Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
This is my first scenery by Terrainy Studios, and one I had been hoping would eventually be discounted in a sale. That finally happened yesterday with the start of Orbx’s summer promotions. It’s available from a few other stores too, although they’re still offering it at full price.
The reason I was reluctant to buy at full price is that the dev appears to be no longer active — the last updates to their airports were 2022, their website hasn’t been updated since then, and a social media query I sent a good few weeks ago remains unanswered.
DETAIL
Being my first scenery from this dev, I didn’t know what to expect. The promo images looked nice but old reviews (from when the product was first released) suggest some of the external building textures are a bit generic-looking. I managed to source the most recent changelog from the Aerosoft store and these textures (among other things) were updated a year after release.
The airport looks great. There are still some VERY low-res textures but they’re mostly confined to places few will care about (such as the interior of the terminal, as illustrated below). That said, there are some present in more prominent areas, e.g. the terminal’s landside façade. But they are more a minor irritation than a total show-stopper. The majority of the external building textures are not exactly super-high-res but they’re sufficient and pretty authentic-looking.
Out on the ramp, all looks decent. A reasonable amount of custom GSE clutter gives the place a little energy. A minor complaint would be the slightly angular taxiway centrelines but they are convincingly coloured/weathered and the ground textures/markings in general are of a high standard.
The terminal interior is basic but it’s just enough. As mentioned already, this is where you’ll find the poorest textures but the insides of Greek island airport terminals aren’t known for their aesthetic beauty! The terminal landside is one of the scenery’s stronger points, being entirely custom modelled and featuring some attractive assets (although again, textures aren’t the sharpest when viewed up close). There is some quite unique custom vegetation that appears to match varieties native to the island.
Out on the runway, the texturing is what I’d describe as ‘unusual’. Greek airports are blurred on Google Maps for security reasons so I’ve been unable to make direct comparisons. However the textures seem unnaturally pale and the contrasting dark tyre marks don’t quite come across as entirely convincing. They’re not bad, per se… just odd-looking.
The marketing bumf states that POIs have been added across the whole island but this is a somewhat dubious claim as, having toured the whole island, I can find very few away from areas immediately surrounding the airport. A couple of masts but I suspect they’re from We Love VFR. Still, what is here is very nice but, again, get too close and the texturing falls apart a bit. However since these areas are only typically viewed from a passing airliner, they do their job pretty well. There’s a large warehouse on finals for RWY09, which is apparently a very important reference for a visual approach. At the other end (RWY27) there’s an assortment of villages and resorts, featuring a number of hotels and their guest facilities (swimming pools, sunloungers/parasols on the beach, etc.). Slightly further out, on the same approach, there’s a charming little village, featuring mostly generic (but custom) buildings but also a modelled promenade and couple of crafted POIs. This looks particularly attractive at night, with its many multi-coloured lights reflecting off the water.
One final thing is the existence of some floating assets, in the form of these drainage ditches that run across parts of the airfield. Not noticeable unless you get close but I feel I need to mention them for completeness.
PERFORMANCE
Unsurprisingly, it’s flawless. Greek island airports tend to be small and relatively quiet, and the lower-res texturing across most of this scenery no doubt aids performance.
VERDICT
This scenery isn’t perfect (I’d like to see higher-quality textures all-round but particularly in more prominent areas) but it largely succeeds in recreating the feel of this Greek island. Despite the POI claims being somewhat disingenuous, there’s enough here for pilots landing from either the east or west. A nicely-detailed airport plus surrounding POIs for less than €15 is hardly poor value, and the current sale price actually makes it exceptional value, in my opinion.
If, like me, you enjoy island hopping in the ATR — or doing really short narrowbody jet flights in this region — Terrainy’s Samos is an essential purchase. Greece doesn’t currently have photogrammetry but luckily the terrain in these parts is very well done.
The only issue I can possibly foresee is a future World Update or FS2024 compatibility issue, which might not get fixed if the dev is indeed no longer active. That possibility makes the full price that bit less palatable.
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