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Scenery Review : LSGG - Geneva Airport by Pilot+Plus If there is a totally neutral city in the world then Geneva in Switzerland has to be the place. Want to sort out an armed conflict or base yourself somewhere non-political then this French-Swiss city is your place to be. Very European, very Swiss, very French. So then Geneva is a multi national home to the world. Nestled at the western end of the European Alps, the city has a glorious backdrop in which to soak up the atmosphere and now you can fly here to savior all the delights of the area with the release of Pilot+Plus's new scenery in LSGG - Geneva Airport. First Impressions Geneva is situated on the French-Swiss border in Western Europe. So the city is very accessible and central from all points around any of the major European, Northern Europe and Mediterranean ports. My entrance is flying Swiss FL359 which is from the UK in EGLL (Heathow) to LSGG (Geneva) and my equipment is the excellent JARDesign A320neo. Flying distance is short at around 2.5 hours and my arrival route from the north is via the STAR DIJON. This arrival route is interesting and you have to be on your best flying abilities to execute it perfectly. This route is also a great entrance to the airport from a visual point of view. You pick up DIJON (111.45 DJL) and you then fly directly towards Geneva Airport. First to note is your height has to be totally correct, too high and you will run out of distance for landing and tight turns, too low and... well you will crash into the ground. With LSGG directly in front of you pass over the Haute Chaîne du Jura, and do a sharp left at waypoint SOVAD to put you into a long circuit to land on RWY23. Cloud cover meant that I could just see the airport slightly through the clouds, but then coming in under the cloud cover you see that the distance between you and the ground is not that far and the Jura ranges are just too your immediate right. So dropping height and slowing to manoeuvring speed is critical to get it right in the transition to go around this circuit correctly. At waypoint GG512 you make a sharp 90º at below 220kts to ST PREX (113.90 SPR) VOR (7000ft) that is situated right central of Lake Geneva and then here you do a final sharp 90º directly back towards LSGG. Your work load is high but the route is very spectacular (if you get the chance to look outside at the view). You then ride right down the centre of Lake Geneva and directly into RWY23. Geneva Airport is situated on the border of France (north) and Switzerland (south), and so on arrival you can see both countries if you look left or right and the dividing line is right down your flightpath in. Pilot+Plus really likes his trees, and it is no exception here. With the X-Plane default trees settings set high it gives you a great coverage and excellent balance between the two elements of custom and default trees and the airport sits snugly with perfect boundaries within your X-Plane landscape. A small note on the trees is that they textures thrash a bit which is a little distracting. Underlying ground textures are very good, but are bit fuzzy close up even at high settings and are just over the line as passable. LSGG is circuited well with traffic, and the approach is excellent with (Motorway E62) heavy loaded with high set traffic and their movements around your approach viewpoints. Landing from the east puts all the main airport and aprons to your left (south) and just the small GA and private jet area called "North Apron" to your right. LGSS has one major runway in 05/23 (3,900m - 12,795ft) and a smaller grass runway in 05L/23R (823m - 2700ft). Another duplicate major runway is planned but on hold. Runway textures are excellent and well worn, directional signage is also first rate, but no grass features. Main south apron is long and only one taxiway lane for arrivals and departures. East hangars and ramps are called "Compass Base", Airpark and Grand Hangar and further along in the main terminal area there are two terminals in first the older T2 and then the main central T1 "M" terminal and the three central ramp circular remote (satellite?) terminals (unusual). Satellite terminals are noted via their gate numbers (20 - 30 - 40) and I was assigned Gate 42 on the far eastern circular terminal. Turning around in between the remote terminals is quite tight (certainly in a A330 or larger) so you have to follow the internal lines quite perfectly. The scenery comes with the excellent (Marginal) animated Jetways and they are really good and well created here. Only small issue is that with the circular nature of these satellite terminals there is no marshall or gateway guidance? (Gateway guidance is available on all other terminal gates). So it is a bit hit and miss to line up the aircraft doors to the boarding arms on the satellite terminal ramps? Pilot+Plus has noted they are going to mark the ramps in an update with aircraft parking markers to help in with the alignment. Parked at Gate 42 (numbered actually 41?) you can unleash the excellent addon JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin and a Swissport livery makes your arrival very authentic... One small note here is all the static aircraft have been created by Pilot+Plus themselves. This is because of the lack of static aircraft available to developers, OpenSceneryX is the usual provider, but lately their aircraft modeling are starting to look very old and outdated. No problems for freeware, but developers are in a bind with payware aircraft. I have promoted a library just for scenery developers to pay a fee and get access to high quality static objects (Aircraft) and don't cross the copyright boundaries. So developers have to currently get around this by creating their own static aircraft, and I don't think it has been very successful here, they look great at a distance but are quite average close up. Overall my Geneva Airport arrival experience was excellent, very realistic and very Swiss. The Alpine backdrop and the challenging arrival route gives you a thoroughly authentic feel to the scenery. Geneva Airport (Cointrin) Geneva Airport IATA: GVA – ICAO: LSGG 05/23 3,900m (12,795ft) Concrete 05L/23R 823m (2,700ft) Grass/Earth Elevation AMSL 430 m/1,411 ft Geneva airport was created in 1919 as a simple field in Cointrin, near the city of Geneva. From 1926 to 1931, the wooden sheds were replaced by three concrete ones. At the time, there was a small amount of air traffic, with Lufthansa flying from Berlin to Barcelona via Halle, Leipzig, Geneva and Marseille. Swissair also flew the Geneva-Lyon-Paris route in a codeshare with Air Union. In 1930 there were six airlines that flew to Geneva Airport, flying seven different routes. In 1937 the first concrete runway was built; it measured 405 by 21 m (1,329 by 69 ft). In 1938 eight airlines were flying to Geneva: Swissair, KLM, Lufthansa, Air France, Malert (Hungary), AB Aerotransport (Sweden), Alpar (Switzerland) and Imperial Airways (UK). During World War 2 the Swiss authorities forbade all flights from Switzerland. In 1945, the runway was enlarged to 1,200 m (3,900 ft), and the authorities agreed to a 2.3M project to build a first terminal in Geneva. In 1946 the new terminal - which is today used as Terminal 2 - was ready for use, and the runway was enlarged once more to 2000 m. In 1947 the first service to New York started with a Swissair Douglas DC-4. On July 17, 1959, the first jet aircraft landed in Geneva, an SAS Caravelle, and it was followed, 11 years later, by a TWA Boeing 747which landed in 1970. In 1960 the runway was extended to its current length of 3,900 m (12,800 ft). This is unusually long for an airport of this size, and could only be built after some territory was exchanged between France and Switzerland. In 1968 the construction of a second runway and a mid-field round terminal were proposed, but ultimately the concept was never realised. On May 7, 1968, Geneva Main Terminal was inaugurated, which was planned to accommodate 7 million passengers a year. This number was reached in 1985. Since then, a number of changes to the airport have been made. Two of the three in-field terminals have been upgraded with jet bridges, and a new terminal has been built in front of the main terminal with 12 jet bridges, plus two ground floor gates. (wikipiedia) Overview Scenery looks very good visually, well set out in the X-Plane environment. Default autogen fits in perfectly with the modeled buildings. There is some nice Geneva additions with marina and sailboats and the iconic water fountain. Terminals There are two terminals at Geneva Airport. Confusingly T2 (Terminal 2) was the old original T1 Cointrin terminal which was built in 1946 and that has since been virtually abandoned and only budget carriers (Easyjet) and seasonal airlines use it and even they turn their noses up at it. Passengers are only checked-in at this terminal, and then sent to the main terminal by a low floor bus (Neoplan). It is part of the airport's catering (rear) buildings as well. There are six hard stands in front and four remote stands. T1: Terminal 1 is even more confusing, as besides the standard Swiss gates there are French gates, but the French access gates were converted to Schengen Areas (free pass borders) in 2008. The central terminal (known as (M) for "Main") has two long piers more recently built on to its east and west sides (more north-east and south-west) There is some really fine work in this scenery but this top section of the terminal is not one of them. It looks old, with no definition or quality depth and the textures and glass reflections are bland and unfortunately it is bang square in the middle of the airport. More weird is the lower parts of the terminal on the landside arrivals point of view are very good with excellent textures? So it does not balance and it just does not look right. As noted the landside of T1 is very good, very well modeled with great airport signage. Throughout the airport Pilot+Plus has well stocked the areas with vehicle and ramp objects, P+P are well noted for this (EGGD Bristol was excellent) and they don't disappoint here. But no airport vehicle animations which is surprising as again Bristol was very good there. Underlay images are also a bit stretched and not as sharp as they could be, very Aerosoft scenery in design in this aspect. Gates 1 - 12 are catered for by the south-west pier and the central "M" terminal. All gates and fully animated jetways are well done, well modeled with good window textures. All gates have excellent ramp objects and equipment. North-east pier C has three gates with jetways and ten remote hard stands. Notable these gates are for widebody aircraft, and future changes will add more gates here with a single A380 category F assigned gate. The biggest feature in choice of gate parking has to be the three remote satellite terminals. A and B are noted but they are mostly referred to by their gate numbers in 20 - 30 - 40. Satellite terminal 20 has no boarding jetways and is a ramp walk on/walk off facility, and so great for regional services (Dash Q400-CRJ-200...) there are 8 stands. Satellite terminals 30 and 40 have four jetways each, and are the pick of choice for arrival. All three remote terminals are well reproduced, very detailed and very authentic when used. Cargo Geneva Airport is in a big strategic position for cargo. Not only for the Swiss territories but also the close by French areas as well, and so it has a significant cargo hub based here. The three parking points in front of the main cargo warehouse is actually restricted to smaller aircraft (or one very large one). The best area to park up a widebody cargo aircraft is in front (three large and one small) stands of the airport's services facilities area. The airport's main multi-use maintenance area is to far right south-west with the noted "Airpark" and "Grand Hangar". Central adjacent to the original T1 Cointrin terminal is the iconic Geneva control tower. Very well recreated, it is certainly a notable presence on the ramps. Textures are slightly dull and he windows have little life, but overall it is very good. Tower view is excellent (below) with unrestricted views over both approach paths and ramp areas. North Apron There is significant private jet and general aviation parking on the "North Apron". Situated over the other side of the airport's commercial area as you don't have mix in with the heavy traffic to get in and out of LSGG. Plenty of space for parking and a great reception building and hangars. Palexpo and Geneva Arena The Geneva airport is unusual in that a significant proportion of the north-eastern side is allocated to not aircraft and airline related infrastructure, but also exhibition and convention space in the Palexpo and Geneva Arena complexes. These huge spaces host car shows, rock concerts and huge conventions throughout the year. All of these huge halls have been faithfully reproduced, and great design work on the facades of the Geneva Arena. The end of the Palexpo building has a small texture thrash but otherwise it is a very good design of a significant aspect of the airport. The old Swissair administration building is also well reproduced as is the underground SBB/CFF rail station building. The two large "World Trade" buildings are also well represented as is all the smaller airport infrastructure from administration buildings, car rentals, large carparks and fuel depot. The aspects of the E62 Motorway that passes through a section of the Palexpo exhibition centre and runs directly along the boundary of the airport is also very well conceived. This is a very important fixture of the airport's visual environment with those significant huge electricity pylons dominating the landscape and the view. Airport and surrounding areas nightlighting There is a fair amount of autogen around Geneva Airport. The good is that it looks brilliant at night on approach, the bad is that it can give you a big frame rate hit on slower computers. But overall the visual views in landing and the airport approach lighting is excellent as is the runway directional signage. Overall airport lighting is excellent as per Pilot+Plus. However a few textures come across as early Flight Sim, bland and one colour. Where it is good though it is very good like around the landside Terminal 1 entrances, landside signage is excellent. Ramp lighting is perfect, well spaced and very usable on the ground, any aircraft looks great under the lights. Services Geneva is pretty well central to anywhere as major European, Northern Europe and Mediterranean ports are within easy reach. US, Russia, Middle East (including Dubai/Doha) and major seasonal traffic are also heavy traffic areas. Most European airlines are operators to LSGG. Top routes: 1 London - (Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, City Airport, Stansted, Southend) - 1,197,674 2 Paris - (Orly, Charles de Gaulle) - 488,496 3 Amsterdam - 320,538 4 Brussels - 280,609 5 Lisbon - 253,841 6 Madrid - 252,852 7 Porto - 244,913 8 Zurich - 239,363 9 Barcelona - 236,844 10 Nice - 205,918 11 Frankfurt - 189,053 12 Rome - 175,373 13 Edinburgh - 153,766 14 Moscow (Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo) - 150,835 15 Copenhagen - 138,291 Cargo DHL - AviationBrussels, Leipzig/Halle TNT - AirwaysBasel/Mulhouse, Liège UPS - Airlines operated by ASL Airlines SwitzerlandBasel/Mulhouse, Cologne/Bonn Summary LSGG - Geneva Airport was a big ambitious project and a major step up for Pilot+Plus from their more regional airports in EGHI - Southampton and EGGD - Bristol... both excellent sceneries. It is a complicated scenery as well. Because it is not just an airport environment here but the scenery also has significant exhibition and convention space attached as well with the added interweaving complex traffic and roadways that circle the airport and they also come well within its boundaries. Get it all to work as it does here and you have a really great scenery. Negatives are few, but some building textures are not as deep or as a good quality as the rest, so there is a mixture of texture quality. The actual amount is small, but are in unfortunately highly visible areas that distract your viewpoint (upper T1, control tower and the Trade Centre at night are standouts). The underlaying ground textures are also of average (stretched) quality. The static aircraft are not up to the quality of the overall scenery either (close up) and as I noted it was a problem to be bravely tried and tested, but they are just not up to a quality standard. All building and modeling is very well done as is the usual high quality lighting and important airport runway, taxiway and signage layouts. Overall Pilot+Plus's Geneva Airport is an excellent well created and executed quality scenery and a great destination. Amazing arrival routes and this airport is certainly placed centrally into one of the very great atmospheric and visual vistas in the world. What more do you want in a central European hub... _____________________________________________ Yes! the LSGG - Geneva Airport from Pilot+Plus is NOW available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here : LSGG - Geneva Airport Price is US$24.95 Requirements: X-Plane 10 (any edition) Windows, Mac or Linux. Multi-core processor @ 2.6 Ghz or faster, 4GB Ram. 3D video card with at least 1GB VRAM - 2Gb VRAM recommended Developer Site: Pilot+Plus It is a big scenery and situated in a lot of adjoining autogen, so the above specifications are the minimum required. You can run this scenery on less but you will have to compromise on a lot of your render settings and special effects. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Features: Faithful replica with HD Buildings High Resolution ground imagery covering a very large area Custom Night lighting Animations & Local POI's Custom Made Static Aircraft, Bundled Pack Animated Jetway's & Guidance Docking System Very detailed 3D Models covering the whole airport Ambient Occlusion Custom Runways, Aprons & Taxiways Navigational Charts, downloadable _____________________________________________________________________________________ Installation and documents: Download is 333.30meg and the scenery is deposited in the "Custom Scenery" X-Plane folder at 1.21gb. Manual is supplied and LSGG charts can be downloaded here: http://www.ivao.ch/documentation/category/10-geneva-fir ____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 1st April 2016 Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 8 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin - US$14.95 Scenery or Aircraft - Airbus A320neo by JARDesign (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$59.95
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Scenery Update : EGKK - Gatwick v2.2 by Pilot+Plus Gatwick Airport is the second major port into the United Kingdom after Heathrow. Situated near Crawley in West Sussex, southeast England, the airport is 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. EGKK is the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom, after London Heathrow, and Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe. Until 2017, it was the busiest single-use runway airport in the world. As sceneries go then Pilot+Plus's EGKK - Gatwick is not really an old release as it was only released January 7th 2017, to join the other already quality series of sceneries by Pilot+Plus as with LSGG – Geneva, EGGD – Bristol International and EGHI - Southampton, of which have all appeared frequently in reviews on X-Plane Reviews in one form or the other. To a point is that any Gatwick scenery is up against a quality freeware EGKK from tdg, and that is a hard hurdle to overcome. But no matter how good any global airport can be created and don't get me wrong in the quality of tdg's work, it is still restricted to the boundaries of the facade style and placement system. Overall you just can't beat custom 3d created objects and detailing, after all that is what you pay for in reproduction and detail. Gatwick Airport IATA: LGW - ICAO: EGKK - WMO: 03776 08L/26R - 2,565m (8,415ft) Asphalt 08R/26L - 3,316m (10,879) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 203 ft / 62 m South Terminal The original South Terminal and Piers 1 & 2 are well defined. The over built South Terminal complex is really well reproduced and and detailing is very good, but the rail station is not well represented. The original long Pier 1 has now been dismantled, and only the base remains and that terminal area has been remodeled and refurbished with five airbridges (below lower left). The iconic (for the UK) Pier 3 "The Beehive" which was built in 1935 is also well represented, and is now connected with the refurbished arm with animated train at the rear. North Terminal The ever growing North Terminal and it's tentacles is also very evident. This terminal was built in the 1970's but with all the refurbishments and new additions, it makes it look far more modern than it actually is. Modern hotels including the Sofitel and Premier Inn add to the newer aspect even more. Snaky Pier 4 winds back from the North Terminal eastwards towards Pier 3... the rear of the pier is covered or separated by a well created and realistic wavy wall. The huge covered connecting walkway is a signature image for Gatwick, and this focal point has been really well done in this scenery. Almost every developer makes the walkway with see through glass, which is actually a mistake, because it never ever looks really realistic (mostly always a hideous green)? Pilot+Plus has however used a graphic and it looks far more realistic and authentic. The long and high walkway connects the North Terminal to Pier 6, which is an island terminal. The feel of Pier 6 is to the more modern Heathrow than Gatwick... it was in 2005 in that the new Pier 6 was opened at a cost of £110 million, adding 11 pier-served aircraft stands including one in Stand 110 that can cater for a Category F A380. There is a huge amount of remote stand parking at EGKK... Opposite North Terminal, Opposite Pier 2, far west and the largest in "West Park" opposite Pier 6. Clutter overall is not bad, a bit basic and a few branded items would have been nice? There is a lot of animations in vehicle traffic and all the airbridges are animated, but come with no guidance (docking). Cargo, Control Tower and West The cargo centre here at Gatwick is quite basic, it is just a long warehouse with aircraft parking in front. It is well done here but the burnt in aircraft ground silhouette on G154 is a big no, no in my books... .... Fire Station and Control Tower is front of the cargo area, and are both are well represented, but there are a few flat areas of small buildings between them that are burnt into the ground textures that could have also been covered, as they are highly noticeable from the tower view.... tower view itself is perfect! in set just slightly above the tower it gives a full 180º clear view of Gatwick. Far west is the Virgin Atlantic's maintenance hangar, and all over the scenery there are a lot of 3d cars covering the flat photo versions in the set carparks. Surprisingly there is no 3d grass here at EGKK, as it has been done very well at all of other Pilot+Plus sceneries? and you do miss it. The line between the custom scenery and the X-Plane11 autogen is excellent, as the autogen (in MAX setting) that fills in and hugs the custom scenery perfectly (a few houses however do encroach on an eastern placed carpark) LIghting The EGKK lighting overall is excellent, but there are a few foibles. The strong points is the overall ramp and area lighting, it is really good with different tones that separate the older and newer terminal areas, and the surrounding carparks and roadways. Approach and runway. Taxiway navigation signs are however not all provided, Links FR, GR and taxiway J are not signed, as are not the links A3/M3? Terminal and building lighting is a mixed bag. Some are really good like the old main original South Terminal, but a lot is very FS (FlightSim) lit panels for windows. Hotel signage is the same mixed bag, with the Hilton (and McDonalds) lit, but the Sofitel and Premier Inn not done so? There is a big dark area behind the South Terminal that is the rail station that could have been better represented... .... but where it counts the lighting is pretty good. EGKK - Gatwick v2.2 This is an updated version of the scenery to v2.2. In v2.1 you had a bad framerate issue that burned up your processing power and had that nasty pushback error, but these items have been fixed (quickly) in this version (also the reason this overview is a bit late). v2.0 originally covered the new Pier 1 changes as noted above and added the PBR ground overhaul with specular (Concrete tiles, asphalt) effects, in other words they now reflect or shine in certain conditions. Overall v2.2 is focused on WT3 (WorldTraffic3) and the correctly built-in airport ground routes. The routing has been checked out by K-Man and a generation of the ground routes via the WT3 generator creates now a very good routing layout and it is recommended to do a clean reset than and use these routings than try and use the known tdg set of of WT3 ground routes. I don't understand though why the new set by K-Man has not been made available for download? WT3 runs now exceptionally well, with a lot of variation of airlines, but Gatwick is serviced mostly with the off cuts from Heathrow in the more marginal carriers and LCC's (Low Cost Carriers) like Easyjet and Norwegian Air. British Airways dominates and it all works like clockwork day and night. The clutter has been adjusted for the use of WT3 and is fully customised for the plugin's use and those ghastly static aircraft have been removed... overall now is that EGKK is one of the best airport's for WT3 use! Other areas in v2.2 covers the creation of a ‘Lite’ version for XP10 and for increased performance in that X-Plane version. Summary Free is still free, but in reality if you want a far more realistic experience and a far more better reflection of the real life working Gatwick Airport then this far and above your better choice in X-Plane, and in cost this scenery investment is really is not going to break the bank either. There was originally a few foibles and bugs with the first version of this P+P EGKK, but now those areas have mostly been covered and update changes like the new Pier 1 and better X-Plane11 materials and effects brings it all up to date. WT3 and ground routing has had a huge amount of attention in this update, and any traffic action is now excellent, well worth the admission price. Yes there are a few areas that could still be refined.. the very visual rail station (or rail traffic) is not very well represented and it a bit blank between the tower and fire station, a bad aircraft silhouette in the cargo zone, and some of the building/terminal lighting and signage needs more attention, ditto the missing taxiway signage. Admittedly I haven't used EGKK - Gatwick that much in the past, but I think there is the odd review or two out there using the scenery. I think that aspect will change considerably now as this scenery gives me/you a far more realistic airport to use and fly in or out of, and that is my motto, a great investment is "a product or in this case a scenery that you will use a lot", that is always the main returning value and the reward for the purchase... Highly recommended. ____________________________________________________________________ Yes!... EGKK - Gatwick v2.2 by Pilot+Plus is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EGKK - London Gatwick Airport v2 Price is US$21.00 Features: Faithful replica of London Gatwick High Resolution ground imagery Custom Night lighting Many Animations in and around airport Custom Tram track with animated tram Custom Made Static Aircraft, Bundled Pack Animated Jetway's Very detailed 3D Models covering the whole airport Ambient Occlusion Updated and excellent WT3 traffic Custom Runways, Aprons & Taxiways 3D Grass and vegetation within airport and local area Optimized for maximum performance Over 70,00 hand placed objects! Requirements : X-Plane 11+ Windows, Mac or Linux. 2GB Minimum VRAM - 4Gb+ VRAM recommended Current Version: 2.2 (August 28th 2018) Download and Installation Installation : Download file size is 870.80mb and is inserted into your X-Plane - Custom Scenery Folder. Installed file size is 1.5gb Extras and Documents: None ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 5th September 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 11.25r2 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.09 US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free Scenery or Aircraft - Boeing 737-800 - Default X-plane by Laminar Research Update Log: Version 2.2 (August 28th 2018) BetterPushback/ Hard Surface error LOD Issue on load fixed Missing Texture fixed Lighting fixes Fully Customised World Traffic 3 solution (credits to Kman) – please watch the included video for installation instructions Creation of a ‘Lite’ version for XP10 and increased performance Fully customized for World Traffic 3: Moved spawn points to align with the autogates across entire airport. Moved parking lines and dirt markings to the new alignment of parking spawns. Added additional gates and relabelled gates to the real world counter parts where needed. Added GA parking spots according to satellite imagery. WT3 can now spawn GA props and jets. Edited taxi routing to create a good flow around the airport. Edited taxi routing to accommodate the A380 that lands at Gatwick. Fixed a bug with the airport thinking the other runway was still active which was generating errors. Added the correct airlines to all gates according to 2017 available data. Made an airport operations file for EGKK that mimics the real world operations of Gatwick Moved clutter objects around so WT3 won't run them over
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Scenery Upgrade : EGGD - Bristol International Definitive by Pilot+Plus When I came into simulation in X-Plane9 you had to have a pretty good imagination, you would look at a scenery depicting a place or airport and it sort of resembled the same real world context, but in reality you knew it fell very short or mostly you simply got no realistic feel of that place or area. So your main purpose and journey in simulation is to find and seek out that Holy Grail of realism on the screen, to be and feel the very place the scenery is representing. To date it has been over a decade of collecting and adjusting the various components to create this Holy Grail of a realistic environment. No doubt the more extensive power of your hardware has gone a long way of achieving the dream, but it is the side effects of HDR and reflective materials that have added in the power of the vision, and don't forget the power of a good environmental engine to also recreate the mood and feel of the area... that nirvana is now near, even very close. Over the last few years in the X-Plane simulator the acceleration has been massive with all these aspects related to realism, we are not there yet, but with the next steps with computer power, ray tracing and virtual reality we will finally have reality in within our grasp. But the simulator is also built of blocks of third party components, the trick is to make them all match and blend in together as one, that is my goal, but developers skills and tastes don't all match the same vision, but when they do the results are another step forward towards that nirvana place. Pilot+Plus delivered their version of EGGD - Bristol Airport back in April 2015, by the standards of the day it was one of the best sceneries in the southwest of the United Kingdom, so here is the upgraded version in the EGGD - Bristol International Definitive status, definitive is in context a very final word, so it is a very brave developer to note the scenery as a final say in the series, so the scenery has to live up to a lot of expectations. But the original as reviewed here was a very good starting platform into achieving that goal. Airport Review : EGGD - Bristol Airport by Pilot Plus EGGD - Bristol International Definitive Before looking at the scenery, there is another change first.... Pilot+Plus has adopted an installation application to install the scenery for you, and to allow updates for when they become available... so now you just download the app, and not the full scenery to install... You put in your X-Plane/directory, then your details and serial no. and then the app does the rest. I had a few issues with the install address being refused (tracked down to a microsoft "read only" issue) and to be honest, just a simple download and manual install would have fixed the issue far quicker, but this is the brave new world of application installers and they are not going away anytime soon. Note, in doing an update the app does a full new install, so you have to remove the older EGGD scenery from your Custom Scenery Folder first. First impressions of the upgraded EGGD- Bristol are exceptional, this is one nicely intergrated scenery into the X-Plane surrounding textures (you can use the Orbx TrueEarth textures as well), there is however a strip of custom textures to the north that is a little blank and open (cuts off traffic flow) but otherwise it is all very good. ... you can see the boundary clearly by the foliage... because as the season's change then so does the foliage colour (Summer, Autumn,Winter and Spring)... .... this is a clever idea, but in reality you need the simulator to work unison to make it work all together or it looks odd, and like here it highlights the boundary The winter textures are the most relatable to the default scenery and they are not white either for winter but some darker greens... a manual season settings option would be nice. In the original v1 the textures were slightly bland, or mostly dull but that was also the general effect at the time, but that is certainly not the case with the newer v2 textures... dynamic is the word here as they are not only HDR but also raytraced occlusion and reflection active as well and the realism effect is amazing and immediate. Buildings look worn or the concrete has a wear or even just after a rain shower effect, ditto the aprons and ramp that not only have a brilliant reflective sheen, but a grit realism as well.... .... certainly this is another step forward in (reflective) realism and it is highly effective. Pilot+Plus has also created a more gritter concrete surface... ... it looks great in detail, but feels more pronounced (larger) than it should be, this feature started out in Pilot+Plus's Gatwick EGKK, but there was far more grainer and stony (it just didn't look realistic in scale) than it even does here, it's better of course, but still the graining is a bit out of scale to it's size. There is no 3d grass at EGGD, but the English love their curated gardens and this lovely cut infield has also built in contours for realism. The original scenery had two issues with the Terminal building and Control Tower in them both not being very authentic... both have been redone and are far better in their design and as a reproduction of the real world counter parts, the control tower however still looks like concrete and has still not it's metal cladding like on the real tower. All terminal, tower and building windows are highly reflective, even in a mosaic sense, but that is what comes with the realism. .... but far better in design as more realistic buildings they are. Other buildings have had a lot of attention as well, including the now highly detailed airport carpark which is exceptional. There is a lot of Pilot+Plus self branding, of which is not very authentic? and a lot of the immense amount of original ground clutter in v1 has been taken away... ... so the detail clutter has gone from the one earlier of to much too extreme clutter to the now of far too little? but I get the feeling that time ran out before finishing off detailing these areas. But the Bristol Airport detail overall is very, very good. The airport is highly WorldTraffic3 configured with provided ground routes by KMan, and they are excellent with great runway flow. The airport uses also the new WT3 feature of aircraft turning pushbacks, where as the aircraft are not only pushbacked (straightline) but also are turned left or right for a more authentic departure. When working this feature is excellent as it is at Aerosoft's EDDL (Dusseldorf), but here it needs a little more refining... .... Pilot+Plus says a fix is coming, it could also be a WT3 refining issue as well. South Of the whole scenery it is on the southside of the runway 09/27 is where you will find the biggest changes to the scenery. At Bristol Airport they have extended the long term and staff carparking quite extensively, so the scenery now also well caters for that new expansion. Overall the change is exceptional, and the added carparks now overwhelm the older general aviation area, which is again a far better realised layout than before, small detail buildings for the Bristol Flying School and the Bristol and Wessex Flying Club are well represented, all the large GA hangars have been redone and are far more highly detailed, infield detail is also excellent and all the aprons are so well detailed and usable... I have used this area for reviews for years and it does feel like a far more immersive area to continue doing so. The carparks do have phototextures with no placed 3d vehicles in certain shadows, but it isn't noticeable from the air or the ground. Northeast Lulsgate The old Bristol (Lulsgate) Airport terminal has also been redone in the northeast area, it was fine before here, but this is better now with even more detail. I particularly liked parking here for any walkon/walkoff service (mostly to Ireland or Manchester). Lighting The original lighting was very, very good as Pilot+Plus was very good with the lighting skills, so even the original lighting passed over would have been more than fine, but here the lighting has been upgraded as well, and excellent it is all round. From an approach distance there is a nice realism about the lighting, get closer and it is also now really excellent and realistic... .... most of added brightness comes from the extended southern carparking areas, but effective it is. Apron lighting is about perfect... .... the poor original terminal lighting looks far better in the v2 disguise... highlight is the baggage tunnel that is well lit and authentic. All the landside areas are well lit as is again that nice parking garage.... Southside GA is great and really well lit as well with those lovely ring mast lighting... .... detail gives you cool mast lighting on the working apron areas and warm lighting over the carparks, it is about as good as you can get. Summary This upgraded version of EGGD- Bristol International is now labelled "Definitive" in the last word in quality, but it will still need a few upgrades to get it to that elevated full level... but overall this scenery is excellent in almost every area. EGGD-Bristol v2 comes with the full dynamics of X-Plane features with HDR, raytraced occlusion and reflections, and is realism 101, lighting is also nearly perfect and really well done. Most main buildings including the main terminal and control tower have been completely remodeled and are all elevated to be far better than their previous versions. Changing seasons and provided refined full WorldTraffic3 files all add into the activity. New real airport extensions (southside) have also been done and to make the scenery very up to date in design and there is a new installer system. Quirks include the same changing season's not matching your static X-Plane environment, and self-branded clutter and signage replaces the older heavy clutter and authentic branding. Tower is still not the metal cladding like on the real tower... but these are all niggles. If you are an existing customer of EGGD-Bristol you can get 30% discount on this v2 Definitive version and it is well worth the upgrade price, and overall this is a brilliant upgrade to an already excellent scenery and if you fly within the UK a very worthwhile purchase. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! EGGD - Bristol International Definitive by Pilot+Plus is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EGGD - Bristol International Definitive Price is US$25.95 Customers of EGDD v1 can get 30% off this new version Features: Our Definitive replication of Bristol International Adaptive seasonal vegetation (changes on the fly) Full PBR ground details with crisp surrounding orthoimagery Atmospheric night environment Detailed and accurate 3D models with raytraced occlusion and reflections Optimised for maximum performance Perfectly blends with Orbx True Earth Fully customised World Traffic 3 solution (credits to Kman) Created for X-Plane 11.30+ World Traffic 3 Features: All Airlines that use this airport are represented. Turning Pushbacks where applicable. WT3 Operations File that matches Airport WED Flow for maximum predictability. TaxiFlow where possible to avoid nose to nose conflicts. Gate priority set to terminal gates for realistic operations ______________________________________________________________________ Installation Download is via an installer that inserts (or deletes) the scenery into your X-Plane custom scenery folder: Pilot Plus - EGGD Bristol International - Definitive Note: and use of the updater requires the previous version to be removed Total scenery installation is 1.69gb WT3 files are provided and require installation into the WT3 folders Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not Linux compatible) 4GB VRAM Minimum Current and Review Version: 1.1 (October 7th 2019) Documentation: No manual ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton 11th November 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 11.40 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini : Headshake by SimCoders Plugins: WorldTraffic3 US$29.95 (recommended) : Environment Engine v1.12 by xEnviro US$69.90 : - Boeing 738 by Laminar Research - Default with X-Plane11
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News! - Scenery Released : KBID – Block Island State Airport by Pilot+Plus After a run of larger airports, Pilot+Plus has downsized to a smaller but picturesque island scenery of Block Island State's KBID. Block Island is situated off the coast of Rhode Island, between Long Island to the slight southwest and Marthas Vineyard to the slight northeast. The airport is owned by the State of Rhode Island. The airport was opened in 1950 and it is primarily a general aviation airport. It has one runway, and an average of 45 flights per day mostly consist of general aviation, air taxi services and military. Features Included Whole island Ortho coverage at 30cm/pixel over 25,000 hand placed objects Baked ambient occlusion Dense foliage and forestry Comprehensive building coverage Abundant custom vegetation including grass and bushes Marine Traffic with detailed Yacht model Ground Traffic routes in airfield Custom 3D South Lighthouse New England Airlines is the resident airline based at KBID. Their fleet consists of three Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders, three Cherokee Sixes and one PA-28 Archer 180. Scenery Requirements X-Plane 11 or X-Plane 10 Windows, Mac or Linux 2GB+ VRAM Video Card Minimum KBID is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore... price is under US$20 at US$19.95 _____________________________________________________________________________________ The KBID – Block Island State Airport by Pilot+Plus scenery is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : KBID – Block Island State Airport And is priced at only US$19.95 All images are provided courtesy of Pilot+Plus ____________________________________________________________________________________ Stephen Dutton 24th April 2017 Copyright©2017: X-Plane Reviews
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News! - Scenery Released! - LEIB Ibiza by Pilot+Plus Pilot+Plus scenery have released their latest airport in LEIB - Ibiza. Yes, the entrance to the 24hr party central playground is now available for the serious X-Plane party goers. ELIB is positioned on the Balearic Islands, that is between the eastern Spanish mainland and Mallorca. Features include: Faithful replica of the airport High Resolution ground imagery High Resolution Ground Imagery at 15cm per pixel Custom Night lighting Many Animations in and around airport Custom Made Static Aircraft, Bundled Pack Animated Jetway's Very detailed 3D Models covering the whole airport Ambient Occlusion Custom Runways, Aprons & Taxiways Navigational Charts 3D Grass Objects, Object, objects are Pilot+Plus's forte and you are not losing out here with lots of ground detail. Requirements X-Plane 10 (any edition) Windows, Mac or Linux. Multi-core processor @ 2.6 Ghz or faster, 4GB Ram. 3D video card with at least 1GB VRAM - 2Gb VRAM recommended Night-lighting is very good, as are all Pilot+Plus sceneries... As the sun goes down the party lights come on!, see you on the dancefloor... ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the LEIB Ibiza by Pilot+Plus is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LEIB - Ibiza Airport Price is US$18.99 ______________________________________________________________________ Stephen Dutton 30th July 2016 Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016
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News! - Airport Release! - LSGG Geneva from Pilot+Plus Now available on the X-Plane.OrgStore is Pilot+Plus's latest creation in LSGG - Geveva Airport (formally known as Cointrin Airport). After a few medium sized airports in EGHI - Southampton and EDDG - Bristol Intl (and the micro EGTR - Elstree) here is Pilot+Plus's first mega scenery in Geneva. Features Faithful replica with HD Buildings High Resolution ground imagery covering a very large area Custom Night lighting Animations & Local POI's Custom Made Static Aircraft, Bundled Pack Animated Jetway's & Guidance Docking System Very detailed 3D Models covering the whole airport Ambient Occlusion Custom Runways, Aprons & Taxiways Navigational Charts, downloadable Pilot+Plus always did excellent scenery, with great value for your money and LSGG - Geneva is of no exception. A lot of detail and a great reproduction of this classic European airport. Working jetways/airbridges are excellent and the very, very different circular style gates give you a different perspective of arrival and departure experiences. The unique blend of airport, business and industrial buildings that is the visual difference of Geneva Airport is well reproduced. And this scenery is very interactive with the built in X-Plane road system to create dynamic visual action around the airport. Every texture is photo real and has been created in high definition HD! Pilot+Plus have implemented many visual effects such as ambient occlusion, custom night lighting and custom shadowing, Pilot+Plus's EGGD - Bristol was a masterpiece in X-Plane lighting and LSGG is very good as well. Overall LSGG Geneva Airport is a great addition to your European airports collection. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the LSGG - Geneva Airport from Pilot+Plus is NOW available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here : LSGG - Geneva Airport Price is US$24.95 Requirements:X-Plane 10 (any edition) Windows, Mac or Linux. Multi-core processor @ 2.6 Ghz or faster, 4GB Ram. 3D video card with at least 1GB VRAM - 2Gb VRAM recommended ______________________________________________________________________ Stephen Dutton Updated : 8th March 2016 Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews
