Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
For me, Drzewiecki Design has long been knocking at the door of the top five developers’ club, but has always remained just outside its circle. Does their new EPWA change that?
DETAIL
I won’t beat about the bush here: Drzewiecki’s EPWA knocks it out the park, detail-wise.
Worth mentioning first is the inclusion of properly modelled landside areas, which is a departure from the norm for this dev. Some areas (particularly around the airfield perimeter) do, however, retain that trademark low-res ground imagery — although it somehow fits quite nicely into its better-developed surroundings. The terminal landside is the most striking example, being nothing short of fantastic. Think ‘Pyreegue’ here: every sign, railing, barrier, car, coach, billboard, bench… you name it, it’s been modelled! There are both static and animated people, too, even if they’re not the absolute best.
Moving onto the terminal itself, the incredible level of detail continues — inside and out. Drzewiecki’s interiors have always been standout so the ludicrous detail perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise; but it’s fantastic to see nonetheless. The entire interior is modelled, from the landside concourses and check-in areas, to the security check and airside lounges. Oh, and we get more static people, too! It’s pretty impressive stuff!
The exterior texturing is first-class (seems to feature better weathering than many previous Drzewiecki releases) and the beautifully-modelled jetways connect flawlessly with your aircraft.
Exploring the airfield further, we find the same level of detail across the board, from the maintenance hangars to the various cargo facilities. Apron, taxiway and runways textures are again first-class. Airside ramp clutter is abundant, varied, and of excellent quality. Dotting the various ramps are a good number of very high-quality static aircraft (some stored/abandoned) — and while these aren’t to everyone’s taste, the dev has said they’ll be removable in the forthcoming v1.1 update. Personally, I think they look great and will likely keep them — that they’re in various states of their turnarounds makes them look that bit more convincing and enhances the overall feel of the airport.
One of the most impressive things about this scenery is the amount of peripheral detail, outside the perimeter fence. This includes all sorts: warehouses, office buildings, supermarkets, car dealerships, restaurants, petrol stations, bridges/overpasses, static trains, a huge variety of well-modelled vehicles… and even bus stops and a plane spotting platform!
One final ‘non-visible’ detail is the inclusion of ambient sounds, which differ drastically depending on where in or on the airport you are. At the terminal’s landside façade, we hear general traffic noises; while in the tower, we hear ATC chit-chat. You’ll even hear a few VERY unexpected sounds — such as the rumbling of escalators or flags flapping in the wind! It’s just another little touch that helps increase the immersion.
PERFORMANCE
Despite owning a top-spec PC, I expected this airport to give me a bit of grief, given its reasonable size and level of detail. Imagine my surprise when my first landing (with heavy live weather) went buttery smooth, from final approach, through rollout and taxiing, to pulling onto stand! This was with 90% of gates occupied by FSLTL traffic, and an assortment of aircraft trundling to and from the runways. I honestly can’t think of a similarly-sized/detailed airport that offers such great performance! Oddly, using the drone inside the terminal is where things get a tad stuttery but I doubt anyone’s going to be too bothered, since it’s the exterior experience that counts.
I’d say that the noticeably aggressive (but quite resourceful) LOD is what’s allowing such impressive performance. The static aircraft lose their textures pretty quickly, once you start moving away — as do a number of the buildings. The terminal interior lighting also takes a while to become visible at night. But in my opinion, this LOD optimisation is a tiny price to pay for the obvious performance benefits.
VERDICT
For me, Drzewiecki is now a member of that exclusive club of developers at the very top of the scenery design game. EPWA takes the fundamentals of previous Drzewiecki airports and improves them in virtually every way. For example, earlier Drzewiecki airports used very boxy (albeit reasonably textured) static vehicle models, whereas now we see extremely high-quality examples, based on real-world models. The improvements in the landside areas too, although some further improvement is certainly possible.
If you can forgive the slightly aggressive LOD, the slow-to-pop-in terminal interior night-lighting and the non-removable (at the minute) static aircraft, I’d say you have on your hands as perfect an airport as you can currently get. Overall, I can’t think of many airports released in the last 12 months that are better — or indeed many that don’t require one or two almost-immediate updates to make them worthwhile purchases.
I don’t yet have Drzewiecki’s Warsaw city pack but I will certainly be picking it up very soon. For an airport this size, the city is unusually close, and the RWY15 approach necessitates a fairly low pass over the centre. Incidentally, the default Warsaw city includes a very highly-detailed custom model of the Palace of Culture & Science (the city’s tallest building — I’ve included an image below) — I’m told it’s not part of the EPWA scenery (makes sense as this building is included in the city pack) but it’s definitely odd to have such a structure without having had a Poland City/World Update!
