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NEWS! - Scenery Release : LTFE - Bodrim Airport Turkey by JustSim Bodrim Airport is an international airport that serves the Turkish towns of Bodrum and Milas in the southwest of Turkey. The airport is situated 36 km northeast of the town of Bodrum, and 16 km south of Milas. This is another X-Plane Simulator release again for the Turkish and Greek areas of the Mediterranean Sea. There has been a significant amount of releases here over the last few years from not only JustSim (here again with this LTFE-Bodrim) but also from FlyTampa and Aerosoft. A spacious new international terminal was completed in 2000 at Bodrim; this then became the domestic terminal in 2012 following the completion of another newer international terminal. The older terminal, now reserved for only domestic flights, and is positioned next to the international terminal. Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Handplaced autogen, greenhouses and trees Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance Custom patch for Ortho4XP for real runway curvature Images are courtesy of JustSim... The LTFE - Bodrim Airport Turkey by JustSim is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore _____________________________________ Yes! - LTFE - Bodrim Airport Turkey by JustSim is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LTFE - Bodrim Airport Turkey Price is US$16.90 Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac, Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 Download size: 1.2 GB ___________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 24th February 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 Rights Reserved
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Scenery Upgrade Review : EVRA - Riga International Airport v2 by JustSim The equation is quite simple. Quality scenery at the right price in the right place. I don't deny I champion certain scenery developers because they hit every point in delivering consistently good quality scenery at a good price point. The price set is in so that the developer gets a good return for the work put in, but the price is also relative to the you being able to form a decent collection of quality destinations within a good network. JustSim has always delivered very well in this context. It is very rare that their scenery is below par or under developed, but overall they deliver great destinations for very good value... but one destination in past reviews from JustSim, somehow got overlooked... Riga in the capital of Latvia. This is odd for me as I do a lot of routes around the Scandi and Baltic areas, and Riga is nicely positioned for a short-haul from Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm or Helsinki, and a medium-haul from the UK or Germany or even Switzerland. Time to put that right with a new and upgraded version from JustSim of EVRA - Riga to v2 or version 2. The original JustSim EVRA release was in Oct 2017, so this is a welcome update to add in some or mostly the newer introduced effects and clean up any changes at the airport to current layout standards. It is an upgrade to v2, so that means you have to repurchase the scenery to get the upgrade, but that aspect is quite small considering the expansive changes here and that only a US$5 Upgrade fee is required, not really painful at all or just a missing cup of coffee. Riga International Airport is the international airport of Riga, the capital of Latvia, and it is the largest airport in the Baltic states with direct flights to 76 destinations as of November 2019. It serves as a hub for AirBaltic, SmartLynx Airlines and RAF-Avia, and as one of the base airports for Wizz Air. The Latvian national carrier AirBaltic is the largest carrier that serves the airport, followed by Ryanair. The airport is located in the Mārupe Municipality west of Riga, and approx. 10 km from its city centre. (Google Maps) Riga International Airport Starptautiskā lidosta "Rīga" IATA: RIX - ICAO: EVRA 18/36 - 3,200m (10,500ft) Concrete/Asphalt Elevation AMSL36 ft / 11 m First impressions of this upgraded scenery is excellent... you can see the the scenery's boundaries, but they are expertly intergrated into the default scenery, some clever use of trees covers and even forms the Rwy 18 Approach, mostly the orthophoto toning is perfect and upgraded here in v2 to the latest photo images. Overall the EVRA fits in perfectly into the surrounding landscape. Riga airport was built in 1973 as an alternative to Spilve Airport, which had become by then very outdated. A renovation and modernisation of the airport was also completed in 2001, coinciding with the 800th anniversary of the founding of the city. In 2006 and 2016, the new north terminal extensions were opened. But there is a nice feel here of the modern and older aspects of the airport, that is if you think of the 70's era as old. You can see how the old original single terminal has been enlarged and expanded outwards with the North Terminal extension, but the original layout is highlighted by the old "Witches Hat" style walkon/walkoff circular gates (used for only Stands 101/103). The feel and look of the weathered concrete roof is spot on. Exceptional are the terminal's glass and surface textures. Again all glass and surfaces have had the full shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects added in v2, and they are breathtaking in quality, the glass shines and the terminals glow in detail... everything is absolutely first rate. The visual quality is excellent, as is the architectural design of glass frames within the glass panels. Other highlights are the light vanes on the main terminal windows, and the lovely surface sheen of the cladding. The original (but refurbished) pier has only seven stands in 102 - 109, and only the five inner have Airbridges in 102, 104, 106, 107 and 109, both 108/109 stands are Walkon/Walkoff. JustSim still use the older (Marginal) Animated Jetways system, not the better SAM system. The system here is custom designed and highly detailed, but the older Jetway system can be a bit hit and miss in working. But you can't ignore the excellent detail on the airbridges, and the gate internal detail, transparent glass and advertising is absolutely first rate. The North Terminal Pier is of the same design. This pier has the same layout of eight stands, with Airbridges on seven Stands 300, 301, 302, 304, 306 and 308. Stand 309 on the end is Walkon/Walkoff. It is easy to get confused in in the use of the piers as that areas are split up in A,B,C zones or Schengen or Non-Schengen Areas, basically the original pier is Non-Schengen and the North Pier is Schengen, but there are areas of crossover. Behind the North Pier is the excellent Riga Aviation Museum or Rīgas aviācijas muzejs. It was established in 1956 by Victor Talpa, and is all mostly supplied with Russian and Eastern-Bloc aircraft, but the layout is well reproduced here as are the enclosed Russian aircraft. There is also extensive remote stand parking, both north and south of the central terminal area piers. Aprons 3, 4 and 5 are positioned north and Apron 1, P (North) and P (South) and lowest is Apron 2, is to the south. Landside On the arrival side of the airport it is mostly very good, but there are a few quirks here that are a bit headscratching... The actual terminal facade is excellent, and certainly with the add on northern section with some amazing glass construction, outward as well as across... ... but you have this really well modeled and textured terminal areas, then it all goes to a bit Lo-Res orthophoto (noted as Hi-Res?) then it returns back into the X-Plane traffic roads, but in between is not a very convincing carpark? It is obvious because it looks obvious, on the lower part there is a substantial requirement of trees (burnt-in), but only a few set 3d trees as coverage... so it all looks a bit half done. Infrastructure wise though landside it is all very good. There is the RIX Administration Offices, Tez Tour, Policija Station and a very nice and prominent AirBaltic Administration building... ... plus all the required buildings including a Havaş-ground handling services company, the Siemens dept and the Itella Logistics SIA of which both have nice reflective facades. Control Tower Another quirk is on the control tower... outwardly this 70's era tower is very authentic, but related to the render scaling there are some very bad blue border outlines around the tower's railings and stairs, so bad are the outlines that they split the towers forms into two sections from every visible angle, it is visually far worse at night. A shame as the tower detailing is very good. There is a basic tower interior fitout and the view in here of the field is great with even window shades, but the X-Plane Tower View setting is also correctly placed position wise, but set too high above the tower itself. Field Infrastructure There is a lot of excellent field infrastructure, including a very nice VIP arrival centre and RIX logistics base. Animated traffic does work around here (Fixed for v2), but there is not really a lot of it, but overall that is enough anyway... enough movement to give action around the ramps, but not enough to overwhelm the scenery... perfect. All JustSim scenery has a lot of excellent clutter and you are well provided for here with a lot of the buses and vehicles that are locally branded. FBO Riga has a large presence at RIX as a certified ground handling agent and the operator of the business aviation center all positioned to the far south of the field. Their reception and administration building is very stylish and very well reproduced here, as is the huge adjoining maintenance hangar, AirBaltic also have a maintenance hangar near by. Situated in front of the FBO Riga facilities is a very authentic Fire Station. To the far north on Aprons 4 and 5 is another FBO Riga maintenance area with one very large hangar with open doors, and three other medium sized hangars fronting a work parking area (Apron 4) Over the field in an area called Z3- Remote Apron are two more AirBaltic storage hangars, a VOR facility (RIA) RIGA 112.05 Mhz, and two more Russian aircraft in static storage. There is some very nice detailed field infrastructure, like both the approach localiser antennas and the said VOR frame. If looking to the east from the airport, there is an unusual object sticking high up into the sky. This is the Riga Radio and TV Tower, which is highest point reaches 368.5 metres (1,209 ft), and which makes it the third tallest tower in Europe (after the Ostankino Tower at 540 metres (1,770 ft) and the Kyiv TV Tower at 385 metres (1,263 ft)) and the 16th tallest self-supporting tower in the world. JustSim have modeled the tower as a visual reference to the city, so no you were not seeing something odd or an X-Plane elevation error. Ground Textures If the building textures have had the the full occlusion texture baking effects, then you would certainly expect the ground textures to have been put through the same process, well they have and also redone with a more updated process for v2. All the varied combinations of surfaces are really well done here at Riga. Runways have lovely rubber landing wear, and inner outer wear, and all the surfaces are not clean, but have some dirt and wear, even the concrete squares. Lineage is first rate with slight wear in some areas and heavy wear in others, so it all looks totally realistic... The PBR effects are excellent as well, with great reflection detail that brings out the best of all the surfaces, the concrete ripple surfaces are the absolute highlight here. Grass is very well done (the underlying textures are very good here and help enormously) and all new here. 3d and very comprehensive, is the grass that covers most of the field surfaces, it all looks very good from the aircraft as well (meaning realistic). Lighting Overall the lighting at EVRA is very good, but again there is a quirk. There is only one runway here at RIX to light, and Rwy 18/36 is well served on both approaches with excellent lighting. There is however no RAIL or approach aids. Airport lighting is two tone, but not say airside and landside. Here I like the layout of lower tone for the older original airport layout, and the brighter tone for the newer North Terminal zone.. that said the older darker tone is quite a lot more darker on the ramps to use. I am still debating the night window lighting in this review of RIX? JustSim have done excellent terminal lighting before (EBBR-Brussels is a good example), but here at Riga it is a bit odd or is it just simply too over bright... ... more odd is the fact the other terminal lighting is far too dark? I understand what JustSim are trying to achieve in creating both types of area lighting, but does it work in context? in fact the glass lighting here at RIX seems to conflict more than compliment each other. And the Landside arrival area again comes up short as the drop off areas are all in darkness? FBO and AirBaltic south area is really well lit, as are the Landside infrastructure buildings, Siemens and AirBaltic buildings. Navigation signage is very good, but not with any ground reflections (surprisingly), but the signage does have a worn realistic feel. _______________________ Summary JustSim are known for quality scenery at a value price. This is Riga International in Lativa, and this scenery is an upgrade from the original EVRA released scenery from Oct 2017. The focus here in this upgrade has been the redone textures, to a higher and more modern quality with better PBR and the full occlusion texture baking effects, ground orthophoto images have also been upgraded as has the new vegetation and grass. Glass and building textures are beyond excellent, as is all the clutter and branded animated (also new) traffic. The ground layouts have also been upgraded to the latest charts with the (Marginal) Autogate system being all very custom made and being really well done. As per any JustSim scenery as much detail has been added into the Landside area as is the focus on the Airside with the Riga Radio and TV Tower thrown in for good measure. But there are a couple of nicks in all this perfection. The Landside by the arrival area of the Terminal goes Hi-Res to Lo-Res and back to Hi-Res and the area generally feels not completed, same with the missing landside terminal arrival lighting at night. The Control Tower has some nasty render scaling that creates some very bad blue border outlines that is highly visible and the terminal window lighting is either too bright or too dull to be authentic. To be fair I never reviewed the original released scenery, but mostly guess that these issues followed on to the newer v2 version. Overall this another brilliant scenery from JustSim, and highly usable in any network around the Baltic Sea. As this is an upgrade to v2 and not an Update, so that means you have to repurchase the scenery to get the upgraded features, but that aspect is quite small considering the expansive changes and only a low US$5 Upgrade fee is required if you already own JustSim's v1 original scenery. So another nice EVRA upgrade from JustSim, certainly a great Baltic destination that will see a lot of visits on your network, another great scenery at a great value price... perfect! _____________________________________ Yes! EVRA - Riga International Airport v2 by JustSim is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EVRA - Riga International Airport v2 Price is US$18.50 If you already own EVRA v1 by JustSim can get this new v2 for only $5, please find the coupon code under your original EVRA v1 invoice at the X-Plane.OrgStore New Feature List (v2 changelog): - new high-res ground textures - new parkings and apron (charts 2021) - new ground equip models - new surrounding models - new airport nav and service models - new vegetation and grass - new orthophoto (latest 2020) - all models now have full PBR textures - COM frequencies updated - ground traffic routes updates and fixed - autogates LOD radius fixed - minor fixes and improvements WT3: WorldTraffic3 GroundRoutes are not provided and Traffic Global operates perfectly. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 757 MB Current and Review version : 2.0 (April 5th 2021) Installation This is an extensively large download of 738Mb download to install in your Custom Scenery folder. The Install (INI) order is: EVRA_Riga_JustSim_v2.0 Total scenery install is: 1.63Gb ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents None ___________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 7th April 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 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 v11.52 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 : Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 Scenery or Aircraft - Zibo Mod Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Research
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Scenery Upgrade : EBBR Brussels v2.0 by JustSim A scenery that I use frequently and for reviews then makes it certainly a valuable addition to my scenery portfolio, value is the word here in that if the scenery delivers for you on a highly realistic level then I will use it, and then if I am using the airport regularly then the actual purchase is also worthwhile because you have got your full value for money. So JustSim's excellent EBBR - Brussels that was released in the 3Q 2018 is that good, but the scenery also had a few gripes that just lost it's position in the overall 5 Star rating it really deserved, here is the original full release review: Scenery Review - EBBR Brussels Airport by JustSim EBBR Brussels v2.0 by JustSim Brussels Airport Aéroport de Bruxelles-National (French) Luchthaven Brussel-Nationaal (Dutch) IATA: BRU - ICAO: EBBR 01/19 2,987m (9,800ft) Asphalt 07R/25L 3,21 (10,535ft) Asphalt 07L/25R 3,638 (11,936ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL184 ft / 56 m The first thing that took in your eye in was the far more over-saturated ground textures to the surrounding mesh. To a point they are still the same in v2 But they don't seem in this version to have the same overt impact they did before? Why... the reason I think is hidden in the Witt and Rode Cites area that is on the threshold to 07R and to a point could also be easily seen from the 07L approach. In v2 the autogen boundaries have been redrawn, so the full Witt and Rode Cites area is now filled in with objects and also in taking away the hideous empty spaces and replacing it with perfect autogen (images above left and right). And so it has the same effect of also covering over the over-saturated photo images as well in creating a more tighter autogen boundary around EBBR, and boy it does make a big difference, but you do still lament that a just a small adjustment to the ground texture saturation would have made it all so perfect, but this is anyway still a nice fix to two large outstanding issues from the v1.0 scenery. The missing Eurocontrol ATC building are now sort of there, the better autogen also creates some of the buildings, but I think the ATC control centre deserved some custom 3d worthy objects. But at least now the autogen fills in around the formally deserted NATO Headquarters area. Terminals The Terminals and Piers A and B have been redone. So why would you remodel already good and well modeled terminals... The answer is in the addition (thankfully) of the now multiple and active (Marginal) VDGS airbridges!, yay I was very disappointed that the original release EBBR had only static airbridges, now that missing element has been fixed in V2. The airbridges are also custom to BRU and come with the current "equinor" branding. Highly noticeable is the newer and shinier Pier A glass and detail... .... Pier B is also all new and is more detailed than the earlier version, also now are the A380 stands on Pier B in Gates 31 (231) and 33 (233) have now been included as well... ... the Category 5 321 stand with double boarding levels and a three airbridge facility is really well modeled and authentic here. The provided WorldTraffic3 ground routes have also been updated to reflect these taxiway changes, but you won't see a lot of A380 aircraft here as only Emirates has one flight a day to BRU in EK183, and mostly that route is on demand and uses Boeing 777's. At Apron 3 North at BRU there has been a lot of ground work been done. Those apron, stand changes and signage have been done here as well to reflect the work completed. So the v2 scenery is totally up to date with the current EBBR layout. Other airport taxiway navigation signs and ground markings have also been updated to the current 2020 layout. Lighting Another slight frustration was with the lighting in v1.0. It was so visibly good, but also lacking in many other areas. All my concerns have now been addressed in this v2 update. The biggest blackhole area was around the old circular Pier C, in that the missing lighting has now been fixed, and very nice is the lighting fill-in as well. Another gripe was that the Pier A looked magnificent in the daylight, but the night textures were very dull and bland and not at all worthy of the terminal... again that aspect has been well rectified as the terminal now looks excellent at night. The Pier A landside entrance has had a little lighting upgrade as well, it now has more consistent lighting. So has the entrance to Pier B as the landside panorama of 3d people and the terminal entrance looks very good in the night environment. Taxiway parking zones and other areas have also had lighting touchups, and the full overall EBBR airport lighting effect is now very good. Summary Very good on release, JustSim's EBBR - Brussel's v1.0 scenery, was just missing that extra finer refinement. This v2.0 upgrade release covers all those noticeable quirks and a lot more. All the fixes here are spot on to rectify the areas required to make EBBR perfect. The autogen has been refined to covered over the over-saturated photo-textures, and thankfully fix the flat empty Witt and Rode Cites area on the 07L/07R approaches. New Terminals (Piers 1&2) have been completely redone to now incorporate Marginal's VDGS autogates with its current "equinor" branding. A380 gates (31/33) and taxi markings have been added with the full double-boarding gate complex. Apron 3 North has also been updated with current stands and markings. The lighting has had a good upgrade as well, with the dark zone around Pier C has been fixed as has the dark Pier A concourse glass, both are now excellent, all lighting has been completely looked over and refined, so it is now perfect. Even if the ground photo textures over-saturation have been nullified to a point with the covering autogen, they are still very strong and in need of some less saturation to blend in more with the default surrounding textures, but otherwise the negatives are minimal. Already very good was the original release of JustSim's Brussel's EBBR, then this v2 upgrade totally fills in the blanks and more, then very worthy before, now v2 Brussels is certainly 5 Star scenery... great value, great scenery... so what more do you want! _____________________________________ Yes! EBBR Brussels Airport v2.0 by JustSim is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EBBR Brussels Airport v2 Price is US$25.00 Customers who own the previous EBBR Brussels by JustSim can get the new v2 version for $6.50. Use the coupon code location in your original EBBR invoice Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Animated ground vehicles (X-Plane 11 only) Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Animated autobridges, Marginal VGDS Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are provided and overall the airport functions perfectly, but it has no airport operations file. Ground routes are to be installed in the ARR and DEP folders and the ParkingDef.txt goes into the ParkingDef folder. Requirements: X-Plane 11+ Windows, Mac, Linux 4 Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum, 8 Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current and Review version: 2.0 (February 17th 2020) Download Size: 1.3 GB _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton 18th February 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)
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Upgrade Scenery Release : GCTS - Tenerife South - Reina Sofía Airport v2 by Digital Design JustSim released their first version of Tenerife South back in December 2018, and it had a few updates in, one still in Dec 2018 and another one in 2019, overall I wasn't that taken with the scenery, it was good as all JustSim scenery is, but it just didn't register enough for me to do a review or give the airport the exposure it really deserved. It is now back in an upgraded GCTS version v2 and the scenery has had a very though decent overhaul and revision. The Tenerife scenery has also rebranded under the Digital Design label, but it is in reality still a part of the JustSim stable of quality, but value focused sceneries. First there is supplied a few different options for the install of the GCTS - Tenerife scenery. First is the X-Plane default version (of which is reviewed here). Second is a ORBX TrueEarth Canary Islands option that intergrates the scenery with the ORBX Photo-Othro textures. The third option is to use the Spain UHDv2, Ultra High Definition Photoscenery that is free from the X-Plane.Org, but to note the full Spain UHD download is a walloping hard-drive smashing 424GB! GCTS - Tenerife South Airport v2 First impressions of GCTS - Tenerife v2 is impressive and light years better than the original v1 release. If you want to look hard over the scenery there are a lot of those original elements that have been moved over to this second upgraded version, the fuel tank depot for one, and there are a few others... but mostly it feels and looks far different and in a quality way. The biggest visual points are those scattered large blocks that cover the whole area of the scenery... ... these are netting covers that protect the Banana plantations, and about 9,000 hectares are dedicated to Banana cultivation in southern Tenerife, and the nets are used to catch the early fog, or the moisture is trapped to keep the fruit fresh and cool. Digital Design have done these nets structures very well... it would have been very easy to just have created 3d modeling blocks and just dumped them in the scenery, but up close the detail of the netting is well done, and the various farms are actually done differently, and more than just a one block does all approach, so the approach view is very realistic. Tenerife South Airport Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur / Aeropuerto Internacional Reina Sofía Tenerife Sur / Reina Sofía Airport - GCTS IATA: TFS - ICAO: GCTS 07/25 - 3,200m (10,498ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 64 m / 209 ft There are two terminal buildings, and long main building, and a smaller LCC Terminal east. The main Terminal Tenerife South consists of a three-storey passenger terminal in a classic brick style. The Main level, Floor 0 (middle floor) contains all the check-in and service counters, the departure and arrival areas and the main baggage reclaim. The departures area features 34 boarding gates of which eight gates are equipped with Airbridges. While the upper floor 1 contains office space and transit corridors, the basement level - features the airside luggage belts and baggage service areas. Digital Design has completely remodeled the main terminal building with new High Resolution (Hi-Res) textures and PBR Materials, glass is also all new as well, and it is a green see-through tint. All the Airbridges are well modeled and also use the excellent SAM (Scenery Animation Manager ) system, to connect the bridges to the aircraft. G2, G4, G6 - J1, J3, J5, J7 and J8 cover the parking slots. Terminal interiors are also now modeled in v2, it is better than the usual, and quite a nice place to sit waiting. Gate and ramp detail is very good. Visible Ground floor is detailed with tables and baggage conveyor belt systems are also easily visible... ... busy, busy traffic animations are (SAS) default, but very well done and there is a lot of movement around the ramps and under the terminal buildings. Ramp clutter is also very good and many locally (Iberia) branded. Movement also comes from the animated Air-Conditioning plant fans feeding the Airbridges, a nice touch. Landside For once you are not faced with Lo-Res ground textures landside, but a fully detailed area... very good, and all this is with tons of nice fill detail. Nice tropical palm trees and flowers, as here it is a bright and colourful place for a getaway holiday, even the long-term carparking areas are shaded... nice. Buses are all locally Canary Shuttle and TransTenerife branded for detail. People and passengers are also placed nicely, but don't have a lot of detail. Control Tower The control tower is positioned at the end on the main terminal building, mid-apron. Detailing is very good, with detailed roof mounted aerials and admire the fantastic spiral stairway attached to the east side of the tower. Tower view is good, but a few of the aerials get in the way at certain angles, but both approaches do have a clear view. At the other end of the Main terminal and connected by a walkway is a small LCC (Low Cost Carrier) Terminal. GCTS is obviously a tourist focused facility, so a cheaper LCC terminal is a big requirement here... the smaller terminal is really well done with H38, H39, R40 parking stands, R47, H36, R45, H41, H44, R42 H43 are adjoining remote stands. LCC Terminal detail is excellent with wood trim and slatted detailed window blinds. Far east is a GA parking area with five stands AG1 to AG5, and behind a large open plan parking and service area. Note the nice rock wall set behind. All the way end to end of the aprons mid-field are 21 overflow stands for the seasonal services... E49 to E70, they also lead into the west side small cargo hub area. The cargo hub is well detailed with loads of clutter for a lot of realism, far west is the airport's services and administration area and a taxiway facing Fire Station. Two Fuel Depots cover the west rear, and a nice golf ball radar installation covers the rear of the east end, and note all the elevation changes in this scenery, which are all done very well, with the main runway elevated lower than the apron areas. Infrastructure There is a lot of infrastructure in the local flavour of the resorts around the the airport. Las Galletas, Oasis del Sur, Los Abrigos are all represented as is the San Miguel marina. Golf Courses and resorts are all represented and the coverage is very good and overall realistic. Autogen does a good job as well in filling in the other island blank areas... I do however recommend SFD Global, that does a better layout and feel of the Spanish heritage look, the default autogen is not bad, but SFD gives you a far better filler of content (below). Ground Textures The ground textures are some of the best I have seen in a fair while... great grain and the edges are stony and are quite realistic. Grain is very good, as is the asphalt detail... lineage is faded were required, and there is very nice rubber markings at heavy work load turning areas... ... but there is also a clever effect going on here as well. Get the right lighting conditions and the burnt-in ambient occlusion effect works brilliantly, but also those same rubber markings are still matt darker, giving off a really realistic runway wear effect... ... high marks here for the realism. 3d Grass is of the desert variety, and very good, but in a few areas that should have the 3d grass (i.e. outside the Firestation) would have benefited if used. Lighting Like everything in the scenery the lighting is also very good, but with a slight twist... The Landside lighting is far brighter than the Airside... Both 07/25 approaches have RAIL lighting, and visually very good (It needs to be because of the frequent fog conditions here), taxiway centreline is dual coloured (green/yellow) and navigation signage is fully ground reflective and very nice. Airport lighting is very realistic visually, and a nice place to arrive at in the wee hours. The debate here is not that the aprons are too dark, of which they are not, but if the airside terminals are. See through glass causes all sorts of problems, but most always come out on the dull side, as that is the case here also... ... it looks good, but internally you can see it is far too dark or dull, the developer is maybe having a foot in both camps and not winning in either... the terminal lighting needs to be more vibrant. Not so the terminal lighting Landside, as it is brilliantly bright over here, and looks good. The highlight is lovely lit Control Tower, it looks great from any rear view. Some areas though are lit up, without or just a few of any physical lighting elements, in the Fire Station/Admin area and some private properties they are just areas of light... ... and it feels a little bit artificial. Overall the airport lighting is top notch. The Infrastructure of Tenerife however is not great, blocky one coloured windows or simply poor lighting at all from the housing windows, does not make the area or the resorts around the airport light-up very well, and it is all pretty well dark on the western approach, overall the township lighting is pretty basic. ___________________ Summary Tenerife South - Reina Sofía Airport, is the largest airport on the Canary Islands, situated in the southern part of the island. The airport was inaugurated on 6 November 1978, by Queen Sofía of Spain, to whom the airport is dedicated. This scenery is an upgraded GCTS version v2 of the original JustSim Tenerife-South from 2018, and now GCTS is also rebranded Tenerife under the Digital Design banner, the scenery has had in the process a very though decent overhaul and revision. Note the scenery is upgraded, and it is not an update, but there is a very generous low upgrade cost from the original v1 of only $7.50, to install this vastly better v2 Tenerife. All the main elements here have been remodeled including the excellent long terminal building, it also now has internal detail as well which is very good. Ground textures are excellent and comes with burnt-in ambient occlusion and great rubber effects on the surfaces, surface grain is good as well. SAM support is also added, as is a lot of busy animations and twirling Air-Con fans and good clutter. Detail is very good, even Landside which is well detailed and realistic, but clutter is good Airside as well. Lighting is strong Landside, but weak in the see-through terminal glass, making the Airside aprons a bit darker. There is a lot of elevation changes in this scenery and even the feature of the main runway being lower than the terminal aprons, that adds in a bit of novelty. Local environs are also modeled with the local resorts being clearly very visible from the airport and on approaches. There is not a lot to fault here at Tenerife... just the noted dull internal lighting and township lighting which is all very basic, and few objects get in the way of the tower view... otherwise the whole scenery is pretty solid. Three options in the X-Plane default version, ORBX TrueEarth Canary Islands Photo-Othro textures, and the Spain UHDv2, Ultra High Definition Photoscenery are all provided to suit your particular tastes. JustSim and by definition Digital Design, always deliver excellent scenery at a value cost, and that is exactly what you get here at Tenerife v2. I love an airport I can instantly like and start adding in routes to accommodate in going or leaving from there... so any scenery that just wants to used has to be again great value, and overall that is what another Digital Design gem delivers, great value and a great destination. _____________________________________ Yes! GCTS - Tenerife South - Reina Sofía Airport v2 by DigitalDesign is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore GCTS - Tenerife Airport v2 Price is US$20.00 Owners of Tenerife v1 can get this new version for only US$7.50. Please use the coupon code found in your original Tenerife invoice at the X-Plane.OrgStore Features V2: Compatibility ORBX TE Canary Islands Slope runway and taxiways according to the real runway profile Using New High Resolution textures Using PBR Materials New 3D Model Ground 3D Grass New Ground textures New marking and updated parking numbers according to the latest data Improve 3D Model Terminal Improve airport vehicles 3D models Interior modeling Added new buildings in the approach areas. Compatibility Spain UHDv2 WT3: WorldTraffic3 GroundRoutes are NOT provided but the scenery is compatible and extremely good, and Traffic Global also operates perfectly, Requirements: Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 2.5 GB Install and Review Version 2.0 (February 24th 2021) Installation Download scenery files required are in one zip folder download of 2.44GB (a big step up from the original v1 size of 840Mb) There are two folders of which are placed in the X-Plane Custom Scenery Folder in this .INI order "Mesh" must be sited below the main "GCTS Tenerife V2" folder). Digital Design GCTS Tenerife v2 Digital Design GCTS Tenerife v2 Mesh Total scenery install is: 2.28Gb Options include: Three photographic layouts with the X-Plane default version, ORBX TrueEarth Canary Islands Photo-Othro textures, and the Spain UHDv2, Ultra High Definition Photoscenery all provided. You just select the set of both Airport and Mesh choice to install. SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents Read Me only ______________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 27th 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 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 v11.51r3 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 - Free : Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Research
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Scenery Review : LFSB - EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg by JustSim EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg ( LFSB) is an international airport 3.5 km (2.2 mi) northwest of the city of Basel, Switzerland, 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Mulhouse in France, and 46 km (29 mi) south-southwest of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. This Franco-Swiss administered airport is geographically located within the French Alsace region, in the administrative commune of Saint-Louis near the border tripoint between France, Germany, and Switzerland, so being noted as the EuroAirport of three regions is a good definition of the position and significance of this Swiss/Franco airport. EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg Aéroport de Bâle-Mulhouse Flughafen Basel-Mülhausen IATA: BSL, MLH, EAP - ICAO: LFSB, LSZM 15/33 : 3,900m - (12,795ft) Concrete 08/26 : 1,820m (5,971ft) Concrete Elevation AMSL : 885 ft / 270 m Many sceneries are incorporated into reviews because in the their own review they are so good you just don't want to lose them again into your expansive network of destinations. Two come to mind with Luxembourg Airport (ELLX) and Brussels Airport (EBBR) that both have had extensive exposure and are use consistently in X-PlaneReviews that would have not even been considered in my normal flight routings.... and oddly enough is that both of these sensational sceneries are by JustSim. So here is EuroAirport LFSB/LSZM or Mulhouse which is again by JustSim, and is already probably destined to become another of those sceneries that in most cases would never even think of, or never mind in actually using... in which case you will from now on will probably use the scenery all the time. Intergration into the X-Plane mesh is simply sublime, with the excellent layout set within the landscape perfectly. There are a few flat areas to the south that the autogen has not covered, but it is not really noticeable in context. The highlight is the main terminal building with it's Y shaped concourse that was built in 2002. Terminal Building You cannot be anything but totally blown away by the quality of the EuroAirport terminal building, it is simply sensational in detail and design. Developers take note, this in the sort craftmanship you have to aspire to in this high level of competitive scenery, everything here is perfect, reflective glass, oh yes, and in the perfect detailing, well yes as that is all in here as well. There is no internal detail, but in reality that isn't required here, but the external detailing is perfect where needed. The terminal gates are numbered 1-2, 20-46, 60-61 and 78-87 of which gates 22-32 are used for non-Schengen flights. Seven of the boarding gates (animated/active) but are not SAM, but the highly converted "Marginal" design featured Autogates, the other gates are used for walkon - or bus-boarding. .... glass is the one area that differentiates even the very best of quality scenery, but the glass application here is simply above and beyond, yes I am gushing, this is brilliant stuff and it all comes with shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects. Control Tower mid-Terminal is faithfully recreated with nice detailing. Tower View is correct, if a little low. Clutter is also very good. Airside there is a lot of well placed clutter with some branding, but mostly they are all placed default vehicles. Landside is the same but still very well done. The photo ground textures are a bit grainy, but not the usual washed out and they are still highly visible with a few burnt into the ground cars. There is also a lot of animated vehicles spread around the scenery, the vehicle traffic is spot on with a lot of movement, but not too much to overwhelm the roadways... .... unique here is that the landside areas are uniquely divided into both separate French and a Swiss parts (Swiss customs road is arrowed) . The headquarters of Swiss International Air Lines and Swiss Global Air Lines are on the grounds at EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg in the Swiss section of the airport; even though the airport is within France, the Swiss head office is only accessible from Switzerland by that same unique road connection. Older original Cargo facilities are very good with F1, F2, F3, F4 and F4A parking stands. Jet Aviation maintenance area (Maintenance Apron) is huge with some really nice static Boeing 747-400's... ... nowhere to park your private jet? well why not up on the roof, it is the perfect solution. To be noted are the excellent elevation changes within the scenery. AS there are clever gradients that are set out everywhere including (3d) below ground large channel areas. On the southern boundary is the new Swissaport Cargo facility and it is huge. There are only two cargo parking stands, but they are both category F stands in F21 and F22. Cargo operators include: ASL Airlines, DHL Aviation, FedEx Feeder, Korean Air Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo and UPS Airlines. Southwest is a large MRO maintenance area and industrial complex (Maintenance Apron South-West)... the main tenants here include AMAC Aerospace, Jet Aviation and Airservice Basel. The whole complex is really well done with individual designed buildings and a huge amount of detail, static aircraft that are neatly packed in and well represented, overall the Southwest area is first rate. Also represented in this area is the La Comète Sports Centre. There is a fair bit of infrastructure in the Northeast along the main Taxiway B. Highlight is the older original hangers that front the General Aviation and Private Jet apron and stands G3 - G20... The huge airport Fire Station is far north. The old traditional Swiss Buildings at the entrance to the EuroAirport have also been well reproduced as is the massive undercover carpark. Ground Textures The Runway textures are excellent as the main runway concrete construction is perfectly realised, worn and in parts well rubberised, and the taxiway asphalt is also spot on in general use wear and tear, verges are perfect as is the large coverage of the airfield with 3d grass. All surfaces are PBR (Physically Based Rendered) with reflections and wet (rain) effects and they are very, very good. Lighting I was expecting the lighting to average, but it is again only exceptional. Main Runway 15/33 has significant approach lighting on RWY 15, however the approach to RWY 33 is quite different... the actual runway only starts past Taxiway D, the rest is just the runway extension... ... the boundary is made clear by the side runway red lighting before the official white lights, and here that aspect is exceptionally done, and also note the short 08/26 does not have any lighting and neither does the adjoining Taxiway P. Think that the terminal looked great in the daylight, well you haven't seen it in the night time, well it is stupendous! Lower terminal and Y concourse LIT textures could be a bit overbright and not to everyone's taste, but I like them a lot... Landside in carpark lighting is also excellent, as are all remote aprons which are also well catered for... ... all building detail and lit signage is first rate and the attention to lighting detail here is perfect. Services: EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg is mostly a LLC (Low-Cost Carrier) centric airport, with a lot of seasonal sevices. EasyJet Switzerland is based here as is Ryanair, well off and on. BSL was also the old Crossair headquarters, but Eurowings are now also starting to have a significant impact on the airport as well. Summary You see a lot of scenery when you do a lot of significant reviews, and in most cases if not in all then with exception of a few cases there is always an area or that something that reduces the perfect scenery down from it's almost perfect perch at the top, to a far lower expectation... but this EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg airport scenery is certainly not one of those. This is an airport that covers two countries in France (It is built on French soil) and Switzerland, but also on the boundary of a third country in Germany, so it is a pure multinational and international airport. It is really a place to it's own in being a Euroland. I'm rating this JustSim scenery Five Stars and it deserves that rare accolade, it is almost the perfect scenery with excellent mest intergration, overwhelming terminal modeling, excellent clutter and landside detail, active vehicles, glass and textures (All PBR) and airbridges (all seven of them), then the icing on this already great cake is the excellent terminal, landside lighting and night signage... only very small kink is that in some areas you get no autogen to cover the phototextures, and some users may not like the terminal lower LIT overbright textures... and that is it, otherwise this EuroAirport is almost perfect in what you require in airport scenery. Yes I was blown away by this scenery and the high quality it delivers.... and you will love it as well. Five out of FIVE stars ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! LFSB - EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg by JustSim is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LFSB - EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg Price is US$21.60 Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom autogen for whole island Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance ______________________________________________________________________ Installation Scenery download zip package is 850.30mb, and it is installed in your X-Plane custom scenery folder in this order: LFBS_Justsim_v1.0 (1.79Gb) LFBS_Mesh_Justsim_v1.0 (20.8mb) Total scenery installation is 1.81gb Requirements : X-Plane 11+ Windows, Mac, Linux 4Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum, 8Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current and Review version: 1.0 (Feb 5th 2020) ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 12th February 2020 Copyright©2020: 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 11.41 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: WorldTraffic3 US$29.95 : Environment Engine v1.07 by xEnviro US$69.90 : SFD Global by misterx6 US$30.00 Scenery or Aircraft - Boeing 738 by Laminar Research - Default with X-Plane11
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Scenery Review : EFHK - Helsinki Vantaa International by JustSim I have a bucket list of scenery that I really want to complete my services network in X-Plane. Airports that I think are crucial into not only the simulator per-se, but are also a requirement into create good strong route networks. In competition as a simulator then it is a requirement to cover the basics and X-Plane in reality has been woeful in these areas. These airports or sceneries have been on my list since day one and that list was from as long as 10 years ago, but still a lot of of important quality scenery has not been covered, now the spectre of Flight Simulator could even end that speculation, but I don't think so. But for everything else and a virus, 2020 has been a very good year in for filling out a lot these blank holes in the X-Plane's network... most users will note that most (not all) have been covered by Freeware versions, and that is a fair comment. But we look at the simulator from a quality aspect and in most cases a facade built airport just can't cover the detailing required for a high quality scenery, no matter how talented the author. But back to 2020. If you count late last year 2019 the LIMC-Malpensa was a nice hole filled, but it was FlyTampa's extraordinary EKCH-Copenhagen that was a huge network filler, next was FSIA-Seychelles, admittedly not on any high traffic route was also a nice filler, CYVR-Vancouver was also a requirement, as was (finally) a KTPA-Tampa, two airports have opened up Africa with HKJK-Nairobi/FALE-Durban and finally the most exclusive of them all in YPPH-Perth... It's been a really good year in that respect. After EKCH-Kastrop then my other biggest route hole in Northern Europe is Helsinki, or EFHK-Helsinki, I fly there now, but the multiple Freewares were always lacking in one area or another, I wanted, always wanted a decent Vantaa, I love flying to Helsinki, but the quality was just not there when I got there. For many years TruScenery created some great if brilliant scenery in Finland, and they actually worked on but never released a EFHK... So I was seriously excited when JustSim a quality developer announced that they were doing a EFHK-Helsinki, "Thank the Lord Jesus". Helsinki-Vantaa Airport or simply Helsinki Airport, is the main international airport of the city of Helsinki and its surrounding metropolitan area, and the Uusimaa region in Finland. The airport is located in the neighboring city of Vantaa, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Tikkurila, and 9.2 NM (17.0 km; 10.6 mi) north of the Helsinki city center. The HEL airport is operated by state-owned Finavia. Helsinki-Vantaa Airport Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasema Helsingfors-Vanda flygplats IATA: HEL- ICAO: EFHK 04R/22L - 3,500m (11,483ft) Asphalt 04L/22R - 3,060m (10,039ft) Asphalt 15/33 - 2,901m (9,518ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL - 55m/179 ft First to note that in this review I am using the SFD Global addon for autogen, which gives you a more authentic Scandi feel to the housing and infrastructure than the Germanic default autogen. Vantaa's layout is basically an L shape around a high cross runway and a spare north runway field layout. Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are in reality meshed together and are further confused by the separate Schengen sections and further more with the now completed extensions to both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. The airport is however currently nominally divided into two terminals, located 250 metres (820 ft) apart and linked by an internal pedestrian connection both airside and landside. In practice, however, the airside parts of the terminal buildings are not divided into Terminal 1 (the former domestic terminal) and Terminal 2 (the former international terminal) but to Schengen and non-Schengen areas. The terminal capacity of the airport is approximately 16–17 million passengers per year. Domestic flights, as well as flights to European Schengen countries, are operated from gates 11–31. Long-haul and European non-Schengen flights are operated from gates 31–38. As the newer terminal extension is completed, the airport will then have 60 gates altogether with 19 gates in Terminal 1 and 41 in Terminal 2. The airport is known for it's fastest transition between flights (International - Domestic) in the world. Terminal 1 You can from the air see the division of the earlier passenger terminal opened in 1952, and then in being totally replaced by the 1969 iconic version we know as Vantaa and it's two-tier corner Control Tower. And a first look at the T1 Domestic terminal shows how it was impossible it was to replicate in a facade environment, JustSim however have done a brilliant job of it, and the building has nice if perfect reflective glass. The corner Control Tower is excellent in it's sheet metal facade and glass, and the Tower View is set perfectly. Airbridges (15) 12-27 are excellent in detail, and are the "Autogate" Marginal system (Plugin required)... there is Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS) and also the A-VDGS (the A standing for advanced) available. 23, 24 and 25 are finger gates, but the connection corridor is perfectly modeled to match in with the custom Airbridge and terminal. Opposite are three remote stands (121-123). Terminal detail is excellent, all items like ladders, walkways,vent and air-conditioning units are all present. Scenery has animated traffic, but uses the X-Plane default traffic vehicles, but as the default traffic is SAS branded then it all works perfectly here. There is good clutter, but not overwhelmingly so. Terminal 1 has been expanded by four separate departure gate buildings which will be connected by walking corridors. Each building will have one departure gate excluding one, which will have three gates. Gates (5–11). This is the new Walkon/Walkoff LCC section for Schengen arrivals and departures... the extension is very well done here in the scenery and well suited for regional operations. Terminal 1 Landside is well done... but most of the area is taken up by the construction of a new carpark, the trouble with this is that the area comes across as very bare or even empty? there are a few cranes, but it looks like a construction project that has been abandoned, it needed far more construction fill as it is highly noticeable, or better yet the completed carpark. Terminal 2 The original T2 has basically disappeared inside the massive redevelopment of the newer terminal additions. There are glimpses of the older facade of like of where T1 joins to T2. The new piers are noted as "South Pier" and West Pier", however earlier it was part of the plan to build a satellite terminal next to Terminal 2, but the plan was cancelled in favor of keeping the expansion under a single terminal building concept. There are four gates (28-31) in the older style on the T2 older section and with another three remote stands set opposite (124-126), note that all these six remote stands would be used for Domestic services (121-126). T2 detail is again excellent and with perfect glass, Landside however is all a bit bland and bare (that construction)... South Pier The new South Pier of Terminal 2 was inaugurated on 10th July 2017. The first scheduled flight from the new pier, AY006 departed from Gate 54 to New York City. The new pier covers 8,300 square metres (89,000 sq ft). In addition to the new terminal building, new dual boarding gates S54 and S55 as well as aircraft stands 171 and 172 were opened. Construction of this southern wing of Terminal 2 was started on 4th January 2016 and the construction took around 18 months. There are two floors: one for arriving passengers, the other for departures and gates 52 to 55. All the gates have dual boarding jet bridges. The new wing also features the first moving walkway at any airport in Finland. The modeling and certainly the expansive glass in the South Pier is really well done, notably in the walkways between the old and the new sections, there is however a general feel of emptiness, maybe a few figures on the walkways or in the corridors would have helped. The first part of the west wing that was built was the large central plaza, "Aukio", which was opened in February 2019 set between both the "South" and "West" piers, and the plaza is very well represented here. Gates in the new zones have a "W" or "S" prefix in front of the number, as per the Apron number (Apron 1W). W is facing the northwest, and follows on from the older T2 in gates (W34-W48) and Gate W48 is able to accommodate the Airbus A380 class E. The feel and look is very much like Heathrow Terminal 5, with tall towers with an associated airbridge, with a two-level loading and unloading system. The internal apron "Apron 1S" continues with on the 'South Pier" gates (S43-S49). West Pier The "West Pier" was completed in October 2019, and it brings together 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft) of new passenger and baggage facilities to the airport. The pier is equipped with four gates (S52-S55) for widebody jets. The design and style for the "West" is exactly the same as the "South" section. Internally in the corner of the L are a Hilton Hotel and the twin Finavia office buildings, on the taller Finavia there is a nice large red Radar on the roof of the offices, but it does not rotate? The distinctive P3 Domestic circular car parking buildings and the large P5 International car parking building are all well represented Also noted is the newer Vinavia building known as the House of Travel and Transportation, or "HOTT", and the well done striking checkerboard Clarion Hotel. Cargo Overall there are three Cargo zones at EFHK... The newer large Finnair cargo depot is set out behind their huge, massive Finnair maintenance hangar, with three stands (961-963) on Apron 9 The rest of the action in two separate cargo zones is based around the threshold of Runway 33... East is Apron 4, with DHL and TNT in residence, Airfix Aviation and Scanwings are based here as well... West is Apron 2 or the original HEL Finnair cargo facility. Because of the Domestic LCC extension the cargo's facilities parking stands have been reduced to four (201-204)... ... and three more stands are available (206/301-302) in front of private cargo contractors including, Swissaport, Posti and Jetlite. Far southest of Apron 2 is Apron 3... here is a very nice VIP terminal and a small General Aviation parking ramp... ... and further southeast is the airport's fuel depot and very pronounced Neoplan Transfer bus maintenance facility, it is highly visible on the RWY 33 approach (you look for the building and not the runway for the approach). Far north along the Runway 04L/22R boundary there is some very nice visual infrastructure, with a DHL distribution facility, and the large Apron 6 De-Icing area. There are also several other smaller De-Icing areas noted off most taxiways. Infrastructure Overall the infrastructure around EFHK is excellent including a very well done DB Schenker transport hub, but... ... on the very visual approach of 04R, there is in parts only a flat ortho image, and you notice it, worse is on the final approach of RWY 33, here you have a completely large flat ortho-image right under your nose, and one that is seriously horrible to the eye, why??? and it needs fixing fast. Ground Textures Overall the ground textures are excellent, they do feel slightly softer at my Texture Quality setting of only "High", but my guess is they are set for maximum framerate efficiency more than absolute quality (which is noticeable throughout this scenery)... mostly you would never notice anything anyway, but good and detailed in every area they are. There is great grunge, oil and rubber dirt were required and the lineage is lovely and worn, but also highly realistic... just a nice job. Yes we have PBR reflective (wet) active textures and also have excellent burnt-in ambient occlusion, but it is not as gritty as a few I have seen, again the more softer aspect does come though, but that is not to say you won't get that North Scandi winter aspect, because in the right conditions the ground textures will certainly deliver... on that note there are no winter textures provided here, which considering Vantaa's very northern aspect is surprising. There are some 3d bushes where required, but overall there is no 3d grass?... ... the missing 3d grass is however highly noticeable, with areas feeling empty and flat, why no 3d grass as it is de-rigueur now on any payware scenery... worse there is no boundary or airport sectional fencing either... NO FENCING? This is a major oversee by JustSim, fencing creates boundaries and segregates areas, but there is absolutely nothing here? The fencing lines are of course burnt into the Ortho-textures and certainly you can easily walk anytime on to a taxiway or an active runway... A hanging offence. Lighting As with everything else with EFHK the lighting is excellent by JustSim... ... but one aspect has to be noted. When in non-alignment with a runway, then it's lighting will disappear? so if you are on an approach circuit at night, then it can be hard to get an alignment on your arrival runway until turning into the final direction of your approach, and this can make landings and orientation difficult. JustSim have used the lit graphic approach to building lighting, some will hate it, but most including myself love the vibrancy the lighting gives off, the terminals feel bright and alive (which is a great arrival feeling)... ... close up the metals and windows reflect nicely and the lighting is well done and realistic. Also excellent is the apron lighting, and you can work down on here easily. Signage lighting is very good, as is the excellent drop lighting. Hotel and office window lighting could have had a bit more pizzazz and considering the graphic terminal lighting, then why not light up these buildings as well? Overall though the lighting is very good. Note... I recommend adding in as part of the Finnish JustSim EFHK scenery... EFHF-Malmi (US$16.90) by TruScenery. The EFHF scenery is on the approach to runway 33, directly on the approach and looks brilliant, and an ideal General Aviation base in Helsinki. _____________________ Summary JustSim are a very good X-Plane scenery developer with an excellent past record of airports including Hannover, Brussels, Barcelona, Malta, Hamburg and may, many more, and JustSim are known for their excellent quality and value to price factor.... and here is their next scenery in EFHK-Helsinki. X-Plane has never had a decent HEL or Vantaa Airport, and mostly because the iconic building structures require skill and detail to work correctly, so a fully developed Helsinki Airport from a leading developer is very much welcome. And so the scenery delivers in spades, great terminal modeling with a lot of detail includes all the latest terminal expansions and changes, glass is excellent with reflections and PBR, layouts and ground textures also are excellent as is the all round lighting, although the use of graphic images may not please many, to most though they will love them as they are highly effective at night. All the airport and surrounding infrastructure is also well done (JustSim have always been very good at infrastructure)... and all the terminals come with the "Autogate" Marginal system with VDGS. There is the feeling that the scenery was released before being fully completed, although in most areas everything from great clutter, traffic animations and the general overall layouts it is extremely well done, but there is the feel of some blank areas? The construction carpark area behind the T1&T2 Landside is a bit too bare and empty, it feels abandoned more than a building site, more fill is certainly required, missing infrastructure detail and only flat ortho-textures on the critical approach areas to Runways 33 and 04R is an oversight, as is the totally missing any airport security or building fencing? No 3d grass is also a big oversight and hurts the overall excellent quality feel. But if you crave good quality to quality route simulation sceneries, then this quality one from JustSim should be at the very top of your list and a brilliant companion to the excellent FlyTampa EKCH-Copenhagen. I fly to Helsinki a lot, I mean a lot, and to now have a high quality airport ready at the destination. So then this scenery from JustSim will certainly get a lot of action from X-PlaneReviews, not only for passenger but cargo as well... Yes an absolute recommendation, JustSim's EFHK-Helsinki is a must have! _____________________________________ Yes! EFHK - Helsinki Vantaa International by JustSim is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore EFHK - Helsinki Vantaa International Price is US$21.50 Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance WT3: WorldTraffic3 GroundRoutes are NOT provided but the scenery is compatible and extremely good and Traffic Global also operates perfectly, Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended\ Download Size: 1.1 Gb Current and Review version: 1.0 (October 25th2020) Installation Download scenery files required are in one zip folder download 1.13Gb Only one folder is placed in the X-Plane Custom Scenery Folder EFHK_JustSim_v1.0 Total scenery install is: 2.33Gb ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents No Manual but an Install note (very basic) _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 29th 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 or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Research - EFHF-Malmi by TruScenery (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.90
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Scenery Review : EDDV - Hannover Inernational by JustSim As an area covered by quality airports then with the efforts of both Aerosoft and JustSim, Germany is getting to be now a pretty well filled in country. But there is always room for another one, and here it is with Hannover/Langenhagen - EDDV from JustSim. Hanover is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,061 (2017) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany. Hannover/Langenhagen Airport is 11 km (6.8 mi) north of Hannover. The airport has flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations, and serves as a base for Eurowings, Condor, SunExpress Deutschland and TUI fly Deutschland. Hannover Airport Flughafen Hannover-Langenhagen IATA: HAJ - ICAO: EDDV 9L/27R - 12,467ft (3,800m) Concrete 09R/27L- 7,677ft (2,340m) Concrete 09C/27C - 2,559ft (780m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL183 ft / 56 m First impression of EDDV - Hannover is very impressive. The intergation into the default mesh of HAJ is faultless and it is highly realistic in detail and the perfect overall view. In reality EDDV has only two usable runways as 09C/27C is very short and even for a GA. Runway 9L/27R is really the main operations runway and the one you would usually use. The original 9R/27L is for regional or propeller based services, but I do love the layout of Langenhagen. The original two modern terminals were opened in 1973, of which they became famous because of their compact design. They also became the archetype for the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. These original terminals A and B are still in service today. Detail and reproduction in JustSim's version is excellent, really good. Not only with the modeling but in the finer detail and the great reflective glass. Unusual though and noticeable is that there is no ground traffic around HAJ? no plugin either, and you miss that bustling activity aspect. Clutter though is excellent and well done, but not branded and only generic. Gates are 1 -12 with 1A, 2A, 5A, 7A, 10A and 11A being set for narrow and wide-body aircraft. Terminal, C, was opened in 1998 to handle more passengers, adding on 8 more boarding gates and 3 bus departure gates. Up to 33 aircraft can be handled simultaneously at Terminal C, of which 20 can use aircraft stands equipped with an Airbridge. The extension terminal is larger than the original sections, but as it is done in exactly the same same style and so the terminal blends in perfectly. Gates 13 - 20 with the same 14A, 15A, 17A, 18A and 20A layout as the first section. All Airbridges use the SAM (Scenery Animation Manger) system and is excellent, the only slight note is that the VDGS or Visual Docking Guidance System is set a little high, well done so no doubt, but you have to get low when you get close to the final stopping (parking) point. I particularly like the gate co-ordinates on each system, overall SAM intergation at HAJ is excellent. There is the additional Terminal D to the east of the main terminals, which is a rebuilt hangar that is exclusively used by the Royal Air Force to transport British troops to and from Northern Germany. Landside There is really great detail landside... ... there has been given a large amount of attention to the entrance to the terminals, and all the work is not at all wasted here, nice flags, banners, loads of cars and great (puppy) Sixt advertising. Highlight is the TUI Fly childrens play area that is really nicely detailed, for once there are no landside low-res textures in sight! There are 10 carparks at HAJ with 14,000 parking spaces that are available. And everywhere you look here there is a carpark! Short - long, expensive concierge, cheap and even Kiss & Fly Zones, Hannover has all your parking needs covered... All carparks are really well done, with advertising, 3d vehicles, branded radars, but what is the most well done aspect is that it is clear and sharp and not just background terminal filler. Hotels covered are the Martime and Leonardo. Cargo The cargo zones are split into two areas by the taxiways F and L. The earlier area is quite small with only a two bay 27 (27A, 27B & 27C) and 28 parking stands layout... .... the second (larger) zone opposite a large remote parking area (stands 45 -52) has six stands 53 - 63 (four are cross stands). Both areas have excellent facilities with the second area dominated by DHL and rear warehousing. Control Towers There are two control towers at EDDV, the earlier version is set between the terminal A and the older cargo facility... in use or not is debatable by the greyed out windows... .... the second newer 68.0m tower is central of the DHL facility and was completed in 2002, detail on both towers is excellent, and the detailed construction (boxes) on the newer tower that is really well done with very good intimate detailing, a rotating radar works on top as well. Tower view setting is also spot on, with approach views on every runway just perfect. Airport Infrastructure East of the terminal on taxiway A1 is a partially dismantled large hangar, that is well done, then further east are two large maintenance hangers for TUI Fly and ACC Columbia Jet Service, the main TUI Fly offices set just behind the dismantled hangar. Taxiway M has a lot of facilities along the long taxiway. Situated besides a very Germanic looking building (there are a lot of these Gemanic style buildings in the scenery, which adds in a lot of local flavor) is the General Aviation Zone 1, Zone 2 is for remote GA parking opposite... note the excellent three H Pads in the foreground. General Aviation area 1 is great with some nicely done hangarage set to the east, but you feel it needs a few GA statics to fill both of these areas out. Further east is another (larger) ACC Columbia Jet Service facility... ... and an area far east that looks like an old military (German) barracks, now they house private aviation and administration offices. There are loads of detailed buildings that cover the area between what you could say is the front and rear of the airport and far too many to cover here, but they are all very well detailed, but the highlights that stick up like a small radar tower, chimmeys and remote parking cover structures give the scenery a great depth of detail. Infrastructure on the southern boundary is also excellent. There has been a lot of attention given to this industrial areas with loads of well done factories, warehousing and business parks. JustSim are always good at filling out the visual aspect of their sceneries, and not just recreating the actual airport, but doing the whole concept of the area around it, and here at Hannover it is very good with local branding and custom buildings as per the real structures. Ground Textures I really, really like the ground textures here at Hannover, great detail and the various surfaces are all mostly concrete in modulation. Ribbing is done really well and you notice the realism and wear from the cockpit, I love taxiing around EDDV just to look at the textures. Note the nice shiny detailed metal grids. The PBR reflective (wet) and burnt-in ambient occlusion can be seen even in bright sunny conditions, add in the right lighting and it gets even better. It is how good developers are creating these surfaces now, as they are so highly realistic. There is some nice 3d grass as well and the coverage is wide across the whole airfield, only north of 09L/27R does the grass line stop abruptly, and it looks a little odd from the air? Lighting Overall the lighting is a bit hit and sadly miss... main overview of EDDV however is very good. Apron lighting is very good, but those Terminal textures are simply horrible? All are orangey, samey and all the bland not dissimilar at all... .... worse is that excellent landside detail is hidden with no lighting at all? There are street lights set but they are not lit? So something has been overlooked or not finished? I also checked my graphic settings and no they are set at the highest setting for the lighting, so it is not me but the way it actually is. Advertising signs and carpark drop lighting (internal carparks are nicely lit as well) is really good, but heavily let down by the rest of the lighting. Approach, landing and taxiway lighting is all very good and the highlights are the lovely realistic reflective navigation signs. ________________________ Summary Between developers Aerosoft and JustSim they have both covered Germany with a lot of quality scenery, this is another in Hannover/Langenhagen and when it is this good then why not use another good choice to fly into or out of Fatherland. And very good it is, but not perfect. On the positive side there is a huge amount to really like here, modeling and texture detail is excellent and extensive, the surrounding infrastructure is also excellent and that includes the off-field detail as well as the complex actual airport detail, all infrastructure is really well developed and it all comes with high quality, extensive detail. Ground textures are simply first rate and has very nice surface detail and realistic reflective activity, and they look spellbinding in the rain, as a EDDV - Hannover recreation this is a great scenery. Minuses are weird in a way... missing airport traffic is a head scratcher, and so is the non-lit landside lighting? It is just not like JustSim to miss details like that? But the overwhelming thing that I didn't like were those night Terminal textures, we have moved on a long way from these sort of night textures, I admit they are hard to make realistic, but they just don't work here at all and spoil any night time operations at HAJ. This Hannover review got pushed aside a few times to cover more extensive sceneries that were released, but in the mean time I based my operations here and used the scenery extensively over the intermediate few weeks period. The results were that I absolutely loved using this EDDV - Hannover scenery, and it was a really great base for European operations. I loved leaving but also totally loved arriving back at the airport, and it became quickly a firm favorite, that is a big one because I love Hamburg and especially Düsseldorf which is a firm favorite (Frankfurt and Munich are a bit too big for my route needs), so on wanting to add in HAJ to my route network speaks volumes. So how can you beat the fact that if you want to use a scenery as much as using Hannover EDDV then it is a really worthwhile investment, the sheer realism here and the JustSim detail and quality makes it a must have for me... Highly Recommended! _____________________________________ Yes! EDDV - Hannover International Airport by JustSim is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Hannover International Airport Price is US$21.50 Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided but overall the airport functions perfectly with a generation. Traffic Global works fine, but with not much activity Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac, Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum . 8 GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 780 MB Current and Review version: 1.0 (July 17th 2020) Installation Download scenery file size is 7.34mb. With the full installation installed package is 1.79gb in your custom scenery folder. Only one folder is installed.. EDDV_JustSim_v1.0 SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery Documents No documents, and only incuded is an installation text. EDDV_INSTALLATION.txt _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 4th August 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 11.41 and tested in v11.50b17 (really good!) Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: None Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Reserch
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Scenery Review - EBBR Brussels Airport by JustSim I just want to make it clear that EBBR and myself did not get off to a great start when flying in X-Plane? And I would like like to make it even clearer it has nothing to do with this EBBR - Brussels from JustSim Scenery. EBBR - Brussels Airport is known as the airport at "The Heart of Europe", and that explains my pain. You see every time I left the UK on a long haul flight, say to Hong Kong or Singapore or even Dubai, or returning to the UK from any of the above or to just to simply to fly over to Germany, I always got a bad to desktop scenery crash, and it was always EBBR that caused it? I tried everything to fix that painful freeware EBBR scenery, but in the end it had to come out of my custom scenery folder... So EBBR was always a blank on my X-Plane landscape, I never visited there, and always feared and still do that fear it would damage any long haul route in it's final stages, and usually after many flying hours in the air, and even when it had been removed... I loathed EBBR, absolutely hated it, just like the Brexiteers that loath the people that live in Brussels as well. So when JustSim announced their next scenery release was EBBR - Brussels, I wasn't exactly jumping for joy... but that nasty EBBR is now many years old and that painful time was now a long time ago, so was I willing to go back or even land at my most hated and feared scenery in X-Plane? Scenery design has come a long way in a few years and JustSim, are great scenery developers and one of my favorites, so if anything it was worth a try, I loaded in the new JustSim version and took off from EGKK - Gatwick, for a quick flight over the channel towards Brussels. Don't get me wrong I did still close my eyes as I neared the 100nm boundary and the loading of EBBR into X-Plane, but at 85 nm I could safely assume that I was not going to get a nasty desktop crash... I was through and the past lurking monster of EBBR and hard crashes had finally been put to rest. EBBR - Brussels Airport Brussels Airport Aéroport de Bruxelles-National (French) Luchthaven Brussel-Nationaal (Dutch) IATA: BRU - ICAO: EBBR 01/19 2,987m (9,800ft) Asphalt 07R/25L 3,21 (10,535ft) Asphalt 07L/25R 3,638 (11,936ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL184 ft / 56 m Brussels Airport (also called Brussel-Nationaal / Bruxelles-National (Brussels-National) or Zaventem) is an international airport 6.5 NM (12.0 km; 7.5 mi) northeast of Brussels, it is the capital of Belgium and the base of the European Government. My first overview of JustSim's EBBR was not a good one? The custom textures that underlay the airport are highly over-satuarated. I actually thought my monitor's settings were set wrong? but no it is the scenery's textures that don't match or merge well with the X-Plane default mesh textures? It is very noticeable on any approach and even if you overfly the airport (below) of being in central europe as you do most of the time. This is very unlike JustSim, as they usually get the custom textures perfectly matched with the X-Plane textures? The odder thing is it is only the surrounding area textures that are over-satuarated and not the inner airport textures as they look and feel fine... Overall view of the Brussels Airport, and it looks excellent, it is well crafted and has a very nice layout... ... and many detail highlights was noticed on my arrival at EBBR on a very miserable low cast and a minimum visibility day, approach was into RWY 02. Even in these conditions then EBBR looked excellent from the air, autogen is nicely intergrated with the custom housing provided by JustSim, but more on that later... The wet weather and low light highlighted the excellent reflective runway surfaces, note how the dark rubber patches shine in the light, lovely... and the sun's rays sparkle across the runway when the light breaks through the low cloud, both are highly realistic. As two runways in 02/20 - 07L/25R intersect at the top of an A frame then all the terminal taxiways merge together at this point as well, and there are four taxiways to choose from. This is simplified by noting the taxiways as "OUTER - OUT" and INNER - INN", and it is also more simplified in that each taxiway segment is noted via a number between each link taxiway to the terminal ramps. Yes you will still need an Airport layout chart, but on the ground it makes the airport easier to navigate and find your taxiway exit, and to also identify which taxiway is for arrival and which is for departure. This layout is very well defined in the scenery as all the navigation markings and runway layouts are excellent, but very complex. Central Terminal Area Although originally quite easy to identify, as because of all the big changes at Brussels it is still a sort of in transition layout of where the terminals are defined. The oldest is the Satellite C complex from 1957... Originally there was two C Satellites, but one has been raised to the ground to create a new LCC (Low Cost Carrier) pier, but for now it is only used for stand parking, The circular C terminal covers gates C1 - C29... airside the terminal is noted as 3 South. The huge office complex behind was a modernisation of the original terminal, with the control tower as part of the redevelopment deal and you have lost the gritty feel of the original building under the more modern cladding, but it is very well done here.... the old control tower is still visible, but operations have now been moved across the field. The window textures on the Sat C are quite bland, but everything else is excellent and well reproduced. There are no inner terminal areas, but I'm not fussy if the external glass is very good, of which it is here. There are a few areas of missing fencing, which means you could just step out of your car and walk over and board the aircraft... which is not good for security. All the carparks are present and all have placed 3d cars and vehicle on top, and thankfully no burnt in vehicle flat textures. Concourse B Originally this pier was connected to the two Satellite C terminals when it was constructed in 1995, but now it is refurbished and connected via the "Connector" terminal building (originally there was an 400-metre-long (1,300 ft) tunnel under the apron!) to Concourse A... Concourse B covers gates B1 to B40, and detail is excellent. Glass is very nice, highly and realistically reflective... concourse reproduction is very good as well and highly realistic... ground clutter is excellent and you get "Brussels Airport" branded vehicles and ground equipment. Vehicle animations are also very good as well, with enough and not too much activity. This oldest pier still in use at Brussels Airport and is only used for flights outside the Schengen Area (Europe) and in other words it is the International area of the three terminal concourses. Custom bay guidance lighting is on the the side of the terminal wall, it is well done, but doesn't actually work... neither do the airbridges as they are not animated. Worse is the parking positions are all out of sync with the correct parking positions, so all the aircraft are not all correctly in line, not by very much but it can be noticeable here and there. Smaller intimate detailing is very good with piping and very well represented air-conditioning units on all terminals. "Connector" The connector building links all three terminals together as one space. And it's unusual design is very well replicated here, note the glass reflects nicely at certain lighting conditions. Concourse A To a point the new 15 May 2002 built terminal is the new face of Brussels Airport. This pier was destined to support flights from and to the Schengen countries (A-gates). However, since 15 October 2008 all Brussels Airline flights to African destinations are now also handled at this pier. Therefore, border control was installed towards the end of the pier in order to create a new pier. As a result, gates A61-72 were renamed T61-72. Concourse design and 3d construction is absolutely first class, ditto the glass and clutter details. Terminal Lighting The terminal and ramp areas in lighting is very good... Window lighting is excellent, but it is a feel and look that some will love and a lot will not like, personally I love it. You expected the green glass terminal to glow more green that it does, but it is fine and well lit below the glass line, with drop down lighting. The older Satellite C terminal looks excellent, but... .... from the ramp aspct, it is only well lit on one side, and completely dark on the other? If no tower lighting then why not terminal placed lights to fill in the parking ramp area? The landside lighting is very good as well, but there are a few areas of darkness and in areas that are terminal passenger arrival zones? Control Tower The Control Tower at EBBR is very distinctive, and for realism you need this building to be correct in it's design. And here the tower is excellent, really well detailed and a great reproduction of the real building, the radar on top is animated in rotation. Tower view is correct "Yay!" as JustSim have usually missed this detail in most of their past sceneries, but here they have got it right, and a great sweep of the airport the view gives you as well! Cargo and Maintenance There are many areas that cover Cargo and Maintenance at EBBR. One is area is west directly behind the central terminal area. This area is a collection of (very) remote stands and the left over ghosts in maintenance hangars for the old now long gone national airline of Belgium in Sabena. The western area though is very well done with loads of clutter to make what could have been a very uninteresting bland area into a very realistic point of view and more so if you are using RWY 07L/25R, and there is a nice stand area to store your aircraft or to do some on site maintenance. Across north of RWY 07L/25R is a huge amount of facilities that basically run the whole length of the 12,000ft of runway... northwest is a large cargo facility is the biggest ramp area.. The DHL facility is the largest presence here, and again the area is highly detailed with clutter. And there is an open large detailed Lufthansa Technik hangar for your use as well. Note the north positioned radar tower by the Technik Hangar. The north boundary caters for everyone, from Cargo to GA and Private Jet facilities. There is a nice reception centre half way down the runway with a nicely create Fire Station positioned next to it. Branded facilities are well covered with Bruxelles Sud, TCR, CTC-Moyson, Swissport, AVIAPARTNER, WFS, TNT, Landmark Global, CEVA, MSE, Crown and Schenker. There is a large maintenance area with two large hangars west at the 07R runway threshold. These are for local based airline Brussels Airlines (created out of the ashes of Sabena) and TUI. There is a lot of nice clutter to help in with the overall visual effect of the area. Note the excellent 3d grass, and the grass is filled out thoughout most of the main boundary areas and the inner field. Custom buildings On the entrance to Brussels Airport and to give coverage of the approaches to runways 07L and 07R are a few custom buildings. These are not highly detailed buildings, and just mostly boxes with average textures, but they do the job... They cover a business park with Samsung, Levi Strauss and Estee Lauder as tenants, Johnson & Johnson and the Crowne Plaza hotel... further down the motorway is Verizon. Distinctive is the NATO Headquarters, but the blank area around the strange building takes away all the effect it could have on the scenery. The X-Plane European autogen again does a brilliant job in creating a very authentic areas around the airport, it also has the v11.25 new urban and industrial autogen that makes it even more filled out and comprehensive in detail. An overlook or just a plain "what are you thinking" moment is the flat area around around the entrance to EBBR that is the Witt and Rode Cites? Could be the issue be that the autogen was fenced out, and if so then why not just fill it in with custom buildings, as it is very highly noticeable on both 07L and 07R approaches and certainly if the lighting is low at dawn or dusk as it creates a dark empty zone? Oddly JustSim did the same blank space behind the terminal at LCLK - Larnaca with the carpark. Cargo and Maintenance lighting The ramps for all the cargo areas are very well lit and are all excellent, east on the north side it get a bit more sporadic and more widely spaced lighting the more you go east. But overall these areas are well done. The Brussels Airlines and TUI maintenance hangars are nicely lit, but the ramp areas in front of them are dark and not very usable at night? Custom Building Lighting The Brussels Airport entrance buildings at night are simply horrible! You wonder what JustSim are really thinking in doing textures like these when all the other night building lighting and glass is so good... It feels rushed and very last minute.... or anything will do. Really it is better off without the buildings at night than lit like this... .... the NATO Headquarters is just a black hole? Summary This Brussels Airport from JustSim is a bit of a wide contradiction. In the main and most areas it is not only good, it is simply brilliant. The central terminal area is superbly well done, as is the terminal building lighting. The airport layout and ground textures are also superb, as is the runway marking and detailing. You get a lot of quality infrastructure for your money as well so there is a lot of great value in the scenery, so you are certainly getting a lot of detail and that quality for your money... clutter and fill detail is also overwhelming and excellent. But there are a lot of quirks going on in this scenery as well, and in the areas that are easy to do, and in reality should not have to be discussed in this review? Was the scenery rushed to complete?, or was there a "that'll do" attitude... but lets us note the items, and starting with the outer ground ortho textures that are over-satuarated and don't match the surrounding X-Plane mesh? No animated air-bridges and odd aircraft terminal placement, missing fencing, dark lighting areas (Satellite C) and the nearby maintenance ramp and the totally horrible custom building lighting is a total contradiction to the brilliant terminal glass lighting? and finally as also is the distracting blank flat housing area that covers the Witt and Rode Cites that is seen on both western approaches. So you are trying to and then reconcile these two points, and you can't, because how can a developer that has creates this totally excellent work alongside these few other average areas. It is like the main developer has done almost all the work, but had to go off on holiday and left his friend to finish it off, but most of these items thankfully are very easily rectified, but JustSim in the past have also been a bit slow in this area? But I am still a very big JustSim scenery fan and very happy to add this EBBR to my scenery collection. Overall the high plus points totally overwhelm the negatives and this EBBR is priced like all JustSim sceneries in the very high value category, and so yes it should sell very well and to everyone or anyone that wants a decent EBBR in their X-Plane destination routing. Deep down however your thoughts are that with just a little more of the final touches, and a little more then of refining this Brussels Airport, it is that JustSim could have really knocked the ball totally and completely out of the ballpark and crafted one of their best sceneries to date... so why didn't they? _____________________________________ Yes! EBBR Brussels Airport by JustSim is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EBBR Brussels Airport Price is US$25.60 Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Animated ground vehicles (X-Plane 11 only) Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are provided and overall the airport functions perfectly, but it has no airport operations file. Ground routes are to be installed in the ARR and DEP folders and the ParkingDef.txt goes into the ParkingDef folder. Requirements: X-Plane 11+ Windows, Mac, Linux 2Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum, 4Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current and review version: 1.0 (October 20th 2018) Installation Download scenery file size is 1.10gb. With the full installation installed package is 2.48gb in your custom scenery folder. Documents No documents, and included is completed WorldTraffic3 ground routes and parking defs. _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 23rd October 2018 Copyright©2018 : 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 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.25 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.09 US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - ToLiSS319 (A319) by ToLiSS (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$69.00
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Scenery Upgrade : EDDL - Düsseldorf International v2 by JustSim If you follow a lot of the reviews here on X-PlaneReviews you will be very familiar with EDDL -Düsseldorf International, as it is a mainstay scenery in our reviews for the western European areas of the simulator. Düsseldorf is a great central Europe scenery and has a lot of benefits, and yes while EDDF -Frankfurt is a more obvious choice, but it is also a very heavy scenery to use computer wise as it taxes the system quite heavily and I am hoping the Vulkan/Metal change will give me more options in using that scenery. So EDDL is usually my pick of the most efficient German central Europe airports that also supports the WT3 (WorldTraffic3) application very well. JustSim released their first EDDL -Düsseldorf mid-2017 and for the period it was very good (and that Is why I used it consistently) but the scenery was not perfect, and that was mostly in the areas of the active elements and the period it was released in, there was a minor update in v1.1, but here is the larger upgrade v2 release of the JustSim EDDL airport, not much has been done since the original release, you even say it was even forgotten in the throes of constant updates that JustSim have lavished onto their other sceneries so this new version is very welcome indeed. The light here at Düsseldorf is very harsh, and that is not the developers fault but in the way the airport is positioned means that not a lot of the sunlight during the day gets to shine on the front side of the terminals, and that said the airport now has a full layout of infrastructure and the airport's surrounding local is very well filled out with custom objects, so the airport works extremely well for all your required visual viewpoints. German autogen is also excellent here in creating the best all round experience. There are a few areas the overexposed new Hi-Res (photo) ground textures that do show through and create a few flat spots, but overall you get a pretty full and comprehensive layout. The ground textures are all new as well, and very good they are. The original layout was good anyway, but now you have the addition of the dynamic shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects which are now also active and they are very good at bring out the runway, taxiway textures in grooves and concrete blocks... .... these effects also bring out the shiny wet look to a great dynamic effect, and yes they are very common now in all sceneries, but still very welcome here at EDDL were they work to a great effect and find some moody German weather and you will be right at home. The textures also feature grids, water drains and all the required ground markings and the signage is very good for highly realistic ground areas. I just love those wet look images. You now also get the same PBR (Physical Based Rendering) dynamics with the buildings and the terminals. This then lifts the original textures to a more life-like and depth of feel and I love the Germanic feel of steel and glass here that the Germans do so well, and the reflective glass here is perfect as is the rerendering of the original terminal modeling and texture, I loved DUS before, but now it is simply sensational. The original modeling and terminal textures are still here however, but now look slightly different in their PBR reflective guise, I personally think they are a huge lift to the scenery as I always thought the original textures always looked a little bland, 3d grass also lifts up the visual experience, well done 3d grass is a major help in hiding flat textures, and they work very well here. One of the biggest things missing in the original JustSim EDDL release was active airbridges... arrive back at EDDL after the dynamic Scandi airports and Düsseldorf International felt very flat with it's boring static gates.... .... now on arrival you now get the animated custom SafeDock System (plugin by Marginal), and yes it is now a very nice arrival to have and a big missing element of the original scenery now active and in being able to complete the rest of your service (in other words, to let the passengers off) and note the newer current "Enterprise Car Rental" DUS airbridge branding, and yes I will miss the long neck giraffes.... but in the sake of progress. More active ground vehicles have also been added and are extensive, but not many are DUS branded, but still the standard X-Plane default (SAS). There has been a lot of changes at DUS since the last scenery release. Most significant is the new C concourse. If you are familiar with the older DUS then the daily A380 service by Emirates used to dock at gate B-03. Now there is a ULA code F three arm airbridge bay at C-02. These new gate assignment changes can affect you another way. I loved the excellent WT3 traffic here at DUS, but it is now outdated... JustSim do provide a full new set of WT3 ground routes and parking defs with the scenery, and they are very good and accommodate all the changes. Control tower view has been adjusted and moved from the earlier positioned wrongly ramp tower on to the main, taller and bigger field tower. The field view is now fine with a great view of all the approaches, however if you look to the west (rear) you will get some structure in the view. Lighting The lighting at EDDL is overall really good and very life-like... all the aprons and ramps are excellent, with great lighting detail... .... but there are a few points to make. Nightime building glass is still from the older style modeling and it shows, but as the glass is now reflective, you get a more certain heightened feel, a few notches down in the texture illumination would have countered this effect.. ... but there are some imaginative ideas that are well done, like this lovely hangar drop lighting and working down on the ramps it a nice place to be. All the lighting is new and more focused (laser like) which works very well for the approach lighting and the runways... ... the blue taxiway line lighting is however a bit strong and then overwhelms even the landing lighting, and really requires a few notches down please! JustSim's EDDL is one of the best for WT3, and part of the main reason I have used it as noted consistently. A wide variety of aircraft use DUS from the huge A380 (Emirates) to the local colour Q400's of Eurowing's fleet. X-Life traffic is also supported. Summary This v2 update to X-Plane11 standards from JustSim has been a long time coming, but it fixes most of the missing active elements that were missing in the original EDDL -Düsseldorf International scenery. PBR - Shading and occlusion creates excellent ground and building effects are now active as is the reflective glass, and wet and reflection effects will now also work. Runway textures are all redone to create a 3d realism effect and the animated custom autogates also are now usable (yippee!) and finally taking away the bland previous static look. New lighting is very, very good, but the taxiway side line lighting are a bit over bright, Gate and building changes at DUS (new Concourse C) are all reflected in the scenery and the required new WT3 grounds are provided as part of the package. negatives are small but night glass is still the older textures and with PBR are a little too bright, and those over bright taxi linage lights. I really like and have used this EDDL -Düsseldorf by JustSim a lot over years, it is a major hub for me, and one of the main benefits are it's central Euro position, light frame rate carriage and extensive WorldTraffic 3 activity, so this v2 fills in a lot of the missing blanks that I had wished for in (active gates and (wet) reflections, so I am extremely happy with this update, if you have the original v1 EDDL -Düsseldorf by JustSim it is only US6 to update to this far better v2... highly recommended. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! EDDL -Düsseldorf International v2 by JustSim is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EDDL -Düsseldorf International v2 Price is US$19.90 Customers of the previous EDDL v1 by JustSim can get this new v2 for only US$6! Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass Animated Autogates with SafeDock System (plugin by Marginal) WT3 - World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance ______________________________________________________________________ Installation Download is 721mb and the scenery package is un-zipped and deposited into your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder Note: if installed the previous version EDDL v1 it is to be removed Total scenery installation is 2.21gb Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum. 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review Version 2.0 (December 9th 2019) Documentation: No manual ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton 19th December 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 11.41r1 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: WorldTraffic3 US$29.95 (recommended) : Environment Engine v1.13 by xEnviro US$69.90 : - Airbus A319 by Toliss (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$69.00
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Scenery Upgrade : LEBL - Barcelona XP11 by JustSim There is sometimes no rhyme or reason of why you are attracted to certain aircraft or sceneries. You just are. And that is surprisingly in the case that the actual scenery chosen doesn't have all the features and dynamics that it really should have. But a few like EDDL - Düsseldorf (also by JustSim), ENGM - Oslo Airport, Gardermoen (Aerosoft) and EGCC - Manchester (the old one from Aerosoft) have all been very prominent in many of our reviews, added into that list is LEBL - Barecelona which is again always an outright choice for any flights to or from Spain... if looking hard there is one common theme amongst all these favoured sceneries and that is they all run the WorldTraffic 3 plugin very well, that maybe the connection, but even then JustSim's LEBL - Barcelona was always a favoured first routing choice of any Mediterranean destination. More interesting is the fact that JustSim's version of LEBL - Barcelona although good out of the box, still had a lot of areas that I would usually rally hard against as not being up to standard, truth be told then LEBL should not have even come close to being listed on my main usage list, but I was willing (why) to use it despite these in some cases high limitations, so there must be something good going on here, and when this new upgraded XP11 version popped up I was really quite excited and hoped that many of the earlier areas of missed features and dynamics had been rectified. I noted at the time "you get the feeling the scenery has been released quickly and before it is finished" as the Christmas (2017) holiday season was the point of the original release. So let us look at the changes in the XP11 version of LEBL. The original review is here: Scenery Review : LEBL Barcelona El Prat by JustSim Outwardly visually there isn't much much difference than the original, in reality it didn't need it either as it was already quite comprehensive, I will note that included and they are situated in these images here are the addon city objects of the Barcelona Skyline 2.1 by marpilot, as they add in a lot and to the feel of the Barcelona city skyline. Terminal One was really well done originally, it thoroughly looked the modern and stylish building it was supposed to represent, no issues with that aspect at all... JustSim note the terminal has been remodelled here, I think it has had improvements, but more to the finishing off stage than any major structure changes, the only physical change as I can see is on Ramp R-15, the covered walkways have been removed and the stands have been rearranged, the ground signage in front of R-15 is now different as well, your old WT3 parking is now out of alignment as well with the new layout. When you arrived at your assigned gate originally it was simply not a great experience, it was then very bland, empty and inactive (below). The XP11 version has fixed pretty well everything in this aspect... .... a huge amount of good clutter has fixed most of these barren areas, and every gate and even around all the aprons there is now a significant amount of clutter but none is BCN branded, but it is still very good. I particularly like the variations of different ground equipment, like all the neoplans (buses) that are different. There are animations now also present as well, it is noted as still a WIP, but there is enough animated vehicle activity to satisfy into bringing in some movements into the work areas. The X-Plane ground service now also works, I rarely use this because I use the JARDesign GHD plugin, but it is an additional feature for those that use the default version. VDGS - Visual Docking Guidance System Another fix is the now inclusion of the VDGS - Visual Docking Guidance System, or animated airbridges. This is the older Marginal version and not the more recent SAM plugin, and for some reason JustSim is not embracing the SAM system over the Marginal version, weird because JustSim usually use the latest ideas and features with their sceneries... One of the biggest LEBL drawbacks has thankfully now been fixed as it was very odd (boring) with those fixed old fashioned airbridges. The feature is very well intergrated into the terminal as well with a similar design and the correct see through glass. Even if they are the older system, these VDGS airbridges are very nice, but some of the pole navigation electronic displays are a little tall, I had to crouch down low in the MD88 to see the display. Terminal 2 west has the VDGS system as well and JustSim noted that the VDGS system is still a WIP... but I tested two airbridges over here and they worked fine, they are of a solid construction in design than the glass airbridges of T1 but look authentic. Like Terminal One in that Terminal 2 was a very empty place, it is now highly active and thankfully more realistic... .... I usually avoided Terminal 2 because of its blandness, but now in this XP11 version it is perfectly active enough for me to come over here, still mostly for LCC use, but that is fine. HDR active All glass in the terminals, buildings and airbridges are now HDR reflective... .... again this is another step forward in making the gates and buildings more realistic and not dull. LEBL - Barcelona now also comes with HDR ground and surface reflections, so if you have a bit of wet weather into the airport, then the effects shine. The lighting effects show off the great textures on the runways, it is really great for any nocturnal flight activities at LEBL, night arrivals and certainly at dawn or dusk were always extremely dramatic. Wet areas around the brightly lit ramps are excellent, it is brilliant down here and to note the excellent wet shine on the empty baggage carts. Tower view has been fixed... yeah. All approaches are now available, rather than an apron, still set slightly too high, but at least it is working... .... you would be surprised how much you missed something as simple as the tower view here. The control tower itself (which is really well done) has acquired a autogen traffic road around its base? and cars appear and move where they shouldn't. Lighting at El Prat was always good, at night and in use the airport is excellent, certainly from any approach or departure aspect. Terminal 1 night-lighting has been redone, but it is still slightly blueish too dark, Terminal 2 however is excellent. The only negatives are the landside terminal approach roads lighting have still not be added, so you get this very dark blank area in front of the terminal, it is an easy fix, but again overlooked. Another overlooked area is on the RWY 25R, even RWY25L and RWY 02 Departures. In the distance the Barcelona dock cranes have always been a great view filler, but also on those approaches there is a very blank area associated with the docks and it is noticeable... ' .... JustSim have added in a few low warehouses, but it is not enough for the large flat area and it creates a flat hole in the scenery and on these northern significant approaches as well. There has been a little added to the custom autogen, but there are still a few noticeable spaces, but overall the custom autogen is very good... add in the default autogen and you get a great visual feast, it is one on of the main reasons I use LEBL - Barcelona so much. Summary I really liked LEBL - Barcelona El Prat airport by JustSim from the very first landing, and even if at the time it had significant missing X-Plane active features, and as I noted at the same time it also felt a little unfinished... but this new upgraded version puts a lot of those missing features right. Terminals, aprons and buildings felt empty (because they were), are now full of great clutter, there has been added in a lot of nice vehicles and general airport ground infrastructure, you certainly don't feel lonely down here anymore and arrivals are far more realistic. VDGS - Visual Docking Guidance Systems on both main terminals is another huge bonus of interaction. More fixes includes animated vehicles (not a lot yet), ground service and a nice variation in all custom vehicles, but they are not BCN branded. X-Plane11's HDR dynamic features are also another great new added in feature here; includes HDR ground textures for wet,rain and lighting reflections, building glass reflections and even to the HDR use on static clutter (baggage trolleys and more) is very good to exceptional. All lighting is very good as well and the "Tower View" is sort of fixed (too high), but still better. Negatives are small, but notable in missing street approach lighting landside Terminal 1 and an empty flat dockland area on the northern approaches Two options are certainly to be considered at this JustSim LEBL. One is the city objects of the Barcelona Skyline 2.1 by marpilot, and the other is Classic Jet Simulations World Traffic 3 - WT3 (World Traffic 3.0). The running of WT3 is excellent here and it all works perfectly with the complex taxiway and runway layouts, WT3 is one of the big attractions to using LEBL. LEBL - Barcelona El Prat airport is in my high rotation of routing, in other words I use this El Prat scenery a lot, use the scenery yourself and you will see why, more so now as most of the niggles have been comprehensively addressed in this XP11 version upgrade, now it will be more addictive than ever, great value, upgrades from the older version is US$5.00 but it is now only for X-Plane11... A simply must have on your European routing network. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! LEBL Barcelona El Prat Airport XP11 by JustSim is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LEBL - Barcelona Airport XP11 Price is US$21.00 Previous owners of JustSim's LEBL-Barcelona (XP10/XP11) version can upgrade for US$5.00 to version XP11 Features: New version optimized for XP11 Custom runway, taxiway and airport lights Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings Manualy placed a lot of autogen buildings High resolution photo scenery near airport and city High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Ground service World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance Animated jetway and airport traffic - work in progress ______________________________________________________________________ Installation The download package is 370.10mb and is 1.08gb when installed as a single folder in your X-Plane "Custom Scenery" Folder. The addition of city objects in the Barcelona Skyline 2.1 by marpilot package is well worth the installation. Marginal AutoGate plugin 1.72 Is required for use of this scenery, install in your X-Plane Resources/Plugin folder This scenery can now be ONLY used in X-Plane11with this XP11 version Documents: None Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac, Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review version: 1.3 (July 2nd 2019) ______________________________________________________________________ Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton 4th July 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 10.45 / Checked install in X-Plane11b6 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe US$14.95 : WorldTraffic3 US$29.95 : Environment Engine v1.10 by xEnviro US$69.90 : AutoGate plugin 1.72 Scenery or Aircraft - McDonnell Douglas MD-80 by Rotate ((Rotate MD-88 - X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$59.95
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Scenery Updated to XP11 : LOWI - Innsbruck Airport by JustSim Last August 2016 X-PlaneReviews announced the release of JustSim's LOWI - Innsbruck Airport for X-Plane (Ten). Now only just a few weeks into 2017 the developer has updated the scenery and added in some X-Plane11 features and compatibility. The original X-Plane release scenery for LOWI - Innsbruck by JustSim was very good, but what just six months can do in changes is staggering. Set in a deep valley in the Austrian Tyrol region, Austria, Innsbruck is a tough airport to fly in or out of. One the mountains create a barrier and worse bad vortexes that make any arrival or departure an adventure. X-Plane11 Autogen Outwardly the scenery looks the same as the original release and actually the basics are not changed, but the biggest immediate visual change is in the switch like at LEMN - Nice (the first converted X-Plane11 scenery from JustSim) to the X-Plane11 feature of regional housing. In the original release in X-Plane10 JustSim used a package of OSM(OpenStreetMap) 3d object scenery to make the city of Innsbruck. (X-Plane10 OSM) Personally I hated it, as OSM 3d scenery is very heavy on the download (here 1.3gb) and it all has a big impact on your frame-rate. It doesn't quite look right either which I think it is out of scale and has some very bright basic textures. But it is my personal choice here. But it was all we had and for running this scenery in X-Plane10, and it is still available to use with that version of this LOWI scenery. (X-Plane11 regional autogen) JustSim for X-Plane11 has reverted to the default regional autogen feature and this is a far better installation and with no frame-rate hit except for the amount of the X-Plane objects in the setting that you would usually use. The difference is striking and extremely visually satisfying and shows how really great X-Plane11 will become with its autogen when these regional packages become a standard issue, for now the German package does fit in well here with Austria. LOWI - Innsbruck Airport The airport is very well modeled and not that changed from the original version, but I find in XP11 that the ground texture are a bit bright. Otherwise the airport and it's buildings are perfect. One key difference in this X-Plane11 version is the use of the reflections feature. Like with the recently updated LEMN - Nice is that all the glass and windows now reflect (mirror), and the differences are excellent, look at the control tower glass for the realism this reflection feature now brings to the simulator. The effects are even better here at LOWI than at LEMN because of the different glass perspectives. Night lighting was exceptional in the release version and just as good here with great picture textures to highlight the internal parts of the buildings, note the great strip lighting on the bottom-right image. The ramps however are good but a bit dark in the twilight and dark, a bit more power and throw would have been nice. LOWI lighting overall is first rate, it all works from the traffic lighting to the new autogen night textures and the airport layout... just perfect. Grass The 3d Alpine grass on the airfield has been completely redone for this version, and a great job it it is as well, as the grass is highly realistic and even pickable for the dinner table. Runway Reflections Another X-Plane11 feature is runway reflections, or rain. The feature does work here at LOWI, but you have to have the almost exact correct conditions to see the effects. But it a great feel visually when it does. Static Aircraft With X-Plane11 you have a lot of options now to use the default built in "static" aircraft feature. The JustSim LOWI ground routes are set up ready to use this feature. Myself personally feels that it needs still a bit more work to be completely feasible. It would be a long ride home to say Toronto or Boston on a Canadian A320 or Delta MD-80 from Innsbruck, so they look very out of place here? And with the odd A.I. aircraft will suddenly go slightly mad on the infield is distracting. My choice is still WorldTraffic for regional awareness and timetabled flights. From sparse mid-day to busy afternoon rush hour the plugin delivers great traffic (Set up ground routes and routes can be found below). JustSim provides some great airport animations and parking marshalls. You don't need the over dynamic built in X-Plane ground services yet as this is perfect. Two items worth noting are: Tower View is a mess! Come on people how hard can it be to adjust the tower view and above the building to see the runways? It is happening far too often lately on payware scenery? Another item is as that Innsbruck is very Alpine and deep into the Alps, and so the chances of snow here is very high. This year I have used the winter textures quite extensively and provided "Winter Textures" with the scenery would be a very nice option here. With "Winter Textures" running it is big hole around LOWI that needs filling? Now X-Plane11 with the addition of the X-Enviro plugin is now creating some really dynamic feel vistas... ... and how great would it be to use this scenery with the actual snow covered textures! Summary This LOWI - Innsbruck Airport scenery is excellent from JustSim, certainly almost perfect in X-Plane11, where as suddenly X-Plane10 already feels old. But LOWI will still run in that scenery if the needs be. I do to a point recommend this updated scenery for X-Plane11 more than X-Plane10, It is fine of course, but the earlier version loads and looks slightly better in that version and the scenery is not recommended for earlier X-Plane versions than v10.50. The original release in the middle of 2016 was very good, but the developments and the features that X-Plane11 provides moves the game along quite significantly, and here all the above new added features show off those features well. It is only six months but with X-Plane11 and its features and the new xEnviro plugin you feel light years away from that moment and the same scenery, The reversion to autogen from osm3d objects has the biggest impact here not too mention your lighter frame-rate, but glass reflections are a huge benefit as well for realism, as is the highly realistic grass. Ramp lighting could be brighter and a tower view would help, but otherwise this scenery is close to perfect. As with JustSim's LFMN-Nice there is a token US$5 upgrade fee to this X-Plane11 version, so check your original LOWI invoice at the X-Plane.OrgStore. and the discount code will be listed in your account on there... it is cup of coffee folks, and it is well worth missing one cup for what you get here. ______________________________________________________________________ The LOWI - Innsbruck Airport XP11 by JustSim is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LOWI - Innsbruck Airport XP11 Price is US$18.00 Note: Previous owners of JustSim's LOWI Innsbruck can buy this new XP11 version for only $5: So check your original LOWI invoice at the X-Plane.OrgStore. the discount code will be listed there in your account. Features New version with support for X-Plane 11 (X-Plane 10 still supported) Compatible with X-Plane 11 ground service Compatible with X-Plane 11 reflections Very detailed rendition of Innsbruck Airport Volumetric ground effect textures New 3D grass Custom runway , taxiway and airport lights Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution photo scenery High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Runway reflection effect Animated Marshallers. (AutoGate plugin by Marginal) Animated custom ground vehicles. (GroundTraffic plugin by Marginal) World Traffic compatible - X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance Requirements: X-Plane 11+ or X-Plane 10.50+ Windows, Mac, Linux - 1.5Gb HD Space Available (download size 1.1Gb) 2GbVRAM Video Card. 3Gb+ VRAM Recommended WorldTraffic ground routes and routes package by letecxplm are available here on the X-Plane.Org: GroundRoutes_LOWI_JustSim 1.0 ______________________________________________________________________ Stephen Dutton 25th January 2017 Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2017 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 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11beta8 / Checked install in X-Plane10.51 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: : Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic US$29.95
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Scenery Preview - LGRP - Rhodes International Airport by JustSim When JustSim released their excellent LCLK - Laranca only six months ago, it felt like it was the far end of the world, or Europe at least, as it was a lonely outpost on Cypress on the far eastern end of the Mediterranean. But that far away point is now not so isolated in flying terms. A flurry of excellent sceneries have now filled in the void, including LTAI - Antalya International Airport again by JustSim, Chios Island National Airport by Descent2View and of course Corfu with FlyCorfu XP by FlyTampa... you can also add in a few freeware sceneries for more routing out here, but going or crossing these areas of Greece has now become a busy pastime... now JustSim have added in another very desirable destination with LGRP - Rhodes or as it is known locally as Diagoras International Airport. Obviously you had to connect JustSim's LCLK - Laranca to their newer LGRP Rhodes as it is only a 300 nm hop from one airport to the other... ... basically it is only an hour's flying time, but who would not miss that perfect flying day and in that Cobalt blue sky (pun intended), the ToLiSS319 also helped things along enormously. Approach is into RWY25 from the East and there is something about this area in X-Plane11 that brings out the best in the scenery, the light and the soft mist on the mountains. This approach path takes you over the port of Rhodes itself and the harbour. There is a mix here of (German) autogen and custom local buildings, and they all well meld into each other well (more on this later) LGRP - Rhodes (Diagoras) International Airport Rhodes International Airport "Diagoras" Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Ρόδος "Διαγόρας" IATA: RHO - ICAO: LGRP 07/25 - 3,305m (10,844ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL6 m/19 ft Rhodes (Diagoras) International Airport is situated on the north side of the island of Rhodes in Greece. The facility is located just north of the village Paradeisi (really the airport is in or part of Paradeisi), and about 14 km southwest of the capital city, Rodos. Interestingly is that the airport is open to the sea to the north and hemmed in by a hillside to the south. First impressions are impressive, this is a JustSim scenery after all as you know what to expect in good modelling detail and excellent blending in with the custom to default mesh and textures. The blending in is even better here as the hillside is very lush with vegetation, fauna, custom trees and bushes. As noted there are custom buildings to compliment the autogen as JustSim usually do provide a little local flavor to their sceneries and don't restrict the scenery just to the airport, in this case it covers the village of Paradeisi, which basically surrounds the whole airport to the east and west. JustSim have been smart in not making their custom buildings completely Greek, in say white, white. but a sort of mid-way but still custom. This does blend in well with the German autogen although you can still tell the difference in the different areas, but it not as bad a it really could have been. In other words it all works very well as a complete scenario from the air on both approach paths. The german autogen however is more noticeable in the Rodos city itself and the lack of local colour and port facilties. Where as Rhodes should be Greek Classic white, it looks more of an Italian port than Greek. This is where FlyTampa gave the Corfu scenery a boost in covering this city area as well as the airport itself in the same feel and architectural design, it also highlights the limitations of Laminar Research's current situation with regional autogen, as white Greek/Turkish Mediterranean default autogen should be now a no brainer and available for X-Plane these days. Another small oddity is the none development by JustSim of the airport LGRD - Martisa which is positioned (arrowed) only just behind the same hill that covers LGRP... ... It is highly visible, but it only required a few buildings and a few bits and pieces to make it a great GA viable alternative to LGRP? Instead it is a wasted blank area in the middle of the scenery? LRGP - Diagoras The airport layout is one large apron and remote stands, and no airbridges. Stands cover 1 to 7 in front of the terminal with semi-circle parking and stands 8 to 14 are set in a line farther out. Stand 10 covers the entrance to Taxiway B, so don't depart the runway there! and stand 14 is a large stand that is noted to cater for a wide-body ICAO category E and F (65m (213.3') - 80m (262.5'); 14m (45.9') - 16m (52.5') or Boeing 747 size. Terminal The single terminal is impressive, if an odd colour that does not translate well. The terminal construction and materials/textures are excellent with the well done lighting ramp towers. Airside detail is excellent with walk-on ramps from the terminal down to the apron, clutter ramp detailing is also top notch. There is a huge amount of animated vehicles that are mostly baggage carts and maybe to many, and to the point you have to be careful taxiing around the ramp and not squashing one or two of them, but there is a huge amount of activity to be had. Landside is as good and if not better than Airside. Loads of people, taxi's, buses and god knows what else creates a dynamic environment. Only odd thing is the colour of the roads and carparks, which are more green and grass like than the required asphalt grey/dark roadway, it tends not to blend in more than it should? High view down on Diagoras is complimented by the high positioned (PARADISI - 108.6 PAR) DME navigation aid, not to be confused with the close by (RODOS 115.8 RDS) Nav-Aid for LGRD - Martisa. Note the great view over the Aegean Sea and the coastline is Turkey. Control Tower The tower is on the west side of the terminal and connected to the terminal. Detail and the all important tower glass is excellent, it is a nice great reconstruction... The tower view of the approaches by Just Sim is not set (Again!). Ground clutter is excellent and fully detailed, I particularly love the jet blast screens, they look great. The Terminal approach roads have associated businesses... ... garages, car rental... usual stuff but well done. Most areas however are not set to the OSM (Open Street Map) settings, so buildings, trees and signage cover roads and are set out in areas that they really shouldn't be in, it makes the scenery quite messy and not authentic in areas, a bit more time in laying out these items would have made it far better, it feels rushed? Ground textures Runway and taxiway surface textures are excellent, and highly realistic with tar, cracks and general repair work visible, Apron square concrete textures are very authentic... .... grass is 3d and excellent, although in parts the navigation signs are covered with grass, but then this is Greece! Water is also blended in well to the ground textures for that nice shallow water feel. Runway textures are reflective in the right wet conditions, and looks excellent if you land late in the day. Lighting JustSim's LGRP has great lighting... ... approach lighting is very good from both directions, but it is slightly better from the east. All taxiway lighting have no centreline (green) markings as per most airports in Greece, so you will need the aircraft side turn lighting to find your way to or from the terminal area. Apron lighting is very good, but only on the terminal side, as if you get to park on the outer stands then you are sitting in the darkness. Debatable is the reflective blue terminal glass, as many people won't like it, but I really liked it a lot, and for me it works very well with the contrasting control tower base lighting. All landside lighting is very good as well, as all areas are covered including carparks, terminal approach lighting, and general areas. Apron lighting stands 1 to 7 and 14 are great and well lit working areas and any arrival here after dark is very impressive. Exceptional is the custom building lighting, windows at night are not those ugly grey rectangles, but ar eas good as the quality autogen lighting, so they all blend in well together. I have wondered ( and complained) why it is so hard not to do good custom building lighting? If you get it right as it is here it make a huge difference to the approaches and also to the quality of the night environment. Overall the lighting is excellent. Preview Notes: JustSim again really deliver, as LGRP is great scenery at an unbelievable price, and like all JustSim sceneries which are not ultra high detailed scenery, but you do always get the latest in X-Plane dynamic features (like reflective glass), great lighting, lots of animated items like ground traffic and wet surfaces and the modeling is usually of a very high quality... and they just deliver. The experience is full, from the approach (at night it is brilliant) to the quality aprons and with surrounding clutter and detail and the X-Plane11 dynamics, LGRP - Rhodes well worth the investment and a worthwhile companion to LCLK - Laranca and JustSim's other local airport in LTAI - Antalya... highly recommended. Features noted are: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Animated ground vehicles (X-Plane 11 only) Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are provided ready to be included with the scenery. Overall the airport functions perfectly fine in giving you that full running airport and full traffic activity. And the aircraft will also loop to the correct stand parking position. A few private jets take up stands that they shouldn't do, but otherwise it is full marks. Positives: Mostly everything, lighting is excellent, texture and building design is first rate and all with excellent clutter and traffic animations. Excellent value. Negatives: Rodos City and Port would have been a nice addition, even for a higher purchase price. Tower View is not really usable (again), buildings and trees are not aligned to OSM layouts, so roads are full of trees and part buildings. Landside terminal roads and carparks are the wrong colour (very light green?).... and why wasn't close by LGRD - Martisa airport added into to the scenery? ____________________________________________________________________ Yes!... LGRP - Rhodes International Airport by JustSim is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LGRP - Rhodes International Airport Price is US$17.20 Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review version: 1.0 (September 26th 2018) Extras and Documents: - Optional ORTHO4XP Custom DEM - RAW files - WorldTraffic3 Ground Routes and /Parking Def's - Install pdf ______________________________________________________________________ Preview by Stephen Dutton 12th October 2018 Copyright©2018 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview 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 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.25 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free Scenery or Aircraft - ToLiSS319 (A319) by ToLiSS (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$69.00
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Scenery Review : LEBL Barcelona El Prat by JustSim As cities go, then Barcelona on the North-Eastern coast of Spain has almost everything. History, cultural diversity, iconic buildings and even its own strong separatist tradition in language as the local dialect is Catalan and it is the sixth-most populous urban area in Europe. It's place on the Balearic Sea gives you a very wide selection of services, not only to anywhere for in Europe, but all of the Mediterranean countries that are very easily accessible and North Africa is well within reach as well for most narrow-body services. Spain was quite devoid of good quality scenery only not too long ago. But today there is now plenty of choice for domestic services but the best is still mostly on the eastern coast side. But LEVC - Valencia Manises by DAI Media is first rate as is LEXJ - Santander and LEZL - Seville Airport by tdg. There is a LEPA - Mallorca and Pilot+Plus's LEIB Ibiza and a great small airport in Soria Garray. But the best combination is with JustSim's excellent (now updated to X-Plane11) LFMN - Nice with their new scenery here which is LEBL - El Prat airport Barcelona. First impressions My approach was from the north or flying in by Southern France over the Pyrénées Catalanes range. The aircraft is Rotate's MD-88 and I have the xEnviro weather plugin running to create the realistic weather conditions. Once you clear the range you pick up the STAR/RNAV "ALBER" via "Gerona 114.10 GIR" for approach to RWY25R. I have the winter textures installed and as winter in Spain is not a natural usual occurrence, but this year it is and they have had even snow in Southern Greece, and so I am vindicated. The heavy low level cloud is making it hard to find the runway, time to trust my instruments. The entrance into Barcelona is picturesque. Helping in the view is that there are a lot of available objects to enhance the scenery and one of the best is Barcelona Skyline 2.1 by marpilot. This loads in a lot of Barcelona icon buildings that make up the scenery, as well JustSim adds in quite a few of their own, and the most impressive are the main loading cranes on the docks directly in line of your northern arrival path. The cranes are a great visual view to the direction of the airport because most arrival routes tend to come in on a slight angle along the coast, in most cases you do a slight right turn to finals on the approaches RWY25L and RWY25R and for most of the arrival sequence the airport is quite hard to focus on... then it is suddenly right there and right on your nose. This arrival was tricky in this service as well with a bad 19knt crosswind, so I crabbed all the way down to the threshold. Runway layout is interesting with two runways in 07L/25R and 07R/25L being situated almost north-south, but the third 02/20 is a cross runway that crosses 07L/25R and in operations on either runway you have to aware of any traffic using the other live runway. The older terminal two is on the right with a 25R approach and is now mostly abandoned today except for a few LCC's (Low Cost Carriers). The bulk of the traffic uses the newer Terminal One that opened in 2009. Lighting is excellent on the ramps at Terminal One. And the view from the cockpit was excellent, however the terminal's window lighting was quite subdued and very dark, and should have been brighter even in this light dusk light. And so it all looked like the outside lights are on, but no one is home. Taxiway E3 took me to the south side of T1 and my gate at stand 256. Opposite both sides of the terminal one's 60 main jetway gates there are plenty of remote stand parking areas, but none of the jetways are yet animated but noted by JustSim that the feature is coming, ditto for ground traffic animations as well that was noted as a "work in progress". Again in stopping at the gate there was the constant feeling of that no one was home. Overall though I found the arrival very good both visually and atmospheric as the terminal design work and external lighting was very well done. ________________________________________________ Barcelona El Prat Airport IATA: BCN - ICAO: LEBL 07L/25R 3,743, (12,281ft) Asphalt concrete 07R/25L 2,660 (8,727ft) Asphalt concrete 02/20 2,528 (8,293ft) Asphalt concrete Elevation AMSL14 ft / 4 m Overview LEBL intergrates really well into the X-Plane landscape, there are no tell tale boundaries except a slight one on the far south-west and the traffic/roads system goes well into the airport as well from the same south-west, from a visual point of view LEBL is perfect. The port area make a significant difference to the scenery as noted on the approach phase above. It an area full of cranes and storage tanks, but well done. The north-west boundary is the older part of El Prat, with the original airport areas... so we will start there. Terminal 2 Ignore everything the other side of RWY 07L/25R and you would have a pretty good idea of what El Prat looked like forty years ago. Top north is the large well modeled Iberian maintenance hangar with in front a lot of remote GA and private jet ramp parking available. Centre field is a fire station and the old control tower and terminal and now administration buildings. A big point of this scenery is the ground markings and layout is exceptional, all the complex (and it is very complex) taxiway designations are very well noted and signed, you will still need a ground map to work the ATC correctly, but the signage helps a long way in finding your way around. Ground textures are excellent with great variations in detail and the many different surfaces, and note the excellent 3d grass centre The old original terminal is now split into three Terminal 2A, 2B and 2C and currently Terminal 2A is unused. Terminal 2C is used only by Easyjet and Easyjet Switzerland flights, with flights to the UK using module M0, whilst flights to the rest of Europe use module M1. Terminal 2B the oldest terminal dating back to 1968 is mostly used by Ryanair and others like Transavia. And T2A is adapted for large aircraft such as Boeing 777. The terminal is again also split into Modules, where flights to schengen destinations use Module U and flights to non-schengen destinations use Modules W and Y.... got all that? The terminals are well modeled, if a lot unused. Far north-west is a large cargo area with a huge amount of ramp space. There are a few objects lying around but overall it is empty, It is however a good cargo zone to use. Control Tower To the east there is an excellent radar installation and the stylish modern control tower. Detail is first rate and the tower can be seen all over the scenery because of its position. But the tower view setting is not done, so your view is somewhere over on the ground in the cargo area? not very good for a scenery of this class and the sad missed opportunity of a great view of both the 07L/25R and 02/20 crossed runways. Terminal One The stylish Terminal One was opened in June 2009. It is the fifth largest in the world. It has 45 new airbridges that are expandable up to 60 parking gates. This terminal is also capable to embrace large aircraft like the Airbus A380-800 or Boeing 747-8I. Terminal One handles both Schengen and non-Schengen flights. It is split into 5 Modules with Module A handling flights to Madrid, Module B handling Schengen flights, Module C handling Air Nostrum flights, Module D handling non-Schengen European flights and Module E handling non-Schengen non-European flights. A note on the Barcelona to Madrid airbridge, which was one of the most busiest in the world. Started on 4th November 1970, Iberia began the "Air-shuttle" service between Barcelona and Madrid-Barajas. This Barcelona–Madrid air shuttle service is known as the "Puente Aereo" (in Spanish), or "Pont Aeri" (in Catalan) or literally "Air Bridge", and was the world's busiest route until 2008, with the highest number of flight operations (971 per week) in 2007. A few years later, in 1976, a terminal (next to Terminal Two as noted above) was built specifically for Iberia's air-shuttle service. Now it runs out of Terminal One. El Prat's Terminal One was always going to be the central focus of this scenery, and it doesn't disappoint on that level here. It is very well modeled and the glass looks better in the daylight than at night, however it will be interesting to see if JustSim upgrades the glass here with X-Plane11 reflections like they did just recently with their LFMN - Nice scenery. It would certainly add a bit more depth to the textures and make it more realistic again. Airbridges are excellent but none are currently moving, as noted animated jetways are coming. Landside is good with great X-Plane traffic running right into the airport, even if it does come out of a few buildings? The intergration of the 3d terminal ramps into the default roads are clumsy, not aligned and are a different colour and that makes them stand out, and with no animation either makes them also empty. Static Aircraft Using the LEBL - Barcelona scenery from JustSim can be a lonely affair. JustSim don't provide any static aircraft with their sceneries and that is highly noticeable here at El Prat as for it's sheer size. So you can hit the overlay editor to add in a few aircraft or use the utilities of either X-Life from JARDesign or WorldTraffic from CJS. I used WorldTraffic and it worked very well in filling out all those empty open spaces. There isn't any specific ground routes but there is a LEBL pack as part of the "Catalonia Airports" package. But you are going have to edit (cull) a few ground routes as every gate is full, and there is a huge list of 1140! ground routes and that is in "Arrival" only? A tip to cull a few spaces is Gate 256 - take out all runways routes listed as "02-1378" for gate 226 all "02-1363" and for gate 242 delete all "02-1371" files in both Arrival and Departure folders and that trick just saved you 4 hours work. JustSim do note that the WorldTraffic ground routes have been done, but I think they are confusing that with the X-Plane built in ground routes as WT routes have to be supplied and installed directly in WorldTraffic (they go into the WorldTraffic Ground routes folder), and here they have not been added into the package for installment. Night Lighting Best to time your arrival in Barcelona for the dusk period as the lighting is effective and visually exciting. LEBL - Barcelona looks great at night as does the city itself. Runways and taxiways are well lit on approach and on the ground and you get the better highlights of the extra provided 3d object buildings to the north-east of the airport. As noted in first impressions the ramp and apron lighting is excellent, but the glass is a bit dull on T1, but better on T2 of where it is wasted. Services Domestically Vueling dominates El Prat, with the flag carrier Iberia well down the order in 7th. Most carriers are LCC, but the British, German and French Flag carriers do most of the European uplifting. 1. Vueling -15,912,302 : Europe, Africa, Asia 2. Ryanair - 6,785,995 : Europe, Africa 3. EasyJet - 2,799,947 : Europe 4. Lufthansa - 1,407,346 : Germany (Munich and Frankfurt) 5. Air Europa - 1,283,721 : Europe 6. Norwegian Air International - 1,240,280 : Europe, (future U.S.) 7. Iberia - 1,184,660 : Spain 8. British Airways - 829,335 : Great Britain (London) 9. Air France - 739,442 : France (Paris) 10. Wizz Air - 651,098 : Europe International Top 10 international routes note the British love their Spanish holidays, as most routes are for Tour operators and LLC operations. Emirates (Dubai), Aeroflot and American Airlines Delta and American are the only few long haul users. 1. London Gatwick - 1.364.620 : British Airways, EasyJet, Monarch Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Vueling 2. Amsterdam Schiphol - 1.241.129 : KLM, Transavia, Vueling 3. Paris Charles de Gaulle - 1.235.888 : Air France, EasyJet, Vueling 4. Rome Fiumicino - 1.227.988 : Alitalia, Ryanair, Vueling 5. Frankfurt International - 1.030.604 : Lufthansa, Vueling 6. Paris Orly - 982.125 : Transavia, Vueling 7. Brussels National - 841.374 : Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, Vueling 8. Munich F.J.Strauss - 766.960 : Lufthansa, Vueling 9. London Heathrow - 701.905 : British Airways, Vueling 10. Milan Malpensa - 660.880 : EasyJet, Vueling Summary With a lot of the scenery that we cover here at X-PlaneReviews. it is becoming more and more prevalent lately in the fact you get the feeling the scenery has been released quickly and before it is finished, and you get that feeling here with this JustSim El Prat version. Maybe it was to catch in with that Christmas or holiday sales season, but that is not a great business plan overall. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the LEBL scenery as it is, and it is fully usable. But for the sake of a few weeks or a month to tidy up the edges and complete the whole package is not going to change the bank balance that much. No animated gates and vehicle animation is noticeable, Checking that the tower view is correct, more ground servicing equipment, a manual that is missing, no charts and so on, not big things and all supposedly coming down the line... but it is still important when delivering something that is supposed to be fully completed, not that this aspect is not the usual practice in aircraft, but you do expect it in scenery. The glass on Terminal One needs another look, it needs to be more alive at night than a blank dark tint, and a great advance would be to make really sure that if you don't want to supply static aircraft then supply the tools to run the airport as a live entity anyway (Certainly X-Plane11 will change that aspect with better static aircraft tools). Most really good sceneries are important for the reason that has nothing to do with their design and visual appeal. Position, position, position is the hotel's mantra and so it is with a great airport scenery. But in X-Plane position is no good if you can't use the scenery to get the total effect of arriving and being in that place. But with LEBL - Barcelona you certainly get everything in here that you require and with also the great position to use with most services from Europe and Mediterranean countries. So the overall scenery is excellent and well developed as well and there is no doubt that LEBL will certainly play a big part in my X-Plane network in the future, so as an investment LEBL is top notch. I personally really like JustSim's sceneries, they deliver a lot of value and here at El Prat you certainly get that, but just tidy up the rest of the to do list before releasing next time. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! LEBL Barcelona El Prat Airport by JustSim is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LEBL - Barcelona Airport Price is US$21.00 Features: Custom runway, taxiway and airport lights Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings Manualy placed a lot of autogen buildings High resolution photo scenery near airport and city High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance Animated jetway and airport traffic - work in progress ______________________________________________________________________ Installation The download package is 639.10mb and is 928.80 when installed as a single folder in your X-Plane "Custom Scenery" Folder. The addition of city objects in the Barcelona Skyline 2.1 by marpilot package is well worth the installation. This scenery can be used in both X-Plane10 and X-Plane11, however the X-Plane features at this point in time are not shown. Documents: None Requirements : X-Plane 10.50+ or X-Plane 11+ Windows, Mac, Linux 2Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current Version: 1.1 (last updated Dec 26th 2016) ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 18th January 2017 Copyright©2017: 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 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45 / Checked install in X-Plane11b6 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe US$14.95 : WorldTraffic US$29.95 : Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 Scenery or Aircraft - McDonnell Douglas MD-80 by Rotate ((Rotate MD-88 - X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$59.95
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News! - Scenery Release : LGRP - Rhodes International Airport by JustSim Scenery from JustSim has been quiet lately, but it looks like they are going to quickly make up for it. First off the ranks for X-Plane11 and is now available is LGRP - Rhodes International Airport, or as it is known as "Diagoras" or Diagoras International Airport (LGRP), which is located on the West side of the island of Rhodes in Greece. Features: Detailed airport objects and vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways and apron Custom surroundings Custom airport lights Compatible with X-Plane 11 features Animated ground vehicles (X-Plane 11 only) Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Excellent night effects Realistic reflections on glass World Traffic compatible X-Life traffic compatible Optimized for excellent performance Now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore... JustSim have also noted that the next scenery release for X-Plane11 is EBBR - Brussels, noted as to be released in two to three days, or the weekend. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the LGRP - Rhodes International Airport by JustSim is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LGRP - Rhodes International Airport Price is US$17.20 Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 (September 26th 2018) ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 27th September 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
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Preview: LTAI - Antalya International Airport by JustSim Turkey was always off the aviation radar, mostly because the country was the join between east and west, but also because it was very political, and it still is. But Turkey is quickly in this second decade of the 2000's becoming a very major player in world aviation, as the investment in Istanbul's new mega airport called ironically enough "Istanbul New Airport" is of a scale of that the country means business and is due to open late 2018. And the growth of Turkish Airlines is staggering as well with mostly the expansion of the international fleet to go for more one-stop journeys between the USA and hard-to-reach destinations in Africa, the Middle East, and India. But the real purpose of all this expansion is to take on the Middle-East carriers and their east-west world connections, in a few years that route through currently Dubai or Abu Dhabi will be also running through Istanbul with connections to any ongoing destination in Europe, Africa but more importantly the opening up of the central markets of far west