Hi Rick, 

 

Good question, I have most of Blueprint's airports and love them. No they are not at the same level as Fly Tampa, UK2000 or FSDT.  But for the price they do the job and my airports are full of planes without a hit on frames.  Its well known that KJFK can be a frame killer, but the Blueprint KJFK is not as detailed as the FSDT airport, I don't get a big hit flying into JFK.  My home airport DTW is the only accurate scenery for DTW.  

 

Now I do have other airports by FSDT, FlyTampa, UK2000 and FlightBeam just to name a few and they do have a lot animation and are excellent.  For the money, Blueprint is ok IMHO

 

Bob

Hi Bob

 

Thanks for that reply. I already have the full gamut of FSDT airports, so was really looking just by sheer chance at BluePrint's website when I came across their range of airports including those already covered by FSDT, so was not looking to replace those, no way Jose. I also have a hatful of ORBX except the latest offering last 2-3 months such as FTX Global, etc, but as I'm now busily using the 'big guns', these smaller ORBX airports except for the Australian ones, are getting no use.

 

@Oliver

 

Now that is interesting. Where did you get that from? Link, please.

I tried the San Juan demo once and the airport didn't look that bad to me, as I recall. I did notice that the buildings seemed to disappear from the VC when I was passing them, but I figured the scenery was older and probably not a typical problem. My biggest gripes were the non-moving jetways and the photo scenery outside the airport. I thought the regular ground textures looked better.

 

Overall, I think their main appeal is having small airports that no one else will do that look better than default and are great on frames too. If you're ok with the photo scenery outside the airport area, you may like them.

 

As far as looking dead and lifeless, I'm not sure if that's a bad thing. I think some of the ImagineSim airports are a little too crazy - cars, trucks and shuttles driving right in front of you while you're pulling up to a gate and sometimes driving into the side of a building. And forget about timing a pushback with GSX and avoiding them. I've had to delete those because of how annoying it can be.

It's not harsh when I feel I wasted my money. I could have put that money toward an airport developer like ORBX.

So you went to their website, saw the screen shots and read their design statements prior to purchase, then feel like you wasted money?

 

They dont hide the product or advertise it to be something its not. I understand disappointment, but when they show the deck before the deal I dont see why you would have purchased in the first place knowing what you were getting.

(...) @Oliver

 

Now that is interesting. Where did you get that from? Link, please.

 

 

For us, as European citizens, a "Dollar download" seems to be the best deal (Tuesdays it's usually another 10% off):

 

http://www.pcaviator.com/store/product.php?productid=19560&cat=0&page=1

Thanks for that, Oliver. Yes, I'm also aware of their Tuesday 10% extra off too and have purchased from them before. Will look into this one too.

So you went to their website, saw the screen shots and read their design statements prior to purchase, then feel like you wasted money?

 

They dont hide the product or advertise it to be something its not. I understand disappointment, but when they show the deck before the deal I dont see why you would have purchased in the first place knowing what you were getting.

Wrong!

The pictures looked fine on their site. The regret came after the purchase.

 

I put BluPrint right there with Imaginesim. I've become a very selective consumer and only buy the best or AVSIM Gold Awarded addons.

They somehow look dead and lifeless. 

 

Yes, I know we're you're coming from..... they can look a bit lifeless, compared to the high end 'living & breathing' sceneries........ but they're no more lifeless than the default sceneries, so if budget is a concern, or you are after an airport that no-one else yet covers, (and as long as you set your expectations correctly for them), they're ok.      

 

A bit better than default, and cheap. 

Wrong!

The pictures looked fine on their site. The regret came after the purchase.

 

I put BluPrint right there with Imaginesim. I've become a very selective consumer and only buy the best or AVSIM Gold Awarded addons.

 

 

Today I checked their high-res pics for FSX: You certainly can see that it's not FlyTampa you get ...

 

 

For the money, Blueprint is ok IMHO

 

I agree. I have a few, KDAL, KMEM, KRDU and KIAH. They are not bad airports to fill in some locations some of the bigger developers tend to stay clear of and better than default. Out of the ones I own, my favorite is KIAH, although it will be removed once KIAH is out by FSDT.

 

In a way its too bad they couldn't hire a texture artist to texture the buildings. There modeling isn't bad, but if they could just texture the buildings so that all the airports dont look the same, they would be a really good value for the money. Even better, if they could also do custom ground polys for the airport grounds that would make them a lot better, but of course add to development time.