My first review since the release of FS2024 (which I do own but, given the teething issues, I’ll continue to review in FS2020 for now). Following some recommendations, I’ve added a couple of new caveats below the review specs.
Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Add-ons: FSLTL, REX AccuSeason (which may misrepresent some colours in certain light conditions)
DETAIL
This has been somewhat of a ‘sleeper’ airport, in that it looked great in every preview image but never really got the attention one would expect of a top 10 US hub. Well, it really deserves any attention it gets as it’s stunning! I’ve not got the Flightbeam version but I do have the majority of Flightbeam airports and the general texturework here is very comparable, particularly with regard to weathering. There’s really not a lot to say except that the level of detail is superb, right into every extremity of the airfield (and beyond). Granted, the textures aren’t the absolute sharpest I’ve seen and typically become lower-res as you move landside and away from the primary areas; but for an airport this size, that’s far from surprising. The terminal looks stunning and practically has a FULL interior (how many MSFS airports of this magnitude offer that?!), including all three control towers (one primary, two ground). There are even people populating all internal areas! The famous canopy — designed to pay homage to the nearby Rocky Mountains — is truly exceptional.
The landside is less impressive but still done to a standard akin to similarly-sized airports from other top devs. Worth noting that there are a LOT of custom car models filling the various car-parks, not only at the terminals but also in the airfield’s peripheral areas. If I were to nit-pick, I’d have to point out that all of them are the same few colours (black, white, red, blue) but this is pretty immaterial. There’s also a lot of default satellite imagery left in but, again, that’s the rule rather than the exception with these ultra-large hubs.
The various aprons are filled with tons of custom ground clutter. While the ground textures themselves aren’t really anything spectacular, the ground markings are class-leading, being among the sharpest I’ve ever seen.
One thing I really do like is how the various airlines tend to park at the correct piers/stands — something else that’s very Flightbeam-esque. This might be a less obvious detail but it really does add to the immersion when your taxiing traffic is accurate and convincing.
Finally, the night-lighting is excellent. It’s quite orangey but I imagine it must be like this in reality.
PERFORMANCE
At an airport like KDEN, a very high level of detail should reasonably translate to a pretty major fps hit — yet this isn’t the case at all. Yes, I’m running a very high-end PC but there are equally detailed airports at which I get far worse performance. While not absolutely stellar when compared to some smaller airports, the performance is incredible when you account for what’s being offered here: a major US hub, and the biggest airport by area in the country. Now, KDEN in reality is a way out of the city, sort of in the middle of nowhere, but there’s a major photogrammetry area on its doorstep — so superb performance shouldn’t have been a ‘gimme’. One thing that will definitely help is the very aggressive use of LOD, which is quite obvious here, particularly while blasting around with the drone cam. But under normal operational circumstances, it is less obvious, and in 2024 part and parcel of getting these mega-hubs to run well on a wide range of systems.
But I want to take nothing away from the work X-Codr have done with their optimisation. It’s very impressive.
VERDICT
X-Codr’s KDEN seems to have largely flown under the radar but, make no mistake, these guys have cemented themselves in the top tier for scenery development. It looks great, and it performs great. You really do get a sense of the vast sprawl that is this quite isolated airport at the foot of the Rockies.
Add in some cool animations dotted around the scenery and you undoubtedly have the best Denver available for the sim. When you’ve Flightbeam hanging onto your coat-tails, that’s definitely no mean feat!
Worth noting that the scenery is currently available from Orbx with a 30% discount.
IMAGES
