 support courtesy of the amazing Cpt. K-Man SAM implementation for dynamic jetways Ground Traffic (Windows only) Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 3 GB zipped, 3 GB extracted Current and Review version: 1.2 (September 30th 2020) Installation Download scenery files required are in two downloads: KPWM - Portland International Jetport (2.81gb) KPWM_Mesh.zip In the mesh folder are two mesh folders: Y_KPWM_Overlay (4.2mb) Z_KPWM_Mesh (1.82gb) The three folders are to be placed in the correct order in your .INI list Total scenery install is: 4.96Gb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (5 pages) and no Charts Manual.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 2nd October 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane v11.50 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 - Free Scenery or Aircraft - CRJ-200 by Javier Rollon (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$39.95

Behind the Screen : September 2020 First up that happened in September is the X-PlaneReviews site refresh, after four years you needed a new paintjob for the site and that with Invision then released more tools to allow you to do more ideas and add in more more features, then gave us the opportunity to bring out the ladders and paintbrushes. The old look was actually still quite good, but we felt we needed a more dynamic look and interaction. The results are nice on the eye, and easier for reading the reviews. I have always liked a clean if simple design (less is more) attraction (the graphic design training in me), and we think we have achieved that goal. We also felt it was too static as a site, but the problem with adding in flashy adverts and big banner images is that they can distract more than help, worse is that they come with huge image download times that will make most click on through the site. We did add in an animation banner, that was badly needed to highlight current reviews and news items, as one single banner in a way was not enough, and that works nicely... Another new feature is the addition to add in your own images at the bottom of the main page, this again gives users a more visual interaction with the site. All ideas are tested on not only all desktop browsers (Mac and Win), iPads, tablets (I test by going to my local store and downloading the site on to their numerous display units!) and iPhone/Android... so the site works for everyone. Again banners are nice, but not when they don't work. We may tweak it more yet, but for now it works, a note is that when we do certain image sizes and layouts it may look simple to the eye, but it has to work now across a multitude of browsers and gadgets, and has to be effective in all situations and not just on the usual wide desktop application (a big mistake in site creation). X-Plane 11.50 Final September was also the month that X-Plane v11.50 went final. So we are now in the era of Vulkan/Metal... modern times. Certainly processing speeds have been highly refined and you can now run far more features than before. But I am not completely happy with the transition. In most cases Laminar always usually over-delivered in features and ideas, and this is actually the first time I think they just didn't quite get there. I see a few areas the performance that are not as great as everyone expected, and in fact I am back running at my same numbers that I was using in the OpenGL environment... so is that progress? Don't get me wrong v11.50 is a big if massive huge step forward, smooth and far faster than anything we had previously, and like noted I can now use features that were off limits before like reflections, but I do sometimes get stutters (not the previous type, but processing stutters) and in the various areas it feels still a bit unrefined like with the slow texture processing. A lot of comments noted, say that it should be better, but the issues here are various, complex and users are not known for their patience. Number one thing to understand is that the process conversion to be fully Vulkanised or Metalised is really only about half completed. The changes already done only complete the shader changes and processing channels, but a lot of the older OpenGL areas are in there and still present... The beta process showed this up and it was an odd one, the process bounced from one side to the other in that one set of users ran far better at some settings, but others got worse results in the same version, swap the numbers around and you got the opposite effect in that another set of users got the advantage were as the others went completely the other way, it was like a Forrest Gump moment it that you "didn't know what version was the good one" for you until it actually came out. At in the end Laminar settled for a midway "sort of pleasing" everyone, but a pleasing no one either sort of situation. So that left the final edition of v11.50 in a bit of a mid-ground quandary Core of the problems are the textures, or the global tiles that makes up X-Plane, they are very old as is the ideas around the weather (a really big framerate killer) and other various left overs that came with X-Plane10, yes the Vulkan processing is fast, but these older elements are not, and so until X-plane has a rework to the modern elements and methods on having better more efficient global (high and low) textures and a complete rework of the weather engine, add in using not the current single pipe of process, but multi-core and multi-threading processing then the nirvana we are seeking and then and only then will the full effects of using Vulkan/Metal will come to the fore... in truth is we are only about halfway through the transition, and it may even take another few years to totally get there. From Laminar's point of view it was getting nowhere trying to please everyone, but the pressure to deliver X-Plane12 was also growing louder in the background. So this puts again so much importance on the next X-Plane release... no pressure there, and why try to fix something that is going to be changed again soon anyway, and so in the end we were left with a compromised release.... not certainly a failure in any context, but we have to consider the actual context we are sitting in. On saying that I still think that Laminar will twiddle with it in the background and find more performance for everyone before the year is out. One tool that has caused a lot of issues over the beta and currently with the final of v11.50 is Navigraph's "Simlink" tool. Loading times are horrendous (as it connects to the Navigraph servers), and now it is causing serious stutters in v11.50, it had to come out obviously, but it is a brilliant tool that is seriously missed, but it is also highly inefficient as a plugin and has been for awhile and has got seriously worse with v11.50... the concept needs a rethink, and very unlike Navigraph. The above is comment is interesting because all stutters outwardly look the same, in this case it was a plugin created stutter and not a simulator created stutter, but you can actually see or feel the differences between them, you can also switch off the offending plugins to see the differences (in the case of SimLink it was quite significant), but it shows how complex and interwoven the simulator really is, and how good your Sherlock Holmes detective work has to be in finding out and resolving conflicting issues, again the most simple one is to reset with a clean (or vanilla) X-Plane setup and work yourself upwards from there for the really big issues. Once we have the final done and completed, then came all the updates, to be fair most aircraft and plugin updates have mostly been already done, but still developers put out final, final updates... I found that September is turning into update month, not only for simulators but browsers, iPhones, operating systems, even my fridge got an update! But with the Vulkan/Metal transfer a few plugins have not returned... one is the Librain "Rain" plugin, and the usual xEnviro, who noted even when (or if) they do an update in v14 then it will still only be for OpenGL only, I mean who wants an OpenGL version?... I am going to die before they get something out that works with the current X-plane version, worse it that the xEnviro plugin is the one most significant plugin for the simulator, in creating at least some realistic weather. Oldies are still goodies A few blasts from the past appeared over the last few months and it was very welcoming to have them back. A lot of the scenery and certainly aircraft date horribly in the simulator, but many that were really advanced for their time can still also be very relevant today. A lot of life has been returned to the IXEG with thankfully a few updates for the Boeing 733 this year, it was still quite flyable before the changes, but the updates have certainly given the aircraft a lot more years service in the simulator, a "Classic" act with no pun intended. Second aircraft was the JRollon CRJ-200. For it's time it still really delivers an excellent simulation, even in X-Plane v11.50. Yes in areas in the cockpit and the cabin it feels dated, but it still performs outstandingly well. The amazing BSS soundpack that was added in a few years ago, that really totally changed the aircraft into something else, and nothing internally seems to have been affected. The v1.6 of the excellent WebFMC plugin now adds in the CRJ-200 (the reason it was pulled out from the back of the virtual hangar) and allowed me to revisit the aircraft again, and a return to service for the foreseeable future. Both of these aircraft were very, very well advanced on their releases and showed how sometimes we get the future delivered in front of you without actually understanding it, and the accolades have to go to the developers on the foresight they saw back then, and to survive two complete X-Plane versions is really an outstanding effort. Even though we have some outstanding current aircraft to fly in, they still totally deliver the goods in satisfaction. A v2 of the CRJ-200 was being developed, but the project went quiet (mainly because co-developer Philipp Münzel nee Ringler is not available) and if at anytime the aircraft will now be produced, but if it it ever did that would be something else. Another blast and totally unrelated to the update I did this week was the excellent Beti-x CZST Stewart and Bella Coola. I used Stewart as a basis for a review of Thranda's Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter a few months back, and to also mainly see how it lived up to its status as an award winning (2014) scenery, it was a sheer total coincidence that the scenery has been picked up by the X-Plane.Org and updated, but even in it's original form it showed the future of X-Plane in scenery development, with brilliant realistic ground textures, great if perfect modeling, and the VFR replication of a complete township that is still unrivaled today, yes we get completely replicated walkaround airport sceneries, but not of a whole settlement. The update filled in a few missing new features that were not available six years ago, but otherwise this outstanding scenery is as per original, and it is a scenery every user should savour in their custom scenery collection. It was a waltz through the X-Plane past, but these amazing products are still also totally relevant to today's simulator as well, they all still perform well and deliver brilliant simulation, so you have to be very careful in not to throw them out, there are certainly far more gems out there and most all of them are sitting in your aircraft folder and custom scenery folder, so seek them out and give them a visit, if they have dated or or not relevant, then yes the time has come to delete them. but you would be surprised how many do hold up to the current stands of still giving and delivering an extremely good simulation experience. See you all next month Stephen Dutton 1st October 2020 Copyright©2020 X-Plane Reviews

Scenery Updates : CZST Stewart and CYBD Bella Coola v1.5 by X-Plane.Org Life throws up some weird coincidences... When I did the excellent Thranda Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter review back in June I went back to a very old scenery for two reasons, one was in how after all these years is if the scenery still held up to it's status of a winner of the scenery of the year award (2016), and two to try out the now running v11.50 (Vulkan) feature of reflections. I had even planned to use the second of this series sceneries in Bella Coola as a basis for Thranda's next project in the announced Beaver DH-2. Both of these sceneries have now been released under the XPOrg banner or X-Plane.Org. Both sceneries were originally created by Beti-x or Peter Kubek, but the developer has not been involved in simulator for now quite sometime, that aspect puts the scenery into a major conflict, in that in reality it can be seen as abandoned(ware). In most cases a lot of product would date and sometimes quite substantially from this period and gradually fade away. But CZST Stewart and CYBD Bella Coola are not your average sceneries, they are as mentioned award winning sceneries and also far more significant than that in that for their time, as both sceneries predicted the future of scenery development and in features as in detail. In this situation both of the sceneries rights have been bought out by the XP.Org and also revised to current standards, in this aspect the sceneries get a refresh, but more importantly they will survive and carry on well into the simulators future, in this case the XP.Org has to be applauded to save this outstanding work for generations to come from just being a lost cause to the past. I found that in using CZST Stewart in the PC-6 review was that the scenery had indeed faired extremely well. It was released six years ago at about the mid-development point of X-Plane10, and six years in X-Plane development time is an extremely long time for any product to survive without any updates and through the significant changes of texture quality, PBR (Physical Based Reflections), baked burnt-in ambient occlusion effects and metal/glass grading.... but survive well it did. The original CZST Stewart review is here: Scenery Review : CZST Stewart by beti-x CZST Stewart, British Columbia First differences between 2014 and 2020 is of the different atmospheric feel that you have, plus the water effect is now far, far better. Having the Vulkan reflection feature active is also a huge bonus in creating a very realistic panorama, it is a superb feature and not to be underestimated here in Stewart. The CZST airfield itself is located by the Portland Canal, tricky is a word in that both approaches require skill and nerve to get right, but they are also both in return highly rewarding for the pilot. Stewart has only one asphalt runway (more of a sealed gravel strip). 18/36 (3872ft)- Elev. 24ft. CZST is nothing more than a clearing with a big double shed on it, calling it a hangar would be generous... and a smaller garage. There have been changes here since the original release and that is reflected in this updated version... the area to the south of the apron has been cleared, and this aspect has been well represented in this new version. So the apron feels now very open, compared to the more closed in field feel from before... Textures were groundbreaking (no pun intended) for the time, and simply some of the best worn asphalt and stone work you could dream of and it all comes with 3d grass and turf.... .... textures have the resolution of 2cm per pixel, an unheard of quality for the period and here they are still as refined and as highly realistic, but still also have that gritty quality we love, what is the word... exceptional. Outwardly the buildings look exactly the same. But they are quite different in that the textures have been again reworked and refined to modern methods with burnt-in ambient occlusion effects and PBR reflections that gives the glass its reflective (lower doors and side windows) effects, the newer textures brings also out the lovely wear dirt lower brickwork to the more cleaner higher building paneling realism, doors are superbly rusted to perfection. Noted is that more static elements have been added to the scene... two MHS Aviation AS350 B2 helicopters now also grace the pad, and a lot of personnel in Hi-Viz jackets... this is a debatable element? Field strips like Stewart are remote, and not hubs of aviation activity. Yes the figures look very good, but in reality very few people hang around or are to be seen working around on aprons like this... debatable. That said it is very well done with hi-quality figures. Another huge change and addition is the amazing ship sitting at the new wharf... ... ships in X-Plane scenery are usually very basic, but this... is breathtaking in realism! with so much quality and detail, and you will fly over the ship every time to arrive on RWY 36 or depart RWY 18, shame there is no name on it? The wharf is all new and extremely well done, detailed and as are the older harbour areas, and the distinct woodmill wharf that is also still excellent. Another profound aspect of the original Stewart scenery was the township itself. Obviously recreating a small township like Stewart is not new to X-Plane, but Stewart was a very significant step forward in design in that the whole town was totally recreated, that is not just with generic buildings, but the WHOLE town with EVERY SINGLE building was recreated as a custom building, no two buildings are the same unless they actually are at Stewart, and if you think about that aspect of photographing and recreating everything there, it is a mindblowing experience... but that is what was done here as a complete photographic 3d reality of the area. All the main significant buildings are correct including all other main town buildings in Churches, Schools, Port & Fishing facilities, Fuel Stations, Fire Station, (Mounted) Police, Utilities in power stations and even the standing out blue roofed Stewart Health Centre and note the sited H-Pad in front of the building. The Stewart scenery represented for X-Plane the first real fully walk-around scenery, a place to explore as per the real life Stewart township, and I have done so mostly every time I come here... it is and still is an extraordinary achievement. Any negatives.. the trees are still only 2d and the original versions, okay but just passable for a very high quality scenery like this. Lighting is still also one of the best in X-Plane, and still a high standard to meet, not just with the big in drop down lighting and nice windows, but the minute small detail in say this Coke Cola machine... the service station was the highlight in the original and it still looks as great here... Shops, garages working at night, every house, every business is lit here as per perfection. __________________________ CYBD Bella Coola, British Columbia It was three years until Beti-x released their second scenery after CZST Stewart in another British Columbia scenery and in many aspects a very, very similar layout as the former release in CYBD Bella Coola. Original Review is here: Scenery Review : CYBD - Bella Coola BC by Beti-X Yes it was again set deep within a valley, yes it had a river flowing past the runway, yes every single building was a custom building, yes it had a tricky approach and departure... and again it was all as mindblowing. The only slight difference was that the township of (lower) Bella Coola was not situated behind the airport but the airport is placed a 14 km a distant west from the main townsite. And unlike Stewart then CYBD is more of what you would call an airport than a strip of runway, it even has a terminal building, well sort of in a house with an extension built on to it. Again a few more people have been added, but in reality there was a few placed already in the original scenery, here the new members are more by the remote buildings/hangars than the terminal ramp area, but the additions are far fewer here than at Stewart. The detail was again astounding... well it did take three years to do, so what did you expect. And here it still looks as good in X-Plane as it did back then... but like Stewart the buildings have also had their textures refined and processed for v1.5, so the glass and roofs are more reflective and shiny when need to be and any metal-ness or steel buildings, water or fuel tanks now look far more realistic in nature. Textures are again sublime, asphalt is in variations, cracked and worn edges, oil spills, rubber wear, and you still have to love the faded compass detail. CYBD has one tarmac runway that is 05/23 at 4,200ft (1,280m) - Elev. 117ft. From a reviewers point of view, in that once seen, you expect other developers to be as good or better, but that is putting the bar far too high, a lot of developers have done some brilliant ground texture work and yes even a few have reached these impressive heights, but they are still the best of the best you have ever seen in a simulator. Bella Coola Valley As noted the Bella Coola scenery is far more spread-out andthere are more villages than big townships out here, so in actual custom building count they are actually quite similar, but here most are laid out around the Hwy 20 (Chilcotin-Bella Coola Highway) that winds right down from the the east of the airport of the Hagensborg township, right down through to the dwellings of going westward to Lower Bella Coola, then to Bella Coola itself. Hagensborg above and Lower Bella Coola below. One significant difference between Stewart and Bella Coola sceneries is the 2cm per pixel definition is not used (it is around the airport) but here it is the standard 50 cm per pixel definition and it shows, certainly around Lower Bella Coola and Bella Coola, this was one area I thought would be updated in this version... But the quality of the custom buildings are excellent including the Mamayu (butterfly) building. Bella Coola itself is positioned on the North Bentinck Arm inlet right, and the Government Wharf is prominent here, and very well done. Lighting is very good, but there is not a lot of it, even the runway is unlit at night, so all the lighting is restricted to just windows and street lighting, the quality however is very good. One feature that Bella Coola has that Stewart does not have is that "Winter Textures" are provided. These textures are used here under the JSGME/Generic Mod Enabler system... I have no information if they work under the more recent SAM Suite Seasons system, but I would guess as yes... The results are quite still spectacular, and are well worth the switch over with the JSGME... ______________________________ Summary Both of these former Beti-x sceneries are award winning packages that set the extremely high standards of what could be achieved in X-Plane scenery development, the sceneries in CZST Stewart and CYBD Bella Coola are both situated in Canada's British Columbia territory are now owned by the X-Plane.Org by a purchasing agreement of a change of rights. But the change of owners has not meant just a transfer of the scenery, but an update to bring the scenery up to the current X-Plane11 standards and dynamics, and even added in a few additions to make them more involving. The most significant aspect of the sceneries is that they set standards of quality that are still not even being matched today, clever then, they are still outstanding today in the sheer concept and resulting outcome. Ground textures are simply the very best in X-Plane, custom modeling of every building as per real, and not just the airport, but of the whole township itself, and the detail is overwhelming and walk-around (another first) and both sceneries took over six years to complete, both these sceneries are VFR heaven in detail and complexity. The v1.5 update shows that the Stewart and Bella Coola sceneries have lost none of their original impact and quality, added has been updates to meet the current X-Plane dynamics in burnt-in ambient occlusion effects, PBR reflections and Glass/Metalness enhancements, not forgetting the natural X-Plane advances since the original releases of the sceneries that includes better water, better weather, shaders and even Vulkan/Metal power. Additions include more ground personnel and in the Stewart scenery a new wharf and high quality ship... All in all it adds up to quite a set of packages. (the "winter" option is also still available for Bella Coola). One of the most significant aspects of this v1.50 update is that both of these former Beti-x sceneries have not thankfully been consigned to history. And to have them not only revitalised, but also refined to still provide their outstanding features to future X-Plane generations is persevering a historical element of the simulators breakthough quality scenery periods of its past, not that they were now anything but relics but are still extremely more relevant than ever and still can deliver countless hours of enjoyment... outstanding then, both Stewart and Bella Coola sceneries are even more outstanding and relevant now... a must have investment for any private or bush pilot. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the CZST Stewart v1.5 scenery by XP.Org is now Available from the X-Plane.OrgStore : CZST Stewart Price is US$25.80 (Currently on sale:$17.50) Features: faithful replica of the real airport with HD buildings and pre-rendered ambient occlusion the airport surroundings with handcrafted ground imagery and a resolution of 2cm per pixel surrounding Photoscenery at a resolution of 50 cm per pixel covering an area of over 150 square kilometers volumetric grass hand placed 3D trees and other custom objects precisely visualized town of Stewart, with every building modeled in 3ds MAX, the architecture of the buildings fits in precisely with this location dozens of hand placed POIs, such as the museum, schools, fire station, port, fuel station, hospital and many others simulator many species of HD trees and landscape with dense forest hand edited Mesh of the whole area. Edited abnormalities in terrain elevation, perfected roads etc Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac and Linux 4 Gb+ VRAM Video Card Download Size: 586 MB Current and Review version: 1.5 (September 21st 2020) ____________ Yes! the CYBD - Bella Coola v1.5 scenery by XP.Org is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : CYBD - Bella Coola Price is US$24.00 (Currently on sale:$17.50) Features: Faithful replica of the real airport with HD buildings and pre-rendered ambient occlusion Airport surroundings with handcrafted ground imagery with a resolution of 2cm per pixel Surrounding Photoscenery at a resolution of 50 cm per pixel covering an area of over 275 square kilometers Volumetric grass Hand placed 3D animated trees and other custom objects The architecture of the buildings fits in precisely with this location Winter version included 1GB of pure High-detailed fun Requirements X-Plane 11 (or XP10) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 Gb VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1Gb Current and Review version: 1.5 (September 21st 2020) _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 29th September 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane v11.50 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: None Scenery or Aircraft - Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter - DGS Series by Thranda (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$34.95

Yes... looking at the B787 now.

The MagKnight B787 uses a very, very specific java, why not just do a full store download?

I'm going to guess and say it is a way of trying to get the business side of the Marketplace running, doing opening specials to get you on board... I very much doubt they are going to give away all the time the usual $25 scenery for half price, it has to be an offer.

What X-Plane users need to remember is that the release of Vulkan v11.50 is only half the transition, the other elements like the mesh/textures, weather will now be needed to be modernised for more gains and better efficiency, plus bringing the cores on line as MSFS already does, now the main code is in place Laminar can revolutionise the whole package.

Scenery Review : LXGB - Gibraltar International Airport by Skyline Simulations Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory that is located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar at the foot of which is a densely populated town area, which home to over 32,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians. In 1462 Gibraltar was captured by Juan Alonso de Guzmán, 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia, from the Emirate of Granada and then switched back and too until In 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession, that a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, representing the Grand Alliance, captured the town of Gibraltar on behalf of the Archduke Charles of Austria in his campaign to become King of Spain. As the Alliance's campaign faltered, the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht was negotiated, which ceded control of Gibraltar to the United Kingdom to secure Britain's withdrawal from the war. There was more unsuccessful attempts by Spanish monarchs to regain Gibraltar were made with the siege of 1727, and again with the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779 to 1783), during the American War of Independence and the territory has been in constant dispute by the Spanish ever since. To understand Gibraltar is to understand it's extremely important strategic position on the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea in the pincer shape of the Straits of Gibraltar (also known as the "Pillars of Hercules") that separates the Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, it is also the closest point to the African Continent at 14.3 kilometres (8.9 miles; 7.7 nautical miles) of ocean at the Strait's narrowest point. So Gibraltar is a military base in succession with a supporting commonwealth community. Skyline Simulations are more well known as the creators of the SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) Suite of tools with seasons and other clever plugin addons. But they do scenery as well with the excellent Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (KCVG), Billy Bishop City Airport CYTZ (Toronto), KLGB – Long Beach Airport and John Wayne Airport - KSNA... I reviewed their MKJS – Montego Bay Jamaica in co-operation with LatinVFR but I wasn't that impressed. Gibraltar First of all the install is quite complex in that Skyline use the dreaded RAR compression file format, and worse every folder is in a separate RAR folder and all have to be un(RAPT!) or unzipped into working file folders. That said there are three main folders with the main scenery folder (Skyline Simulations LXGB Gibraltar), Ortho4XP (yOrtho4XP_Overlays) and the Main mesh (zSkylineLXGBMesh) and the folders are to be set in this load order and that the mMain mesh is set below all the other LXGB files. There is another Ortho4XP "Patch" folder if you want to use another custom Ortho4XP mesh. The full installation is a very heavy 10.51Gb! First impressions are very good, however I quickly picked up the repetitive pattern in the main east facing wall of the "Rock", it is highly, highly noticeable on the 27 approach... ... close up the formations are not as bad and even look quite good, but you still tend to look for the patterns in the rock and you can easily find them. Sadly I have been looking at the glorious mountain work of Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini over the last six months with their Dolomite sceneries. To be fair you can't expect that sort of skill here, but it does show up the older style to the more expert work, maybe Skyline should exported this area to Dainese and Bellini to get a more accurate realistic representation of the rock face? The underlying mesh is very Low Resolution and not colour corrected, and that aspect is also noticeable, and you see far too much of the mesh in a poor focus, and the trees are also very cheap and 2d. Too harsh, maybe, because in context the "Rock" is not overall that bad as it should be and from certain aspects it looks very good as in the classic postcard views.... The shape of the "Rock" is also very good, and you get that realism of the area correctly, also really well done is the cable car, and it is fully animated as well. No monkeys though... the Barbary macaque population in Gibraltar is the only wild monkey population on the European continent, and known locally as Barbary apes or rock apes. The most popular troop is that of Queen's Gate at the Ape's Den, where people can get especially close to the monkeys. They will often approach and sometimes climb onto people, as they are used to human interaction. Nevertheless, they are still wild animals and will bite if frightened or annoyed. A popular belief holds that, as long as Gibraltar Barbary macaques exist on Gibraltar, the territory will remain under British rule. In 1942 (during World War II), after the population dwindled to just a handful of individuals (just seven monkeys), British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered their numbers be replenished immediately from forest fragments in both Morocco and Algeria because of this traditional belief. The peak radar tower is there, but the images show that it sits higher and is more visible than shown here. The 8th century Moorish tower is there (which was the Gibraltar Prison until 2010) and so is the Princess Anne's Battery of four guns overlooking the airport. The Europa Point Lighthouse is visible, but the huge King Fahad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Mosques with a massive minaret is missing that was set behind, and it is an important VFR reference on transversing the straits LXGB - Gibraltar International Airport You only get one tight runway here at Gibraltar with RWY 08/27 creating the border between Gibraltar and Spain... Gibraltar International Airport North Front Airport IATA: GIB - ICAO: LXGB 09/27 - 1,777m (5,830ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 15 ft / 5 m .... which consequently the runway has to be closed every time a plane lands or departs. LXGB is noted as one of the "Most Extreme Airports" and is ranked the airport the fifth most extreme airport in the world, as the approach is heavily exposed to strong cross winds around the rock and from across the Bay of Algeciras combined with a very short runway, and so making landings in winter particularly uncomfortable. The old terminal at the airport was built in 1959 and refurbished in the late 1990s, and for many years it had been too small to cope with the number of passengers when two flights were scheduled to arrive/depart within a short space of time. Permission was announced in 2007 for the construction of a new terminal beginning in 2009 and it was completed in 2011. The new terminal is 35,000 m2 (380,000 sq ft), which is 15,000 m2 (160,000 sq ft) bigger than the old terminal. It has two baggage carousels and three departure gates, none of which are equipped with airbridges and only has five stands. It has a passenger capacity of up to 1.5 million passengers per year. The old terminal building was then demolished in February 2014. Skyline's modeling of the new terminal is excellent, it feels modern and the detailing is very well done. Glass is see-through and could have used a bit more tint as it looks a little too open and that no glass is visible, but otherwise it is a very if perfect rendition of the building. Internal detailing is available as well, and although Lo-Res the internal detail is very good and totally walk-through from landside to airside. Passengers are also thankfully social-distancing and greeting each other elbows out, as per current health regulations... so all is currently correct. Ramps are actually really nice and great to use, you would think space here would be tight but it isn't, note the General Aviation parking area front. As this is a Skyline Simulations scenery, then their SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) is going to be represented. And as there are no airbridges you only get a Marshaller and a Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS) set behind each stand. Control Tower is sensational... Opened in 1939 it is still a real working military style control tower, and reproduced here in great detail, the facility also has a built in Fire Station. Glass here is perfect (so why not on the terminal?) and the spiral staircase rear is excellent. Even better is the tower view which is set inside the tower correctly... views out at the ramps and approaches are fabulous, even if one of the map's is the wrong way around... One distinctive elements of the Gibraltar airport is the traffic that crosses the runway from Spain into Gibraltar.... 6 minutes are required to close the runway for aircraft activity, and the usual closure time is for 10 minutes and so that makes for a slow journey into or out of Gibraltar. Skyline have created an authentic animation in that move the aircraft onto the runway or fly into the approach and the lights will go red and barriers will come down and the traffic will stop... clever. To note there is no ILS here (another aspect of extreme airport conditions). There is being built a new runway tunnel to reduce these delays and tailbacks caused by aircraft taking off and landing. Construction of the new road was due to begin in January 2008 and be completed by the beginning of 2009, but as of 2016 it still remained incomplete. Although the road across the runway is to remain in place, for exceptional, specific, or emergency use, it will not be available for routine day-to-day use by private vehicular traffic. Pedestrians will not be required to travel via the new road/tunnel, and will continue to cross the runway at the present location. This construction phase is also shown at the threshold of RWY 27 RAF Gibraltar It was originally only an emergency airfield for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. But Gibraltar's position would make for a presence here. On 25 September 1939, No. 200 (Coastal) Group RAF was formed as a subordinate formation to HQ RAF Mediterranean in control of No. 202 Squadron RAF. The Group's function was the control of Royal Air Force units operating from Gibraltar. In late 1940 the Group was transferred to Coastal Command. Later a joint RN/RAF Area Combined Headquarters was formed which commenced operations in early 1942. The airfield played a major part in Operation Torch, the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa (French colonial possessions in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) in November 1942. On 29 May 1945 the Area Combined Headquarters was shut down and most of the personnel sent home.... The station officially became "RAF Gibraltar" in 1966. The RAF camp, now known as "Devil's Tower Camp", which was increasingly used by the British Army in the 1960s and 1970s, became the home of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment. By the 1980s RAF Gibraltar was increasingly still being used as a Forward Operating Base for middle east operations. The new RAF headquarters in Gibraltar was officially opened in February 2011. The area is split into two zones, the main barracks, administration and the single RAF ramp. The buildings are nicely done, but the area is dominated by the parade ground/football field. The area of interest is the RAF Gibraltar ramp, and it is well done here... if a bit small. The two zones are separated by a huge graveyard called the North Front Cemetery. Which is quite creepily accurate. Gibraltar The town itself is now more high-rise buildings than a colonial outpost it once used to be. Oddly the old town is not Spanish or English in style but Italian by a certain Giovanni Maria Boschetti, who arrived in Gibraltar in 1784 as a 25-year-old from Milan, where he is thought to have been a stonemason or engineer, he built the Victualling Yard (completed in 1812) and many other buildings to create the township, Gibraltar is named after the "Mount of Tariq" (named after the 8th century Moorish military leader Tariq ibn Ziyad). Most of the buildings are really generic and there is no really town centre? Most of the old town is just a Lo-Res flat ortho-texture? and there are also few other blank flat areas within the Gibraltar area. So this scenery is not a real detailed representation of the township. The important "Port of Gibraltar" is very well done with some very nice detailed ships in port, there are a few marinas like the new Mid Harbours Small Boat Marina set out within the main Gibraltar harbour and one large marina the Spanish side. A few of the ships (and boats) are animated, so slowly creep around the Bay of Gibraltar or Bahía de Algeciras. The huge Port Algeciras is also repesented across the Bahía de Algeciras, it is a basic layout of the port, but a required visual filler for approaches to RWY 09 Spain La Línea de la Concepción is the Spanish city set behind north of Gibraltar, and Skyline have used the X-Plane autogen with their own custom buildings to create a very realistic city scenario. As a realistic representation it is extremely good and even to VFR standards with the OpenStreetMap layouts. This custom autogen is combined with the urban industrial default autogen and I am also is running the ShortFinal's Global SFD plugin that changes the default autogen housing into Spanish designs... put the three autogen elements together and you get a very wide scope of autogen set completely around the Bahía de Algeciras with the city of Algeciras also incorporated into this very large represented area. Ground Texures Airport runway, taxiway and ramp textures are excellent. Nice detail and has great grunge, oil and rubber dirt in all areas, I particularly liked the heavier landing rubber marks and there is no grass here as the whole area is covered. Burnt-in ambient occlusion effects are also present. Lighting Overall the lighting is excellent, there are no approach lighting systems to guide you into runway 09/27, but it is well lit. Any arrival at LXGB in the dawn or dusk is always going to be spectacular, it is very, very dynamic in lighting visually. Terminal and ramp lighting is excellent, and I get a sort of mini Hong Kong feel standing here with the lit high-rise buildings in the background... Surrounding Gibraltar is a little hit and miss, it looks really good, but the custom autogen locks out the street lighting so most custom autogen areas are darker, the lighting pops up here and there, but overall all it works. Old town Gibraltar is actually quite good as is the lit High-Rise buildings, but the highlight of the scenery is that extraordinary lighting on the "Rock" face, the rock face lighting towers over and dominates the scenery. Summary Some scenery puts you into two very separate places, and the Skyline Simulations representation of Gibraltar really does that. On the one hand it is extremely well done scenery of this significant British Overseas Territory that is located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. On the other hand a few areas are wanting... the line here is somewhere in the middle. The scenery has a full reproduction of the famous "Rock" of Gibraltar on the Straits of Gibraltar. But the design of the peninsula and the famous rock face is a bit average with repetitive patterns, certainly at a distance but thankfully okay to fine close up, the situation is not helped by using very low-resolution non-colour graded orthophoto mesh on the terrain and under the scenery, thankfully the peninsula's proportions and shape is excellent. In areas the flatness of the orthophoto comes through and the significant old town of Gibraltar is not represented. To counter this is the excellent reproduction of Gibraltar's only airport in LXGB. The new terminal is really good with great external modeling and a fully represented internal detailing. RAF control tower is also excellent and the famous "Cross runway traffic" is animated and also animated to stop flowing when you use the runway... excellent Spanish autogen that covers the whole Gibraltar bay to the port of Algeciras is also very well represented in the scenery. Lighting is also very, very good as are the very good ground textures. So the scenery comes down to the experience of using LXGB and in that aspect it delivers a big simulation of realism. The airport has one of the most challenging runways in the world, and there is no ILS either to hold your hand, so this is virtually a carrier landing with a big jet, visually it works extremely well as well (as long as you don't look too hard hard at the Rock on the eastern approach), but twilight and dawn arrival and departures are quite simply sensational... so overall the benefits totally out weigh the negatives, this is absolutely a great scenery to add into your collection and routings... _____________________________________ Yes! LXGB - Gibraltar International Airport by Skyline Simulations is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LXGB - Gibraltar International Airport Price is US$23.90 Features: UHD Custom Textures using the latest painting techniques Super Detailed 3D modeling Handcrafted solid Rock of Gibraltar with custom night lights and important buildings Animated road traffic crossing the runway for takeoff and landing PBR Materials on buildings XPEco-subsystem XPLCity with Hard surface and lighting system Animated Marshallers Animated Radar Detailed UHD Ground with PBR and decals Ultra High resolution custom orthoimagery for the airport Thousands of 3D custom static objects Accurate Gibraltar area using original imagery and OSM data Amazing and detailed Night Textures Animated cargo boats FPS Friendly Including LXGB Charts Full Ground Traffic WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided but Traffic Global operates perfectly with limited traffic. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows , Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum. 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 7 GB Current and Review version: 1.0 (September 18th 2020) Installation Download scenery files required are in one very large RAR 7z folder download 6.45Gb Three RAR 7z folders then have to be uncompressed into the three folders below and placed in the correct order below in your .INI list Skyline Simulations LXGB Gibraltar (8.20Gb) yOrtho4XP_Overlays (5.56Mb) zSkylineLXGBMesh (1.76Gb) Total scenery install is: 10.51 Gb There is another Ortho4XP "Patch" folder if you want to use another custom Ortho4XP mesh. SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (8 pages) and Charts Gibraltar International Airport Manual.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 23rd September 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane v11.50 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 - Free Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Research

News! - Announcement : DHC 2 Beaver by Thranda with the new Dynamic Generation series Thranda (Dan Klaue) has announced the next aircraft to be released by Thranda will be the DHC 2 Beaver with the "Holmes Extended Engine mount" version. The DHC 2 will also be the first aircraft released under the "Dynamic Generation Series" title... notes by Thranda on these are features are: "Thranda's "Dynamic Generation Series" takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications to the currently loaded plane! Existing Thranda planes have just been updated, and are already a part of this series, but highlighting the features of this series should help communicate the value these planes provide." -Want to customize a livery? You can do it live, in-sim! Now even with PBR!* Experiment with Metalness and Roughness values without leaving the sim! -Want to move around instruments on the panel for different panel configurations? Do so in real-time!** And save presets of your favorite layouts! -Want to adjust and save weight and balance more visually, without using X-Plane's W&B menu, and see your edits affect the plane in real-time? You got it! -Want to seamlessly move your plane around in slew mode to position it precisely where you want it in real-time? That's all possible in the DynaGen series! -Want to switch between different aircraft configurations on the fly, without reloading the plane? Cargo, executive, tundra, skis, etc. right at your fingertips! -Want to enjoy highest fidelity and precision in flight dynamics, making use of X-Plane's very latest physics engine advances? Look no further! -Want to immerse yourself in ultra-realistic, multi-layered soundscapes, inside and out, with unrivaled nuance and depth? It's all here! -Want to customize your aircraft? Our planes feature a unique Manifest system, which breaks out logic variables for you to edit. SimPit builders rejoice! It's a new generation of aircraft, fitted perfectly to take fullest advantage of X-plane's inherent strengths. Thranda brings you the ultimate in configurability, flexibility, precision, immersion, customization, experimentation, documentation, and support! A float/amphib version is noted as coming later, but will be available for the aircraft. Release is noted as "in a few weeks"... Images courtesy of Thranda ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 18th September 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)

I agree, my guess is that a lot more of the zigsaw has to be put into place before we see the full impact of Vulkan, a lot of the other critical areas of say the Mesh and textures are of the old system and in need of changing to the new processing threads, it is still a bit of one and some on the other, X-Plane12 should hopefully bring both together.

News! - Announcement : Boeing 787-9 coming from FlightFactor FlightFactor announced last month that a completely new aircraft to add into the line up of a B777, B767/B757 twins, A350 and the Airbus A320 Ultimate is coming from the development house. This aircraft is the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and details are noted that the B787 will reach new heights in complexity, usability and have a variety of features. We are also taking our 3D and texturing to the next level with ever more detail in and out of the cockpit. The first cockpit renders have been produced... It is the first all new aircraft from FlightFactor since the A320 Ultimate, but FlightFactor note the B787 will be closer to the B757/B767 in design than use the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) than on the same A320U aircraft... either way there will be a lot of expectations and a quality delivery expected on this aircraft as the CEF development was a long and testing one, but also the coming B787 at a study grade level will be a big shot in the arm for X-Plane with the MSFS onslaught. FlightFactor also noted "v2 plans for other models are simultaneously on the way, we just don't want to reveal it all at once! " that will be the v2 Boeing 777 and the v2 A350. I would expect the v2 B777 even before the end of 2020, but not the v2 A350 as the v1 just went with a serious upgrade with version Advanced v1.6 just being released, so that aircraft will certainly be a mid or late next year release, but an upgraded Boeing 777 (the current version is now seriously old) will keep the punters more than happy until the Dreamliner arrives. Overall FlightFactor has noted that with this aircraft it wants to take simulation to the next level.... exciting times. Images courtesy of FlightFactor ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 15th September 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)

Check out my X-Plane11.50 post on how to set the correct reflection detail: Laminar Research : v11.50 Beta - Vulkan/Metal API by Laminar Research The settings are complicated but it is noted on how to get the best results under "Reflection Detail".

Scenery Review : Brenta Dolomites 3D by Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini This is the fifth and final of the five sceneries that will cover the Dolomite Mountain Ranges in the eastern north of Italy. This new area covers the Brenta Group which is set southwest of the four other packages including the Drei Zinnen National Park, Cortina - Cadore, Belluno and the Western Dolomite areas. Here are the five regions... with the new Brenta Group which is in Green... Drei Zinnen National Park in red, Cortina-Cadore in yellow, Belluno in purple and the Western Dolomites is in Orange. This scenery is unusual in that it does not adjoin or over-lap any other of the preceding sceneries, and actually stands alone. You can of course easily just fly across the Casies Valley from the Val Gardena Valley and you are right in there, so the new Brenta range is not what you would call separated, separated, but just does not also either actually require the other packages to work overall. The Brenta Group or Brenta Dolomites (Italian: Dolomiti di Brenta) is a mountain range, and a subrange of the Rhaetian Alps in the Southern Limestone Alps mountain group. They are located in the Province of Trentino, in northeastern Italy. It is the only dolomitic group west of river Adige. Sometimes called the "Western Dolomites". As part of the Dolomites, the Brenta Group has been officially recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Site under the World Heritage Convention. Our route takes us around the base (or valleys) around the Brenta Group, Starts in Pinzolo and ends at the Rifugio Dos Sabion, the orange line represents the point that the custom scenery stops in the package at the northern aspect. There is only one airport XLIPN (Grass) at Pinzolo in the scenery, so we will start there. Pinzolo is situated in the Rendena Valley, Italy and the airfield is set central of the township. The grass runway is extremely long (over 3000m) but a good one... Elevation is a high MSL 2395 ft and that is in the valley. The grass strip airport is quite basic with a few reception/terminal buildings and two large rusting hangars, the airport is sort of fictional as a grass airfield was built in Pinzolo to facilitate VFR flight with a runway of 700 meters, but there is a real helipad at the Madonna Di Campiglio - Pinzolo Helipad (see below) Not noted or assigned a ICAO is a H-Pad at the airport and it is just set past the reception buildings. I am back in the Bell 407 for this section after a sound (engine) fix, which is a much lighter and smaller aircraft than the heavier B412 and more suited to the area. The main central part of Pinzolo is set to the north of the airstrip... Custom objects and there are thousands (or tons of thousands throughout the whole five packages) are excellent, the reference to the local alpine context is very good, the all (important) Italianate churches references are also well done including the Church of San Vigilio and the Church of Saint Vigilius of Trent that stands in the town. Notable are the industrial buildings as well, as these valleys do have quite a lot of industrial aspects, football (soccer) fields are also very well represented thoughout the scenery. Also reproduced are all the main lifts (cable) in each of the tourist areas throughout the scenery, it can turn into a game in listing and finding them all... Madonna di Campiglio and Pinzolo are the main tourist centres with the biggest lift networks. Heading south you pass over the Palu sports fields and then the tail end of Pinzolo. Vilages of Bocenago, Spiazzo, Vigo Rendena and Porte di Rendena are all placed down the Rendena Valley are all spread out in front of you... At the southern most point of the scenery you break into a huge Y shaped valley and commune of Tione di Trento peaks into view and the commune is well known for production of being a specialist of divine candles (the long ones in churches). The candle factory is there, as well as a large hospital in the Tione Hospital (a H-Pad HELTI is located at the hospital), and a lovely football ground. We turn east and up the Giudicarie valley these villages and communes here were combined to create the Comune di Tre Ville.... with Preore and Ragoli at the centre. "Giudicarie", means "judicial districts" and the name goes back to legal traditions of the Middle Age. The one thing I found in spending hours following valleys around the significant areas of these packages are surprises that can come around the next bend, in this case it is Stenico and it's famous Stenico Castle. I decide to take a loop back around to get a closer look at the commune and the castle... If you do go back to Dainese and Fabio Bellini's Eiger 3D package, I was not too keen on the base valley textures as they were quite basic. There has been a significant effort throughout the whole Dolomite series to give the valleys a more realistic look and feel, and they are certainly far more detailed and convincing. With each new package there seems to be more fill and as became more focused on these aspects and here quite noticeably in the Brenta package again there is far more detailing and more realistic elements added in, and I am going to guess here and say that they are vineyards. First a swoop over Stenico and the Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Vigilio church. The Stenico Castle is a fort on a steep hill, surrounded by the Brenta Dolomites and is situated at the foot of the Paganella Plateau. It is a seat of power built on a spur overlooking the roads of communication towards the Valli Giudicarie, and the Castello di Stenico dates back to more than 2000 years, and was first built as a refuge for the Stoni - a proud Alpine population exterminated by the Romans - from which the town takes its name.The beauty of the castle is due to its multi-layer style, because of all the changes and additions which took place throughout the centuries. Heading northeast from the Comano Valley and next up is San Lorenzo Dorsino and at the entrance of the Val d'Ambiez... at the end of the valley you get your first glimpse of the Brenta Group, and the peak of Cima Tosa from the south... but it is only fleeting at this low height unless you go up the valley closer to the range. San Lorenzo Dorsino is set high on the left... On past San Lorenzo Dorsino and the next experience is the huge Lake Molveno. The lake marks the boundary between the Group of the Brenta Dolomites (Campanile Basso, Croz dell'Altissimo, Sfulmini, Cima Tosa) to the west and the Paganella - Mount Gazza formations to the south east). In 1952, the lake was drained to allow the construction of collectors and conduits to feed the power plant of S. Massenza. On this occasion a petrified forest submerged at the time of the lake's formation was found on the bed of the lake. The analysis with radiocarbon carried out in the laboratory of nuclear geology of the University of Pisa has established that the formation of Lake Molveno dates back to the early Iron Age. (about 3000 years ago). Note the excellent X-Plane reflections, with Vulkan v11.50 now working you can finally get access to the feature and it is well worth the effort, it brings these mountain lakes alive. Top end (north) of the lake is Molveno. With a population of 1,138, Molveno is a resort town is a hikers and mountaineers, destination. Again the Brenta Group of mountains show in the background. In reality Molveno is the boundary on the east side of the scenery, but you can still head north and as can connect up with the Casies Valley. You do lose the custom ground textures past Molveno and the custom objects as you are now going back into X-Plane default territory, but I have ShortFinal's Global plugin working and the Italian autogen continues on the communes and villages of the valley, the transition actually works out quite well, certainly nowhere as good as the custom placed objects obviously, but it does work well in context. Andalo, Maso Milano are the first points going north, and just past Maso Milano there is a valley connecting to the right and this is the only route through from the Casies Valley... The point of this exercise is that if you want to approach the important aspect of the Brenta scenery from the north from the other Dolomite packages then this is the only route you would or can take, and you would go north and follow the communes of Denno, Pavillo until you reach the Lago di Santa Giustina. You then are going to flip around the northern end of the Brenta Group range to go down the western Val di Sole (Sole Valley)... ... The Sole Valley is not bland or boring at all, but again the ShortFinal's Global plugin does make a significant difference here. At Dimaro there is a tight spur valley to the left, it is extremely hard not to fly straight on and miss it.... .... the valley is lush but also tightens up as the elevation gets higher, so you have to go up and climb over... but you are on the right route. At near the top of the elevation is Campo Carlo Magno, and you notice that the custom scenery is again in vogue, and high to the left are now again the peaks of the Brenta Group. Over the ridge and below is Madonna di Campiglio, which is a major ski resort. Madonna is the main point of access to the Brenta Dolomites, with its famous via ferrata, with the ski lift to the Passo Groste taking one directly to the northern end of the via ferrata network. The ski area around Madonna has 57 lifts and 150 km (93 mi) of ski runs, with a capacity of more than 31,000 people per hour, rises to 2,600 m (8,530 ft), has 50,000 m2 (12 acres) of snow park. Once past Madonna di Campiglio then to the left you get the full breakout view of the Brenta Group. Brenta Group The Brenta Group consists of three sectors in the Southern Sector, comprising the Tosa massif, the Ambiez chain and the subgroups of Vallon, Fracingli, Ghez. The Central Sector, comprising the Sfulmini chain and the Cima Brenta massif as well as the subgroups of Monte Daino, Gaiarda/Altissimo and Grostè. And the Northern Sector comprising the Northern chain and the subgroup of La Campa. Southern Sector Significant peaks right to left is Cima d’Ambiéz (3102m) the range set behind, Cima Tosa (1,521m) and the Crozzon di Brenta (3,135m) are all presented here. The face of the Crozzon di Brenta is the highlight of this scenery package... and it is extremely well done. For the construction of these expensive 3D models of Dolomites then DEM data were used and further corrected with 3D graphics programs. Subsequently the High-Definition textures were applied in 4K resolution, obtained from high definition photos. The positioning on the modified meshes is very accurate, respecting the dimensions and main morphological characteristics of terrain. Central Sector The central sector has the Sfulmini chain, Campanile Basso (2,883m), Cima Brenta Alta (2960m), Campanile Alto (2936m) and the Torre di Brenta (3,014m) that make up the most Dolomiti style formations of the Brenta Group, all are tall needle or tower shaped rocks, they are also the most inviting to climb. Northern Sector The Northern Group is really two groups or main (west) and the smaller La Campa (northwest). First group consists of Cima Mandron (3040m), Cima Brenta (3,150m), Bocca del Tuckett (2648m) and Cima Sella (2919m). La Campa has La Cima Falkner (2999m) in the center; on its left is Cima Grostè (2,901m). Directly in front of the Brenta Group is our final destination in the HELDS H-Pad at the Refuge Dos Sabion. The start back at Pinzolo is now just slightly south further down the Rendena Valley. Lighting Overall lighting is not the main aspect of these sceneries... there is lighting of course, but it is mainly just housing (window) and the odd street lamps to create an alpine village feel, but in this package there quite a bit of it, so every major valley is lit... Overall it looks quite authentic at night and works very nicely in recreating the valley effect, odd buildings or the main significant custom scenery objects and the many football (Soccer) fields are also well lit in the scenery. ICAO Noted Airports and H Pads There is one airport and 6 H Pads in the scenery, and provided are: XLIPN - Airport - 46.1412447 010.7634422 – PINZOLO HELMV – HELIPAD - 46.1387412 010.9631447 – MOLVENO HELTI – HELIPAD - 46.0437433 010.7252189 – HOSPITAL TIONE HELCA – HELIPORT - 46.2193837 010.8221709 – MADONNA CAMPIGLIO HELN – HELIPAD - 46.2229214 010.8471456 – MONTE SPINALE HELDS – HELIPAD - 46.1670591 010.8078064 – DOS SABION HBRT – HELIPAD - 46.1725133 010.8758617 – REF.BRENTEI XLIPN - Airport - PINZOLO As noted in the review, XLIPN is central of Pinzolo, but the approaches are quite clean, and the grass runway is looong. HELMV – H - Heliport - MOLVENO Situated right on the lake it is a very pleasant place to have a break and take a look around at the lake and scenery behind. Approaches are very good. HELTI – H - Heliport - HOSPITAL TIONE H Pad is situated by the Hospital at Tione. Well done and the approaches are nice and clean, the feature wall is well done as well. HELCA H - Heliport - MADONNA CAMPIGLIO An odd looking structure at Madonna di Campiglio, but an interesting place to land... the full name is also interesting "Vigili del Fuoco Volontari Madonna di Campiglio".... and it is a real structure and the main destination for helicopter transfers in the Brenta area. HELN – H- Heliport - MONTE SPINALE A Pad set at altitude on Monte Spinale, set just to the north of the Brenta Group. There are a lot of ski lift cables on the north approach to be careful of... HELDS – H - Pad - DOS SABION Situated directly in front of the Southern Sector of the Brenta Group, it is a great destination pad at the Rifugio, it is well done as well. Watch out for the high winds though, they can make hovering tricky in the open at this altitude. HBRT – H - Helipad - REF.BRENTEI Situated deep in the valley between in front of the Crozzon di Brenta and Sfulmini chain, then the Rifugio Brentei (2182m) can be hard to find, but the experience is worth it with a nice stone memorial to look at. _________________________________ Summary This is the fifth and final of five sceneries from Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini that cover the Dolomite Mountain Ranges in the eastern north of Italy. This new area covers the western, western area in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of the Brenta Group of mountains, this scenery unlike the other packages in Western Dolomites, Belluno- Southern Dolomites and the Cortina - Cadore region packages and the first package of the Drei Zinnen National Park has certainly become an enormous project of a scale not seen before in X-Plane before Areas recreated in this Brenta package includes 800 sq. Km, with the villages/communes of Madonna Campiglio, Pinzolo, Caderzone, Tione, Molveno, Stenico, Comano with over 14,000 custom buildings positioned. All the Brenta Group ranges include 3D models of Crozzon di Brenta, Cima Tosa, Campanile basso, Sfulmini, Brenta Alta, Cima Mandron, Cima Brenta , Bocca del Tuckett and Cima Sella. All the numerous mountains and glaciers are all very highly created mesh from DEM data 3D graphics programs, and the Hi-Res textures are all in 4K resolution. The focus mountains are simply excellent in their 3D reproductions and the highlights are Cima d’Ambiéz, Cima Tosa, Cima Brenta Alta, Campanile Alto, Cima Falkner and the sensational Crozzon di Brenta. A note is that the other packages in this series are not required to run this scenery and it could be regarded as a standalone These excellent representations of iconic mountain areas of the world are for exploration, sightseeing or just plain exploring... and you could throw in a bit of geography as well. All are very highly detailed of the areas they represent and the mountain ranges are of course the stars and the focal point. Over the first half of 2020 I have explored through these amazing Dolomite packages a world renowned. It is over the five reviews it became a really huge signicant area to explore and experience, for me it has been a huge experience just cover the project in it's full and sheer size Hugely popular and yes I love these amazing and hugely detailed and now extensive sceneries that can change your perspective of iconic mountain areas and allow them to come to life in your simulation world... Highly recommended, so all done and Dolomite explored! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! Brenta Dolomites 3D by Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Brenta Dolomites 3D Price Is US$22.95 Customer who already own Dolomites 3D - Drei Zinnen Park, Cortina, Belluno, Western can get this new scenery for $5 off. Please go to the original invoice for coupon code Features 800 sq. Km Pinzolo Airfield(XLIPN) with14 Heliports in strategic sites. Many villages: Madonna Campiglio, Pinzolo, Caderzone, Tione, Molveno, Stenico, Comano.. Over 14,000 buildings positioned, with many buildings rebuilt. All 3D models Brenta groups: Crozzon, Cima Tosa, Campanile basso, Sfulmini, Brenta Alta ... All the vegetation mapped Inserted hundreds of polygons / textures to reproduce the photo-realistic terrain Reproduced the main lift-plants, in particular the Madonna di Campiglio... Reproduced all the main refuges in the area: Brentei, Tuckett, Alimonta, Agostini, Pedrotti, Grostè. ... The fifth part isn't connect with others parts of Dolomites. WT3/Traffic Global: Your joking of course! no, you are on your own here Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 630MB Release and Review version 1.0 (4th September 2020) Installation Download scenery file size is download 630mb and with the full installation installed in your custom scenery folder as there are Twenty One install folders in the order below in the .INI File (included and the listing below also includes the Drei Zinnen/Cortina/Belluno/Western packs). The "Dolomiti2_lib" library is not required if you already have it installed. SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part1/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1B_AIRPORT_LIVD/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1C_CableWay_Dolomitti1/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1D_PUSTERIA_Comelico/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1E_MISURINA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1F_AURONZO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2A_DOLOMITI_3d_Part2/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2B_AIPORT_LIDI/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2C_CableWay_Dolomiti2/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2D_CORTINA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2E_CADORE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2F_CRODALAGO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part3/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3B_CableWay_Dolomiti3/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3C_AGORDO_ALLEGHE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3D_BELLUNO_Piave/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3E_VAL_CORDEVOLE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3F_VALLE_PRIMIERO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3G_Zoldana_Fiorentina/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part4/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4B_CableWay_Dolomiti4/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4C_VAL_BADIA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4D_ALPE_SIUSI/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4E_FASSA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4F_GARDENA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4G_SMARTINO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4H_VAL_CEMBRA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4I_VAL_FIEMME/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4J_VAL_FUNES/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4K_RENON/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4L_VAL_DEGA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4M_LocherAirfield/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1G_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2G_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3H_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4N_Exclusions/ D5D_MOLVENO_STENICO D5B_CableWay_Dolomiti5 D5C_PINZOLO_CAMPIGLIO D5A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part5 SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Dolomiti2_lib/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/MESH_DOLOMITI1/ Total scenery installation (Brenta) : 646mb The ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents One manual with notes ______________________________________________________________________   Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 12th September 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews  (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 and tested in v11.50b15 (fine) Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: Global SFD plugin US$30.00 Scenery or Aircraft - Bell 407 XP11 by Dreamfoil (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$35.00

News! : X-Plane goes 11.50 final Laminar Research have announced that X-Plane has gone 11.50 final. The statement is here: "X-Plane 11.50 Released, introducing Vulkan and Metal Rendering X-Plane 11.50 is a pivotal update to the app that provides faster graphics processing, fewer visual stutters and an overall increase of Frame Rate (FPS). Taking advantage of the latest rendering technology, X-Plane 11.50 ships with compatibility for Vulkan on Windows/Linux and Metal on Mac. Think of these as the language of your graphics card (GPU). We have measured improvement across a variety of different GPUs, including both AMD and Nvidia-built cards. As always, performance results with Vulkan/Metal will vary from user to user but we are quite pleased with the aggregate improvement". Details of 11.50 are: "X-Plane 11.50 is a major update that completely rewrites the rendering engine to use modern rendering APIs: Vulkan (on Windows and Linux systems) and Metal (on Mac). It is now out of beta testing and available to all X-Plane users! This version includes new options in the Graphics Settings screen to enable Vulkan or Metal, which require a restart of the sim to go into effect. Please note that the first load time with Metal and Vulkan will be surprisingly slow. This is lots of shaders/pipelines compiling for the first time; subsequent runs will be faster. Prior to 11.50, X-Plane used OpenGL exclusively. OpenGL is a standardized way to talk to a computers graphics card and put images on the screen. With version 11.50, X-Plane introduces Vulkan and Metal. These are similar standards but they are more modern and efficient than OpenGL. We chose to undertake this project because we were unsatisfied with the performance of X-Plane running OpenGL. This shortcoming was particularly visible in the form of stuttering, when the sim loses track of time and then jumps ahead. Vulkan and Metal work in a similar manner to provide images on the screen. Unlike OpenGL though, they were designed with modern hardware in mind. Vulkan and Metal simply reduce the amount of overhead necessary to talk to the graphics card. See the full release notes here for the list of all updated airports and the full list of changes/bug fixes. You can find instructions on how to update X-Plane here!" Comment courtesy of Laminar Research ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 10th September 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)

Laminar Research : X-Plane and the future in the new world order It was almost impossible to define X-Plane as an ongoing simulator in all the hype of the release of Microsoft's reinvention of it's original "Flight Simulator" product. For one only beta (and alpha) users had access to it and also for most of that final build periods they where also heavily restricted by a NDA or Non-Disclosure Agreement, and step out of line and you were severely wrapped over the knuckles... all in the name of creating a good impression. But the mega-changing simulator is now out there and warts and all, Microsoft can't hide anymore, but on that count neither can Laminar Research in their aspect of this now complete "New World Order". This analysis of the future is going to note the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms and have a sort of vision into the future of what simulation will be. First you would have noted that I only mentioned two simulators. There are certainly more simulation based platforms out there, like Digital Combat Simulator (DCS), Rise of Flight, Aerofly FS and the upcoming is the Squadron 42. But first and foremost we have to define a "Flight Simulator". A lot of those titles that say they are simulation are in fact just games with an aviation theme. This is a big factor to consider with even the new Microsoft "Flight Simulator 2020" or MSFS. In the aspect of "is it a game or a simulator?" The definition of a simulator is what we call "Study" grade, in other words the simulator can replicate the effects of an aircraft flying through the air but mostly in it's system depth in replicating the aircraft's systems to mirror the real systems on real aircraft. This aspect means that pilot's can train on these aircraft (not officially, but many current "study grade" aircraft are actually far better than official versions) to gain their real world licenses and study aircraft systems to improve their real world skills. Currently in reality X-Plane is the really the only fully "Study" grade simulator, MSFS is currently in it's release form only still a game... but obviously that aspect will change in the future but by how much is a big question to explore here. You may have noticed in the above simulator list I didn't mention Flight Simulator X (and the oddly named "Steam Edition") and it's post cousin PrePar3D by Lockheed Martin. Microsoft discontinued the FSX development way back in January, 2009, in that aspect the Lockheed Martin (with it's military connections) needed to keep the simulator alive. This created a licensing agreement on the foundation of using the base code of FSX... PrePar3D, and most addons in aircraft and scenery in FSX could easily be ported over to the P3D platform, but from it's very early incarnation the P3D was not ever really a public simulator as early access was only under a Academic License which was available for US$59.95, the full version was a whopping US$499, although a Pro license was available for US$199, and all this for an older source code simulation platform. To note the "Study" aspect. Yes a lot of FSX based simulators do have the deep study grade systems, but don't have real world aerodynamic flying qualities of which X-Plane does via it's aerodynamic model called "blade element theory". The first point to define in the "New World Order" is that both FSX (and PrePar3D) platforms will now slowly and gradually going to disappear, one for being simply obsolete (FSX) and the other not withstanding it's huge improvements is still FSX source code based, and P3D simply can't compete with MSFS. The second point is more interesting and actually the most vital aspect of the "New World Order". The actions of developers are the lifeblood of any simulator. When FSX was at it's most vibrant it had an arsenal of quality developers creating product to create an attractive platform. Carenado, PMDG, Aerosoft, Just Flight, A2A, Majestic, iFly and Captain Sim. In X-Plane it had it's own highly original developers; FlightFactor, Rotate, FlyJSim, Dan Klaue, SSG, ToLiSS, IXEG and only a few FSX developers crossed over successfully to X-Plane in Carenado,and Just Flight (both via Thranda or Dan Klaue). In most aspects the platforms were highly separated in context in that the core aspects of both platforms were very highly built on very different standards, and as noted by a leading X-Plane developer "I had to totally rip the guts out to rebuild it for X-Plane". In reality the two platforms were and are completely different from a development point of view, so one platform developer very rarely strayed over to the other's territory, and even if they did try then they completely mostly totally hated it, and I can't name one X-Plane developer that went to the FSX platform? (a very few scenery crossovers happened), so in most cases it was two completely different platforms that were completely absolutely different from each other. X-Plane itself has been in constant development since X-Plane 1.00 in 1995 which is now 25 years ago. There has been eleven versions of the simulator with X-Plane 11.50 the current version, mostly versions are released every four years and on that timetable the next version X-Plane 12 is due later this year. The release of MSFS in it's 2020 guise is not lost on the release of the next version of X-Plane 12. So now at this date is the understanding the current situation of simulation... so where do we go from here. Simulation now more alike than different The next most interesting point to understand about simulation is that unlike in the past the most prominent simulators are becoming more alike than in the past of their significant platform differences. In the olde world of FSX and X-Plane they were very if completely different in their platform standards, or simply worlds apart. But look closely at the new MSFS release and there is now more familiar to X-Plane users than differences, as on the surface the MSFS has that familiar Flight Simulator look and feel, but look closer and in most areas it matches X-Plane in the way it has been recreated. Debatable is how much of the new simulator has been actually duplicated (carefully as not to start court cases), but in many areas both now have very familiar internal structures. Outwardly this would seem to be a negative impact for the X-Plane simulator, but in fact it will be the main reason that both simulators will be able to build substantial users going forward from the huge gaming base that they both want to access. Again developers are the key. The number one aspect is that developers are a business, so they are primarily here to make a profit, in reality they don't care about your feelings or what version of the Cessna 172SP you want, if it sells and makes sales they will do the aircraft or scenery to fit the market. The core of the issue is that X-Plane has always come from a hobbyist angle, to "Make" more than "Buy", and with different platform standards then the money usually went to the FSX buyers. So making money in X-Plane is noted as "difficult" even "impossible" as there is a lot of product easily shared and actually free. That is fine for the hobbyist, but not great for keeping the actual simulator viable. X-Plane has noted it has grown up over the last few years, and mostly that has been the remnants of the outdated FSX users looking for a better simulation, they liked actually what they found on the X-Plane platform and far more than what they would actually admit too... so the foundation is there to keeping them in the X-Plane realm and not switching back to Flight Simulator or even better in using both platforms. One of the first big surprises of the release of the first product for the MSFS simulator was that the only two platforms in product were promoted, and that is MSFS itself and X-Plane. This is a very interesting aspect in the fact that the two simulators at their core are now more very similar than actually different, yes ground textures and layout will be different, but now any scenery developed for MSFS (or the other way around in X-Plane) can be easily be converted to the other. For a developer it is a "win win" situation of creating one product for two simulators at the same time, doing away with the very earlier FSX standards means also dropping its very different standards (and why both FSX and P3D are going to fade away). This is a huge bonus for X-Plane and creates even more product for the simulator without the significant differential development costs. The more interesting area will be in the same context for aircraft? If aircraft are created in MSFS more of in the same structures as X-Plane (PlaneMaker) then it also means that aircraft can be shared as well, again a bonus for each simulator (think of PMDG in X-Plane and Rotate in MSFS) it makes for an interesting scenario. Most would say that would be to the detriment of the X-Plane platform, but in fact the opposite is actually true, what is does mean is simply more product for both simulators. In fact in the current situation MSFS or no new FS2020 then developers would have still left or abandoned X-Plane because it is simply not returning their time and investment in the simulator, overall we a "tightfisted mean, even selfish bunch of users". In reality X-Plane can go one way or another... We can go back to the decade old situation of a mega MSFS and a hobbyist smaller X-Plane (most seem to want that scenario) or both platforms thrive off each other, and notably X-Plane has grown up over the last few years and to point has even thrown off it's tinkering ways, but that aspect is also the difference of why MSFS and X-Plane can actually thrive together. Is MSFS a game or a simulator Currently that answer is easy, it is simply a game. You can fly an aircraft of course and look around at the very pretty scenery, but that is nothing a good aviation based game can do... and to a lot of gamers that will simply satisfy their ambitions of being a (so called) pilot. That in reality is not simulation. I have watched a few (or a lot) of extremely bad so called aviation piloting in the promotion of the MSFS... simulation users they are not, they are just gamers getting their gaming jollies. I actually thought it was a very bad way from Microsoft to promote a serious simulation application, I think it turned the more die hard simulation users off the product than actually attracted them. The core situation is that until Asobo Studios (creator's of MSFS) can get a decent SDK or Software Development Kit completed then MSFS will not move forward into being a real simulator, yes that will happen and mostly not till 2021, but even then in how much depth in systems will it actually have. Remember X-Plane has had a year on year succession of being deeply developed in it's core systems that cover; real icing (not the visual stuff on the wings but the way the icing affects the aircraft's controls and systems), Navigation systems, Hydraulic systems, Fire Systems, Electrical buses, Turbine Pressures, Engine Bleeds, Cockpit and Cabin environments and so on, yes clever MSFS developers will create plugins to simulate all of these aspects, but X-Plane has them all already currently built in, and yes you guessed it in being a deep system "simulator". These systems have been created over decades of X-Plane versions and updates, and are deeply entrenched within the simulator, no new simulator can possibly redefine that detail in a few years, no matter of their resources. So the current MSFS is only the starting point and not in being an actual simulator. The deeper argument is how much control will Microsoft actually give the user. We have already defined the gamer, but the core simulation user is a wholly different species. Currently we can note that for MSFS to deliver the graphic capabilities it has, and don't get me wrong they are quite substantial, you are required to run MSFS on the internet, the point being is that the simulator you own is not the full simulator, it is a bit like being connected up to Rehoboam in Westworld or in reality it is Azure which is Microsoft's cloud services and server division. It controls you and not the other way around... it is the only way that MSFS can function on this scale, you download 120gb as a base, but still have to access 2 petabytes worth of Bing Maps' aerial imagery which are stored away on the Azure servers. So with MSFS you can never be a solely owned product, the other point is how much access will Microsoft give you to their servers, that I doubt very much. Updates from Asobo Studios will be the only access. X-Plane is (still) a sole product, you own it and all of it is installed on your own server, this is the aspect on if you want to change any of it (I call it morphing) you can, obviously you can't change the root or core files (and many still do that with the constant shader inventions) but anything else is pure open slaughter, and many users don't know of the word restraint. The core user is constantly tinkering with their simulator, so no two X-Plane simulators are actually the same, this does create complexity, but also that American way of wanting freedom to do what they want, when they want to. X-Plane was built on this open philosophy, hence it's "Hobbyist" tag, and the X-Plane.Org is the centre of the X-Plane universe with constant new ideas and content to rebuild or change your X-Plane world to your own specific ambitions. Why do simulator users stay so addictive to simulators, and this open framework aspect is actually the key. I am not saying that Microsoft will allow certain areas to be changed, but I doubt you will be able to create FSX v10.1 So MSFS is not FSX, in fact in modifying elements then X-Plane is more to the FSX framework than MSFS will ever be, so will that aspect define the differences between the gamers and core simulation users, so if you want to continue to create your personal nirvana sim, then X-Plane more than MSFS will be the only place you can seriously do so. Other aspects are also important of the current differences between MSFS and X-Plane. First X-Plane is multi-platform or covers users that use different operating systems in Windows, Apple OS and Linux, the main and only reason I was attracted to only X-Plane was that I used then a Mac computer, even then I have never used or downloaded a FS version. MSFS has currently a very limited range of aircraft. Airliners, General Aviation are catered for, but there are no military, helicopters, classic or even the downright weird aircraft available to fly.. to note X-Plane was also based on the ability to create your own aircraft and fly it in the simulator, that is still the core use for the dynamics and tools available. Converging platforms This article is all about looking into the future, but as we have witnessed with this 2020 year, is that your future predictions can come seriously undone via even a small change in circumstances. But as noted I see a more of a convergence of simulation than the usual wide differences of the past history of simulation standards and platforms, more important will be the huge increase of the user base as the net will be bigger to catch more users into the context of getting involved into simulation as a passion, a lot of new users are out there, and they just simply don't know that simulation exists. Which asks the question of is "simulation" an entertainment or a skill.... or simply a skill learnt through entertainment. For me it is the continuing refinement of my (online) flying skills. I came into simulation to fly aircraft from my childhood, but I still required the skills to fly them correctly. Ten years later that skill base is enormous, but I still need to train and practise in areas I still have weaknesses, that is ten years in consistent flying (and I run X-Plane on average 36 hours a week in doing reviews), but that is what also brings me back to the simulator over and over again. The skills are not just the basic airmanship flying skills, but also in how to fly the various and varied aircraft types and above all master their complex systems, yes I am talking about those study grade simulations, for that the simulator is always testing me, so the depth of the aircraft simulation is important to keep the interest. Most commentators note that MSFS currently blows the X-Plane simulator off the planet in terms of simulation, but as noted both have currently major deficiencies coming from different directions, in fact both simulators are not quite close in terms of where they need to be, but in completely different contexts. As noted again MSFS is certainly a ground breaking simulator in the aspects of the visual experience, but still quite hollow as a simulator under it's very extravagant exterior, the goal is to of course give depth to visuals, and both Asobo Studios and dedicated MSFS developers will focus heavily on those features, but to note it won't be done quickly or to the high level of what X-Plane currently has as standard, in fact there are many, many different areas to cover than just adding in a "Study" grade aircraft and payware scenery, it is in the details that need the work to make MSFS see it's full promise as a world defining simulator. Hollow is a word that MSFS will need to address, not only in it's systems but in the critical areas as well like weather, as again the weather system in MSFS is quite sensational, but only in a visual sense and more than a dynamic sense of the way it affects flight, and this aspect is a constant recurring theme. X-Plane is in the opposite situation, great depth of simulation but poor visuals. Certainly don't get me wrong on this aspect as X-Plane since the release of v10 has come an exceedingly long way in it's visual presentation, but in many aspects it has also fell way long behind the standard in what gamers expect in gaming experiences, in that 8 years or two version cycles it is a seriously long time in changes and with the advances in technology. X-Plane v12 In one aspect the timing of MSFS to release their "Wonderkind" simulator at this point in time is more to an advantage to X-Plane and Laminar Research than a release say in a years time and that X-Plane12 would have been released and on the table, it's features then defined and locked in. But with a before launch announcement of features and detail, it can give Laminar room to make adjustments to the feature process. Don't get me wrong, X-Plane12 was set out almost a year and a half ago as per the usual development cycle, work has already been long ongoing in the background, so in most areas the features will be already locked in and onboard, but the chance to cover areas that MSFS excels at can be at least addressed before the next version 12 announcement. Secondary note is will X-Plane12 make it's usual cycle November release date (or the release beta)... circumstances have thrown that aspect into some confusion as X-Plane 11.50 is late, very late, and almost over four months past the deadline and the beta process was extremely long and buggy as well. The Laminar core development coders were then also tied up just wanting to some sort of release point, and they have finally got there but at what cost to the development of X-Plane12. My guess is the release announcements will still be made in the usual November timeframe, but an actual beta won't now come until 2021. We will go through the details of what X-Plane12 requires to be in reference to the simulator market in reference to MSFS. (No I don't have inside information from Laminar, this is also not a X-Plane12 announcement, but a critical viewpoint on what is required in the v12 release to make X-Plane still a competitive if not a better simulator). Scenery and Mesh Let us first get this out there, there is no way that X-Plane or Laminar can compete with Microsoft's 2 petabytes of world mapping, it is simply not going to happen, but that is also not the be or end all of a simulator. To note that X-Plane (v10) was the first to actually use OpenStreetMap data in the simulator and the idea was clever and gave a semblance in creating an order in which gave shapes to the dynamics of recreating the real life layouts of the world. As noted the current mesh system in X-Plane is now eight years old, yes updated via some more updated DEM (elevation) data by alpilotx, but even he has been gone out of X-Plane for a few years now. So a new scenery mesh was always going to be top gong in any feature list for X-Plane12. MSFS will now just push that agenda far higher in the required quality of the mesh and texture detail. For everything since I started in X-Plane the biggest visual aspects have always been it's patchwork feel, this aspect is made worse in the (over) use of photo-ortho textures, other bad points are X-Plane's consistent loss of tiles (water mostly), tile cracks and extremely poor horizons. The one most striking thing about MSFS is the consistency of the mesh, it feels as one and you move around within that same consistency making it seem all very seemless. Doing thousands of reviews I have seen everything in scenery and the one thing that is a major issue is that developers try to keep new photo based mesh punters happy, so you can have even up to four or five different base meshes with a single payware scenery, worse the default version is usually not refined into the background of the default mesh... yes I hate it as I want a one world solution. One thing that MSFS has done right, is that you have to fit into the already processed mesh and not the other way around and in so creating a one world flow solution and Laminar need to learn from this, the problem is weeding users off their beloved photo-mesh and terrabyte storage. But overall for the simulator to be successful it has to be all of a one form and get away from that very distinctive "X-Plane Patchwork" styled look. Laminar did have their hands tied with OpenGL in creating a better mesh solution, but with the Vulkan/Metal intergration those restrictions should now be overcome. So a complete and new world modeling mesh should be the main and foremost feature of X-Plane12. Weather The one thing that really blew me away when sighting MSFS for the first time was the weather engine. It is a masterpiece of coding and the biggest overall challenge for Laminar Research. As noted the weather engine does look quite sensational, but it is not as effective dynamically, so again X-Plane has an advantage there, but like the above mesh, the current weather system is again two cycles old. Nothing can be stated more strongly than how the weather engine stamps the look and feel of a simulator. The only really effective current weather engine for X-Plane is xEnviro and it is a pointer on how a big a difference the right lighting, shading, particle and colouring can create a very immersive experience. The problem with xEnviro is that it is expensive, extremely slow development (still not available for X-Plane11.50) and always feels it is a buggy beta more than a complete solution, missing features like to be able to set your own weather conditions also makes it very unusable or even an non-effective tool for the setting of the required conditions for training and practise. MSFS weather engine has everything you can dream of in a simulator, instant changes on screen, adjustments, changeable ice and snow, and exceptional lighting and all in 3d particle modeling and simply overwhelms even the likes of xEnviro, and the current default X-Plane weather engine is simply relegated to a none starter. For X-Plane12 to be a truly great simulator the weather/environment engine has to be more than great, if brilliant, no area in the simulator needs the most attention and that is currently a very tall order, but I do think that Laminar have the talent and skills to take this very significant aspect of the simulator and make it work and it is certainly the one vital area that X-Plane can then compete with MSFS on the same level or at least a level the playing field. ATC In one area Laminar can easily compete with MSFS is in the ATC or Air Traffic Control. The ATC in MSFS is just a revision of the already (if old) effective ATC system, in other words "It works so don't change it". Somewhere in the backwoods of a room of Laminar's coding division is Tyler Young, and Tyler has been pounding away on the ATC feature for years, some speech improvements have flowed out and dribbles can be found in X-Plane Mobile, but otherwise the development aspect has been going on for almost the full cycle of X-Plane11, that is years folks, not a year. There are two scenarios to take on board, he has simply given up on the whole idea of a effective ATC system, or he has created a masterpiece, with X-Plane12 we will find out which of the scenarios is the correct one. Personally I think it is the second scenario, because if Tyler had given up he would have appeared doing another vane of coding and being more visual on the development site. One aspect of ATC makes it very hard to implement and that is the A.I. (aircraft), and truth is we simply don't use it, and never have. We use JustFlight's Traffic Global and WorldTraffic3 from Classic Jet Simulations, so how can you have an effective ATC when there is nothing there to talk to? So any good new ATC system has to have an extension aspect to cover third party applications on using their traffic as well as the inbuilt traffic system, in reality it should be based on the real world flight numbers and general aviation registrations, complex yes. But like everything else hopefully doable. Either way I really don't think that users will wait any longer for a decent ATC, in X-Plane12 Laminar will have to finally deliver that very feature. Objects As noted Laminar were very clever in using the OpenStreetMap data as a basis for their autogen. Will the current autogen feature still be in X-Plane12, well quite possibly. There is nothing wrong with the autogen system, but the development pace was extremely slow, as there is in reality only two artists working on the autogen, in most cases it was just one. As excellent as the work is (the night lighting is exceptional) then over two cycles and X-Plane 10 and 11 then the autogen has grown significantly, but still not even close to fast enough to create the virtual world in it's complexity, as noted without ShortFinal's excellent SFD Global addon we would still only have two in the US and European style autogen, it is simply not a fast enough pace and highlights the deficiencies of the advancement of MSFS to the current autogen status, in other words Laminar dropped the ball or lost the lead. I always noted that to make a realistic autogen work you needed two elements, a wide scoping autogen to do the layouts and the Icons/landmarks to cover the more intimate VFR aspects. To a point even the MSFS system has to do the same issues in that it can't cover all the smaller details like the missing Sydney Harbour bridge and Buckingham Palace block of flats, so still you need these landmark city packages to fill out the missing areas. Laminar did indeed create a few "Landmark" packages and again as good as they are they are just to minute to have any effect on any VFR visuals. It is noted that Laminar has recruited (finally) a large art team and noted they are mostly Eastern Europeans, so certainly the art or autogen will get a significant boost in X-Plane12, the results will be certainly interesting, but I still think that addon payware city packages will still be require to fill in the blanks, again the crossover factor will be interesting in that the same packages will be available for both MSFS and X-Plane. To note that most city packages currently being released in MSFS are also X-Plane based (which were originally FSX modeled, but the current quick conversions from only X-Plane sourced scenery to MSFS is significant). Another area MSFS has made an impact has been in fauna. FSX was littered with simply horrible trees with very poor jaggy low-resolutions and mostly blue halos around them, but in MSFS the trees and fauna is very good, 3d and have volume they finally get away from the 2d cardboard look of trees, ditto the excellent grass and far better than anything we have in X-Plane... after thousands of reviews I am really over poor trees, but one point is in MSFS the trees do look out of scale as in being too large? In this aspect Laminar have a chance to fix this forgotten area of X-Plane, as again in those patchwork looking ground textures and the serious need for something to cover them over. That lo-res mottled ground texture look is a very X-Plane looking style, and needs to be addressed and creative grass can cover and create a more viable eye level and realistic world. Extra Laminar always throw in something that you would never think about and then deem it essential, but more features including systems, lighting effects and even Garmin GTN 750 and Garmin G500 GPS instruments are also likely to be new features. Meshing Simulators If you read the above features that could be the future of X-Plane, then one thing becomes very clear, MSFS needs to become like X-Plane and X-Plane needs to become like MSFS, in fact if you take the visuals and highlight features from MSFS, and merge them with X-Plane's better diversity, better system dynamics and tools you get really the ultimate simulator. But currently both are very far from the ideal situation of simply having it all. You can see where all this is going over the next few years, as in reality the race is on, but as noted the future development will be mostly that the simulators will share more this time than be totally different than it was set out in the past. As their platforms are now significantly more closer than the same in being totally opposite each other, in fact it mirrors the real world in that Microsoft has currently taken the Apple approach in design and layouts with it's Surface and even Windows 10 software than the older Windows 7 legacy feel and applications... or a new if the same design direction, simulation will be the same in taking only the best if only direction and in an odd way the product will then become very similar. Obviously the above feature list for X-Plane12 (and that is very old promises included) is critical, but not impossible to create the next generation of X-Plane simulation, and it will be a very interesting story on how all this unfolds out. There will be really no answer of which will be the better simulator in the future as that aspect is in the hands of fate and change, but X-Plane will have on balance the diversity of allowing more OS operating systems and the more open user interaction to adjust your simulator to your own liking, VR - Virtual Reality and open cockpit builders are also more highly catered for, but ultimately it will come down to actual flying experiences of feedback from the aircraft, not only in the systems but with the environments around you.... after everything else, a simulator has to provide the basics of training and learning to be a pilot and heighten his aviation skills, and he is not there just to look at all the pretty scenery. Stephen Dutton Copyright©2020 X-Plane Reviews

Yes they did, but not very well by the forums... it is being refined.

Framerate is impossible to define, as you noted you are running a very limited computer spec. I do note framerate if it has a definite impact on the performance of the computer, but my settings are what I define as middle ground, the sort that is required to get the basic return from the simulator... to note the JARDesign A330 is far much less framerate intensive than the A320U which actually is quite over heavy (10 frames) on frame rate in its current beta Vulcan/Metal form, but a final v11.50 release has yet been done either, so if you can run the A320U then the A330 will run far easily.

Yes very nice, brilliant work, but I would liked the P-38L to be a bit more refined for release, simple menu areas and a few bugs should have been resolved easily.