Flightbeam Studio KIAD Scenery for FSX/Prepar3d

Review by Roger Curtiss. A new name has emerged in the airport scenery domain.  For a few years, those seeking highly accurate and detailed airport sceneries have enjoyed offerings from Fly Tampa, Blue Print and Flight Simulation Dream Team (FSDT).  But now Flightbeam has taken a seat on the stage, releasing some US airports. 

 

Begun in 2010, Flightbeam was created due to a perceived need for 3^rd party developers to create large airport reproductions.  Its stable of sceneries began as a side project with the developer’s home airport KSFO.   He then decided that airport scenery development was feasible as a full time endeavor that could combine his twin passions, art and aviation.  KPHX was released not long after and recently Flightbeam has added a third creation, KIAD-Washington Dulles International Airport.

 

Dulles appears to be a particular favorite for add-on sceneries.  Frankly, I am not exactly sure why although it may have to do with the classic architectural statement of the main terminal with its distinctive, swooping roofline and the presence on the ramp of mobile lounge shuttle buses used to move passengers between terminals.

 

 

Undoubtedly confusing if a mechanic is informed to go work on mobile lounge 623

 

Still, the other Washington DC area airport, Reagan National (KDCA) is in a more scenic location and offers a much more challenging flying experience what with its shorter runways, tricky RWY 19 River Visual approach and prohibited airspace to the east of the airport.  However, KIAD is a much bigger airport and as long as developers have the desire to create any airport reproductions, I am not one to argue with their choices.

 

Dulles is located in northern Virginia, 26 miles west of Washington DC and has long been a hub for United Airlines which conducts over half of the flight operations at the airport.  The airport offers 123 gates and 16 hardstand positions for passenger operations.

 

The airport layout consists of four runways 01/19 Left, Center and Right and the slightly shorter Runway 12/30.  Cargo and general aviation facilities comprise the northern portion of the airport with the main terminal (4 Z gates and the hardstands) and two larger terminals (Concourses A/B 47/28 gates respectively and C/D 44 gates) on the south end. 

 

The main terminal is where ticketing, baggage claim, customs, and most international flights are handled along with the few US Airways operations at the airport.  United utilizes much of the A Concourse for regional aircraft service and the entire C and D Concourses.

 

 

Install

 

The airports are provided as downloads and KIAD was a 521.7 Mb file that installed quite easily.  As part of the installation, Flightbeam provides some helpful suggestions to tweak performance if frame rates are a bit sluggish. 

 

These consist of:

-downloading a modified AFCAD to lighten the land class in the airport area

-turning off volumetric grass

-turning off night lamp glow

-turning off parked and animated vehicles

 

The first tweak is greatly applicable to KIAD as the airport is surrounded by heavily forested areas, which in the airport scenery consist of many thousands of custom drawn trees.  Easing up on these frees up computer resources to more quickly draw the actual airport surface area.

 

 

The installation instructions state that users must disable any other 3^rd party scenery enhancements to the airport.  I thought I was okay on this with only the default FSX airport but on my initial foray into KIAD using the scenery, I found double images of the runway markings. 

 

I went to the scenery library and realized that I had previously installed a package of airports that included KIAD.  Making that enhancement inactive immediately solved the problem.

 

Evaluation

 

My next attempt was a night arrival and while the runway was now properly marked, it was difficult to see as instead of runway lights I had solid rectangular boxes. The good news was there were quite a few of these boxes so I figured once I sorted out that issue there would be plenty of lighting available.  A post on the support forum quickly brought the suggestion that I had enabled DirectX Preview in FSX (Flightbeam’s scenery is not Direct X 10 compatible).

 

 

Unchecking the preview box in FSX scenery settings eliminated that malfunction and indeed, the lighting did not disappoint.  There were abundant edge markings as well as centerline taxiway lighting to assist in maneuvering about the airport.

 

 

One especially nice feature of this developer’s airports is that Flightbeam has been granted license to use the Add-on Manager from FSDT which makes the airports fully compatible with FSDT’s GSX feature. 

 

GSX is an add-on of custom vehicles, service equipment, ramp personnel and gate marshallers at airports.  It can be activated as a payware option for any airport in FSX that has an AFCAD, but as a free download is present at any FSDT airport and now at Flightbeam airports as well.

 

For me, one of the great attractions of using this scenery is the availability of GSX and all of its resources.  As good as flight simulation has become, its functionality often seems to end about 300’ from the gate.  GTX offers interaction with ground crews at the gate.

 

The ability to utilize GSX and have a marshaller at the gate waving directional signals brings a satisfying conclusion to a flight as he (unfortunately, sexism is prevalent in the simulated marshaller world) guides your plane to a precise stop.  This feature alone is sufficient to warrant the acquisition of the GSX add-on.  I found it to be particularly useful at KIAD as the gates are not identified by exterior signs.  There are pavement markings on the lead-in lines but these can be difficult to see until one is nearly on top of them.

 

 

Having selected a gate in GSX, an arriving aircraft is met by two wingtip ground crew members holding raised orange cones and a marshaller guides the aircraft to the proper parking spot with signal batons and hand signals. 

 

There are numerous airport ground vehicles present in the default setting: various trucks, service vehicles, police patrols and, of course, the unique mobile lounge passenger transports that have long been a feature of KIAD.  Activating the GSX function adds cargo loaders and fuel and catering trucks.

 

Perhaps I am expecting too much of the flexibility of the animations, but the various vehicles appear to be oblivious of one another and the aircraft.  If an airplane is stopped across their movement lane they will drive right through the fuselage.

 

 

In the course of my evaluation of this airport, I repeatedly switched aircraft and found there was a problem whenever I selected the Wilco 737-300.  If I was already at KIAD, the aircraft would load, but the scenery features would disappear.  So I loaded the aircraft at another airport and then moved it to KIAD. 

 

The scenery opened as it should but when I requested ground handling at a gate, the marshaller did not appear and the ramp crew were seated in invisible baggage tractors.  When I tried to switch aircraft again the screen simply went blank and I had to restart FSX.

 

 

As long as I am nitpicking, the mobile lounges all have the same ‘623’ vehicle number.  Not that it matters much, just something I happened to notice.  Also, in a zoomed-in view of the jet bridge, there appears to be a partial reflection of an airliner fuselage in the window.

 

 

I was quite impressed by the attention to detail of the terminal buildings and the jet bridges. Having detailed airport scenery truly makes for a more enjoyable total flight experience and this iteration of KIAD certainly delivers especially when used with the GSX option.

 

 

It has been my experience that aircraft reviews require a significant amount of text over pictures in order to demonstrate the features and characteristics of the aircraft; however, the opposite is true for sceneries. After all, they are meant to be viewed and so I have created a large portfolio of images to accompany this review and convey just how Flightbeam’s KIAD enhances the airport.

 

Even from this far out it becomes evident that the airport buildings are not the same old default design

Cargo Ramp

Yes, those yellow runway caution lights do flash

Now here is a possible slight glitch. Note the number 3 below the gate sign...

...here it is again on the opposite side of the terminal...oops

Just enough clutter to look convincing

The signs work well at night

Night textures can be difficult but these are done nicely

Once again-great quality to the building textures

It is not obvious to me exactly what this building is...

...but it certainly is rendered with great detail

The trees look even better as you get close to them

Pavement markings, signs and taxiway lights are well presented. The sweeping roofline of the terminal building leaves little doubt as to what airport this is

 

Future Developments

 

It appears that Flightbeam intends to be around for some time creating new major airport treatments with KDEN as an upcoming project and the forum suggestions from customers for future projects are quite numerous.

 

One feature that is being worked on for all the offered airports are wet effects for the surfaces which are promised to be customized and well beyond what is offered as the FSX default.  These were originally expected to be released last summer but the debut has been postponed by Flightbeam and will now coincide with the release of their KSFO v3.

 

Summary

 

I am a big fan of airport sceneries and being able to see an accurate depiction of an airport and its facilities instead of the default presentation is quite satisfying. 

 

Flightbeam’s offerings are a welcome addition to the growing stable of detailed airports available to flight simmers and show the expected accuracy and attention to detail that one can expect from a payware product. 

 

The fact that they are revising their earliest airport (KSFO) is a strong indication of their dedication to providing relevant sceneries.  I look forward to further airport treatments from them.

 

Test System Hardware

 

HP H8-1070t

Intel i7-2600 processor

3.40 Ghz

9 GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX580

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