Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
MSFS add-ons: FSLTL, GSX Pro, REX AccuSeason (which may misrepresent some colours in certain light conditions)
Portland, Oregon is an airport I always wanted in the sim, but never bought because of its age (and its use of default jetways, which is a big bug-bear of mine). So when KPDX v2 was announced some time ago, I was quite excited. Would my grievances with the original be addressed in this new version?
DETAIL
As usual when I procure a new airport, I flew in from elsewhere — on this occasion choosing nearby Seattle, which is less than 150 miles from Portland. I selected an airliner that, despite recent and ongoing improvements, has always been a bit resource-heavy: the FSS E175 (of Alaska Airlines, naturally). Unfortunately live weather was pretty dreary and my entire flight saw me never breaking out of the cloud; but finally the Oregon ground below began to emerge from the murk. I arrived runway 28L and was surprised to see a departure coming straight at me, having taken off from the opposite end! Not the best start, obviously!
Having vacated the runway I ambled to stand 7C, jostling with the other 12 or so Alaskan E-Jets either parked up or maneuvering. For the purpose of this review, I decided to do a bit of cheating, and replaced live weather with clear blue spring skies prior to taking the drone for a spin.
What I saw pleased me immensely. First thing I noticed was the quality of the ground textures. Not the sharpest I’ve ever seen (though far from blurry) but just the right amount of weathering. Everything looks worn, including all ground markings. This standard of authenticity extends to the terminal building, which is modelled in pretty intricate detail — complete with custom jetways, thank God! We’re also presented with an extensive interior, and while it’s not the absolute best out there, it’s certainly impressive. Special mentions for the main check-in concourse (which looks amazing) and the brilliant recreation of the patterned carpets in the piers! We even get custom animated people, although they’re confined to the more detailed internal areas (everywhere else there are just a handful of static people models). To elaborate on my comment about the interior not being the absolute best, many of the shops, bars and eateries are 2D scans — but y’know, it all works reasonably well. The only other criticism I’ll level at the airport’s airside is that it could do with a touch more custom ramp clutter, because it’s on the sparse side.
Moving landside, the main check-in hall’s exterior façade is just as impressive as its interior, featuring more static people and custom elevated roadways and ramps. Vehicle models here are a bit boxy and low-res but I’m not going to make a big deal out of something pretty trivial. They’re the same models used by Flightbeam, who I’m guessing had a hand in this scenery (as they did with v1). As we continue landside, we increasingly see what looks like default satellite imagery making up the airport’s road system, and it unfortunately contrasts quite clumsily with some of the custom modelling. That said, it’s not the worst I’ve seen, and certainly isn’t going to be particularly noticeable from the flightdeck of a landing or taxiing aircraft.
As we move away from the main terminal area, the beautiful work around the airport’s peripheries begins to reveal itself: tons of hotels, warehouses, restaurants, offices, plus an outdoor mall and a huge Ikea. Unfortunately the ground textures here are just default but that’s not really an issue when you’re this far from the airport proper. It’s clearly been done to enhance the RWY28 approaches and, believe me, from the cockpit of an approaching airliner, it all looks fabulous! Worth mentioning that the generously-populated car-parks seem to go on forever and ever — and this far out, the quality of the vehicle models is immaterial. It’s actually quite hard on finals to tell what’s part of the scenery, what’s photogrammetry, and what’s autogen (yes, unfortunately there does seem to be a few autogen buildings knocking around). The cherry on the cake is an animated people-mover (with power lines), which goes back and forth between the terminal and the retail area to the airport’s east.
Before I conclude this section, I need to mention the quality of the night-lighting, because it’s some of the best I’ve seen. The terminal interior, in particular, looks incredibly realistic in the dark, and we’re thankfully devoid of the nuisance of Asobo ‘globes.’
PERFORMANCE
I said earlier that this airport feels like Flightbeam likely had a hand in its development, and performance certainly feels a lot like a similarly-sized Flightbeam airport (referring specifically to KMSP). Even with the resource-hungry FSS E175, taxiing in was silky smooth, in all views. I did, however, encounter some pretty bad stuttering with the drone cam just to the east of the terminal, which I’m hoping was an isolated incident.
Just to mention, I never saw another example of an aircraft taking off in the opposite direction to everything else, so probably a one-off,
VERDICT
Irrespective of whose work KPDX primarily is, someone’s done a great job. I can only compare v2 to screenshots of the original but I can clearly see differences between them, most notably the addition of the recently-completed concourses and replacement of the awful default jetways with custom models. But other areas seem to have seen enhancements too, and the almost complete interior is certainly new.
The approach from the east (to the 28 runways) is a visual treat and, once on the deck, everything about the airport feels realistic. Granted, there are some areas that remain Flightbeam’s Achilles’ heel — such as the poor and often untidy landside satellite imagery, and the boxy vehicles — but this doesn’t detract a great deal from the experience on offer here. For anyone wanting to fly Alaska Airlines routes, Portland is an absolute must, and we finally have the scenery that truly does this airport the justice it deserves in 2025.
On a final note, owners of v1 will get a 50% discount for two months. You can’t say fairer than that!
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