Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
There’s certainly been more than a little controversy surrounding the release of Aerosoft’s EDDF, with many criticising its detail, performance and price. I avoided it on release for exactly these reasons but a couple of later reviews — made after the initial dust had settled — persuaded me to give it a whirl…
DETAIL
Honestly, I can’t see people’s issue with the detail. I find it quite stunning, especially given the fact that this is one of the world’s biggest hubs. Ini’s EGLL and KLAX don’t have this level of detail. The only comparable major airports in my opinion are Ini’s KJFK and Drzewiecki’s KEWR — both of which are worse performers and are just about edged by this latest Aerosoft European offering. I really think people’s expectations grew to unreasonable proportions — perhaps not helped by the sheer amount of hype EDDF got prior to release.
I’m not sure how much input Jo Erlend Sund had here but there are signature features of his throughout the scenery: the superbly animated ramp vehicles, the very realistic textures, the quality of the GSE, custom airfield lighting, etc. I will admit that the consistency isn’t quite up there with Oslo and Brussels (some of the ground textures/markings, for example, are verging on blurry, or are just lower quality) but neither of those are in the same real-world league as Frankfurt. I imagine to get this running at all took quite a few sacrifices, and I think it would be unfair to be overly critical of the end result. Every building on and around the airfield looks amazing, and while the mobile ground clutter might not be as dense as other recent airports, there’s certainly not a distinct lack of it. Likewise, the terminal interior is more basic than we’ve become accustomed to lately but the “we don’t care about interiors” crowd seems to have suddenly decided they’re super-important. Had Flightbeam or FlyTampa released this exact scenery, I’m willing to bet many would be raving about it, rather than criticising something that’s not bothered them till now.
Oddly, the best interior in the package is that of the DB station. Like the main terminal interiors (and numerous other things), it can be toggled in the configurator, so the devs clearly understood the project needed to be versatile across a range of machines.
The landside ground textures are mostly pretty poor but they’re well hidden amongst the myriad of more attractive custom assets. Moving away from the airport we can see some peripheral development (particularly to the west), which looks great when on finals for the 07 runways. Approaching from the opposite direction, we’ve Asobo’s latest World Update (18) to thank for the wonderful view of the city and its suburbs. The scenery certainly blends in well with the new photogrammetry.
Finally, the night-lighting is flawlessly beautiful.
PERFORMANCE
When I first downloaded the product I left all the detail turned on in the configurator. Running quite dense FSLTL traffic, I was getting a pretty smooth experience by and large but would suffer a few stutters when there was a lot going on in frame. I saw a big improvement by dropping all interiors, static aircraft (not needed with FSLTL anyway) and landside animated vehicles. Everything else remains on.
In my opinion, it’s slightly better than Ini’s EGLL and KJFK, and probably on a par with the most recent version of KLAX. Having so much available to turn off in your store app pays dividends and I imagine you can really streamline the scenery if you intend to run it on a mid-range machine. Just bear in mind the full, undiluted experience is clearly designed for very high-spec PCs, and they’re the only machines that are going to be capable of successfully running it.
VERDICT
I’ve never known an airport get such mixed reviews but my own experience with Aerosoft’s EDDF has put a lot of both the hype and the dissent to bed. Is it exactly on a par with previous Erlend Sund sceneries like EBBR and ENGM? No — but it’s a much bigger, more demanding project, that’s got to run on the same systems. It should come as no surprise to see it’s been slightly slimmed down.
The airport’s Achilles’ heel is the inconsistency of the ground textures. In some places, they’re what we’ve come to expect from this dev team; but in others, they’re undoubtedly sub-par. I wouldn’t, however, say anything about the product is rushed.
If you love detailed terminal interiors, prepare to be disappointed. But if you love huge airports done in nice detail, with handy options to tailor your experience to both your system and tastes, I doubt you’re going to complain you got poor value-for-money. There are many medium-sized airports on the market in 2024 that are at this price, or just a few dollars less. £18-£20 for an airport of this size and quality seems reasonable to me.
If you seek the very best EDDF on the market, this is it. And in spite of the competition not being particularly brilliant, that’s not to take anything away from the excellent job the Aerosoft team has done here.
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