Hi all - interested to know what your strategy is for evaluating new airport scenery (just purchased FlyTampa's KBOS and approaching from a flight out of KACK). Do you fly to or from the new airport? As I said, just want to see the different evaluation techniques.

If by 'evaluate' you mean to decide on buying or not, an airport I will purchase must fulfill two conditions: must be one I will use more than occasionally (in my case mostly Europe) plus it must be of a high quality.
If, reading from your post, you mean how I first enjoy the airport, just like you I always make a flight TO IT. This way I prolong the excitement factor, start fun on approach (enjoying the surroundings), then see the runway, taxiways and finally the airport structures.

Edited February 24, 20188 yr by Rafal

Although in a perfect world I'd love to initially check out new airports I buy by flying to them, I rarely do this nowadays due to potential installation issues. In P3D, you never know which airports will work nicely with FTX Vector, and I hate approaching the airport and seeing it in a ditch or on a plateau. Also, in the past I've forgotten about another scenery I've had installed and have seen them conflicting which ruins the experience. In XPlane, there can be scenery.ini issues, duplicate airport issues, mesh issues (requiring going into WED to flatten the airport), or problems with World Traffic compatibility. So, right after I install the airport, I load up in a helicopter and fly around, inspecting it as thoroughly as I can to make sure there aren't any issues. Then and only then do I fly into it and begin enjoying it. 

Thanks Rafal - I did mean evaluate AFTER purchase.

1 minute ago, hamoody said:

Although in a perfect world I'd love to initially check out new airports I buy by flying to them, I rarely do this nowadays due to potential installation issues. In P3D, you never know which airports will work nicely with FTX Vector, and I hate approaching the airport and seeing it in a ditch or on a plateau. Also, in the past I've forgotten about another scenery I've had installed and have seen them conflicting which ruins the experience. In XPlane, there can be scenery.ini issues, duplicate airport issues, mesh issues (requiring going into WED to flatten the airport), or problems with World Traffic compatibility. So, right after I install the airport, I load up in a helicopter and fly around, inspecting it as thoroughly as I can to make sure there aren't any issues. Then and only then do I fly into it and begin enjoying it. 

Interesting. I'm wondering if you move the scenery above any FTX installs, will it guarantee the potential scenery issues.

When I install a new airport, I normally test it by flying a couple of circuits in the default Baron. I use the default Baron rather than any add-on aircraft simply for standardisation purposes so that I can assess the performance, in particular the VAS impact, of the airport scenery. 

Bill

Pull up the AFCAD and compare to real world charts.

Check the ILS data and glideslopes.

Check the published approaches.

Load into the aircraft, check external and internal frames rates.

Check the parking spots size (if possible) and airline assignments.

Fly each approach, checking frames rates and accurately modeled approaches.

Check airport and approach lighting.

Check how AI aircraft works at the airport.

Check the any area modeled outside the airport.

Check airport buildings for graphics issues.

Check airport altitude verses published altitude.

Check how FTX Global Vector works with airport.

Check how and existing City scenery works the the airport.

Check for missing buildings and graphics which don't process correctly.

 

I think that's about it.

 

3 hours ago, tamsini said:

Thanks Rafal - I did mean evaluate AFTER purchase.

Use it. How else?

 I start at the new airport in a helicopter, and take a sight seeing tour around the area.

 Sue

On 2/25/2018 at 4:39 AM, DaveCT2003 said:

Pull up the AFCAD and compare to real world charts.

Check the ILS data and glideslopes.

 

Do the same, haven't had the pleasure yet to come across an addon that did not require moving the loc/gp signal positions to their correct object locations. Some even have loc/gp objects forgotten, t2g seem to be in the habit of it.

It seems many scenery developers dont take good afcad development seriously and pass it on with the problems of dupicate parkings, overlapping wingspans, localizer centering and so on left to the user to do properly.

4 hours ago, him225 said:

Do the same, haven't had the pleasure yet to come across an addon that did not require moving the loc/gp signal positions to their correct object locations. Some even have loc/gp objects forgotten, t2g seem to be in the habit of it.

It seems many scenery developers dont take good afcad development seriously and pass it on with the problems of dupicate parkings, overlapping wingspans, localizer centering and so on left to the user to do properly.

I'm acutely (and professionally) aware that a lot of payware scenery is never beta tested. It's a problem in flight sim.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

 I start at the new airport in a helicopter, and take a sight seeing tour around the area.

 Sue

Good idea! Gives you a chance to hover if you need and have a better look.

Bill

If the dev used photoreal textures, check blending of textures with surroundings, seasonal variations, autogen and water masking. Also check ramp/runway/taxiway textures for good resolution and accurate markings and see if they took care of details like rain or snow/ice effects, bump mapping and specular shine. Check night lighting of the surrounding areas and also ramp/building lighting and all other airport lighting. See if the dev added custom jetways or other custom animations, any custom terrain contouring or mesh. As others mentioned, performance (FPS) and VAS is important as well as an accurate AFCAD: Parking spaces, taxi routes, AI behavior, radio frequencies, traffic patterns, approach procedures etc.

I park up at a gate and use Chaseplane's external camera to swoop around the airport looking at the the details, in detail.

I just load up the default Piper on the active runway, and use th "Y" key to slew around the airport and make sure everything is looking as it should be, mainly checking that there no are elevation issues.

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by nealmac