I also had the LVFR version. Personally, I think the SW is a slight upgrade in quality of the scenery, but it could be a placebo effect. It feels like it looks better IMHO. If money is tight for you, or if you rarely fly into/out of LEBL, don’t worry about it, but if you have a fairly open budget and don’t mind keeping the large airports latest and greatest and you frequent LEBL, consider it. It’s not a night and day difference if you’re wondering that.
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I’m curious which one has better performance?
Barcelona is my home place and I have flown (as passenger) hundreds of times from LEBL, so I know all the terminals pretty well.
I bought LVFR LEBL from day one, and I am quite happy with it. It is not perfect, but the rendition of the airport, taxiways and terminals is quite acceptable.
I bought last week the MK Studios version, and while there is some improvement, it is only marginal so I would not recommend upgrading to LVFR owners, unless they plan to fly very often from / to Barcelona.
The performance fps-wise looks the same, and the details are certainly better in the MK studios version. Also, taxi routes seem to be more accurate to RL.
Cannot give an opinion on SimWings one, since I have not purchased it.
What I’m missing now is a GSX profile for MK Studios, since the gates are not exactly at the same position as in the LVFR version, so passengers walk in the air when boarding. Also, I get now double VDGS screens. Hope someone will create a new profile and share it at Flightsim.to!
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Who is RW?
One of the best GSX profiles creators. You can find their profiles on iniManager.
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anymore thoughts on SW or MK?
VirtualAirlinePilot yesterday did a video review of MK’s, and his next is the SW version, so keep an eye out on his channel.
There are two detailed comparison videos from the German website cruiselevel.de. According to their assessment, there is no clear winner. Both airports are at a high level and each has advantages and disadvantages compared to the competitor. However, as MK Studios is cheaper and more regular updates are to be expected, the recommendation is slightly in the direction of MK Studios.
I think I’ll hold off on a purchase. I have the LEBL from LVFR and the difference doesn’t seem to be that huge.
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Thanks for the information as i dont have any LEBL airports at all it is all a bit confusing though i do own a couple of MK’s previous titles.
This video was also just shown to me on YouTube. You can watch all three airports there.
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I have both the LVFR and MK versions. LVFR’s definitely feels dated but MK’s isn’t as nice as their previous release, LEMG. That said, LEBL is a much larger airport so compromises will no doubt have been made.
LVFR includes quite a bit of the city, albeit not in particularly high resolution. MK’s (and SW’s) omits the city but there’s default PG and a bit of custom modelling by Asobo. Both MK and SW have modelled the entire port but MK’s is definitely more detailed, featuring logos on the large oil drums (SW leaves them blank). It really does look good when on finals for the 24 runways.
MK’s interior is decent, without being super-detailed. Looking at promo images, SW’s certainly looks better but I’m not sure if they’ve modelled the old terminal’s interior, as MK have.
The exterior terminal detail looks extremely similar, as do the landside areas. SW possibly have the edge in the landside areas but without having it in my collection, I can’t say for sure. MK’s seems to have better airside ground clutter.
I won my copy of MK’s in a competition — despite undoubtedly being better than LVFR’s, if you have that earlier version, it’s perhaps not worth picking up MK’s unless it’s discounted.
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Thanks for the video. I went with Sim-Wings and it seems I made the right choice.
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There are new videos from VirtualAirlinePilot.
[MSFS2020] | BARCELONA EL PRAT AIRPORT, SPAIN (LEBL) by MK STUDIOS | THE FIRST OF TWO REVIEWS ! - YouTube
[MSFS2020] | BARCELONA EL PRAT AIRPORT, SPAIN (LEBL) by SIMWINGS/AEROSOFT | SECOND OF TWO REVIEWS (youtube.com)
I replaced LVFR by MK Studios’ version. It has been updated twice since released. Performance is acceptable.
Unfortunately we only ever seem to get comparisons of the visuals, with little emphasis on performance. A bit more detail is immaterial if it chugs along at 10fps.
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Just two remarks about MK Studios LEBL:
A) Comparison photo RL vs. Sim (MK Studios), gate 238
Not too bad
B) A few bugs near RWY 06L hopefully MK Studios can solve:
- Floating A/C units near RWY 06L
- A red and white fence near RWY 06L, just in the pathway for taking off
- This is the worst one… When landing on 24R (which is the most usual landing runway), AI traffic has a tendency to depart from 06L, so almost every time I land I get a plane taking off from the opposite direction… (I use FSTL)
Number 3) did not happen with LVFR LEBL version, so it must be something coded in MK Studios which makes AI planes take off from 06L by default (IRL, 24R / 06L is seldom used for taking off, except for the A380 or other intercontinental flights which require a long runway). Usually, most take offs are 24L/06R (depending on the wind).
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Therefore, as I like the visuals of the Simwings version better, I got it (1.1.0) on the last day of the Contrail Sale.
It is unflyable on my system (i9 9900k/RTX2080 with mostly HIGH settings) that can run the even more detailed and similar sized ENGM fairly well.
As MK’s version (1.3.0) is on sale as well, I was curious and gave it a try, and it is smooth as butter.
So here we are - late, but as there’s for sure some more sales coming, probably not too late for one or the other.
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I did a fps test between SimWings and mk-studios and here are the results, tested with PMDG 777, same conditions, gate 288, facing runway 24R which gets a major fps hit in simwings version, preset HIGH, DX11:
SimWings: 25-27 fps;
MK-Studios: 47-50 fps.
Specs: i7 8700, RTX 2070.
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That’s quite surprising, given Sim-Wings’ record of decently-performing scenery. But LEBL was a step up in detail for them, with a more complex interior than MK’s. However practically double the fps must mean something in the SW scenery is very poorly optimised.
Yeah, I find it strange also