Best airport scenery

[swiesma 625]

Hello guys,

 

I wanted to ask if you have any "special hints" for good scenery.

At the moment I own FlyTampa OMDB Rebooted, Aerosoft EGLL and a freeware version of KHPL and all three of them are excellent.

Dubai ist the most impressive here.

 

Today I am thinking about buying FlyTampa St. Maarten.

 

Which addon airports do you guys like the most?

 

Best regards,

Stefan

 

 

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Without knowing more about your routes and your planes (probably including the NGX and for sure the T7) that is a rather tough question to answer.
 
Anyway, let me point you towards some other developers who also provide excellent addon airports:

• Taxi2Gate - Pointe-A-Pitre International (TFFR). This title is rather heavy on Virtual Address Space (VAS), but well worth a little tinkering (a lil' more tinkering with the PMDG T7 ...)
• LATINVFR - SAN JUAN TJSJ
• PIS (Pacific Islands Simulation) - MANILA NINOY AQUINO INTL RPLL

If you like FT's St. Maarten you'll probably also like their Grenadines (for small planes only). FT also did the classic Hong Kong Kai Tak (incl. the cityscape) which is still a recommendation.
 
If you check out the other stuff by LatinVFR pls. note that their older stuff looks a bit ... dated by today's standards (not bad, just older).
 
The older stuff by T2G isn't even actually good; you could start with their TONCONTIN MHTG (released in 2012) and work your way up towards 2015.

 

Hope this helps.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

Which addon airports do you guys like the most?

 

I've started to acquire a bunch of FlyTampa airports as I've found them to be rather detailed, but very reasonable on performance (particularly because of their config tool). FlightBeam is another favorite of mine because of their detail, though their sceneries can take a slightly heavier hit on frames, though only minor, at least in my non-scientific observations. Still, that hit is worth it for the detail they have in their products, in my opinion. Having worked many years at IAD, I can attest to the detail they have in there. The only thing it's missing is a ramp crew that's often nowhere to be found at certain gates...

(Though, admittedly, said gates are now being staffed by a new company, so...we'll see how that goes...)

 

As Oliver mentioned, be careful of VAS. Some scenery devs are much better than others at optimizing things for memory use. Some airports/sceneries, this is necessarily so, but I've seen a few that just consume heaps of space with no apparent reason. Check their sites for pictures, check YouTube for videos/reviews, and check printed reviews. Through all of that you'll be able to determine if you like what it offers, but in the latter two, you should get a better idea of the performance hit.

[swiesma 625]

Thanks for the first opinions!

Sinve P3D V3 I am not too concerned about OOMs. FSUIPC always shows good values. Did a flight yesterday from KJFK, crossing just north of Zurich to Dubai with almost all settings cranked up and the lowest value I've seen in FSUIPC was around 350 MB left.

 

@Olli: I am using only the 777 (will add the 747 v2 as soon as available). So I go for bigger airpots.

The Kai Tak scenery really seems interesting. I saw it in a video from Matt Davies on Youtube doing the IGS 13 approach. And it looks great! Do you know if they add this approach too?

I manually added it (can choose the STAR and Approach in the FMC), but my 777 does not capture the ILS / IGS / Localizer. But I have no idea what I have to configure to fix this.

 

Best regards,

Stefan

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

P3Dv3 compatibility of course needs to be checked before buying those addons. I still run the ole FSX-MS, so I can pretty much get whatever airport I want.

 

With only the B777 you should either skip T2G's TFFR (and also their KTPA), unless you want to convert those airport textures yourself for better VAS results. Their LTBA could be a better choice then. (If compatibility allows ...)

 

FlyTampa added the navaids for the IGS13 in their Kai Tak scenery so, with their addon installed and their IGS frequency active in the ILS receiver, the T7 should capture the LOC and the G/S. I did that with a dozen different planes and it should work with the B777, too. Maybe it's as simple as manually entering the freq and the course in the NAV RAD page?

[Tom Wright 438]

UK2000 have a winter sale on at the moment with up to 40% off on Xtreme airports. They are very good I have found, I now have quite a few.

 

+1 also for FlyTampa St Maarten, Kai Tak and also Corfu which is relatively new out.

[carlito777 712]

My personal favorites:

 

1. Flightbeam KSFO

2. Flightbeam KDEN

3. Pacsim RPLL

4. FSDreamteam CYVR

5. Taxi2Gate KSEA

6. Aerosoft LEPA

 

Also some really nice stuff in the pipeline which should be released shortly: Taxi2Gate EDDM, Orbx ESSA

[Bionor 44]

I just had an airport shopping spree;

 

ENTC(Tromsø)Aerosoft
ENSH(Svolvær)Aerosoft
LIRF(Roma)Aerosoft
LSZH(Zurich)Aerosoft
LDSP(Split)Aerosoft
EDDB(Berlin)Aerosoft
LGAV(Athen)FlyTampa
EKCH(København)FlyTampa
LGKR(Corfu)FlyTampa
LOWW(Wien)FlyTampa
EPWA(Warsaw, Chopin Int.)DrD
EGSS(Stansted)UK2000
EGBB(Birmingham)UK2000
EGPH(Edinburgh)UK2000
EGGW(Luton)UK2000
EGMC(Southend)UK2000
EDBC(Magdeburg)29Palms

 

...and my absolute favourite og these is EKCH. Beatifully rendered, excellent framerate, configurable, snowdrift(as of 1.4 released today). This was my first AP this round, and it made me buy all FlyTampa european airports:-)

 

Edit: these were all bought with P3Dv3 in mind, wich ruled out quit a few AP's I would like to buy. I have a couple more in Norway, but those is yet to be updated for v3.

[ck777 2]

I have quite a few of FSDreamteam's airports and really enjoy them, KJFK, KIAH, PHNL,, KLAX, and some others I can't remember.

 

+1 for Flighbeams KIAD...I do a lot of real world int'l travel out of there so it's fun to choose my actual gates of arrival/departure when I sim.  I also have their KDEN and KSFO..

[scandinavian13 5,192]

...and my absolute favourite og these is EKCH. Beatifully rendered, excellent framerate, configurable, snowdrift(as of 1.4 released today). This was my first AP this round, and it made me buy all FlyTampa european airports:-)

 

I just got this last week and I've flown out of it once, and back in once. I'm impressed. Looks like I'll be picking up my old "fly all over Scandinavia" habit, with this as part of my base (the other being AS's ENGM...now to look for a decent ESSA).

 

I may or may not have torn through half of FlyTampa's offerings last week. CYYZ, LGAV, KBUF, KTPA and the Grenadines will all be acquired in short order, probably (once I'm sure I cover buying things for other people for Christmas).

[Jimm 437]

Iv'e constrained my flying to Great Britain, so I have quite a few of UK2000's airports and I love them all.  There is a nice balance between detail and performance with that scenery and has had some very positive feedback from the community.  With the current sale going on there, it would be worth your while.

 

-Jim

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

I fly FT's EKCH in FSX-MS and it is quite another VAS hog there. (A very beautiful and detailed VAS hog with extensive coverage, admittedly ...)

 

Those of you who run it in P3Dv3 maybe could comment on their VAS usage for Stefan?

[swiesma 625]

 

FlyTampa added the navaids for the IGS13 in their Kai Tak scenery so, with their addon installed and their IGS frequency active in the ILS receiver, the T7 should capture the LOC and the G/S. I did that with a dozen different planes and it should work with the B777, too. Maybe it's as simple as manually entering the freq and the course in the NAV RAD page?

 

The right frequency was set in the NAV/RAD page.

So I guess I will go for Kai Tak tonight und additionally get St. Maarten. On the FlyTampa page it says that they are compatible with V3!

I fly FT's EKCH in FSX-MS and it is quite another VAS hog there. (A very beautiful and detailed VAS hog with extensive coverage, admittedly ...)

 

Those of you who run it in P3Dv3 maybe could comment on their VAS usage for Stefan?

 

Oh like I said: VAS should not be a problem!

I have no OOM problems whatsoever, even in ASN heavy weather with FTX global + Vector + OpenLC + PMDG 777 + MyTraffic 6!

I have quite a few of FSDreamteam's airports and really enjoy them, KJFK, KIAH, PHNL,, KLAX, and some others I can't remember.

 

+1 for Flighbeams KIAD...I do a lot of real world int'l travel out of there so it's fun to choose my actual gates of arrival/departure when I sim.  I also have their KDEN and KSFO..

 

Is KSFO good?

[Bionor 44]

I just got this last week and I've flown out of it once, and back in once. I'm impressed. Looks like I'll be picking up my old "fly all over Scandinavia" habit, with this as part of my base (the other being AS's ENGM...now to look for a decent ESSA).

 

I may or may not have torn through half of FlyTampa's offerings last week. CYYZ, LGAV, KBUF, KTPA and the Grenadines will all be acquired in short order, probably (once I'm sure I cover buying things for other people for Christmas).

 

Yup,  waiting for an updated v3 installer for ENBR and ENGM myself and have switched homebase to EKCH(AoN does a very good job while I'm waiting though). The wait for what seems to become a brilliant ESSA, shouldt be to long; http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/106288-essa-stockholm-arlanda-airport/

 

I fly FT's EKCH in FSX-MS and it is quite another VAS hog there. (A very beautiful and detailed VAS hog with extensive coverage, admittedly ...)

 

Those of you who run it in P3Dv3 maybe could comment on their VAS usage for Stefan?

 

Been flying a lot pmdgs and q400between various AS Mega Airports/UK2000 and FT EKCH and have yet to receive an OOM at all in v3, although I have not checked the actual VAS numbers while flying.

[DeltaMikeKilo 19]

Kyle (and everyone), if you're running through flytampa products, don't forget CYUL! Perfect compliment to CYYZ for short hops in all kinds of aircraft!

 

I'd also like to chime in with EKCH. Amazing airport.

 

Tom, aerosoft Rome is one that's been on my radar since they first announced it. Any remarks you'd like to share? Especially regarding performance and VAS? My VA recently updated their schedules to include a 3x weekly flight there from EGLL with the 77L. I'd very much like to try it out with PMDG's beautiful bird.

 

FSDreamTeam Geneva also gets a big thumbs up from me. Mostly because of the beautiful surrounding mountains. It's just a gorgeous place to fly into/out of. Oh and Aerosoft Nice for the same reasons.

 

Happy flying!