Another best of the best airports & scenery thread

[CFIJose 5,485]

Now that my system is running like a dream with a back-up drive in place, it's time to add even better airports and sceneries. The best of the best.Even though Orbx and all the airports and the soon to be released PNW is in my opinion the finest scenery ever produced for FSX, I'm always looking to improve FSX and travel to unexplored airports and sceneries.Here are three airports that I've recently added that are very special:KMCO from Cloud 9. Where have I been? How did I miss that one?TIST from Tropicalsim. This is a gem. Just a pleasure to fly in and out of. ANDSBGR from LatinVFR. Simply spectacular.Tell me your favorite airports. I want the best of the best.Thanks for your input.Jose

[JohnE 0]

I'd say anything from FsDreamteam my favorite is KFLL Fort Lauderdale. I also like all the UK2000 scenery's my favorite being EGPF Glasgow, the performance is excellent!http://www.fsdreamteam.com/http://www.uk2000scenery.com/newsite/

[Bob Scott 7,716]

All of the FSDreamTeam airports (I only have the US ones -- Las Vegas McCarran, Chicago O'Hare, New York JFK, Fort Lauderdale, and Honolulu) are very good.FlyTampa's St Maarten is a real work of art. I don't have their Boston Logan v3 but I am told it's also very good.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I second the praise for FSDreamteam. I have all their stuff except for KJFK and PHNL.My fav list would go like this.1. FlyTampa St. Maarten w/St Barts and Saba2. All my FSDT airports, KFLL is my favorite but doesn't work as well on my machine for some reason3. Imaginesim KATL and TJSJ. For the size of KATL they did a wonderfull job keeping the airport looking good and details high while maintaining FPS as high or higher than the stock KATL. I love TJSJ to fly to St. Maarten.4. Tropical Sim Rio Air Bridge Pack - SBRJ-SPGL-SBSP5. LatinVFR - Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa5. All my MegaScenery titles - SoCal, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Dallas ******Not to be confused with MegaSceneryEarth which except for a few areas is not very good*******My least favorite airports or scenery list would go like this.1. Anything made or developed by Aerosoft - Reason being that dont mip their sceneries, some perform really bad, and it seems their developers aren't up to speed with the latest design techniques like FSDT, FlyTampa, Imaginsim, and of course ORBX.2. BluePrint Simulation - Just to clarify that Blue Print sceneries perform well but are very basic. I only own one which is KDAL because they are the only ones who have done it. No problems with their sceneries and good choice if nothing else to choose from.My list of what I am waiting for:1. FSDT - KDFW2. ORBX PNW - and hopefully more ORBX stuff for Florida and the rest of the US3. MegaRio by Terra-Brasilis which I already pointed you to4. Hoping for some one to do: KMIA, KSAN, KONT, KABQ, KPHX, KDEN, KTUS, KSEA, MSLP (San Salvador),

[altstiff 71]

I mainly fly FS9 but ORBX FTX and a few of the airports they have are simply awesome.....

[CFIJose 5,485]

I just bought KFLL and it works great on my system. It's extremely detailed and fps friendly. I'm certain that I will enjoy this one for a long time.I really like the KLAS demo. That's the next purchase on my list. KJFK is excellent, but I need a tree replacement for the shimmering trees. I will not buy it until the trees are fixed. I'm trying to join their forums to see if there's a fix before I place the order.

[cianpars 1,164]

I've always found the Simwings and Aerosoft sceneries for various European airports to be pretty good.IAN

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I just bought KFLL and it works great on my system. It's extremely detailed and fps friendly. I'm certain that I will enjoy this one for a long time.

DJJose, what are your computer specs? The reason I ask is because I have KFLL also and is one of my favorite airports, as well as being one I hoped for, for a long time. I get good FPS at KFLL, but for some reason I get really bad pauses when I am approaching the airport while the scenery objects load. Of course I am well defragged, but out of all the FSDT airports this is the only one the give me bad pauses. I tried setting the popup setting in the addon manager anywhere from the default at 1, all the way to 20. Doesn't seem like either help much. I have asked Umberto at FSDT and he said that it is because its pretty dense airport packed into a small space. That probably explains it, but it doesn't seem like many other people experiece the scenery pause like I do.

[CFIJose 5,485]

I have a system that is very optimized to take advantage of these types of sceneries:i7 975 at 4Asus P6T v. 2 with 12 gigs of RAM at 1600GTX 285 OC (182.50 driver) (bufferpools= 300mb) 8as, 16an, High Quality3 VelociRaptors 300gig (One for Win 7) (One for FSX only) (One Clone Back-up)Win 7 Ultimate 64 Full Version (Performance Option)The only pause I get is the initial pause after loading. I did notice some pauses at KJFK. But after I flew around for a few minutes the pauses went away.Even at 25 fps these airports are smooth as silk. KLAS yields 25-35 and silky smooth with very dense AG. I can't ask for more.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Thanks for the info. If I fly around KFLL I have no problem with the pauses since all the scenery is already loaded, its only when I am coming from another area that I get one pause of about 2 second while the main buildings and ground tiles load, then I am ok until I get pretty close, thats when I get 2 ot 3 little 1 second pauses while the rest of the little objects load.Funny that at a bigger FSDT airport like KLAS, KORD, Geneva and Zurich I have no pauses at all, just KFLL does it for me. It would probably help also if I was running on a 64 bit OS, with more than 2gb of RAM, especially fast DDR3 and a faster HD. I dont think I can place any blame or not much on my CPU or video card. Guess I will just have to live with it until my next upgrade. Although it maybe some time before I do that since aside from this little KFLL issue, my sim runs great everywhere else, makes it hard to justify building another new rig just for one scenery to work better.

[CFIJose 5,485]

It's not your system. It's the scenery. I think that fsdream developers have created these problems to their paying customers because they don't want anyone to pirate their software.Why then do I have to wait for the scenery to come in after loading the airport? Orbx airports don't do this and they are just as abundant.This is one of the reasons I decided to clone. Entering codes and activating sceneries makes me sick. This is why I'll limit my purchases to certain developers.

[Guest j0nx]

I'd say FSDT as well although I wouldn't recommend Honolulu. Not their best work and some problems to work out with textures and shadows still. O'hare is awesome.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I'd say FSDT as well although I wouldn't recommend Honolulu. Not their best work and some problems to work out with textures and shadows still. O'hare is awesome.

You have had some back luck lately with addons. First the Aerosoft San Fran, then UT2, now PHNL. Now I see why you said the other day that unless it has dodosim in the name you wont buy it.

[Guest j0nx]

Indeed. I am going to be VERY picky about what I buy from now on. I'm tired of buying junk and getting a we will fix it at some point in the future excuse from the vendor. I have high hopes for PNW. If it disappoints then I am done. I have been very happy with FSDT's other airports that I bought. Las Vegas and O'hare are top notch. Honolulu is just kinda amateurish imo. Textures and buildings aren't really customized all that much and there is a lot of texture bleed through due to mesh and megascenery riding beneath it. I'd give it a 6 maybe whereas their others are solid 8's or 9's. Nothing has EVER come close to flightscneery Portland. It is still to this day the single BEST addon I have ever purchased. I'm sure some of orbx's stuff is as good or better but I am not willing to spend tons of money on the area first and then spend more for the airport. If I could get the airport by itself without having to buy the area then I might bite but I am not spending 100 bucks just to be underwhelmed again and honestly the blue area freebie didn't do much for me. Looks alot like GEX to me and runs a lot worse too. There are 1000000 trees in that blue scenery and it causes my fps to rise and drop erratically making for a nasty hitch.

[CFIJose 5,485]

"Las Vegas and O'hare are top notch."TRUE! They are on my to get list.Fsdream just need to solve the micro pauses problem. I don't think they can without eliminating that useless manager.