Their social media suggests it’s now available but their website still shows “coming soon”. I expect the release is imminent.
The big question we no doubt all have is: is it better than Orbx’s? I think Orbx’s city modelling is the very best but Impulse certainly seem to have put a lot of effort into their rendition. Given Orbx’s slow delivery of updates, I fully expect Impulse’s to be kept more up-to-date.
I bought the Landmarks pack straight away. I’ll let you know later what I think of it.
I’m a big fan of Impulse Simulations, so I would buy their pack even if it was objectively worse than Orbx’s 
Having looked at images side-by-side, I think Orbx’s buildings sit more naturally with the surroundings, but Impulse’s coverage seems to be better. Impulse’s do, however, have a slightly cartoony look in the daytime (excellent night effects, though). We’re due the Oz World Update tomorrow so it should be a better comparison once that’s installed, due to the new Perth PG.
Phew, it’s really hard to say which Landmarks Pack is the better one. As is often the case when there are two options, both have their pros and cons (although I only own the Impulse Simulations version and my comparison is based on screenshots from Orbx).
I think the level of detail is higher in some places with Impulse Simulations, for example around Elizabeth Quay or at the Royal Perth Hospital. The number of buildings also seems to be higher in the Impulse version. The quality of the building textures is likely to be similar, but for comparison I’ve only looked at the buildings of Orbx’ Melbourne. I’ve no idea whether Orbx used higher-resolution textures in the case of Perth. I agree with JakTrax that Orbx perhaps blends into the landscape a bit more naturally.
The night lighting in Impulse Simulations version is brilliant, especially the lighting effects of the bridges and the realistically lit windows. The only exceptions are the BHP and the Rio Tinto buildings, which both look a bit odd at night. I imagine this might be a conflict with the standard scenery by Asobo. I’ve also noticed two other things that are probably bugs. Firstly, the ground textures at the port of Perth are very blurry, which shouldn’t be normal (see screenshot below). And I also noticed that when I get too close to a body of water, the water suddenly turns black and looks like a lunar landscape (however, I’m not sure whether this problem is caused by the City Pack or by another add-on.). If the lighting of the two buildings mentioned above, the ground textures at the harbour and the issues with the water surfaces are bugs, I strongly assume that Impulse Simulations will fix these issues.
Regardless of these issues, however, there are two clear advantages of Orbx in my opinion. Firstly I prefer the look of the large harbour (North Fremantle). And secondly I like that many small harbours for private boats have been modelled, which are completely missing in the Impulse Simulations version. If you own Seafront Simulations’ Perth, this could even be an advantage of the Impulse scenery, as it helps to avoid conflicts. Without the Seafront package, however, the water surfaces look better in Orbx.
Edit: Impulse Simulations’ version also has a few buildings that aren’t lit at all. I could imagine that these are the Asobo standard buildings.
I’ve taken a series of screenshots that compare well with the Orbx promotional photos.
Comparison with Orbx Promo Pics
Just selected some comparable images to give an idea what each pack offers. They’re not exactly like-for-like but close enough to give an impression. Orbx images are always first, though they are labelled bottom-right. Note in the 2nd comparison the default autogen building sitting atop the war memorial in the Orbx rendition. In the 4th, it appears Orbx have omitted the covered walkway between the stadium and the bridge. In the final comparison, the night-lighting of the Chevron building looks far superior in Impulse’s. Overall, Impulse seems to feature more detail, but I still think it looks less natural by day.
That’s definitely a conflict with the default POIs, which are partially bleeding through. Careless, but should be fixable.
Having spoken to Josh at Impulse, the issue with the default custom POIs bleeding through is down to Asobo. Impulse did try (but ultimately failed) to get them to help, so the solution is to ensure Perth Landmarks has priority over Asobo’s Australian POIs in the package reorder tool.
I took a good look at one of the buildings without night-lighting and concluded that it’s likely an Impulse custom model rather than PG. Josh confirmed this to be the case, and stated that night-lighting was omitted to “add randomness to the area”. A very strange response, if you ask me.
Thanks for clarifying that! I can confirm that prioritising the Impulse Simulations add-on resolves the conflict with the duplicate buildings.
However, I’ve taken another closer look at the Orbx trailer and taken some more screenshots. I’d say that, overall, I’d tend to recommend (slightly) the Orbx version. The building textures look better with more natural colors. In Impulse Simulations’ version, many buildings look excessively glossy and some have very low-resolution textures. On the orther hand, when you look at photos of the real-life Perth skyline, some of the buildings in Impulse Simulations’ version (for example, around Elizabeth Quad) seem to bear a closer resemblance to their real-life counterparts.
However, I now actually think the night lighting is better in Orbx. The closer you look, the more buildings you discover that aren’t lit at all in Impulse Simulations’ add-on. I can’t quite understand Josh’s decision either to be honest. I don’t think it’s realistic for huge buildings to be completely unlit in the evening. Added to this is the less detailed Port Fremantle in Impulse Simulations, with its blurry ground textures, and the absence of other small harbours around Perth. On the plus side, there is a greater number of buildings and a slightly higher level of detail in some places, though this is only noticeable in a few spots and at close range. I therefore consider the Orbx version to be the more complete overall package but not by much. And please note that I can only judge the Orbx version on the basis of screenshots and the trailer.
Here are some more comparison photos. Orbx at the top, Impulse Simulations at the bottom.
Impulse Simulations has just released an update that resolves the conflict with the Asobo buildings. This should mean that prioritisation using the MSFS Reorder Tool is no longer necessary.
By the way, I think both add-ons are very well done overall, and whichever scenery you choose, you really can’t go wrong.
Looking at your comparisons, Impulse definitely features more buildings. Orbx claims 40+ in theirs, while Impulse claims 80+.
Proving quite a difficult decision as, once again, there’s no clear winner. Josh did clarify that he intends to now add night-lighting to the unlit buildings, plus throw in a few more (after WU21 releases on Tuesday).
I maintain that Impulse’s appears more cartoonish by day (I also thought those reflections looked a bit overdone) but I still prefer its aesthetics at night. I took a close look at Matagarup Bridge in both and it’s definitely more accurate/detailed in Impulse’s.
One benefit of Impulse’s is that the dev is more on top of updates. Bear in mind Orbx’s Dublin STILL hasn’t been updated for FS2024!
Yes, at the moment it’s the lack of night lighting on many buildings that makes me think Orbx has a slight edge. And yes, I also do think the buildings look a bit too cartoonish. But if you look at photos of Perth, you’ll quickly see that Impulse Simulations’ buildings are generally much closer to their real-life counterparts. And there are definitely more buildings.
