I recently bought Realworld Scenery's St. Louis Lambert International Airport (KSTL) for MSFS. Airport looks good, but performance could be better. Today I see that Feelthere has released KSTL. Would like to hear from those who have bought Feelthere's rendition about your experience. Ideally, someone has bought both products and would compare them. 

I have both RWS and FeelThere versions of KSTL. Of the two, I think I like the FeelThere version a little better and here's why:

1) The RWS scenery takes up a bunch of RAM (26GB to 28GB of my 32GB of DDR5 RAM) when loading the airport. It's one of the few payware airports I have that requires that much resources to load. To RWS credit, they did release a new version that fixed the FPS issues I had with the initial RWS version of KSTL, but I'm still not sure why it requires so much resources to operate. In bad weather or heavy AI traffic situations, I've run into performance issues due to the lack of memory overhead. In comparison, FeelThere uses about 16GB to 17GB so I have more room for bad weather, AI traffic, etc.

2) With RWS, there are also some issues with missing Boeing manufacturing buildings on the east side of the airport and some buildings to the south of the terminal where it appears that a flatten region went too far. KSTL is my "home" airport so it kind of ruins the immersion factor with the missing / flattened buildings. FeelThere's version does not flatten the Boeing buildings, and even includes the Boeing logo on the building exterior.

3) In real life, runway 11-29 rises slightly in elevation looking to the west. With the excessive flattening in the RWS version, runway 11-29 is missing that rising terrain. With the FeelThere version, you can see that rising elevation in runway 11-29. 

Neither scenery has great night lighting although I like FeelThere's terminal lighting a little better.

My only complaint with the FeelThere version is that the jetways do not connect with AI aircraft. Kind of ruins the immersion factor.

Hope this helps.

Thank you @gr8av8r. I just purchased the RWS version only a few days ago. 😞 

STL is also my home airport. I understand what you mean about the missing buildings and runway 11-29. 

BTW, I've also been to KALN. Great burgers at the caffe there. 🙂  I did basic scenery for that airport for P3D/FSX. 

Again, thank you. I think I'll end up buying the FT version. 

David

I waited and waited, and finally bought RWS's KSTL about two months ago.  I should have waited I guess.  I had no idea anyone else was making a KSTL, or would make one for a long time...boy was I wrong.

Getting the Feelthere as there stuff is really smooth on system demand.

14 hours ago, David Vega said:

Thank you @gr8av8r. I just purchased the RWS version only a few days ago. 😞 

STL is also my home airport. I understand what you mean about the missing buildings and runway 11-29. 

BTW, I've also been to KALN. Great burgers at the caffe there. 🙂  I did basic scenery for that airport for P3D/FSX. 

Again, thank you. I think I'll end up buying the FT version. 

David

Liked your comments on KALN. I fly a Mooney M20J out of KALN when I can afford to put fuel in it! 🙂 The airport restaurant had great food but it became a "COVID casualty".

I may have downloaded your FSX/P3D version of St. Louis Regional. It was certainly better than the default airport!

In MSFS, KALN has few, if any, buildings or hangars so I used the SDK to add some hangars and make it look closer to real life. I've never uploaded it to flightsim.to or other sites since it relies on the freeware Orbx scenery Fairways (OG20) for the T-hangars. One of these days, I'll rip out the Orbx dependency and add something from the SDK library or one of the other freeware libraries and upload to flightsim.to

6 hours ago, gr8av8r said:

Liked your comments on KALN. I fly a Mooney M20J out of KALN when I can afford to put fuel in it! 🙂 The airport restaurant had great food but it became a "COVID casualty".

I may have downloaded your FSX/P3D version of St. Louis Regional. It was certainly better than the default airport!

In MSFS, KALN has few, if any, buildings or hangars so I used the SDK to add some hangars and make it look closer to real life. I've never uploaded it to flightsim.to or other sites since it relies on the freeware Orbx scenery Fairways (OG20) for the T-hangars. One of these days, I'll rip out the Orbx dependency and add something from the SDK library or one of the other freeware libraries and upload to flightsim.to

My best friend was down in ALN for a year getting his A&P - seems like a nice little airport.

I wouldn't mind getting your ALN mod.  I have OG20 installed.

7 hours ago, gr8av8r said:

Liked your comments on KALN. I fly a Mooney M20J out of KALN when I can afford to put fuel in it! 🙂 The airport restaurant had great food but it became a "COVID casualty".

I may have downloaded your FSX/P3D version of St. Louis Regional. It was certainly better than the default airport!

In MSFS, KALN has few, if any, buildings or hangars so I used the SDK to add some hangars and make it look closer to real life. I've never uploaded it to flightsim.to or other sites since it relies on the freeware Orbx scenery Fairways (OG20) for the T-hangars. One of these days, I'll rip out the Orbx dependency and add something from the SDK library or one of the other freeware libraries and upload to flightsim.to

Also wish someone would enhance KCPS.  It is my St Louis GA destination for Blues hockey and auto racing at nearby Gateway.  KSUS is the only default GA airport within 50 miles that is at least representative.

Edited June 8, 20233 yr by fppilot

2 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

My best friend was down in ALN for a year getting his A&P - seems like a nice little airport.

I wouldn't mind getting your ALN mod.  I have OG20 installed.

Hi Ryan,

   I would be happy to provide you the version I have of ALN. I'll send you a PM and figure out the best way to get a zip file of the airport to you.

2 hours ago, fppilot said:

Also wish someone would enhance KCPS.  It is my St Louis GA destination for Blues hockey and auto racing at nearby Gateway.  KSUS is the only default GA airport within 50 miles that is at least representative.

I'd like a more complete version of KCPS too. I fly there on occasion in real life and in MSFS. I can't make any promises but if I get some time during the July 4 holiday, I will try to make some updates to KCPS with the SDK. If that happens, I'll let you know, fppilot.

I recently bought the FeelThere version of KSTL, thinking it may be better than RWS version. Unfortunately, when I load an Airbus at one of the gates, there are serious defects in the ramp. Large drops occur that cause the airplane to tilt over nearly on its side or nose down. I tried removing the scenery, then later reinstalling, but the same issue. I finally had to go back and re-load the RWS version. Then everything is OK. I did remove the RWS version from my Community folder before installing the FT version. Did not make any difference. Wondering if the MS Store version is bad? 

Anyone else have this issue? All other sceneries are OK.

Thanks

Denny Knepper

Newville, PA USA

 

BTW _ for you St Louis folks, I attended Parks College in Cahokia in the early 70's. Graduated in 1975. Was sad when they closed the Cahokia campus. Many good memories.

Edited June 10, 20232 yr by topcat_1952
Added more text

15 hours ago, topcat_1952 said:

I recently bought the FeelThere version of KSTL, thinking it may be better than RWS version. Unfortunately, when I load an Airbus at one of the gates, there are serious defects in the ramp. Large drops occur that cause the airplane to tilt over nearly on its side or nose down. I tried removing the scenery, then later reinstalling, but the same issue. I finally had to go back and re-load the RWS version. Then everything is OK. I did remove the RWS version from my Community folder before installing the FT version. Did not make any difference. Wondering if the MS Store version is bad? 

Anyone else have this issue? All other sceneries are OK.

Thanks

Denny Knepper

Newville, PA USA

 

BTW _ for you St Louis folks, I attended Parks College in Cahokia in the early 70's. Graduated in 1975. Was sad when they closed the Cahokia campus. Many good memories.

I did see one of those FeelThere ramp defects when taxiing out on a flight today. I hadn't run into one before today. I bought the airport through Simmarket so it's not an issue with just the MS Store / Marketplace edition.

Hey Denny, I have to give a shout out to a fellow Parks College grad! I graduated from Parks in 1986 with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and a BS in Aviation Maintenance Engineering. I too was sorry to see the old Cahokia campus close. I actually have never been to the new Parks facility at the SLU campus but I hear it's very nice. I enjoyed my Parks experience too!

Edited June 11, 20232 yr by gr8av8r

Great to know. How challenging that must have been getting both those degrees. I was never good at math so my degree was in AA (Aeronautical Administration). Harold Wood was lead professor. Only thing I remember was "to water in grass" in the Airport Management class. 😄

Were you on campus? I lived in Merc Hall originally, then in Hollaron later. 

Cheers!

Yeah, 26GB is ridiculous. My sim loses all performance when in range of the RWS KSTL. I can't even use it. I wish they would release a lighter version. Maybe they have by now. I didn't check.

Edited March 23, 20242 yr by gryper

Has anybody tried either of these two versions in nFS2024?