Search the Community

Scenery Review : YPPH Perth International by Axonos Australian scenery at the moment is dire compared to even say South America or Africa in meaning that we really don't have any quality scenery at all, or currently any payware to fill in the gaps. In reality Australia is actually a very easy place to fill in, as there are the state capitals and a few significant regional airports and that is about it, but the current situation is borderline horrible. The history of scenery in Australia has been on the back of two sources. The biggest contribution has been by Barry Roberts and his Voz and AussiePak sceneries, very good but still basically X-Plane 9 in feel and look, but still a good filler for the out of the way regionals and outback airports. In Capital airports there has been a lot of freeware, but nothing really significant. Only one in the International Scenery Development Group (ISDG) is a worthy install with coverage of YMML Melbourne, YSSY Sydney and YPAD Adelaide, but they only did small YRED Redcliffe at Brisbane and not YBBN?... the important one. TDG did YBBN and my local YBCG Coolangatta, but they are facade freewares. CDG also does a Brisbane 2000, but it is still again a freeware. Sadly ISDG pulled out of scenery development a few years ago, so their sceneries are now getting quite dated without any updates and hence the now sad state of Australian scenery... but everything in reality is still mostly all freeware, and in other words not up to the quality and detail we really expect in 2020. There are (just) a few Australian paywares. RIM&Co did a very... well interesting YAYE - Ayres Rock, and Orbx did Broome WA. Orbx is the really confusing one here because they built their reputation on creating brilliant Australian airports for FSX/P3D, including their excellent Hervey Bay and a stunning YBBN Brisbane and every capitol airport and major regional points were covered except one (guess which one)... but nothing for X-Plane. FlyTampa also did a brilliant YSSY Sydney FSX/P3D, but we never got that one either. But one airport never actually made it on to any list... zilch, not even Orbx covered it (they did cover YPJT Jandakot) and so you had a massive hole in any Australia network with this vital missing link. This critical airport was YPPH Perth in Western Australia. There was a extremely basic YPPH Perth, but it was not worth flying the three hours or so to go over to, in a big twist of fate the first really high quality scenery to come to X-Plane and Australia is YPPH Perth from Axonos. Even then this scenery has a bit of a history. First conceived by Malaysia Flight Sim Development Group, the project was passed over and converted by JustAsia, then the development house was rebranded to Axonos as the Perth scenery was to be the team's flagship showcase of their development skills, and this YPPH scenery has been in development for a long time as notes of progress were listed as long ago as late 2019. The rebranding process from JustAsia is highly significant as they transition from producing converted sceneries to creating their own in-house products. YPPH Perth International by Axonos Perth Western Australia is certainly a city that what you would class as being at the end of the world. Perth is pretty well away from everywhere else is every context, even in it's own continent it is three hours flying time from anywhere (Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne), Asia or Indonesia is still again just under four flying hours (3h 44m) and Africa across the Indian Ocean is a lofty 10h 51m... Perth is really a total nowheresville. And yet without this valuable port then your X-Plane network has a massive if huge hole in it. Simple across the continental flights are a nice requirement if you love flying in Australia. If flying to South Africa then a fuel stopover is required before tackling the expanse of the Indian Ocean, ditto Singapore or even Dubai... the airport's most recent claim to fame was the connection of two global continents in the direct "Sunrise" Perth - London services with QFA9/QFA10 Dreamliner 787, Perth is the stopover refuel before the 18h 30m slog to Heathrow and return. The moniker "Sunrise" on this QF flight is actually wrong... "Sunrise" is the project name of a direct flight from Australia's "East" coast to London, not from Perth, although it is noted a "Sunrise" flight from Perth to the western ports of the United States are also under the project's agenda, and that aspect these routes have yet to be still achieved. But the PER-LON still is a significant route in that it is the first non-stop flight service between Australia and the United Kingdom. Another significance of Perth is that it is the biggest and busiest FIFO airport in the world. FIFO is "Fly In, Fly Out" As in people who fly to their workplace (usually for a week or two at a time) and then fly back home, and the network covers most of Western Australia's vast mining and mineral resources and in this context Orbx's YBRM Broome scenery is now a great addition to this YPPH scenery. We have waited an extremely long and painful time for a decent scenery of YPPH Perth, and thankfully that long excruciating wait is over... As this a very worthy YPPH Perth from Axonos to in fill that massive Western Australian blank hole. First impressions are overwhelmingly good, not only is the airport extremely well detailed, but it has a genuine quality about it as well.... But the scenery install for me was not perfectly straight out of the box experience? In an oversight in that I left in an old YPPH scenery (buried) in my custom Scenery folder which means that Traffic Global did not work at all here, as aircraft are parked all over place and mostly inside terminals and on field areas. So the point is you have to double check on the install (or forgotten) of any older sceneries that may interfere with the newer scenery install.. Once fixed and Traffic Global worked fine. Axonos do also however provide WorldTraffic3 ground routes as part of the package and they are very good. Axonos also provide a static aircraft option, but be aware of the library requirements to get all the Australian registered aircraft brands, in this aspect WT3 is the best of the three options. Perth International Airport IATA: PER - ICAO: YPPH - WMO: 94610 03/21 - 3,444m (11,299ft) Asphalt 06/24 - 2,163m (7,096ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 67ft/20m Like most Australian Capitol city airports there is both a Domestic facility and a separate International facility at YPPH. Originally Perth had a single combined passenger terminal that was opened in 1962 with airlines operating out of hangars beforehand. However with the advent of larger aircraft like the Boeing 747, there became the need for a far larger and separate facility of which construction of a new International terminal and control tower that commenced in March 1984 on the south-eastern side of the airfield. International Perth is one of those airports that is always growing beyond it's capabilities, so the basic infrastructure is always being added on to, this scenery represents the current updated layout. The original half-moon shaped International Terminal 1 (T1) has been added on to with a new large finger concourse, but this is a Domestic terminal also known as Terminal 1 (T1) and it was opened in 2006. Stands 143 to 156 are airbridges, with 160 to 163 in A/B/C configurations are remote stands opposite the terminal(s). Terminal 2 (T2), is located to the immediate south west of T1. Virgin Australia Regional and Alliance commenced operations from T2 in 2013, and Tigerair Australia moved its operations there in 2013 (no gone!). Regional Express Airlines uses T2 for its services to Esperance and Albany. Stands 201 - 220 are all covered walkon/walk off, were as 250-255 and 260-269 are remotes stands. This terminal could be noted as regional. Terminal modeling is very good, but the textures are a little bland in lacking a sort of grittyness or that higher realism we now expect... ... you can't exactly say or put your finger on what is missing but it all comes across as a bit clean, because it is actually all very well done with great and even an abundance of Australian branded clutter. Ortho-photo textures are used extensively thoughout this scenery, and maybe their use in the landside aspects may have helped out in the context of instead of using just coloured or mottled ground textures. Glass is very good, reflective and thankfully green and realistic. Landside the open spaces also feel far too open, and that something is missing that would bring it all to life. No advertising is one? People, but it is the textures that don't bring the structures to life and ground textures are again stark. That said it is all really well executed, the detail is excellent with a lot of animations and local branded Perth buses and vehicles, and I really like the T2 glass and detail, it is done here very nicely. Ditto carparks in that they are really well done, and also so many of them and all are fully completed... and there is definitely that Australian airport entrance feel. The Perth scenery uses the excellent SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) system with both animated airbridges and Marshallers... .... and bays 150/151 are catagory E A380 active. All gates are active. The Perth Control Tower is set in the middle of the International Terminal complex. Built in 1984 it is still the tallest Control Tower in Australia. The tower and it's surroundings are really nicely modeled and clad, detail is very good and so is the excellent reflective glass. Tower view is set perfectly as well with both approaches are nice and clear in any direction. Domestic The Domestic Terminal at Perth had become a battleground between Qantas and earlier Ansett and then lately Virgin Australia on how high each could go on providing higher quality facilities, lounges and services... you are never going to beat Qantas, but that doesn't count in aviation warfare... this round will obviously now go to Qantas (again) as the loss or near loss of Virgin Australia still hangs in the balance. Limited space means that both terminals are frequently gutted and rebuilt, inside both terminals they are now like cathedrals... Terminal 3 (T3) has five jetways (16-20) and a total of nine gates (16-24). Since 23 November 2015, it is currently used by Jetstar, although some Qantas services also operate from the terminal. It was the previous location for Virgin Australia and until recently they had an expanded members lounge. Axonos have done a good job of this very iconic Domestic facility. Terminal 4 (T4) is the Qantas terminal, it is operated by the Qantas Group and is dedicated to the domestic operations of Qantas, QantasLink and fellow budget subsidiary Jetstar. The terminal has four jetways (12-15)and a total of nine gates (12-15A). It has two member lounges: The Qantas Club, which was expanded in March 2013 to cater for an additional 140 passengers; and the Qantas Domestic Business Lounge, which was opened in 2014. In 2018 Qantas opened a new international area in T4 as it had started the QFA9/QFA10 flights from Perth to London. Opposite T3 are nine remote stands (901-911) and opposite T4 are four remote stands (915-918). There is certainly more character and design with Domestic T3/T4 than with T1, the mish-mash of buildings (terminals) have created a sort of complexity, that has been nicely reproduced here and seen as being very well done from the roofs of both terminals, again the glass is very well done and the reflections brings the terminals to life. The complex system of boarding corridors have also been faithfully reproduced. Domestic landside has really well done with nice metal trusses support girder work (T3) and the original concrete curved awnings (T4). Landside carparks are all exceptional but they also raise again an earlier question... .... here Axonos has done both, in a use of the coloured or mottled ground textures behind the main terminals, but also used the photo-ortho textures on the more remote carparks as seen above right, so which one is the better application... both work in context, but the photo-ortho does bring out far more detail (more flat buildings as well) but the textures are very much lighter, however the clean darker textures create that bland feel but are very dynamic, so I can certainly see why Axonos did what they did, but would have the photo-ortho all over been the better overall choice... it is debatable. Expansion to cater for the every growing FIFO market there is a lot of considerable amount of apron parking here at YPPH. They are all known as regional aprons, but are noted only by stand numbers, clockwise is 901-911, 501-512 (right is the GA Apron), SO3-SO14 and 601A-604/701A-703B. There is another apron used by WA regional operators Skippers Aviation, Cobham (formally National Jet) that are mostly an aviation services provider with aircraft and crews, but the arrangement with the Boeing 717 services on behalf of QantasLink ended in July 2020, Cobham still however runs the WA state's QantasFreight network. This area is now more a maintenance area than an operating facility, but Cobham still have FIFO lounge/terminal based here. Other maintenance and services areas here cover; Network Aviation, AirFlite and ExecuJet Aviation in an over-bleed apron. General Aviation Following on from the T4 is the large GA and Private Jet Apron (in reality the old original Perth airport area). Based along the flightline here are; Maroomba Airlines, Alliance Airlines (maintenance) Hangar, Hawker Pacific/Maxem Airlines, Star Aviation and Flight Centre and all are faithfully reproduced.... .... close up the modeling and textures are a bit cardboard, but still well done, highlight nicely shaped QantasFreight "StarTrack" (Australia Post) hangar and some really good clutter detailing, and all QF branded. Airport animations are also excellent... all vehicle traffic is Qantas or dnata branded, and there is a large variety of vehicles... again the looping Perth "Connect" branded buses are the highlight. Far north on Taxiway W and close to threshold RWY 21 is a Fire Station... Infrastructure There is a lot of off field infrastructure surrounding the terminals including a huge DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) store, Perth Mail Centre, Storage King (Perth) and Liebherr-Australia west... .... and infrastructure east is covered with the expansive Qantas Freight Terminal, dnata Freight, Toll Intermodal and Specialised and the massive Coles Distribution Centre. All in all the external areas are very well catered for, and for filling out that surrounding visual aspect. Perth CBD Axonos have created a skyline Perth CBD, a few buildings including the Elizabeth Quay and RAC Arena are noted, but overall it is quite basic with a lot of open ground and certainly not really VFR requirements... as for just being a skyline it works, but a better base fill out could have made the area a far more worthy visual aspect. Ground Textures The ground textures overall are excellent... there is that nice grooving in the asphalt that makes the surfaces feel very if extremely realistic. There is a huge variation in surfaces as well from the worn, concrete to newly laid tarmac, the grunge, oil and rubber dirt in the parking areas is all very well done... The lineage however is a bit "Too" strong, straight and clean? Yes it looks good in context, but not really what you would call "very real world realism", a more experienced developer would have soften out these lines and made them more slightly cracked worn, ditto the hard runway asphalt edges. All the surfaces are nicely PBR reflective (wet) active textures and have excellent burnt-in ambient occlusion, so they are all very weather dynamic. The use of ortho-photo is very good, and well blended into the surrounding mesh, but a few flattys have been left in the images... a flat (Bae 146) aircraft by the Fire Station is extremely distracting?... ... and so is the burnt in radar installation, which then begs the question... "where is the radar installation"? Grass is well done and the coverage is wide with thin and thick areas, it is only a single vegetation but then Australia is very harsh on it's fauna, the sheer heat withers away anything or the seasonal fires then burn it away anyway. Lighting YPPH Perth's lighting is excellent, even sensational... ... Approach, Runway and Taxiway lighting is very good, overall apron area lighting also gives good coverage, if you wanted to nitpick then there is only one lighting tone, many developers do the carparks and landside in other tones to break it all up a little (See Bristol). International area is really good, the aprons are well lit and I was worried about the lit window lighting being a bit bland, but it is however really good with nice detail... Only blot in the copybook is the brightly lit upper control tower window lighting, control towers are dark not bright at night (to see out of). Landside is really, really good in realism... the T1 and T2 terminals are lovely. Domestic is very good as well with the same excellent lit detailed glass and it all looks very realistic, and that is what we are aiming for. All the remote FIFO ramps are also well covered in lighting detail as well as having good working lighting... for those early dawn departures (FIFO's most busiest activity time). .... again the single tone over on the domestic side can get a little too much of the same, but overall the coverage is excellent. Field navigation signage has a nice ground reflection, and are easy to use (with a airport chart of course, as YPPH is a large airport. _________________________ Summary Perth Western Australia has been seriously neglected in X-Plane for a decent YPPH Perth scenery, except for a very few average freewares, there has been nothing really worth flying over here for.... in fact Australia as a whole in scenery is badly neglected anyway. Oddly the first decent scenery for this "Great Southern Land" is PERTH, yes Perth from Axonos, and in that context YPPH fills in a huge hole in the local area Australasian network, including routes to the east coast of Africa, Indonesia (Bali) and Asia. And thankfully this YPPH is an extremely good, massive and a quality scenery... Axonos is a rebrand of the JustAsia Group and this scenery was first started by the Malaysia Flight Sim Development Group. The scenery is noted as a "flagship showcase" of the teams skills. And a massive scenery this YPPH is... in detail alone you are getting serious value for your money, but the overall concept is very, very good as well. Perth is a huge FIFO (Flyin/Flyout) airport and this aspect is well covered here. Modeling is good, if you don't look too closely or want absolute serious detail, ditto the building textures, but there is a lot of it for your money... the glass is excellent as in very good and even so is the excellent overall lighting. Landside areas use facade texture coverage and in other areas it is using an ortho-photo background and in context it works, but the harder textures do create a sort of empty feel, and in creating a something is missing feel, that could even be advertising, or even people of which there is none, a more skilled application of these areas with Ortho-textures could have been a better solution. Ground textures are again excellent, but the linage is a bit strong and too clean, ortho-photo ground with 3d grass is again really good (except for a few burnt in objects). WorldTraffic3 ground routes are supplied, but Traffic Global works fine here as well (when you take out the old scenery), Static aircraft if required is also available. SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) system is intergrated into the scenery and there is excellent local branded animated vehicles, a (very) basic Perth CBD is also provided. On first impression of the Axonos Perth scenery I seriously loved it, it filled in a goal, and as a high quality scenery as well, Value at well under US$23 is impressive for the detail and quality you get here, as they say "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner" and now here in WA you are a winner all round with this airport... Highly Recommended. _____________________________________ Yes! YPPH Perth International by Axonos is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : YPPH Perth International Price is US$22.65 Feature List: Axonos’s first in-house scenery development The latest airport layout and developments Custom 3d modelling and assets throughout PBR texturing in 4K Detailed airside and landside Living and breathing with dynamic moving vehicles Detailed Groundwork with PBR texturing High resolution orthoimagery Perth CBD modelled Accurate and stunning night lighting Compatible with World Traffic 3 & Traffic Global WT3: WorldTraffic3 GroundRoutes are provided and is extremely good and Traffic Global also operates perfectly, there also a static aircraft option, but be aware of the library requirements. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux SAM v2 Plug in (Freeware) Download Size: 2.4 GB Current and Review version 1.0 (October 11th 2020) Installation Download scenery files required are in one very large zip folder download 2.48Gb Two folders are placed in the correct order below in your .INI list YPPH_Perth_Axonos_1 (76.2kb) YPPH_Perth_Axonos_2 (3.31Gb) Total scenery install is: 4.07Gb 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 basic manual in English with notes (4 pages) Manual.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 21st 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 v11.50r3 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! - Scenery Announcement : KMEM Memphis by Axonos Axonos have announced their next X-Plane release in KMEM Memphis, Tenn. Memphis International MEM is in reality three distinct airports in one, the Commercial, Military (164th Airlift Wing) and Memphis is also the main base and mainstay hub for FedEx Express domestic and international services, the FedEx facility totally dominates the northern boundary of the airport. This Axonos scenery is actually the second announcement of Memphis as Nimbus Simulation had also announced the scenery last year after their Dulles-Washington, to the same X-Plane adage of none for years and years, then a load of choice of the same thing... but Axonos (formally Just Asia), seriously surprised me with their outstanding YPPH-Perth International late 2020, so I am expecting big things from this KMEM-Memphis, the feature list is exciting as well... SAM Jetways & ground traffic Stunning custom HDR night lighting Over 200+ custom objects placed around the airport Detailed 3D modelling and texturing Custom underground highways Compatible with Justflight traffic and World Traffic 3 Memphis International Airport has been developed to the highest standard and with no detail spared, featuring crisp color-balanced custom aerial imagery, custom underground highways as well as various other techniques that bring Memphis International airport alive A few teaser images were also released with the announcement No release date or price for Axonos Memphis KMEM was noted in the announcement, but a video trailer is announced as coming soon, I would note as before Easter. Yes personally I have wanted a decent Memphis MEM for years (and years) and now finally X-Plane is getting a choice of this significant hub. Images courtesy of Axonos Facebook page is here ____________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 22nd February 2021 Copyright©2021: 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 rights reserved.