Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Reviewed for: FS2024
Add-ons: FS Traffic, GSX Pro
Following their excellent Madeira and Kos airport sceneries, Atelic are back with a less summer holiday-inspired, more business-focussed destination: Luxembourg. It’s available for both FS2020 and 2024, the latter boasting a fully native version (a single purchase gets you both).
DETAIL
A beautifully detailed airport that has very few real weak areas. The terminal and its outdoor landside are superb, from the texturing/modelling to the contents of the building’s interior. There are static people models inside and out and the airport tram is not only animated, but stops at each station on its route. Heck, there are even working track signals!
There are literally hundreds of parked cars filling the various car-parks. I’d ordinarily moan about the use of default Asobo vehicles but since the apron GSE is entirely custom, I feel they placed the emphasis where it matters most. The apron GSE might not be the most varied I’ve seen but it’s high quality and plentiful. The inclusion of several animated ramp workers (again, default assets) enhances the airport’s feel and I’ve said many times that more devs should consider this very basic but effective addition.
Ground textures are fantastic. All ground markings are high-res and done in the new 2024 style that gives the impression they’re embossed (i.e. they appear to have depth, as in reality). The terraforming is excellent, with your aircraft responding to every bump and incline.
Moving into the airport’s peripheral areas, the quality is maintained, with the Cargolux hangar and HQ looking particularly impressive (it’s a really imposing structure, visible from miles around). Sadly, it is in this location that the scenery’s biggest flaw becomes apparent: the remnants of satellite imagery, clearly showing bits of parked Cargolux 747s. It really is disheartening to see this lack of care and attention at an otherwise outstanding airport so I hope Atelic can revisit this (and another, less affected) area and make improvements.
Outside the perimeter fence, the fine modelling continues — perhaps with a slight drop in quality but you’ll certainly not see anything that could pass for autogen. Atelic have gone to the effort of custom modelling EVERY major road surrounding the airfield — this includes roundabouts, under/overpasses, footbridges, signage gantries and streetlights. The approach lights to RWY06 are custom, too. My one complaint is again related to a lack of care and attention, with a number of buildings some way west of the terminal having been flattened — an issue likely overlooked in development and unfortunately not addressed prior to release.
Being FS2024 native, the airport looks brilliant at night. Really nothing to fault in this department, except that I feel they could have given some of the more peripheral buildings parallax interiors (a few have 2D internal lighting effects that aren’t 100% convincing).
PERFORMANCE
Anyone looking for reviews online will know that performance very quickly became a contentious subject re Atelic’s ELLX. It seems that most complaints are from users with 16gb or less VRAM. I have 24gb and am getting anywhere between 70 and 100fps, depending on traffic, weather and time of day. In other words, I have no issues at all but it might be worth carefully considering your purchase if you have a less VRAM-loaded GPU. That said, some with 16gb cards are reporting no issues, so it seems mileage varies. If there is a VRAM issue specific to this scenery, I hope Atelic can identify and fix it.
VERDICT
Atelic’s ELLX is one of the finest airports released so far this year, no doubt. Yes, there are a couple of areas to which care and attention clearly weren’t paid but they should be pretty simple fixes. In most respects, Atelic have excelled here, ticking all the boxes we tend to associate with great scenery. Excellent terminal (inside and out), excellent landside, excellent ground textures, excellent terraforming, and plenty of custom modelling outside the airfield boundary. I hesitate to claim excellent performance as some are clearly having problems, however for me there’s no issue whatsoever (in fact, I’d say in the region of 100fps is way above average for a scenery of this complexity).
Being right in the heart of Continental Europe makes this a very appealing airport for most virtual pilots. It’s less than an hour’s flying time from big hubs such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich, and punches well above its weight in the freight department (looking at FR24, it’s astonishing how active Cargolux are!). It’s also adjacent to some decent photogrammetry (to its west), with the nearby city featuring a number of hand-crafted Asobo POIs.
For the few who are reporting performance issues, I hope Atelic can find the exact cause and optimise accordingly. But if you have a recent GPU with 16gb+ VRAM, I really can’t see you having too much trouble. If you’re confident in your hardware, I really wouldn’t hesitate in buying this airport (which is currently discounted as a release offer at all stores). With three solid releases, Atelic have proved they belong in MSFS development’s top tier.
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