EGPD (Aberdeen Dyce) by UK2000

BragRaindrop933 · April 18, 2024, 11:40am

OK my first impressions/quick review of UK2000 EGPD. Some images attached below.

Only a 61MB download (& 137MB install)!
20 or so static helicopters (quite nice looking too, not your average low poly ones)
Peripheral buildings (hotels etc) lacking, look almost like auto-gen with a logo added, not helped by being surrounded by almost completely bare satellite imagery of roads and grounds.
Satellite imagery is used quite a bit with no textures or trees / grass etc added (to hide it) in various places. Most noticeably at the main entrance way and all the lead in roads. It doesn’t look nice (flattened cars in car parks etc.) and could really do with texture replacements and more seamless blending into the surrounding area. Maybe we can hope for improvements with future versions.
Main terminal building interior is not modelled, and completely empty.
Internals are modelled for the main terminal entrance way and main terminal gates to various degrees.
Some gate walkway internal detail is missing opaque walls above the glass so you see daylight. Thankfully not apparent from outside view though.
There are a mix of static and animated people present at gates, main terminal entrance and elsewhere around airport.
Some very nice detailing elsewhere about the airport eg Bristow heli gate/building looks amazing and also busy with people.
Other helicopter providers buildings & gates also modelled.
Some nice looking warehouse type structures and ground details eg pallets & containers etc.
Night lighting around gates looks good.
Many buildings (not the gates) around the airport have glass windows, with fake / flat interiors behind them. Most of the time this works with a 3d effect, but some of them look better than others. I do like seeing glass and 3d like interiors from outside even if they are faked.
There are a lot of static helicopters (20+) and some GA aircraft about, there is no option to remove any of these in the marketplace version, however the main gates are all clear of statics and available to use.
The sculpture at airport driveway entrance is present.
Main multi story car park is present with many 3d cars parked everywhere
Ground level car parks around the periphery and driveway use satellite textures, which look bad and also show flattened cars etc, so could do with replacing with texturing instead.

Summary-

An overall good rendition of EGPD, and certainly an upgrade to an already good freeware version with added windows/glass and many rendered gate interiors (which I like to see when parked at a gate). It has plenty of static helicopters, which makes this airport more believable to the real EGPD. Use of basic satellite imagery instead of texturing (around the lead in/ entrance way / hotels / car parks areas) is poor and could definitely do with reworking with texturing and or blending better with the surrounding area (not up to 2024 airport standards, and IMO lets this v1.0 version of this airport down). A good start for a pay ware EGPF. Fingers crossed for more updates (uk2k EGPK for example has had 3 updates since release). Maybe a bit expensive for what feels like a not totally polished product. However it is incredible what has been packed into such a small install size. (61MB download 137MB disk install), so I’m not expecting any performance issues with this airport. All in all quite happy with this one, use of terminal side bare satellite imagery in surrounding area aside. However it is that which IMO drops it from a being a great airport to a good one for me as it currently stands.

Helicopter operator building/gate with people