Stephen Posted November 10, 2019 Report Share Posted November 10, 2019 Scenery Upgrade : EGGD - Bristol International Definitive by Pilot+Plus When I came into simulation in X-Plane9 you had to have a pretty good imagination, you would look at a scenery depicting a place or airport and it sort of resembled the same real world context, but in reality you knew it fell very short or mostly you simply got no realistic feel of that place or area. So your main purpose and journey in simulation is to find and seek out that Holy Grail of realism on the screen, to be and feel the very place the scenery is representing. To date it has been over a decade of collecting and adjusting the various components to create this Holy Grail of a realistic environment. No doubt the more extensive power of your hardware has gone a long way of achieving the dream, but it is the side effects of HDR and reflective materials that have added in the power of the vision, and don't forget the power of a good environmental engine to also recreate the mood and feel of the area... that nirvana is now near, even very close. Over the last few years in the X-Plane simulator the acceleration has been massive with all these aspects related to realism, we are not there yet, but with the next steps with computer power, ray tracing and virtual reality we will finally have reality in within our grasp. But the simulator is also built of blocks of third party components, the trick is to make them all match and blend in together as one, that is my goal, but developers skills and tastes don't all match the same vision, but when they do the results are another step forward towards that nirvana place. Pilot+Plus delivered their version of EGGD - Bristol Airport back in April 2015, by the standards of the day it was one of the best sceneries in the southwest of the United Kingdom, so here is the upgraded version in the EGGD - Bristol International Definitive status, definitive is in context a very final word, so it is a very brave developer to note the scenery as a final say in the series, so the scenery has to live up to a lot of expectations. But the original as reviewed here was a very good starting platform into achieving that goal. Airport Review : EGGD - Bristol Airport by Pilot Plus EGGD - Bristol International Definitive Before looking at the scenery, there is another change first.... Pilot+Plus has adopted an installation application to install the scenery for you, and to allow updates for when they become available... so now you just download the app, and not the full scenery to install... You put in your X-Plane/directory, then your details and serial no. and then the app does the rest. I had a few issues with the install address being refused (tracked down to a microsoft "read only" issue) and to be honest, just a simple download and manual install would have fixed the issue far quicker, but this is the brave new world of application installers and they are not going away anytime soon. Note, in doing an update the app does a full new install, so you have to remove the older EGGD scenery from your Custom Scenery Folder first. First impressions of the upgraded EGGD- Bristol are exceptional, this is one nicely intergrated scenery into the X-Plane surrounding textures (you can use the Orbx TrueEarth textures as well), there is however a strip of custom textures to the north that is a little blank and open (cuts off traffic flow) but otherwise it is all very good. ... you can see the boundary clearly by the foliage... because as the season's change then so does the foliage colour (Summer, Autumn,Winter and Spring)... .... this is a clever idea, but in reality you need the simulator to work unison to make it work all together or it looks odd, and like here it highlights the boundary The winter textures are the most relatable to the default scenery and they are not white either for winter but some darker greens... a manual season settings option would be nice. In the original v1 the textures were slightly bland, or mostly dull but that was also the general effect at the time, but that is certainly not the case with the newer v2 textures... dynamic is the word here as they are not only HDR but also raytraced occlusion and reflection active as well and the realism effect is amazing and immediate. Buildings look worn or the concrete has a wear or even just after a rain shower effect, ditto the aprons and ramp that not only have a brilliant reflective sheen, but a grit realism as well.... .... certainly this is another step forward in (reflective) realism and it is highly effective. Pilot+Plus has also created a more gritter concrete surface... ... it looks great in detail, but feels more pronounced (larger) than it should be, this feature started out in Pilot+Plus's Gatwick EGKK, but there was far more grainer and stony (it just didn't look realistic in scale) than it even does here, it's better of course, but still the graining is a bit out of scale to it's size. There is no 3d grass at EGGD, but the English love their curated gardens and this lovely cut infield has also built in contours for realism. The original scenery had two issues with the Terminal building and Control Tower in them both not being very authentic... both have been redone and are far better in their design and as a reproduction of the real world counter parts, the control tower however still looks like concrete and has still not it's metal cladding like on the real tower. All terminal, tower and building windows are highly reflective, even in a mosaic sense, but that is what comes with the realism. .... but far better in design as more realistic buildings they are. Other buildings have had a lot of attention as well, including the now highly detailed airport carpark which is exceptional. There is a lot of Pilot+Plus self branding, of which is not very authentic? and a lot of the immense amount of original ground clutter in v1 has been taken away... ... so the detail clutter has gone from the one earlier of to much too extreme clutter to the now of far too little? but I get the feeling that time ran out before finishing off detailing these areas. But the Bristol Airport detail overall is very, very good. The airport is highly WorldTraffic3 configured with provided ground routes by KMan, and they are excellent with great runway flow. The airport uses also the new WT3 feature of aircraft turning pushbacks, where as the aircraft are not only pushbacked (straightline) but also are turned left or right for a more authentic departure. When working this feature is excellent as it is at Aerosoft's EDDL (Dusseldorf), but here it needs a little more refining... .... Pilot+Plus says a fix is coming, it could also be a WT3 refining issue as well. South Of the whole scenery it is on the southside of the runway 09/27 is where you will find the biggest changes to the scenery. At Bristol Airport they have extended the long term and staff carparking quite extensively, so the scenery now also well caters for that new expansion. Overall the change is exceptional, and the added carparks now overwhelm the older general aviation area, which is again a far better realised layout than before, small detail buildings for the Bristol Flying School and the Bristol and Wessex Flying Club are well represented, all the large GA hangars have been redone and are far more highly detailed, infield detail is also excellent and all the aprons are so well detailed and usable... I have used this area for reviews for years and it does feel like a far more immersive area to continue doing so. The carparks do have phototextures with no placed 3d vehicles in certain shadows, but it isn't noticeable from the air or the ground. Northeast Lulsgate The old Bristol (Lulsgate) Airport terminal has also been redone in the northeast area, it was fine before here, but this is better now with even more detail. I particularly liked parking here for any walkon/walkoff service (mostly to Ireland or Manchester). Lighting The original lighting was very, very good as Pilot+Plus was very good with the lighting skills, so even the original lighting passed over would have been more than fine, but here the lighting has been upgraded as well, and excellent it is all round. From an approach distance there is a nice realism about the lighting, get closer and it is also now really excellent and realistic... .... most of added brightness comes from the extended southern carparking areas, but effective it is. Apron lighting is about perfect... .... the poor original terminal lighting looks far better in the v2 disguise... highlight is the baggage tunnel that is well lit and authentic. All the landside areas are well lit as is again that nice parking garage.... Southside GA is great and really well lit as well with those lovely ring mast lighting... .... detail gives you cool mast lighting on the working apron areas and warm lighting over the carparks, it is about as good as you can get. Summary This upgraded version of EGGD- Bristol International is now labelled "Definitive" in the last word in quality, but it will still need a few upgrades to get it to that elevated full level... but overall this scenery is excellent in almost every area. EGGD-Bristol v2 comes with the full dynamics of X-Plane features with HDR, raytraced occlusion and reflections, and is realism 101, lighting is also nearly perfect and really well done. Most main buildings including the main terminal and control tower have been completely remodeled and are all elevated to be far better than their previous versions. Changing seasons and provided refined full WorldTraffic3 files all add into the activity. New real airport extensions (southside) have also been done and to make the scenery very up to date in design and there is a new installer system. Quirks include the same changing season's not matching your static X-Plane environment, and self-branded clutter and signage replaces the older heavy clutter and authentic branding. Tower is still not the metal cladding like on the real tower... but these are all niggles. If you are an existing customer of EGGD-Bristol you can get 30% discount on this v2 Definitive version and it is well worth the upgrade price, and overall this is a brilliant upgrade to an already excellent scenery and if you fly within the UK a very worthwhile purchase. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! EGGD - Bristol International Definitive by Pilot+Plus is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EGGD - Bristol International Definitive Price is US$25.95 Customers of EGDD v1 can get 30% off this new version Features: Our Definitive replication of Bristol International Adaptive seasonal vegetation (changes on the fly) Full PBR ground details with crisp surrounding orthoimagery Atmospheric night environment Detailed and accurate 3D models with raytraced occlusion and reflections Optimised for maximum performance Perfectly blends with Orbx True Earth Fully customised World Traffic 3 solution (credits to Kman) Created for X-Plane 11.30+ World Traffic 3 Features: All Airlines that use this airport are represented. Turning Pushbacks where applicable. WT3 Operations File that matches Airport WED Flow for maximum predictability. TaxiFlow where possible to avoid nose to nose conflicts. Gate priority set to terminal gates for realistic operations ______________________________________________________________________ Installation Download is via an installer that inserts (or deletes) the scenery into your X-Plane custom scenery folder: Pilot Plus - EGGD Bristol International - Definitive Note: and use of the updater requires the previous version to be removed Total scenery installation is 1.69gb WT3 files are provided and require installation into the WT3 folders Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not Linux compatible) 4GB VRAM Minimum Current and Review Version: 1.1 (October 7th 2019) Documentation: No manual ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton 11th November 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 11.40 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: WorldTraffic3 US$29.95 (recommended) : Environment Engine v1.12 by xEnviro US$69.90 : - Boeing 738 by Laminar Research - Default with X-Plane11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronj Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Unfortunately the installer does not appear to run in OSX Catalina. Also unfortunately the developer has failed to reply to requests for support. Anyone know, are these developers still in business? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2020 It is a very tricky installer, and I had problems with it as well, in my case it was a security firewall, I can't help with OSX, sorry, but try the Pilot+Plus again now the holidays are finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.