Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Flightbeam are considered by many to be MSFS’ top developer. I’ve always been inclined to somewhat disagree, in spite of the unrivalled accuracy with which their airports are made. Their landside areas are often left to default satellite imagery, while their terminal interiors fall well short of what’s reasonably expected in 2024.
DETAIL
I’m not sure whether the ‘Captain’s Edition’ tag is responsible but KSFO’s quality exceeds that of the previous release, KMSP. That scenery was pretty nice but felt rushed, mainly due to the numerous pockets of default ground imagery that littered parts of the airfield. This included half an airliner in one location, that certainly should have been spotted and tidied up prior to release! Thankfully, we’re back to form with KSFO, which is easily their most robust project yet.
The detail across the entire airport — including its peripheral areas — is superb. Flightbeam’s talent for producing photoreal textures is well showcased here, with everything looking extremely authentic, whatever the time or conditions. I’ve seen a couple of complaints about the ground textures but they look absolutely fine to me (perhaps they were addressed in an update?). The only details I find slightly disappointing are the rocky areas separating the sea from the airport boundary, which I think could have been done more convincingly.
The terminal interior is much better than earlier FB airports, featuring a good amount of detail. People are at a bit of a premium but this is a very large, busy airport, so small sacrifices should be expected. While I do like the interior, it isn’t up to Pyreegue or Drzewiecki standards — it only really features the airside portions — but it’s worth noting that Pyreegue and Drzewiecki seldom take on airports of this size. The last time Drzewiecki included a complex interior at a major airport (KEWR), performance took a huge hit. That’s not the case with KSFO but I’ll elaborate in the relevant section of the review.
We rarely get gimmicky animations in FB sceneries but we do see animated people movers trundling between the terminals. FB have typically stuck to more fundamental details but, personally, I like to see such animations, as long as they’re not noticeably impacting framerates.
Unsurprisingly, where this scenery really stands out is in its faithfulness to the real-world airport. FSLTL traffic uses exactly the right terminals/gates and it’s great to see clusters of the same airline, exactly where you’d expect to see them in reality. Runway usage is accurate too, with very few ground conflicts for such a busy airport. The place just exudes an air of authenticity rarely seen in the work of other devs.
PERFORMANCE
Flightbeam’s own KMSP featured impressive performance and was an unusually small download, given the level of detail. KSFO follows that example, being just under a gigabyte. Quite how they do it, I don’t know, but the modest file sizes seem to have an impact on performance — even with pretty dense FSLTL traffic, my first arrival was very smooth, from touchdown to arrival on stand. I’ve since had the occasional stutter but nothing that’s going to affect immersion. Considering what’s on offer here, I’m surprised the stutters aren’t worse and/or more frequent!
VERDICT
The past two FB releases have made me realise that a developer can garner respect not by following the crowd, but by fine tuning a lot of what’s under the hood — in other words, it’s often the things that aren’t immediately obvious or palpable that most affect our perception. It was a joy watching the AI traffic do its thing for the very first time, with an accuracy so true-to-life that I had to wonder how this sim could possibly get any better without becoming a perfect representation of reality!
Flightbeam realise that fancy animations, as nice as they are to look at, don’t make a scenery. And although they’ve added moving MAGLEV cars to KSFO, they’re still sticking to their more basic principles. Some might say they need to change with the times but, while they’re churning out stuff like KSFO, it’s hard to be critical of their methods.
KSFO is yet another masterpiece in a series us simmers are being treated to in 2024. FB are keeping their prices extremely competitive — to think, many smaller, less detailed airports are selling for just a dollar or two less!
Sure, we can sit here and have a slight moan about the interiors not matching Pyreegue’s or iniBuilds’, but with FB, you get the distinct feeling there’s a very good reason for every omission. If it ain’t broke, and all that, I guess…
KSFO is an airport every serious simmer should own in 2024. It’s attractively priced, generally boasts a very good level of detail, and offers great performance for its size and complexity. It also features unrivalled accuracy in the control of AI aircraft, that subtly but significantly enhances the whole experience. And if you really want to complete the picture, there’s always the city model from Samscene’s USA Modern Cities 2 pack…
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