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  1. NEWS! - Scenery Released : EHAM - Amsterdam by FlyTampa Back in July 2022, FlyTampa presented a preview of their next scenery for the X-Plane Simulator in "FlyTampa Amsterdam". Nice! Well actually more than "nice"... FlyTampa haven't released any scenery (product) since their almighty EKCH - Copenhagen in May 2020. So the natural line of thought was they had left the platform for MSFS. But however they are back, for now. X-Plane has had an Aerosoft version 10/11 of EHAM since 2012, yes over ten years ago, brilliant for it's time, it was however a slugger on the framerate. Looking (or landing) at the Aerosoft EHAM six months ago, it felt textures were seriously dated and the airbridges didn't work? But I love the place. So you can guess at the excitement of getting a newer, more modern version with SAM intergration and in X-Plane 12... and from the best scenery developer in the business, FlyTampa... whats not to like. The EHAM scenery does work in X-Plane 11, but you lose all the X-Plane 12 features and effects, but still you do get in the package a copy for each X-Plane 11/12 version. Located 9 km southwest of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the largest airports in Europe. It is the world's third busiest airport by international passenger traffic in 2021. The airport is built as one large terminal (a single-terminal concept), split into three large departure halls, which connect together again once airside. The most recent of these was completed in 1994 and expanded in 2007 with a new section, called Terminal 4, although it is not considered a separate building. A new pier is to be opened in 2019 with a terminal extension planned to be operational by 2023. Plans for further terminal and gate expansion exist, including the construction of a separate new terminal between the Zwanenburgbaan and Polderbaan runways that would end the one-terminal concept. Features Amsterdam Schiphol International (EHAM) Airport Addon Airport modeled with PBR materials High resolution ground textures with custom weather maps Detailed surrounding scenery with numerous custom buildings 3D Terrain including 3D tunnels and bridges Surrounding Photo-scenery for Amsterdam Animated apron and local road traffic Dynamic lighting, animated Jetways and VDGS (SAM required) It is a big, if huge scenery, if in size, then the effects on your framerate (passible) and to note the system requirements, it's not cheap, but you also get a lot of detail for your money. Images courtesy of FlyTampa (plus a few of my own) ________________________________________ The FlyTampa Amsterdam is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore!... Here: FlyTampa Amsterdam Price is US$28.00 Requirements X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Current version : 1.0 (December 21st 2022) ________________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 4th January 2023 Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Right Reserved.
  2. Scenery Review : LGTS Thessaloniki XP by FlyTampa In April 2018 FlyTampa a very well known and respected FS/P3D scenery developer released their first scenery for X-Plane. This was FlyCorfu XP and a very nice if small scenery it was. The main feature was not actually the airport LGKR that was the focus of the scenery, but the full aspect of the island of Corfu was covered with custom photo textures and 3d modeled buildings, and so also in creating a full and complete vista of the Greek Island. This was the reputation that had delivered FyyTampa into it's lauded position and when you received the look and feel of the FlyCorfu scenery it certainly had an impact. So obviously you wanted more... and FlyTampa noted that yes more was coming at the end of 2018. But that date slipped into 2019 and nothing was forthcoming even when passing the mid-year point, so were we going to get any more FlyTampa's for X-Plane, well at that stage it didn't actually look like it. Then in very quick succession we have had three releases in as many months with first LGIR - Heraklion XP, then LGTS - Thessaloniki XP (this scenery) and just last week FlyTampa released the big one in LGAV - Athens XP. So in quick succession we have gone from one scenery to four from FlyTampa with more listed to come before Christmas, and I won't hold my excitement back because still in that list is EKCH - Copenhagen Airport. But back to the current releases and there is theme here in that every release currently is focused on Greece and mostly it's islands. Overall the series in look and feel are all very much the same, so what you are seeing in this Thessaloniki review is very adaptable to all the other currently released sceneries. (Navigraph) Thessaloniki is a Greek port city on the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Thessaloniki Airport "Makedonia" was formerly known as Mikra Airport. And the airport is located 13 km (8.1 mi) southeast of the city, in Thermi. As with all FlyTampa sceneries you get orthophoto textures, and as Thessaloniki is not an island the end of the textures is noticeable in a line to the north, but it has a slightly better intergration with the X-Plane default textures to the south of the city. The contrast to the default textures is however quite noticeable and not as blended in together to create a smooth transition from the default to the custom landscapes. I will note formally that this review is running the SFD Global autogen (whiter) and there is a mix between the FlyTampa custom 3d autogen (Terracotta) and the new misterx6 SFD autogen, but in most areas they mix in nicely together to give a very realistic Greek feel to the scenery. Thessaloniki Airport "Makedonia" Κρατικός Αερολιμένας Θεσσαλονίκης "Μακεδονία" IATA: SKG - ICAO: LGTS 10/28 : 2,440m (8,005 ft) Asphalt 16/34 : 2,410m (7,907 ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 7 m / 23 ft LGTS layout is a lazy X of the two runways 10/28 - 16/34 with the main terminal building situated in the northeast, and the General Aviation area is north of the single main terminal. As with most European airports the opposite zone from the commercial area is a military facility, plus an area that operates the airbourne fire (waterbomber) services. Terminal All stands here at Thessaloniki are for walk/parking only with no airbridges attached to the terminal building. Stands numbered 2 - 22 are all turnaround and park, and the centrepoint and highlight of the scenery is the excellent terminal building... .... the terminal building framework and complex detailing is extremely impressive, and the HDR reflective windows and glass all add in to the realism... .... you can take a fair while looking around and admiring the construction as the detail is also very intricate and it is all as detailed on the roof as well, and moving around both the airside and landside areas of the terminal are also a few branded (Olympic/Aegean) animated vehicles, luggage trolleys and fuel trucks. Control Tower is part of the terminal building on the north end, well done with a rotating radar (not fully connected to the tower?) and HDR reflections again give realism. Tower view however is set far too low, so you get obstructions in the view that are not pretty? Airside is good, sort off (we will get to the reason's why in a moment) there are 3d vehicles, foliage and well done terminal ramps.... .... but overall the clutter in minimal, with (just) enough to satisfy, but not enough to cover heavy detail. General Aviation GA/Private Jet zone is good, fine for a quick stop through for a refuel. Aeroclub Thessaloniki building is welcoming and there is the airports well detailed Fire Station at the far northern end. A few static abandoned aircraft also fill in the scene with a B727, DC3 and (a broken) Caravelle all presented. Highlight here is the 3d concrete drainage channel which is very well done. South is the Cargo/Services buildings and apron (Cargo is stands 15-18)... the cargo/service building is done well with great if average resolution signage, and the red/white blast fencing is thankfully of quality detail.... ... and far south is a large well textured maintenance hangar with a static Hurky Bird on the apron. Outer boundaries cover the sparse Military zone which is well done, and the waterbomber parking apron. Ground Textures There is great RAIL lighting on the approach to RWY34 and overall the runway/taxiway are very good, there isn't that 3d asphalt feel, but they are nicely detailed with oil, tyre rubber markings, surface cracking and general wear and tear... 3d Grass all over the scenery is very good, with lovely areas set of spring flowers, and all the field areas are well catered for. The under construction of the extension to Runway 10 is well done with cranes and working huts set out around the development... but does that make the RWY10 approach usable? As noted to cover the extreme wide areas of the scenery the provided ortho textures are of a very low resolution? almost all are completely washed out and not very detailed on any approach.... ..... so there is no detail, roads and carparks and other detailed areas as are simply washed out or over bright, the effect also creates and brings a billiard table flat effect to the scenery and there is no differencial of texture resolution to the airport environs either to lift the detail within the working area. This is an aspect that is common throughout all FlyTampa sceneries, but the aspect is good in one way, but also shows the age of these original sceneries. Today our computers can handle far better quality and a more highly set of resolution photo textures (even if used around the airport boundaries) and their detail, and simulation as a whole has also now moved on from this once but very simple but effective technique. Thessaloniki City Again I will note the addition of misterx6 SFD Global autogen... but with the full compliment of both the SFD Global and the extensive object count provided by FlyTampa, younow get... simply a scernery that is totally INSANE! in the number of objects and in the detail of Thessaloniki City. Object detail is extraordinary and finally X-Plane is seeing fully and worthwhile and realistic city environments without the graphic card meltdown, all this complexity was under 4K (3669mb) on a graphic setting of "high". All the landmarks of Thessaloniki City including churches, numberable sports stadiums and official city buildings are all visible, Thessaloniki's port area is also highly detailed. Lighting Another area that is outstanding is the scenery's lighting... Approach, runway and taxiway lighting including navigation signage is all first rate.... all main aprons are bathed in great lighting and all the textures are also HDR dynamic (reflective) for realism. Terminal lighting is totally exquisite, almost overwhelming, so it is well worth a night landing at LGTS - Thessaloniki . different tone lighting separates the different areas and again it gives you great lighting dynamics... Thessaloniki City lighting is also excellent, varied and extensive. All the main landmarks are well lit, but very good also so is the important urban housing night textures.... ...... port zone is set at a different tone and visually everything works here in a totally realistic night lighting city environment. WT3 : The ATC routes are noted as done here, but only in the case of the basics of aircraft placement. As most aircraft landed then pop out on the runways and there are no connections to the parking stands and airport flow is non-existent, so overall LGTS is not a fully active or working operational WT3 airport, so the attention of new or refined ATC/Ground routes are required to bring this element up to a working standard. Summary Since the original FlyCorfu XP release, then FlyTampa took almost a full year and a half before releasing their next scenery for X-Plane, but then we got three in succession with LGIR - Heraklion XP, then LGTS - Thessaloniki XP and lastly LGAV - Athens XP. LGTS - Thessaloniki XP is typical of all FlyTampa sceneries. In being overall excellent, but highly let down by using the older style ortho texture technique that creates a very low resolution and blurred background with no detail for airport environs and roads on a flat surface. Otherwise detailing is very good with and excellent and highly detailed terminal and buildings, animated (not much) traffic and a lot of HDR elements of reflective lighting and glass, all ground runway/taxiway textures are passable, but have no depth of detail... Excellent and extensive 3d object count is off the charts in creating Thessaloniki City and surrounds combined with the recommended SDF Global autogen is breathtaking in creating a new standard of objects in the X-Plane simulator.. City detail in landmarks, featured buildings, stadiums, ports is extensive and all together all are outstanding. Final excellent feature is the standard of the night-lighting. Not only for the runway,taxiway and apron lighting (reflective) but also the amazing terminal lighting and the full Thessaloniki cityscape lighting as well. Yes there are a few gliches in this Thessaloniki Airport scenery (WT3 and suspended radar in case of points) and if you can live with those poor resolution textures then this is an outstanding scenery, certainly to be part of your FlyTampa scenery collection that at this point is still centred around Greece and it's island destinations... buy one scenery and you will probably buy them all, but that is not a bad thing because they are all very good investments to add into your X-Plane route flying. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! LGTS Thessaloniki XP by FlyTampa is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FlyTampa-Thessaloniki XP Price is US$22.00 Features Complete city add-on with custom mesh, vegetation and lighting Full city coverage with custom buildings and landmarks Sloped airport terrain Animated apron vehicles, road and ship traffic PBR materials ______________________________________________________________________ Installation You download an Installer, that you then set the X-Plane install address and then insert your email address and the authorization key... the installer will then do the rest (Internet connection is required and fast if possible). Install is six folders set in order: FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_0_forests (274mb) FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_0_airport (565mb) FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_3_mesh (93.1mb) FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_2_photoreal (1.75gb) FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_0_city (564mb) FlyTampa_Thessaloniki_1_overlays (25mb) Total scenery installation is a large 2.23gb SFD Global by misterx6 is highly recommended with this scenery. Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Current and Review version: 1.0 (Sep 1st 2019) ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 19th October 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 : 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
  3. Scenery Review : KLAS - LasVegas by FlyTampa One person and one person alone created the Las Vegas we know today, that desert gambling paradise that shines in everything that is "Sin City", and would send any woke person into hysteria of everything that is wrong or from another perspective right with the western developed world. First thoughts would shout "Frank Sinatra" and his in famous "Rat Pack" and the mob investment. But crooner Frankie and his pals where present in the early late fifties and early Sixies and by the late sixies Las Vegas was already feeling like a doom town, almost broke and empty with the glory days that were already noted and lost. But an icon of the 50's came to town to resurrect his own career, the artist needed Las Vegas as much as the town needed him and so a deal was made at the still being built International Hotel for a four-week summer engagement in 1969, the whole thing was a gamble, the new and the largest hotel at the time was off the famous strip and also away from the older downtown area, but everything came together to create history, and it put Las Vegas back on to the top of the entertainment map, and to start one of the biggest roll of the dices building extravaganzas ever known and it created the current LAS VEGAS as the vacation hot spot of all time. The artist was Elvis Presley and he would go on to perform a total of 636 shows at the hotel from 1969 to 1976, with every single show sold out. Many would argue the Sinatra was the icon of Las Vegas and not Presley, but the fact that Presley attracted the huge family market (mostly the mothers) that changed the perspective of the town moving to more a expanded outlet and to cover the wider family base and their financial income, the International soon became the Hilton also then brought in another large demographic with the conventions, as the Las Vegas Convention Centre (CES!) was built adjoining the hotel, Elvis, Conventions, Buffets and gambling then all came together as one and created a modern desert mecca that has ruled now for fifty years... "Viva Las Vegas". Las Vegas in X-Plane has mostly been dominated by one scenery (plus a few default icons from Laminar) in the Tom Curtis "Glitter Gulch" package that was in 2013 certainly the best of the Las Vegas sceneries. I remember that review very well, the actual scenery for the time was sensational, but X-Plane in comparison itself struggled to create a plausible scenario. In reality it should have been easy as Las Vegas is set basically deep in a sort of extensive crater, so you only had to replicate the inner environs, but it failed very badly as the autogen failed, the addon ortho-photo didn't match up either, and so it was all a weird looking setup... with this lovely glowing central custom scenery basically surrounded by "ugggh". I did several tutorials on how to at least try to make it all workable, but the whole situation never really worked. And so here we are with the latest Las Vegas scenery from FlyTampa and has X-Plane overcome it's weaknesses to create a plausible "Sin City", to note that this scenery is not just the airport or McCarren Field, but also the layout of Las Vegas itself as they are both literally interwoven and linked together, we will however start with McCarren Field first. McCarran International Airport IATA: LAS - ICAO: KLAS - FAA LID: LAS 01L/19R - 8,985ft (2,739m) Concrete (ILS 01L) 01R/19L - 9,775ft (2,979m) Concrete 8L/26R - 14,510ft (4,423m) Asphalt (ILS 25R) 8R/26L - 10,526ft (3,208m) Concrete (ILS 25L) Elevation AMSL 2,181 ft / 665 m In reality KLAS is split into two terminal areas and the runway setup is interesting, with the two main runways 8L/26R - 1R/19L with 8R/26L - 1L/19R as secondary (smaller) runways. The interesting part is that all three converage at the single one point and when departing you can hold from both sides of the taxiways F and D with also taxiway E between the the two left runways. There are two terminals in Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, but the D gates of Terminal 1 are placed directly in front of Terminal 3 so could that facility be noted as Terminal 2, well no as Terminal 2 was the old Terminal 3, it sorta makes sense. Terminal 1 Terminal 1 is split into three very different sections of Concourses A, B, C and D. The original 1963 design are the two concourses with both the A and B round satellite gates. These branch concourse satellite gates are anchored in the middle by a central arrival hall that was inspired by the TWA Flight Center that was designed for Trans World Airlines by Eero Saarinen and Associates at JFK, New York. Sixteen A gates noted as "North" and Seventeen "South" B gates are mixed numbered, the system used at LAS is not the usual U.S. style in airline terminal branding and allocation. AS at McCarran it uses the Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) system, becoming the first airport in the country to do so as with the multiple airlines now serving the McCarran airport and so it became inefficient to have separate facilities for each airline. CUTE allows for shared use of ticket counters and gates and any airline can overflow to inactive facilities during peak periods. So there are no Delta, AA or even Southwest allocated terminals. The FlyTampa detailing is very good here, but the harsh desert lighting can make it all look a little washed out Glass is again very good and very realistic with PBR (reflective) coatings and are see through, overall the modeling is very good to excellent and all comes with detailed textures. If you demand that absolute detail quality then it is there in close up, but you have to get in close to absorb it. Internal terminal details are excellent, but only in Lo-Res. All areas are completed with seating, vending machines and the in-famous Vegas Slot-Machines in every satellite waiting area... The concourses can be explored as well with like at FlyTampa's Copenhagen Kastrup, you can look around and follow the internal detail. The SAM - Scenery Animation Manager system is installed here and as usual it is very good, noted that there are no marshaller or VDGS (there is VDGS guidance at T3) at the gate so you have to position the aircraft at the right parking bar, and the changing green to blue SAM marker is a help? The airbridge extensions at some gates are simply excellent. Airbridge wear and tear (in other words rusting) is really good and for some sheer detailing then note the lovely inner airbridge lighting and walkways, some airbridges on the joining to the main terminal section are however a bit gappy, and not set too close to match correctly. The C Gates extension and the first line of the people mover system was opened in 1987 and branches off the Central terminal building and Concourse B The design of C Gates extension is very different from the earlier layout and really just a very big concourse with great colour and concrete aspect, and the long thin internal layout is also well covered if in Lo-Res. Gates C1 - C25 are in a clockwise allocation. D Gates The separate northeast wing of the D Gates opened in April 2005, along with a 160 feet (49 m) apron movement tower at the center of the X style concourse. Gates are 1 - 59 in no particular order, just grouped around each concourse. Gates D21/D22 were converted into the only 3-jetway gate at McCarran; this was done to provide a proper accommodation area for the double-decker Airbus A380, but there is only a single airbridge here at that D21 gate? Again a very different design and from a distance D Gates looks bland, but the huge detail is there up close, with nice glass and modern cladding. The apron tower is excellent in design and is festooned with antenna and lovely detail Central hub arrival hall is excellent with really good internal detail with palm trees and a "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. All internal areas are walkaround and are all well detailed. Terminal 1 landside is dominated by two massive and garlish coloured carparks completed in 1991... it has to be bad to be garlish in Las Vegas? Automated People movers are the Green line, connecting Terminal 1 with C Gates, Blue line, connecting Terminal 1 with D Gates and the Red line, connecting Terminal 3 with D Gates, all tracks are completed and the trains are animated in the scenery. Terminal 3 Terminal 3 opened on June 27, 2012.The project was announced in January 2001 as a way to accommodate rapid growth in passenger traffic, The Terminal 3 cost $2.4 billion to build and is one of the largest public works projects in Nevada and it replaced Terminal 2 or the Charter/International Terminal, and in providing more international gates and a larger U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility. With seven domestic gates, the terminal also eases congestion at Terminal 1. Again you need to get in close to see the detail, in which it is very good... again great glass and cladding, gates also have VDGS guidance. Central offset arrival hall is well done. Landside has a lot of detail, including concierge arrival desks and signage, but let down by some really average lo-res road textures. Internally Terminal 3 is as good as you would expect it to be, in being highly detailed and walkable. Glass reflections are also excellent in the right lighting conditions. Control Tower In May 2011 construction began on a new air traffic control tower. The tower is 352 feet (107 m) tall and replaced a shorter tower that only opened in 1983, it was later demolished. The tower replication here is excellent, with a lot of detailing even on the ground based buildings, the tower podium has that aluminium cladding that is very well reproduced for realism, tower glass is of course also very good. Tower view is correct, but has aerials and other roof mounted detail in the viewpoint, but most approaches are clear of the obstacles. Cargo and East There is a good cargo centre over to the east of the terminals. With six AC7 parking bays, but you could fit a small regional freighter in the non-marked bay. Overall it is very good with some nice branded cargo clutter, UPS, AA Cargo, Southwest Cargo and FedEx are all branded... .... cargo landside is pretty averages with just a few FedEx trucks to fill out a bland carpark, could have been better... The McCarran Marketplace shopping Mall behind Cargo is very well represented, but the hugely washed out Lo-Res textures are really, really average and spoils (destroys) the overall effect of the area. General Aviation and West The western boundary is the main area along Taxiway H and parallel to Rwy 01L/19R covers the fixed base operators and private jets. And they are all very well represented here. Split into four regions: General Aviation South, Customs/AECOM, EG & G Ramp and General Aviation North. General Aviation North has two main facilities, with Atlantic Aviation LAS and JSX (JetSuiteX) being the main tenants, and Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters also run from here, the rest of GAN is mostly hangarage. There is a lot of detail which to be honest is required in this GA section to make it all realistic, and it does very well.... There is a lot of money to be made in poker machines in Vegas, just look at their flashy facility. Infrastructure and government defense contractor AECOM have a large facility here with a customs section as well. Las Vegas Sands Corp Hangar is also a large presence, their personal aircraft are even larger!... god the money in Vegas! Gulfstream have a servicing base and Sundance Helicopters service the huge joyflight tour market that is available in Vegas, Grand Canyon flights start around US$440 - $2000, lunch is thrown in free! General Aviation South gives you a lot of GA parking space (note the Harley Davidson Motor Cycle dealership), and the Signature Flight Support LAS is well represented. Far south of the GAS area is Maverick Helicopters... the "most bad-ass tour in Vegas!" Overall this western boundary area is very well done, but again on the landside it is all very weak in the ground textures. NV-171 Central to the scenery is the NV-171 highway, also known in this section as the "McCarran Airport Connector" the highway cuts right through the centre of the scenery and separates the two main terminal aprons. The intersections and roadways are well done and are very realistic when seen from the aircraft while taxiing... ... NV-171 eventually turns into Paradise Road and one of the main entrances to (the old Vegas), along the Paradise Road section there are loads of well done billboards promoting Vegas attractions, all are well done and with great features presented. Overall all the infrastructure set out around McCarran is really good and gives the the airport that filled in feel, as early Las Vegas sceneries just mostly ended at the boundary of the airport itself, but here it is very well filled out for quite a distance with nondescript infrastructure. The trick with really good scenery are not the actual airports or building related to the area, but on how well the surroundings are completed to compliment the visual aspect and FlyTampa certainly cover these outer nondescript areas very well. Ground Textures I really loved the ground textures at FlyTampa's Copenhagen and I am not disappointed here either. They are first rate. LAS is about 95% concrete, so there is very little asphalt here, but it is done very well with the different types of concrete surfaces all being used, from ribbed to stoney and the concrete slabs are well defined. Dirt, oil and rubber markings are again excellent in the detail, you just can't fault them, only note is that there is no 3d grass? which is a shame as it was very good at EKCH, the point is that nothing would really grow in the rarefied air of the Nevada desert, but it would have been still nice to even some half-dead flowering. All surfaces are PBR active with effective burnt-in ambient occlusion, the surfaces are simply gorgeous in the right lighting conditions that brings out all the surface effects, sadly it doesn't rain much out here, so heavy rainfalls don't happen that much to get the most effective conditions to use them. Viva Las Vegas Any Las Vegas scenery is as much about the actual Vegas city vista as just about the airport, both are situated absolutely side by side and morph directly into each other, the Vegas skyline is iconic as well, so you can't simply have a Las Vegas scenery without a comprehensive Vegas city as part of the package. In reality there are two Las Vegas, the older original 50/60's "Downtown" and the more current "The Strip". Most Las Vegas scenery developers only do the "Strip" but that is a mistake as the "Downtown" is from a VFR point of view is just as important. Here in FlyTampa's version both have been recreated and it looks excellent. Downtown or DTLV is Vegas. Based around Fremont Street and the long animated roofed Fremont Street Experience, this is still the core of gambling in Vegas. You have a sort of boxy representation of DTLV, just basic boxes with textures plastered over them, it works but overall it feels a bit old fashioned in a scenery design approach, the very poor washed out ground textures really don't help out at all here, they could have made it at least interesting, but it actually ages the scenery by default? You can pick out the Fremont Street long awning, but the actual individual casinos are a bit of a challenge, as a note the original Golden Nugget is now part of the Fremont Street Experience. The World Market Place building does however stand out, overall it sorta works. The Strat Hotel, Casino and SkyPod (formerly the Stratosphere) is situated in the centre low section between DTLV and "The Strip". The 1,149 ft (350.2 m) Stratosphere Tower is the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, and the second-tallest in the Western Hemisphere, surpassed only by the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. Detail of the Strat is very good with the nice observation glass levels done really well. The International/Hilton/Westgate Hotel is well represented, when built in 1969 it was a huge distance from DTLV, but now is just part of the skyline... ... the monolithic Las Vegas Convention Centre that is next to the Westgate is well represented and the monorail connecting both the hotel and Convention Centre to the Strip is really nicely animated as well.... and yes "Elvis has not yet left the Building!". Now we are getting into the main "Strip" of Vegas... Several first are what as known as off strip in "Circus Circus" and the garlish Trump Tower. "The Strip" refers only to the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that is roughly between Sahara Avenue and Russell Road, a distance of 4.2 miles (6.8 km), but that boundary was overrun decades ago. Because of high land prices in DTLV, most wanting to develop mega resorts went for the out of town for the cheaper desert blocks, The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first casino-resort on what is currently the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 rooms on April 3, 1941 (and was destroyed by a fire in 1960). Its success spawned a second hotel on what would become the Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942 and the first mega casino was Caesars Palace which was established in 1966. Since then it has been the biggest or the most outlandish building race every year. The Wynn and Encore are excellent, and note the amazing reflections. Venetian, Harrahs and Mirage Casino with it's well done forecourt are really good... ... Linq, High Roller and the Flamingo are on the east side and the colossal Caesars Palace is also well represented opposite... ... Bellagio and it's dancing fountains that are animated and the water is well done and next is Bally's opposite, Bally's was originally the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino which opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. And at the time, this was one of the largest hotels in the world by the number of rooms. Paris and it's huge replica Eiffel Tower and decorated balloon is perfect. Planet Hollywood, Hilton Vacations and the second MGM Grand Hotel that opened in 1993 are well produced here with loads of flashing animated advertising, in fact the whole strip has loads of these flashy moving and neon signs that give the area a real extravaganza feel. New York, New York is excellent with great detailing, and the Tropicana opposite shows it's earlier 1957 strip design really well. The most famous casino on the lower strip is the Luxor, after the same in ancient Thebes in Egypt. The pyramid-shaped 30 stories high resort has an all metal-and-glass exterior. The Great Sphinx of Giza and the Obelisk are all recreated in detail. Note again the excellent glass reflections... ... the huge Mandalay Bay which has 3,209 hotel rooms looks striking in it's gold covering, and again the reflections are simply excellent. The Delano Las Vegas (adjacent building) is also represented... Final note is on the "High Roller" 550-foot tall (167.6 m), 520-foot (158.5 m) diameter giant Ferris wheel behind the Ling casino. You simply can't count every casino or attraction here in this scenery package, but it is very comprehensive in the city's detail... Las Vegas is mostly noted as not only a gambling city, but also an all nighter alive experience, so we will cover the lighting with Las Vegas first and not McCarran Airport. Update v1.1 In only a week after their original release, then FlyTampa have already published an update to v1.1. In this review the major criticism is on the really washed out textures and that is what has been updated in v1.1. Still lo-Res, and they still don't have any significant ground detail, but the aerial view is certainly better. FlyTampa have not replaced all the ground textures and the line (arrowed below right) is highly visible and you can see easily the difference between the new and the older resolution. Not a complete fix, but better. Lighting One look at the night environment with FlyTampa's Las Vegas and only one word comes to mind... WOW! The interesting aspect is not actually the Las Vegas skyline itself, as we have had a lot of those, but it is the huge fill of lighting in the valley as it spreads out from the colourful centre, but anchors it at the same time... this is what any arrival cityscape should look like in a simulator and an aim for Laminar Research to deliver, it works and it works here magnificently. KLAS - McCarran Airport is almost lost in a sea of light, but that is a good thing and not a negative. The Luxor Sky Beam is the strongest beam of light in the world, it uses curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focus them into one intense narrow beam of 42.3 billion candela, well done here but it is a little thick and globby at some graphic setting resolutions, but can be a direction marker of Las Vegas from miles out, which is interesting considering the crater ridges hide the interior city. The old garlish and more modern stylish hotel/casinos can look swish and be brought forward in the different night lighting, one is the CityCenter Las Vegas complex of hotels. Complex, movement, striking, colourful and simply out there... everything that Las Vegas should be and it is here at night, it is sin city in it's full flamboyant mode, and FlyTampa have done a brilliant job in recreating it all. Very good finer lighting details makes work, even non-strip buildings have great detailed lighting and not just the main icons, that is again important to recreate the full scale of the scenery. DTLV looks better as well as the dark hides the washed out ground textures, so it works and adds in colour to North Las Vegas. Off strip casinos and resorts have not been forgotten either... the detail is simply amazing. US Airways had been operating two banks of flights to and from McCarran in the middle of the night.The operation had made US Airways the second-busiest carrier at McCarran, providing over 100 daily round-trip flights, but USAir is now gone, however that does not stop McCarran from being one of the most busiest airports in the US at night, and why not, as after dark would simply be the best time to arrive in Vegas. McCarran just looks simply sensational at night... Aprons are well lit and lovely to work on and note the nice reflective sheen, although the remote holding points are a bit patchy. External and internal terminal views are excellent and quite extensive. Airport environs are very good as well, even the fuel depot is nicely lit... carparks, advertising signage are all really good, but the west GA area can be a bit hit and miss patchy in lighting. One really good aspect is the minute detail of lighting with the off airport environs, mostly to the south, here office buildings are really nicely lit and with lit branding shows real eye for detail, this inconsequential detailing is so very important and really well done here. Approach, field lighting and navigation signage is all very good, but at night you will need an airport chart to navigate around the complex set of taxiways. Overall the lighting here in FlyTampa's Las Vegas is overwhelming in detail... but that is also what you pay for. ____________________ Summary There has been always a load of icons including the default Laminar Research to represent Sin City Las Vegas, but most are just that in being a small collection of brightly coloured buildings in the darkness... the Tom Curtis "Glitter Gulch" 2013 package was the really only great scenery that did the area any justice, but this scenery is now old and even then did not overcome the poor autogen layouts surrounding it. And so here comes FlyTampa, obviously the scenery is part of the original 2017 FlightSim Las Vegas, but add in the X-Plane dynamics in effects and it lifts the scenery (mostly in incredible reflections) to a whole new level. The scenery for it's scale is highly detailed, all the main attractions, hotels, casinos and the off strip, Downtown and most of the glitterati is modeled in this scenery and very impressive it all really is. The only real distraction is the very poor washed out ortho-photo low-res ground textures, maybe a decision on the framerate aspect, but you lose a lot of that ground realism detailing via VFR flight from the air.... and they are really quite bad in the areas that should be full of visual detail. Somewhere in here is KLAS - McCarran Airport, but this aviation aspect is not let down either, as the great terminal modeling continues with good internal detail that makes it as interesting on the outside as it is inside, glass is excellent a realistically see through and so are the external building textures with great PBR and burnt-in ambient occlusion textures. SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) is featured here but a lot of the gates don't have the marshallers, VDGS is however sited on Terminal 3. Animations are good from the inter-terminal automated people movers and clever detailed monorails in the city, ground traffic is fine but not overwhelming as is the clutter, again landside is let down by the poor photo textures. Lighting is excellent as it really needed to be here, but great reflections and an immense sets of set and moving animations creates a wonderful realistic day and night vista to enjoy above the average. McCarran Airport lighting is also excellent as well with great apron lighting and even good internal detail lighting, only side field and holding areas are a bit hit and miss patchy in their lighting. A note on framerate... with all this complex detail then when set at high-resolution graphic setting it obviously hammers your framerate down, that is using OpenGL, in Vulkan (beta) you do get a lot of relief, but it is still a heavy draw and the distance detail is blurred (B16), but mostly the scenery can find a balance between use and quality detail considering the complexity and the dense autogen here. 4GB VRAM is minimum but really a 8GB VRAM requirement is needed. FlyTampa have been one of the crossover FlightSim developers that uses the X-Plane dynamics to their fullest, while merging the best detail from the other platforms, so like their Copenhagen XP that was simply also brilliant, again here with Las Vegas XP they deliver another exceptional scenery for X-Plane, but now how many more will we get if they go away and focus only on FS2020, that would be a tragedy for X-Plane, but also very real possibility as the market in X-Plane is also very small... But for now we can "Viva Las Vegas" all we want, and do so in a great scenery "Bright light city gonna set my soul, Gonna set my soul on fire, Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn, So get those stakes up higher.... Viva Las Vegas!, Viva Las Vegas!" _____________________________________ Yes! KLAS - Las Vegas by FlyTampa is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FlyTampa Las Vegas XP Price is US$32.00 Features: Las Vegas McCarran International (KLAS) Airport Addon Airport modeled with PBR materials Detailed internal terminal modeling Animated service vehicles and airport shuttle Dynamic airport lighting Las Vegas city and all landmarks included Las Vegas city animations with advanced visual effects Custom library of animated city vehicles Hand-placed vegetation, and 3D lighting 3D bridges Animated Las Vegas monorail High Resolution surrounding Photo Scenery with custom mesh SAM Animated Jetways and Docking Guidance system (SAM plugin required) WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided and a generation is required, and overall the airport generation functions perfectly. Traffic Global runs fine Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Current and updated Review Version : 1.1 (1st August 2020) Installation You download an Installer, that you then set the X-Plane install address and then insert your email address and the authorization key... the installer will then do the rest (Internet connection is required and fast if possible). Install is five folders set in order: FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_city FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_airport FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_overlays FlyTampa_LasVegas_1_overlays FlyTampa_LasVegas_2_Photoreal FlyTampa_LasVegas_3_Mesh The order above has to be correct to get the right loading of the scenery Total scenery installation is a huge big : 5.71gb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery Ground Traffic The Ground Traffic plugin does work in v11.50 (Vulkan). Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (8 pages) but no charts FlyTampa-LasVegas.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 29th July 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 - tested v11.50.b16 (fine but buzzy textures at a distance) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global (Just Flight) US$52.99 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Reserch
  4. Quick Impression : LGIR - Heraklion International Airport by FlyTampa Having looked at the other two Greek FlyTampa recent scenery releases of Athens XP and Thessaloniki XP for X-Plane11, it was only fitting then to have a quick look at FlyTampa's LGIR - Heraklion International Airport in FlyHeraklion XP... LGIR was the first release of the XP series and this is FlyTampa's version with JustSim having a LGIR - Heraklion scenery as well... and I will note that in this Quick Impression is that I am using the misterx6 SFD Global autogen, but it isn't really required as the provided custom autogen is very extensive. Heraklion International Airport "Nikos Kazantzakis" Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Ηρακλείου "Νίκος Καζαντζάκης" IATA: HER - ICAO: LGIR First Impression of FlyTampa's LGIR - Heraklion XP was very good, the feel however is more darker because of the custom textures applied here, the object count of buildings is off the chart as well, as FlyTampa always provide not only the airport scenery itself, but the extensive produced custom autogen as well, and that makes up quite a visual view filling scenario. WT3 generation from completed ATC ground routes is available, but it is all very average, with a very odd wing waving (rolling) approach line to RWY09, and a lot of popping off of aircraft on the actual landing, but at least LGIR WT3 is active... sort of. Great clutter detail is all airline branded. All aircraft parking at LGIR is by remote stand only (no airbridges) but there is a lot of available parking spaces to choose from. Terminal modeling and detail is excellent, but it feels slightly disconnected from the ground? The idea to use low-res textures in various high detail areas can create visual disparities, as it is here at LGIR. Vehicle and clutter quality is very high and nicely airport and airline branded with the gate mounted F-16 well done, Greek flags are animated and look great and there is extensive animated traffic airside and landside. Landside is well catered for with clutter, but well let down again with the low-res texture carpark and road detail... cars are riding on dirt more than roads into and out of the airport and the good detail here sadly really suffers. Runway/Taxiway textures are excellent and also PBR (Physically Based Rendering) active (wet, rain and reflective) as well and look amazing in the right lighting conditions with oily areas that look authentic, runway signage and markings are also very good... Like all in these Greek FlyTampa sceneries you have 3d grass and here it is one of the best yet in detail and it is certainly well done on the verges. Airport detail is very good, as all areas have something interesting and related to HER, highlight is the hilltop dome radar (IRAKLION VOR (108.80)) that dominates the scenery. Heraklion Port is noted, with two ships in the harbour and the port is really well highly detailed. Custom autogen is created for efficiency and not detail and that allows the custom scenery to go on... and on and on... in that it covers the area very extensively, but the boundary is noticeable... Heraklion's famous Rocca a Mare Fortress is well presented and there are a few landmarks and stadiums in between the buildings to give you the perfect overall Heraklion feel. Lighting Lighting is as good if not better than the other sceneries in the series. All the aprons are well lit (nicely reflective) stands like on Apron L and the western end of the main apron that are also excellent. Terminal and building lighting is also excellent, and right down to the real detail in the lower under terminal strip lighting that is so authentic, and the X-Plane11 dynamic lighting effects just makes it all look so very good. Runaway/Taxiway lighting is good, but there is no centre line lighting on any of the main runways. Heraklion City as a vista at night is very good, and gives you a nice exciting arrival feel, as the Port, landmark buildings and stadiums are all very nicely lit. Feature list is very good, with a lot of dynamic X-Plane11 features provided. Heraklion International Airport N.Kazantzakis (LGIR) Detailed custom Taxiway, Apron & Runway markings Sloped airport terrain Custom city mesh, vegetation and dynamic XP lighting Full city coverage with custom buildings and landmarks Custom Terrain Mesh Models baked with Ambient Occlusion PBR Textures Volumetric Grass Animated apron vehicles and road traffic Compatible with World Traffic and other AI Traffic programs. Optimized for excellent frame rates First Impressions Overall extremely good like most of these Greek Sceneries from FlyTampa and their eastern Mediterranean series, Layout, clutter, lighting, grass and detail is very good to excellent, and it all comes with that FlyTampa extensive custom autogen. Best of the series certainly for X-Plane dynamics (reflective glass and runways) and lighting is exceptional, and the PBR ground textures here are also very good... very, very good value. Contrary are the usual low noticeable resolution photo-textures (roads, carparks... etc) landiside and even in some areas airside , WT3 needs more refining (RWY09 approach is simply weird), but it works... This scenery was just so, so close for a full 5 stars. Four out of Five stars ☀️☀️☀️☀️⭐ LGIR - Heraklion International Airport by FlyTampa is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore here: FlyTampa-Heraklion XP Price is US$22.00 Requirements are: X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 750MB - Install Size: 858 mb Current and impression version : 1.0 (Nov 7th 2019) ________________________________________ Quick Impression by Stephen Dutton 7th November 2019 Copyright©2019: 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)
  5. Scenery Review : EKCH - Copenhagen XP by FlyTampa Everyone has a bucket list. A list of destinations that they really want and still considering everything that list is still pretty long in X-Plane. Our hopes were quietly were raised as a few more of the iconic brands of FlightSim movement moved over into X-Plane, but in reality a lot of them if not all of the bigger scenery art houses don't do or release any of their most high profile products in the X-Plane Simulator. This was in fact a really big head scratcher in the fact that why try to make a big new presence in a new platform but then deliver the most and obscure scenery products that were so off beat, or worse off route, and almost all of the FlightSim developers are all guilty of this strange behavior. It is only this last year that Orbx has finally delivered scenery we would want to actually buy in EGHP-Edinbourgh and EGFF-Cardiff and maybe you could add in EGHI in Southampton, but where still are we wanting for any of their excellent Australian sceneries except for Broome, I mean who flies to Broome for god's sake even from within Australia? That brings us to FlyTampa... when FlyTampa announced they were going to do scenery products for X-Plane, then you could feel the whole X-Plane community go "Yes", finally we will get some decent scenery from their excellent back catalogue. But no offence what we actually got was Corfu XP? Yes again an excellent scenery, but really Corfu? who goes there, Corfu is really a once when in the right mood destination? So it is the same promise and the same FlightSim result. As noted many times before on this site, the FlightSim developers all noted that X-Plane was a simulator you simply can't make money out of? But the reality was they gave us nothing to want to actually want to spend our actual money on worthwhile either, so who is really doing the wrong business plan here and then blaming us all when it is not working. So here is one of the big ones, a top rate scenery from FlyTampa that everyone wants to use. EKCH-Copenhagen airport has been at the top of my scenery must have list for so long the print on the paper has faded... It is finally here, finally a decent, decent hub for us to (finally) access and enjoy... but does this EKCH live up to the extremely long, long wait we have had to persevere to get into Copenhagen's CPH (no offence to the hard working Freeware devs). EKCH - Copenhagen XP by FlyTampa Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup IATA: CPH - ICAO: EKCH 04L/22R - 3,600m (11,811ft) Asphalt 04R/22L - 3,300m (10,827ft) Asphalt 12/30 - 2,800m (9,186ft) Asphalt/Concrete Elevation AMSL - 5m/17ft Copenhagen Kastrup Airport is a bit of a sprawl, all the facilities and the terminals are all set tight together on the north side of the field, the runways 04L/22R, 04R/22L and 12/30 are a cross (04R/22L and 12/30) and a offset parallel (04L/22R) layout, but that is what make EKCH so very interesting as an airport. The Öresund We will get the obvious out of the way first... the Øresund Bridge. The famous (Nordic television show) bridge is indeed reproduced here in the FlyTampa scenery, I have used a freeware version of the Øresund Bridge for years, but this version of the bridge is far more detailed and quite perfect with great animated traffic that flows from one side (Denmark) to the other (Sweden). The Øresund Bridge is highly visible from Kastrup and so it is a big and important part of the overall aspect of the airport. In fact the E20 Øresundmotorvejen goes around CPH airport and on to the bridge. Terminals and Concourses Kastrup has three terminals... Terminal 1, Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. Terminal 1 In note Terminal 1 is now part or an arm of Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. Previously all domestic flights departed from Terminal 1, but from 29 March 2015 all departures have now been collected in Terminals 2 and 3... but for the sake of confusion and the size of the terminal arrangements at CPH we will still note the Terminal 1 as a standalone. One thing that immediately becomes apparent is that it is simply impossible even with some brave attempts to recreate these CPH terminals with facades and generic objects. The terminal design is simply far too complex and so distinctive, you would never ever get it right. Custom modeling is the only way to create the feel and shape of the terminal... that said even with a custom design you would have to be again seriously good artist to... One. To take the project on, and Two. actually pull off the complex architecture, shapes and material look to make it all look actually authentic... but the results is that if you do have the skills and the talent are simply outstanding, we will get to the details and materials in a moment, but first just look at the results. The detail is breathtaking, sublime.... on and on in accolades, even the departure areas internally are well recreated. A Stands A18-A23 are (five) airbridges, A25-A34 (ten) are all walkon-walkoff stands. Terminal 2 Terminal 2-3 IS CPH - Kastrup, Terminal 2 overall is simply HUGE! but confusingly both Terminals 2 and 3 are also part of each other and you can actually flow between all three T1,T2 & T3 as Copenhagen want to promote the Danish easy-flow travel experience... Terminal 2 has two (piers) concourses in Concourse A (A Gates), Concourse B (B Gates) and Terminal 3 has Concourse C (C Gates) and Concourse F (F Gates). We will still split up the Terminals to absorb the separate areas... Terminal 2 There are two halls as part of Terminal 2, one is easily visible, but the other hall (lower above) is hidden behind the Carpark P4. Obviously the second hall is a terminal built in a different era in design and in fact it was opened 10th May 1960 and very much looks like the Heathrow of the 60's era. The 60's era recreation here is excellent, the terminal design is totally authentic, as with the later addon extension of which is all glass. Both A and B piers were part of the original 60's terminal building, but have been both completely redesigned with the A Concourse now having a T shape with a rebuilt end, you can actually see parts of the original pier as part of the B Concourse, but again the design is now very modern and updated here with a circular end design rather than another T bar shape. If you love exceptional detail and for pushing simulation to the edges of extreme realism, then Concourse A will bring you to tears... ... the metal cladding materials with even all the riveting are just sublime. Reflections are also awe-inspiring with the same metal textures, and have your taxi-light light on when parking and it is about as real as it gets. Gates A4-A17 (Ten) gates and all are active airbridges. Airbridge detail and design is also drop-your-jaw magnificent, and they are all also SAM-Scenery Animation Management active, are you crying yet, you will be or should be. To note everything is not totally perfect as some FlightSim quirks have still come through, like with the transparency around stairs and a few objects turning blue, but this is overall simply heaven made quality for the most of us. Concourse B is just as good... same exceptional cladding here with stringers, the quality is excellent.... ... which brings us to the glass. I had a lot to say or complain about with glass in the KFLL-Fort Lauderdale scenery... notably that glass is very hard to get right or very wrong as the KFLL scenery showed... but here it shows you can actually do it right or use the right way to do realistic glass. Here reflective but dark tinted glass throughout the EKCH scenery is perfect and totally absolutely realistic, so it can be done correctly. Gates B4-B19 (ten) Both the Gates A and Gates B waiting internal areas are represented and well done, even the centre pier corridor is completed... impressive. Terminal 3 The arrow shaped building is the entrance to Terminal 3, connected to the railway station landside... ... Terminal 3 serves both the International departure terminal as well as the LCC (El Cheapo) Low-Cost Carrier terminal in one building and designwise it is hugely impressive. And even if the internal fitout is a bit sparse compared to the others, with just checkin counters situated each side. Terminal 3 airside is complex with a big C, it looks straight forward, but the actual terminal and Concourse C (C Gates) have so many different elements... ... it is a credit to FlyTampa that it looks so very if totally realistic, as even down to each parking bay then the design can be different... overall there is a sort of same design logic to it all, but totally sensational this design all is, glass is again sensational and get into the right lighting conditions and the quality simply blows you away... C37 and C39 are Class E or A380 stands, and really well done they are... I however couldn't get the Peter A380 to connect, sometimes it showed, but other times it didn't in the SAM? but I think it is the aircraft being more out of date than the SAM issue. Notable here are the A380 notes, the A380 can only use RWY 04R/22L (the smaller one?) and the permitted taxi routes are clearly defined, Navigraph supplies the correct notes (10-9C1) and the noted taxi routes. Gates C27-C39 are on the concourse, side on facing Terminal 3 are D1-D4, and all gates have animated airbridges. Internal Terminal 3 Concourse C is also modeled, from the main arrival area with shops to the corridors and waiting gate areas... ... internally it is not super detailed, but can be highly explored if you like that kind of thing... I think it has the right balance between detail and efficiency. The design circular language of the A380 zone is kept very real, and over the two arrival and departure levels. CPH created a new section called CPH Go, now called Pier F, and it is a dedicated low-cost carrier terminal with remote stands, Concourse F was opened in October 2010. CPH Go - Concourse F Clever in a way to create a dedicated area for LCC carriers. There is an actual terminal building that is connected to Terminal 3 via a covered walkway... ... but the connection is odd in that it does not actually connect to the actual F Terminal? On google Maps you can see the problem in that there is a missing walkway section (in red) from the main walkway into the terminal, an oversight? Stands E36, F1, F4, F5, F7-F9 front the terminal, F89-F98 are Remote stands with H101-H106 for the larger twin-aisle aircraft, there is an overflow area of E Stands fronting the SAS Maintenance Hangars, for stands E70-E82, buses are of course required. Airside on the F Stands it is simply sensational, a great place to arrive in a prop or domestic jet... internal Terminal F is again good. Airside clutter is sensational, all vehicles are SAS or CPH branded and just about perfect in density.... animated traffic is good as well, with cars, tugs, vans and buses all rotating around the airport, but I like the lower flow of vehicles that move around, enough for movement around the scenery, but not to be cluttered up with too much colliding traffic... ... note if using EKCH in v11.50 there is a need to update the Ground Traffic plugin, IMPORTANT details are in installation below. Landside Kastrup Airport landside has all the terminal designated carparks with all buildings having very up to date and great visual advertising... The Clarion Hotel (ex-Hilton) is well represented and has the same metal (reflective) cladding as the terminals. Considering the excellent clutter detail airside, then landside is completely different, actually more like the forgotten area, as spaces are quite empty and there is a general feeling of desolation, overall it is a stale feel... a sort of post-apocalypse world or post-virus disaster. There is traffic that circulates around the inner roads and on the whole it is good, but not actually very busy... I would add in more static elements to fill theses area a bit more in these drop off, pick up areas. ... green roads don't fit into the landscape either, and washout quite badly in other areas with such a Lo-Res texture, which is a shame as almost every other area is so well done in the scenery, but the traffic is great and so are the trains that travel all the way (and back) to central Copenhagen. SAS Maintenance Kastrup is a main SAS hub and airline base, and the airline has a major maintenance facility here with the four main maintenance hangers dominating the northeast side of the central terminal area. Sadly the doors don't open per SAM. Cargo The large cargo facility is far northeast and a separate area from the central terminal area on the threshold of RWY 10. Again very well represented the cargo haulers will love the large apron and well detailed clutter. The usual suspects in DHL, FedEx are well represented, but again more landside cargo clutter would have been nice. SAS Cargo have their own facility and this area is well done as is the SkyChef's catering building set behind. Area South and Copenhagen Airport South Diagonally opposite and southwest of the central terminal area is the noted Area South. Here is the Control Tower and a Military Supply area, plus various Danish Company Airport facilities like Maersk and Goldschmidt Aviation... mostly very military in feel and look, but that Danish design comes out well here as authentic. Kastrup Control Tower is an exposed concrete style affair, not very pretty, but very authentic and very well done here and opened and operated in 2008 by Naviair... tower view is set somewhere in the Terminal 1 zone? a very odd place and totally useless? Copenhagen Airport South The area southwest is the really old original section of Kastrup Airport and has the original 1920's terminal building as part of the area, which is now used as a VIP and Royal terminal. The Original terminal was moved about 2 km during the 1990s to its current position. SAS traffic has an office that resides at Copenhagen Airport South under the old control tower, and there are also few airport facility support buildings including the bus depot also located over in this area. Ground Textures The runway and taxiway textures are exceptional... rough edges and patches, with that highly realistic asphalt join marking on the runways that is really good to excellent detail. Rubber gloss on touchdown areas and so many other fine details, make these textures some of the best lately... ... all textures have PBR reflections and are excellent in damp or wet conditions, grain is very good and so is all the signage and markings, you just simply can't fault it. Grass is unique as well... this is the first multi-layered grass I have seen, and that low and tall grass/flowers effect is simply so effective for field realism. The scenery comes with SAM-Seasons built in and the winter textures are excellent... I don't run SAM-Seasons as I use xEnviro, but have seen them in action and they are very good. (images are courtesy of FlyTampa). Copenhagen FlyTampa are renowned for not only providing the actual airport scenery, but all the surrounding cityscape as well... In that aspect the Copenhagen XP does not disappoint. Because the whole area has a custom mesh then the Copenhagen Airport is very well immersed into the scenery, and obviously there are no boundaries or change of texture colour here. The cityscape is excellent with Danish objects that covers all the housing and buildings in Copenhagen. It is a little generic in feel, missing though are important church spires and the large government buildings and Palaces, but overall it is very good... Custom areas include Ørestad a modern area of the city with the Marriott Bella Sky building and the Bella Centre, but missing though is the very distinctive (now closed, but soon to be a museum) Svanemølle Power Station and it's three tall funnels that dominates the Copenhagen skyline and harbour entrance? Highly visible are the twenty power wind turbines (The Danish are very into climate change and the environment) that I thought were static... ... but they do actually turn as their speed of rotation depends on the strength of the wind speed, a nice feature, there is another wind turbine at Ørestad... and note the Øresund Bridge again in the background. Lighting Kastrup lighting is quite spectacular! There is a huge differential in tone between the airside's extremely bright areas and the landside's more subdued illumination. But bright on the ramps it is? this is one of the brightest ramp areas I think I have seen, personally I absolute love it, but I know it will seriously divide the punters. Even with the subdueded lighting it is more than one tone, so it works overall, but I still question if a bit more lighting was required landside? The lit advertising is very nice. Terminal 3 is bit dark, but overall the rail terminus, office and administration building lighting (SAS) is very authentic and looks good. Remote stands F and E are excellent. Area South is well lit, with a lot of nice drop lighting and overhead gantry... Cargo and SkyChef's catering is also very good. Copenhagen City is not bad, but there are areas of monochomic lighting and some tall buildings are not lit? but other buildings look great.... overall the city nightscape is very good. Recommended is to have v11.50's reflection detail switched on, the Øresund Bridge looks brilliant on arrival and departure at CPH under a full moon. ___________________________ Summary Iconic Flight Simulator developers for years have been taunting X-Plane users that they created exceptional scenery, but simply refused to develop for the X-Plane platform, but instead threw us usually the most obscure and even worthless product to convince themselves that X-Plane as a simulator was not worth their time or investment, and in most cases they then wondered why we never purchased anything from them. In other words both sides lost in a game of wasted resources, time and even good business sense. The slow death of the original FlightSim movement, and the rise of the quality of X-Plane11, the tide turned in the fact that to just survive with the movement of a lot of their own customers the FlightSim developer then decided to finally deliver quality products for the X-Plane Platform, but to a point because still the bigger scenery assets were going to take time to convert to the X-Plane specifications, so again we had to wait. But time was now running out in the fact the FlightSim world now had a new version in FS2020 (Still in development). For years X-Plane has been starved of the sort of mega quality scenery other platforms found accessible, it is not about money, it s about the quality of the scenery that is the attraction, plus the requirement that it also conforms to the X-Plane features and effects. So here is FlyTampa's first big mega scenery or a sort of leveller scenery that the FlightSim community have not had access to for years. And not only is this Copenhagen XP our really first taste of their top grade scenery, but also the quality that can help the simulator at least have fair balance on keeping Ex-FlightSim simmers in the X-Plane platform FS2020 not withstanding. The main point to make with this scenery is the way that FlyTampa has utilised the X-Plane PBR effects in metal and glass, not to mention the complex modeling in recreating a very highly realistic Kastrup, to not have done so would have ruined a major chance of any big FlightSim developer in creating any decent scenery for X-Plane in the future, in fact it could have killed any future development stone dead, as the poor sales figures would have seen to that alone. Copenhagen XP is really a huge triumph for everyone, both FlyTampa and X-Plane users in the sheer quality and quality of this scenery. As noted the modeling and the use of materials in this scenery are simply outstanding, as noted metal, glass and reflection effects are off the scale in quality, but also is the use of the mesh, textures and even down to the use double scale grass to create almost a masterpiece of Kastrup for X-Plane users to use. Small detailing of the branded clutter, good vehicle animation, SAM-Scenery-Animation-Manager airbridges and included also are season textures, Copenhagen city, Øresund Bridge and highly impressive lighting are also huge plus-points It is not perfect though, nothing is totally absolutely perfection. Landside is missing the heavier clutter detail of the airside, and actually required here to cover the more lower-resolution textures, the small but important missing connection between the walkway and Terminal F, green roadways and washed out textures could be more Hi-Res... and lighting could be just a bit better on the landside as well... the tower view is just MIA. The fate of FlightSim quality scenery is really now in our X-Plane wallets, ignore this scenery for poor freeware, or invest in a quality we deserve and also have a seriously important European hub for our route requirements. So buy and receive finally a scenery we have been begging for years for, it is now your choice and in reality vote with your wallets and show that yes X-Plane can be a profitable platform because this Copenhagen XP scenery gives us absolutely now no excuses because FlyTampa has certainly delivered here, the future is now set with how X-Plane as a community repays them for in doing so. As a note, FlyTampa announced EHAM Schiphol as another scenery to be released besides this EKCH, now that airport is also another certainly been worth waiting for if it as good as this Copenhagen XP..... Absolutely must have scenery. _____________________________________ Yes! EKCH - Copenhagen XP by FlyTampa is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FlyTampa Copenhagen XP Price is US$31.00 Copenhagen Airport Copenhagen Kastrup International (EKCH) Airport Addon Airport modeled with PBR material 3D bridges, Animated vehicles & trains SAM Animated Jetways SAM Docking Guidance system Copenhagen City Copenhagen city fully modeled Hand-placed vegetation, and 3D lighting High Resolution surrounding Photo Scenery with custom mesh Dynamic lighting Volumetric Grass WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided and a generation is required, and overall the airport generation functions perfectly. Traffic Global runs fine Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2 GB Current and Review version : 2.0 (May 10th 2020) Installation You download an Installer, that you then set the X-Plane install address and then insert your email address and the authorization key... the installer will then do the rest (Internet connection is required and fast if possible). Install is five folders set in order: FlyTampa_Copenhagen_0_airport FlyTampa_Copenhagen_0_city Flytampa_Copenhagen_1overlays Flytampa_Copenhagen_2Photoreal Flytampa_Copenhagen_3Mesh Total scenery installation is a huge big : 6.84gb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 1.0 is required for this scenery Seasons Seasons for the SAM - Seasons (SAM2 Suite) is provided and the installer does the work for you at the Installation phase. Ground Traffic The Ground Traffic plugin does not work in v11.50 (Vulkan). There is a fix that can be downloaded here, and then you need to replace the Ground Traffic file.xpl in ALL the PLUGIN folders in the: airport, city, overlays and Photoreal folders... then it will work. Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (6 pages) but no charts FlyTampa-Copenhagen.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 20th May 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 - tested v11.50.b9 (fine) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global (Just Flight) US$52.99 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Reserch
  6. Scenery Review : FlyCorfu XP by FlyTampa If I ever went to most Flight Simulator forums or any debate about Flight Simulator (P3D) vs X-Plane then one name always came up... FlyTampa. In most cases in the forums the users were usually absolutely loath to give up their FlyTampa sceneries. So no matter how advanced or how many features X-Plane put into their simulator it was always (with a few very good aircraft developers) a major sticking point with FlyTampa sceneries not available in switching over to the X-Plane platform. It is amazing that a developer can have such a grasp of so many simulator users with just good scenery. But in early 2018 things changed very quickly as first Orbix (another FS/P3D staple) announced and published their first scenery for X-Plane and then within weeks FlyTampa also and even quietly with a spoiler announced that they also were going to now release their first scenery on the X-Plane11 platform. That is a game changer for X-Plane. But that FlyTampa introduction announcement into X-Plane also gave me a few concerns? As Flight Simulator developers have had a notorious relationship with X-Plane, as their point of view was that what works very well for them in the FS/P3D sphere will simply work in X-Plane as well, is that a sort of arrogance, and maybe it is. But it also confuses the issue in that most times X-Plane usually came out the bad end of the deal or gets all the bad press in a viewpoint that was in most cases was in their own FS making. So here now is one the big one's, this is FlyTampa and could they get it also so very wrong, if so then the effects could be long lasting to both the developer and X-Plane in certainly not so much in a mortal way, but in a more of a "I told you so" conversation... so there was a lot of apprehension but also a undeniable excitement when I loaded in FlyTampa's first X-Plane release in FlyCorfu XP. Installing FlyCorfu XP FlyCorfuXP comes with both .EXE and .dmg installers for both either Windows or Mac (Linux notes for install is below), you just download the installer you require. I am using the .EXE Windows version. First is the Licence Agreement (You say yes! or I agree) then the provided Key Authorisation number. The next input is your address for the X-Plane11 root folder (not the Custom Scenery folder) and then the installer goes about it's job and extracts and installs three files. These files are: FlyTampa_Corfu_Airport (798.10mb) FlyTampa_Corfu_Objects (111.20mb) FlyTampa_Corfu_zMesh (2.33gb) It is your choice if you want to move the final zMesh files to the bottom of your .INI list, but in reality here it is not needed as there is no conflict with any other scenery, unless you are an administration freak. The fully installed FlyCorfu package is 3.01gb. Corfu Corfu or Kerkyra (/kɔːrˈfuː, -fjuː/; Greek, is the second largest island of the Ionian Sea, and is located at the northwest coast of Greece. (Google Maps) The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality, which also includes the smaller islands of Ereikoussa, Mathraki and Othonoi. The municipality has an area of 610,9 km2, and the island proper is 592,8 km2.The principal city of the island and seat of the municipality (pop. 32,095) is also named Corfu.(wikipedia). FlyCorfu XP by FlyTampa One thing to get clear from the start is that "FlyCorfu XP" is not just "Corfu" in the airport scenery? it is CORFU... in the WHOLE island of Corfu. So this scenery and the underlying mesh provided covers the whole island from top to bottom. To a point this is the fundamental important aspect of FlyTampa sceneries, and why they are so revered, as in you just don't get the airport or the side add-on of say the basic layout of the local area, no.. what you get with FlyTampa everything! This aspect is easier with a complete but self contained island scenery, a landlocked scenery is harder to do as it has to blend in to the surrounding areas, but even with an island scenery and one close to the other islands and the mainland coastline the visual effect of the custom scenery still has to blend in... ... so your first visual clues here with FlyCorfu are actually disappointing, but it shouldn't be that at all. The scenery is so well blended in you can't actually tell the difference between the custom scenery and the surrounding areas, in other words it is perfect, and as there are no vastly different mesh colours here, no badly joined sight lines, it is just the same as you are always used to and as Emilios Gemenetzidis from FlyTampa noted to X-PlaneReviews "in that we did spend a lot of time optimising/customising our work for XPlane" and that aspect is certainly very apparent here. And to note that I have also turned off my environmental special effects here so the view is clearer and more defined. Corfu the city is on eastern inland sea area and about half-way up the island. And as you fly closer the city becomes more detailed... A fly over of Corfu city and the close by airport is an amazing experience, as the scenery is so very well intergrated not only into the surrounding mesh but into the complete overall scenery itself. So instantly one of my biggest fears was discarded in mis-matching textures and mesh collisions, as FlyCorfu XP feels X-Plane through and through. So it was hard not to be impressed, and be very taken by the realism and authentic feel of an arrival at the Corfu scenery as this is one of the best I have seen for a long time. A low flight over Corfu harbour reinstated the quality of the scenery and the very high VFR potential aspect of the scenery. Ioannis Kapodistrias (Capodistrias) International Airport (IATA: CFU, ICAO: LGKR) or Corfu Airport is just south of the city and is set by two lagoons. And my arrival was via RWY 35.... The FlyTampa burb notes both the approaches as: "The approach path to RW35 passes next to the mountainous terrain, which runs along the southern coast of the island, often challenged by strong winds on short final. A few meters before touchdown, the path comes low above the monastery of Vlacherna and the sea bridge connecting the western coast with the famous ‘Kanoni’, which is embedded into the mountain cliffs, at an ideal location for aircraft spotters. RW17 provides an equally thrilling approach amid hazardous terrain. Its path comes low above the ship harbor, and ‘cuts’ though Corfu downtown, with the old city of Kerkyra and its glorious two fortresses standing high on the left" Glorious stuff and yes it is not glossed over, but to be honest I was far too focused on landing the Airbus A319, nice scenery as it is but a lot concentration is required to land here, there are no helpers either in any ILS but there is a DME/VOR (GAR - 108.80 MHz) and a NDB (KEK - 403 KHz) as your only guides into RWY35. The ramp and terminal area is on your right, and "Welcome to Corfu". Corfu City and Island Turn on the X-Plane theatrical and effects and what you get is simply "wow"... Now FlyTampa note the best graphic settings to run the FlyCorfu XP scenery in the manual and that is reproduced here below... This is actually very close to my standard X-Plane review settings anyway, but I put my Antialiasing up to the full 8xSSAA-FXAA (Highest Quality) without any effects, in fact the overall framerate at those settings was 40fr-50fr which is highly impressive considering the size of the mesh scenery, but I was consuming "4134 mb" of texture loading, so only graphic cards of 6gb or higher will get those numbers at those settings. So the overall verdict was that the scenery is very highly refined for use, but those with 4gb graphic cards or lower will have to lose another level in texture quality. To achieve those impressive frame-rates there is a bit of a slight of hand going on here. Most of the building modeling is square or rectangle in a sort of autogen look set out on the photo textures, but don't get me wrong as there are a lot of custom buildings set out in the city scene as well... The effect is highly impressive both ways with excellent framerate, but that unique look and feel is required. The important Corfu icons are all there with the old citadel (in Greek Palaio Frourio (Παλαιό Φρούριο) which is an old Venetian fortress built on an artificial islet with fortifications surrounding its entire perimeter with the "Great Cross", the new citadel or Neo Frourio (Νέο Φρούριο, "New Fortress") is a huge complex of fortifications dominating the northeastern part of the city, the The Old Town and Pontikonisi and on the list goes. What is a Greek island without a port, and here it is done very well with ferries, boats and an excellent detailed Cruise Liner ... ... distinctive Corfu Palace Hotel and the famous Vlacherna Monastery are all represented as well. In most cases with custom scenery the line is usually drawn about here, and once you are out of the main city environs the 3d scenery and hand object placement finishes unless there is a reason to add in say an iconic item... but not with FlyTampa! Every town, every village, every harbour and in fact every single settlement either on the coastline or inland is covered with 3d placement objects... You go from a sort of impressed to completely overwhelmed feeling as you make your way around the islands of Corfu and at the sheer amount of work by FlyTampa in this scenery, and to a point on a scale X-Plane has not seen before without the help of the native autogen. The coastal mesh is very good as well, you have to expect a certain lower resolution with the amount and the size of the mesh used here, but the effects are still outstanding with not only the beaches and rocky formations but the inner sandbanks in the water effect, from the air it is all highly-realistic. Ioannis Kapodistrias (Capodistrias) International Airport Buried just south of Corfu City in Kerkyra is LGKR or Corfu Airport. And it is the only airport on the island. Corfu International Airport "Ioannis Kapodistrias" Κρατικός Αερολιμένας Κέρκυρας "Ιωάννης Καποδίστριας" IATA: CFU - ICAO: LGKR 17/35 7,785ft (2,373m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 6 ft / 2 m The Corfu airport was founded in 1937. During Second World War it was used by German and Italian forces as a base for transport and fighter aircraft and during the war the runway length was 600m. By the end of April 1949 the length had reached 800m. A further extension to 1260m took place by the end of 1951 to meet the then larger aircraft needs. The next and last extension of the runway began in 1957 and was completed in 1959, with a length of 2,373m. The first commercial flight took place on 19 April 1949 from Athens operated by TAE Greek National Airlines. On 2 September 1950 HELLAS also started flights to Corfu. In 1962 a small passenger terminal was built, which today accommodates the Corfu Aeroclub. In April 1965 the airport became International, with the inaugural overseas flight being operated by Olympic Airlines. The construction of the new passenger terminal began in 1968 and was completed in 1972. Notable Corfu is a very seasonal airport and mostly with charter airlines during the summer holiday periods.(wikipedia) Ramp areas There are ten parking stands at LGKR (no airgates) but stand 1 is 1A and 1B & and there is also a 2A and 2B. The layout is confusing when you arrive, so you will need to consult your chart. There is GA parking in front of the old terminal and across the 17/35 runway there is a large parking apron that will park a B737/A320, but my guess is this area is used as an overflow ramp at busy seasonal times of operations a few private jets are currently in residence. Terminal The single terminal building is now serving nearly 2,5 million passengers yearly is excellent here, I will admit the FlyCorfu scenery is not modern, in a brand new, new in design, it had been created for Flight Simulator after all, but the design here is still first rate, and FlyTampa have used the X-Plane11 reflective glass feature here to great effect on the windows and note the really realistic matrix metal roofing support framework, first-rate modeling. Detailing is simply excellent and the Control Tower is at the northern end of the building. The X-Plane "Tower View" was missed in the development, but FlyTampa note's it will be done in the first update. The airport has custom animated vehicle traffic, from graphic signed buses to baggage carts. They all roll around the aircraft at a nice pace but there is not too much activity zooming around but far enough to make it realistic. 3d object placement in vehicles and airport support ground equipment is again excellent in the sheer numbers and quality, the haphazard parking of the old "Olympic" airstairs and baggage carts is very well done and very realistic... I love detail like that. Fuel depots with supplier signage is also well represented with a large and now isolated aircraft hangar in the background, beyond is a really well done football field. Old Terminal that is now the "Corfu Aeroclub" is there, and there is a lot of very good perimeter surrounding buildings for restaurants and car hire that are very well signed with some great graphic detailing. Runway textures are first-rate, with great variation and tire wear is evident, taxiway and runway signage is also perfect. Like with the terminal glass, FlyTampa have also used reflections on the hard taxiway and runway surfaces which is very impressive... ... Grass! who doesn't love grass for the great effect it gives, and here the grass is really well done and with flowers as well. The grass is however contained just to inside the airport perimeter. And yes there is even animated swans swimming around in the lagoon... highly realistic. FlyTampa have completed the ATC ground routes, so A.I. and X-Life Traffic will work here very well. WorldTraffic3 however is a not as perfect in the way it interprets the built in WED layout. Takeoffs from the RWY35 end is fine when the wind is blowing that way, but landings from the RWY15 end doesn't work as well, because of that turnaround circle at the end of RWY15? (funny enough the takeoff circle works fine with the RWY35 takeoff). The issue is that aircraft land on RWY15 and then disappear as the ground routes end and so slowly the airport empties out? Note also that the airport is quieter in the winter than in the summer for using AFRE routes, so the autogen mode is usually the better of the two. Overall though WT3 works fine. Scenery Lighting To a point the scenery lighting is slightly different to what X-Plane users are used to. That is to the advantage here because you have that mesh of Flight Simulator lighting on the original scenery and the overlaid effects of the X-Plane lighting, it shouldn't work, but it does. LGKR Airport is not a great night operations airport to fly into. There is only the runway (side) lighting and no taxi guide lights either, so you will need good aircraft lighting to work your way around the runway and the taxiways... ... the ramps feel dark in places but where the lighting is it very effective and looks visually amazing, but I feel in front of the terminal a little more lighting would help. The football field is also dark? and it look really great lit up as well. The terminal however looks excellent at night, with great graphic night textures and brilliant signage... first-rate. Corfu City and Island The city scenery lighting is as noted a mixture of the old FS lighting and the newer X-Plane street lighting, but overall it is highly effective. Monuments are really nicely lit and look very realistic on any arrival or departure at night, I was surprised the "Great Cross" was not lit at night as it would stand out across the harbour. Even away from the City centre the lighting is very good. The moored Cruise Ship is a real highlight, as it looks very realistic in the harbour as do the major tourist hotels spread around the city. But visually the more you move away from Corfu the better it seems to get? The limitations of the X-Plane radius lighting is supplemented with the custom placed island lighting that extends the lighting right out in a way of perfection... ... here night approaches are sublime in their visual impact and are extremely highly realistic, could all of X-Plane please be like this? Summary The interesting point to make here is that FlyCorfu XP is like no other X-Plane scenery, not that it is Flight Simulator scenery either but it was obviously built for that platform and in most cases that would then be deprecated for X-Plane. So in reality there is a sort of adjustment in the way you are conscious of what this scenery actually is, as also in certainly the same context as when the other FlyTampa sceneries are released in that they will then provide this same depth of feel and immersion for X-Plane. In what FlyTampa delivers here is really simply overwhelming when you start to try to uncover the full island that has been in context completely modeled or is that remodeled, that aspect then produces another level of realism in visual and operational uses. The really clever part is that FlyTampa has also intergrated in their original scenery so perfectly into the X-Plane native mesh and that is far harder to do than you think it is and then also totally fuse in the X-Plane aspect as well. So you have to applaud the fact that the developers not only understand but have used very effectively all the X-Plane features available to them, and as FlyTampa's Emilios Gemenetzidis noted to me that they tried very hard to perfect and cover those areas for users of the X-Plane simulator, in other words they are also taking X-Plane seriously as a platform and except from say Carenado then how many Flight Simulator developers have done or even said that before. Negatives are very minute, but a little more lighting effects on the ramps and the lighting up football field and the Grand Cross would be nice additions, the scenery when installed is quite large at just over 3gb and from me a graphic card over 6gb or more would get you the full wow effects, but you can easily use a 4gb card at a setting below. The results of all this are spectacular and with the X-Plane effects like lighting and PBR reflections working along with environmental engines and then you are simply getting another level of realism. So yes the basic Flight Simulator elements are all in there in this modeling, lighting and the even with the textures, but with that coat of X-Plane over the top you get excellence and even better you get all of this at a value price of US$26.00. And have you actually looked through the FlyTampa back catalogue? Then do so because FlyTampa are a game changer in scenery for X-plane in more ways than one, because they just do everything in scenery, so very well... so no wonder all those users wouldn't go anywhere without their beloved FlyTampa sceneries, as from this moment on I would do the same as well. Highly, highly recommended! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the FlyCorfu by FlyTampa scenery is Available now from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FlyTampa-Corfu XP Price Is US$26.00 Features: Comprehensive and Ultra-High Resolution Scenery: Complete island with custom mesh, hand-placed vegetation, and 3D lighting Sloped Airport terrain Full coverage with custom buildings and all known landmarks Animated apron vehicles and road traffic Pre-rendered self-shadowing and custom reflection maps Requirements X-Plane 11 (still works with X-Plane 10) Windows, Mac or Linux 2Gb VRAM Minimum - 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended For the best high-quality settings a 6gb graphic Card and above is highly recommended (framerate is excellent) Download size: 730Mb Installation Download scenery file size is 645.00mb. With the full installation installed package is 3.01gb in your custom scenery folder is as follows: FlyTampa_Corfu_Airport (798.10mb) FlyTampa_Corfu_Objects (111.20mb) FlyTampa_Corfu_zMesh (2.33gb) .EXE and .dmg installers for both either Windows or Mac (Linux can be used if they can run the .dmg package) are provided for install. Installing Linux is a little more tricky, but a user noted these notes: I found the best solution for installation under UBUNTU 16.04 1 - Create empty X-Plane-x86_64 files in X-Plane.app 2 - Install WINE 3 - Start the .exe file 4 - Enter the specific code. ______________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 9th April 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 11.10 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro 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
  7. News! - Released : First FlyTampa Scenery with Corfu As noted on the 20th March "FlyTampa coming to X-Plane11" The developer has now released their first scenery for X-Plane and surprise, surprise it was "Corfu!" Feature notes are: - Corfu Ioannis Kapodistrias (LGKR) airport. - Complete island with custom mesh, hand-placed vegetation, and 3D lighting. - Full coverage with custom buildings and all known landmarks. - Sloped airport terrain (X-Plane only) - Animated apron vehicles, road traffic, and ship traffic. - Animated 3D Ramp workers. - Pre-rendered self-shadowing and custom reflection maps. - SpeedTrees (wind-animated trees) for P3D only. But this is a mixture of features for both the X-Plane and FS/P3D versions, so it will be interesting to see what the scenery really delivers for X-Plane... These are the official X-Plane images... This is the official FlyTampa Corfu Video, but not for the X-Plane version... < Price is interesting as it is far lower at US$26.00 (the FS/P3D version is now the same price) than the original €24 or US$29.61 price point... ________________________________________ The FlyTampa Scenery Corfu is now available from FlyTampa FlyTampa - Corfu (X-Plane) Price is US$26.00 Images and feature details are courtesy of FlyTampa ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 6th April 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  8. News! - FlyTampa coming to X-Plane11 Only a month after developer FS/P3D Orbix has announced and released their first scenery in X-Plane, now comes one of the other main heavyweights to join them in FlyTampa! The significance of FlyTampa more than the other developers is that they are not constrained to the USA/Europe axis, yes they do deliver scenery for the US/Euro areas, but their OMDB (Dubai), YSSY (Sydney) and VHHX (Hong Kong) are areas not covered by any current developers and these sceneries are the most bootlegged sceneries in X-Plane. FlyTampa has released a teaser image, but that is Corfu Kapodistrias (LGKR) airport. These are the FS/P3D version images not the coming X-Plane images But it does give you some sort of an idea of what to expect? No dates on release yet or of prices, but the FS/P3D Corfu is priced at €24 or US$29.61, but the scenery looks quite complete already... Images are courtesy of FlyTampa ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 20th March 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
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