[REVIEW] Toronto Pearson (CYYZ) by FlyTampa

[Abriael 952]

I just published my review of Toronto Pearson for Microsoft Flight Simulator by FlyTampa. It took a while, but I've had to do some pretty extensive research to really see how far this one goes. I hope it's useful to get the full picture and there's plenty of video content for those who prefer to make their own judgment.

https://twinfinite.net/2022/03/microsoft-flight-simulator-toronto-airport-review-cyyz/

The TLDR is that FlyTampa is as usual at the top of the industry in terms of craft. Textures, modeling, weathering, PBR, and optimization are all top notch, and if you want an airport that looks really stellar, it's easy to recommend this one. 

Yet, there is a but. There are several buildings that are outdated, and not by months, by several years, including a massive Air Canada hangar that is a very prominent feature of the airport. On top of that, the colors of the aprons and a couple of runways are iffy, and the 90% of the jetways are simply wrong (T1 and T3 jetways besides a few are identical, while they are very different in the real world, and the models FT made feels like it's an approximated hybrid of both, while matching neither). Also, PAPI and windsock don't work correctly.

So yeah, it's a good airport, and I'm sure many will enjoy it throughly (I do, despite the flaws), but it really needs an update to do justice to FlyTampa's reputation. It feels that either it was rushed, or some of the required research for a truly top-notch rendition was omitted. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Abriael

[Konterhalbe 295]

Thank you very very much for your review!
 

MSFS is a great sim and I'm having more fun with MSFS than I've ever had with any other sim before but snow coverage on airports simply looks like word not allowed and straight outta FS98 or so.

I can't buy any sceneries in Canada, Scandinavia, USA, Austria, Germany and the likes cause I'd loose my eyesight in winter if I saw this patchy snow mess in my sim (knowing I spent money on this).

What a pity! So many scenic places and well crafted airports in those regions but I can't reward devs with a shload of money for it due to this bug.

[Abriael 952]

3 minutes ago, Konterhalbe said:

Thank you very very much for your review!
 

MSFS is a great sim and I'm having more fun with MSFS than I've ever had with any other sim before but snow coverage on airports simply looks like word not allowed and straight outta FS98 or so.

I can't buy any sceneries in Canada, Scandinavia, USA, Austria, Germany and the likes cause I'd loose my eyesight in winter if I saw this patchy snow mess in my sim (knowing I spent money on this).

What a pity! So many scenic places and well crafted airports in those regions but I can't reward devs with a shload of money for it due to this bug.

This one's better than most to be fair. It's still not perfect, but it feels like efforts have been made to work around the deficiencies of the system, and it almost feels natural during normal operations. You kind of need to focus to see where the seams break.

[Dave_YVR 973]

One of the big things as well is that they didn't include ANY airline coded parking, AI parks all over the place. Editing them yourself  in MSFS 2020 is far more difficult than it was in FSX-P3d. Even to use the coding that they had with the P3d version as it was near spot on.

[Sonosusto 680]

Thanks for the review on this. I guess some of us might hold off until some of these are updated. Might still get it because it looks so good.

[Abriael 952]

1 hour ago, Dave_YVR said:

One of the big things as well is that they didn't include ANY airline coded parking, AI parks all over the place. Editing them yourself  in MSFS 2020 is far more difficult than it was in FSX-P3d. Even to use the coding that they had with the P3d version as it was near spot on.

 

I think a lot of developers still think that it isn't necessary since AI traffic solutions are still in beta (besides Simple Traffic, I guess). Personally, I agree it's time it becomes a standard feature. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Abriael