Stephen Posted July 29, 2022 Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 Scenery Review : OMDB – Dubai International Airport by Taimodels Dubai is one of those futuristic cities of the future, extreme buildings, even has the tallest most striking building in the world with the Burj Khalifa, also known as the Khalifa Tower. Like the trade routes of the past, the Emirate States (UAE), a federation of seven emirates that see themselves as the crossroads between the east and the west, not by sea or land this time, but by the air. This is the grand plan for three of the major cities here, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah to be those crossroads, and mega projects both in buildings and airports have created an oasis in the middle of the desert, plus to be a critical transitioning place between the major areas of the world in Europe and Asia, west and east. Dubai International Airport is the biggest and most prominent of the three (Dubai is building another mega airport just to be sure). But OMDB with it's home airline Emirates, has taken the scale to huge proportions, no other airline has 119 Airbus A380's double-deckers like Emirates Airlines does and you need a big if massive airport to cater for them all. TaiModel's started out atrociously in making scenery for the X-Plane Simulator. Quick turnover and not much quality and even less detail. I gave them a short-shift in not promoting the work. They were originally only really screen fillers and nothing else. The YSSY - Sydney International Taimodel's release changed all all that, here was a very well done scenery, great detail and a very good representation of Mascot. And here is the followup to that excellent scenery from Taimodels, in Dubai's mega port OMDB – Dubai International Airport. First a note. Here I am using the SFD Global package to create Middle-Eastern infrastructure around the scenery, a critical aspect on the look and feel to Dubai. And those SFD objects show in all the images here. X-Plane has had a few OMDB's sceneries, from very average freewares to a few lately released paywares from Orbx's FeelThere (Reviewed Here) to Aviotek Simulation's OMDB. The interesting one is FlyTampa's OMDB, but not available in X-Plane. But that didn't stop users including myself buying it and doing Frankenstein conversions to X-Plane. The point of FlyTampa's version is the extensive Dubai city buildings and excellent infrastucture, and this is the point with OMDB as a scenery. The Dubai Cityscape is AS important as the airport scenery itself. Would FlyTampa ever do an X-Plane version of OMDB, well there is always hope, but until then you will still need a good Dubai International Airport, so is this Taimodels the best one to have of them all? OMDB – Dubai International Airport by Taimodels Dubai International Airport مطار دبي الدولي Maṭār Dubayy al-Duwalī IATA: DXB - ICAO: OMDB - WMO: 41194 12L/30R - 4,000m (13,123ft) Asphalt 12R/30L - 4,450m (14,600ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL62 ft / 19 m In passenger airport traffic OMDB - Dubai is 25th on the list (2021), but in International traffic Dubai International is number 1 (29,110,609), which is no surprise considering the the scale of the aircraft operating in/out of DXB. DXB is a mega airport, so it is mega in size. Dubai Airport has three passenger terminals. Terminals 1 and 3 are directly connected with a common transit area, with airside passengers being able to move freely between the terminals without going through immigration, while Terminal 2 is on the opposite side of the airport. The receiving Terminal is on the western side, then connected to the three massive Concourses A, B and C, although Concourse C is noted as Terminal 3. Basically it is gate numbers Gates A, Gates B and of course Gates C. Terminal 1 connected to concourses A-B has a capacity of 15 million passengers. It is used by over 100 airlines and is connected to Concourse D by an automated people mover. It is spread over an area of 520,000 m2 (5,600,000 sq ft) and offers 221 check-in counters. T1 looks like two separate terminals because the buildings designs separated by the centre Control Tower, are different... this is a BIG terminal in scale and size. Concourses A - B Concourse A which follows the characteristic shape of Concourse B, 924 m (3,031 ft) long, 91 m (299 ft) wide and 40 m (130 ft) high in the centre from the apron level and accommodates 20 air bridge gates, of which all are capable of handling the Airbus A380-800. The gates in concourse A are labelled A1–A24. Concourse design and detail by Taimodels is exceptional, brilliant detailing and textures are very, very realistic, nice lower section detail is as good as well. Although the cladding is very good, it is the glass that not just great here... ... well it just "Totally blows you away", with it's design patterns and this incredible detail. This IS exceptional. Concourse B is directly connected to terminal 3 and is dedicated exclusively to Emirates. The total built up area of the concourse itself is 675,000 m2 (7,270,000 sq ft). The concourse is 945 m (3,100 ft) long, 90.8 m (298 ft) wide (at midpoint) and 49.5 m (162 ft) high. The terminal has 10 floors (4 basements, a ground floor and 5 above floors). The building currently includes a multi-level structure for departures and arrivals and includes 32 gates, labelled B1–B32 It would be very hard to beat this incredible look and feel of the concourse designs. Central Control Tower 87-metre-tall (285 ft) is very well designed and modeled as well, it has all the right shapes and oozes detail. Tower view is set well, with both north and south approaches clear. Internal terminal is semi-modeled, and only Concourse B... Concourse C Concourse C, is a part of Terminal 3, which was opened in 2000 and used to be the largest concourse at Dubai International Airport before Concourse B in Terminal 3 opened. It incorporates 50 gates, including 28 air bridges and 22 remote gates located at a lower level of the terminal. The gates are labelled C1–C50 Set slightly offset to Concourse B, Concourse C is slightly squatter and wider than the A-B concourses. Like Concourses A-B, the detail on Concourse C is phenomenal, again the same cladding and that brilliant glass detailing. All gates are SAM3 Suite (Plugin required) activated, all for A380's as well obviously, with many airbidges in three arm units, but in most cases you would only use the forward two arms. Concourse D Concourse D has a capacity of 15 million passengers, include 17 gates and connected to Terminal 1 via an automated people mover. On Wednesday, 24 February 2016, Concourse D officially opened with the first British Airways flight arriving at gate D8. This section is all very new at DXB, and also presented here in this Dubai International scenery. Set behind is the Cargo Emirate "SkyCargo" Mega Terminal. This facility with the Cargo City (opposite) at Dubai International Airport is one of the world's largest and most central cargo hubs in the world, with most of the cargo for Asia and Africa coming through the facility. The Concourse D style and design is quite different from the other more rounded concourse designs, but again the reflective glass is very well done. All gates are again SAM3 active. Terminal 2 Sited opposite on the northwest corner, Terminal 2 was built in 1998 and has an area of 47,000 m2 (510,000 sq ft) and has a capacity of 10 million as of 2013. After several, decent reconstructions and a major expansion in 2012 which saw capacity double. It is used by over 50 airlines, mainly operating in the Persian Gulf region. Most flights operate to India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Terminal 2 is the hub of Air India Express and flydubai, and the terminal houses the airline's corporate head office. Part of the Terminal 2 complex is the Al Majlis VIP Pavilion and Dubai Executive Flight Terminal. Executive Flight Services (EFS) caters to those passengers of high class or special importance that travel through Dubai International Airports. It is the largest dedicated business aviation terminal of its kind in the Middle East. It is located at the DAFZA - Dubai Airport Free Zone (below) close to Dubai International's Terminal 2. It only caters to private flights exclusive to the terminal. The Cargo City is on the this same north boundary, has all the usual cargo operators (FedEx/DHL), plus the huge dnata "Air Cargo City" facility. Mid central north is the huge Emirates Engineering base, remember there are 119 A380s, plus the 124 B777's to service. Southwest and directly across from the Engineering base is the Emirates Group building and head office, again done really well. The Dubai Metro Network is modeled and shown, but there are no animated trains, and almost every other payware OMDB has these animated red trains, a big omission. Dubai City At the head of this review I made it clear that OMDB Airport, is only part of the Dubai scenery. The Dubai City cityscape is as just as important. Here the icons in the immense Burj Khalifa, Burj Al-Arab Jumeirah and Dubai Mall, but it ends there, why? because basically it is the exact same as the X-Plane default "Landmarks Dubai", their not the default here but custom, but you wouldn't know, so there is nothing extra either. So no Atlantis (The Palm) or Dubai Opera House or even the QE2 (Ship), no docks or Dubai Creek detail fill in here either, and the dock cranes are by and visible from the airport, in fact there no external infrastructure at all. Here like with YSSY - Sydney International, Taimodels again loses interest, brilliant for the airport, but barely none or poor detail surrounding it. To be honest Dubai is not that hard, and the difference between (and why you purchase their scenery) like FlyTampa and Taimodels comes down to these sort of details. that is not saying I want every Dubai building and tower modeled, but you do NEED something far better than this to make it a credible cityscape, certainly on the approaches and viewing the city from the airport.. The under scenery ortho photos are another case in point. They are very good, but in areas they are totally blank of objects, and far too close to the airport scenery to be realistic... and so here there is simply too much of those exposed flat photo based textures on the eyes. Lighting I was expecting the lighting to be really bad, certainly considering earlier Taimodel's night lighting which was plain awful. But like with YSSY - Sysdney Taimodels have learnt a lot along the way. There is still some reliance on FSX one colour window detail, but overall it is far better and tuned better for X-Plane lighting features. The lighting is very good were it needed to count, around the concourses. It was debatable on how the daytime glass would transfer to the night. It again works quite well, and is difficult to create authentically. Overall on the ramps it is all very good. Control Tower looks very nice, and well thankfully not over lit.. Concourse D is very good, and so is the Terminal 1 facade. Off airport, there is still a heavy reliance on block colour, with the DAFZA being totally horrible. Emirates Engineering is very nice, but you feel there should be more lighting needed as some areas are dark. Emirates HQ is also very good, but I was surprised the Emirate corporate logos were not lit on each end of the building, a big oversight. Field Navigation signage is very good, but come with no ground reflections, which is a real shame. Thankfully the navigation signage is good around DXB, as there are a LOT of taxiways. Ground Textures All ground textures are very good if excellent. but the texture scale is a bit slightly too large or knobbly, but you wouldn't notice that unless you are really looking for it. built in Burnt-in ambient occlusion effects and reflections are excellent, and will be far better with the X-Plane12 effects, can't wait. There is not much field at DXB, it is all mostly man-made surfaces. There are a few grass taxiway separators, but they come with no grass, it would have been still good to give them a little grass as they are very flat. So again overall the different surfaces (a lot here) and the textures are very well done by Taimodels, so they get a decent pass. ________________ Summary After the excellent YSSY - Sydney International, then Taimodel's next scenery had a lot to live up to, and to pick OMDB - Dubai International, one of the largest airports by capacity in the world, was a big if brave choice. The unique shapes of the Dubai DXB concourses are very hard to recreate authentically. But here they are not just very good but even exceptional, with great cladding and brilliant glass with decoration. In fact a lot here is very good. Concourse D, Terminal 2, City and Mega Cargo, Emirates Engineering and Main head office are all represented and done well. Scenery has the SAM2 active plugin, and again great for the multiple gates for all those Airbus A380s that regularly ply the airport. Lighting is far better than most Taimodels lighting in the past, but still there is average facades in some areas like the DAFZA buildings. Internally the airport scenery is exceptional for it's scale, but externally there are a few minuses. The Dubai cityscape is only a very few landmarks, and in reality there is no extended Dubai city or port. Orthophoto imagery is very good, but flat and empty around critical areas around the airport that can be seen on approaches and from even the stands, lighting as noted is good, but not excellent. So is Taimodel's OMDB - Dubai the best for X-Plane. In many contexts it is simply excellent, certainly within the airport context itself. But it is let down by the poorer external aspects that for someone like FlyTampa wouldn't make. Scenery at this scale is not just about delivering a good airport, it is about the full scenario of the experience of the destination. This could have been not only a very good, even exceptional OMDB, if those other city and the surrounding infrastructure aspects had been addressed, but until the FlyTampa release their Dubai for X-Plane, then this Taimodels is an excellent choice. _______________________________ The OMDB- Dubai International Airport by Taimodels is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store OMDB- Dubai International Airport Priced at US$28.00 Features for X-Plane 11 and 12 (when available) 4k textures Completed inside Highly detailed 3D models SAM amination jetways High quality pbr texture on object and ground High performance Completed autogen around airport Ground traffic plugins( train, car and truck) Requirements X-Plane 11 - X-Plane 12 (when available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.6 GB Current version : 1.0 (July 22nd 2022) Installation and documents: DXB is download of 3.3Gb download that is translated into a 1_a_Dubai_city_buildings (74.4Mb) 2_b_OMDB_Dubai_Taimodels (4.93Gb) 3_c_OMDB_mesh (22.2Mb) 5.20Gb full install in your Custom Scenery folder. There is an OPTIONS folder of a flat version of Taimodels Dubai Scenery Flat_version You just swap over the supplied Earth nav data folder. SAM3 Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 3.0 is required for this scenery, Documents There is a 2 page "Instruction" page for installation and requirements OMDB_Instruction.pdf ___________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 29th July 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU / 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane v11.55 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick, Throttle & Rudder Pedals : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 Scenery or Aircraft - None- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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