Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Add-ons: BATC, GSX Pro, GFX, Global Shipping '24
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t buy an airport that has another version on the way (by SimPixel, in LGIR’s case), but Lisium has quickly become one of my favourute developers and I think it’s highly unlilely the competition will match it (let alone better it). Greece is a wonderful place to hop around in the sim and since we’re now officially in the European summer season, I didn’t fancy waiting for a sale (by which time, the season could be nearly over). The asking price also seemed fair, especially since some much smaller airports lately are commanding higher prices.
DETAIL
As usual, I arrived at the review airport from elsewhere: Athens, on this occasion, in the Fenix A320 (Aegean livery, naturally). I always look forward to arriving at new Greek airports because the flights are nearly always short and very scenic, and the hop from LGAV wass no exception. After roughly 35 minutes in the air, I performed an RNAV approach to RWY27. The terrain on Crete isn’t the sharpest (not Lisium’s fault, of course) but the nicely detailed cliffs this end of the main runway sits atop go some way towards making up for any aesthetic imperfections. Three things I noticed immediately: a) there doesn’t appear to be custom ortho imagery for the airport (if there is, it’s no better than Asobo’s default); b) the runway is well textured/weathered, and c) the terraforming is excellent.
After vacating the runway, the next thing that struck me was the amount of custom, region-specific vegetation that lines the runway and taxiways. I recall IniBuilds including similar in their Chios a few years back, and I’d say Lisium have gone even further with the idea here, implementing it perfectly. So many devs pay little attention to the local flora but in these parts, it’s the difference between authenticity and cheap imitation. Before you even get anywhere near the terminal, this scenery feels like Greece!
The apron textures look good, exhibiting some convincing weathering. The markings are pretty basic but I think this is more a Greek island thing than any laziness on the dev’s part. There’s an absolute ton of custom clutter, everywhere you look. In fact, the only objects I could find on the entire airfield that aren’t custom are the baggage containers and windsocks. A shame none of the GSE is animated but I’m not going to hold that against Lisium. There’s more than enough here to make the apron feel alive.
The terminal is your typical Greek affair: old, grimy, and barely fit for 21st century travel. Lisium have done a great job recreating it, and it boast a pracitcally complete interior, with static people and plenty of animated detail. Being a largely concrete structure with relatively small windows, they could’ve been forgiven for choosing to only model the airside portion — or even no part of it at all — so the effort they put in is more than appreciated. The outdoor landside I’d say isn’t quite as impressive as the interior (or ramp, for that matter) but it’s far from disappointing. It lacks people, for example, but does feature custom vehicles (cars and a good selection of tour buses) and some lovely fine detail that extends some way back from the main building. Again, there are plenty of little animations to discover.
Taking a look at the airfield’s extremities reveals a good degree of consistency, with various military hangars and outlying buildings modelled. Admittedly, some textures in these areas are much lower resolution that those seen around the terminal but this approach is undertstandable. There are a number of static military aircraft models (jets and large helicopters), plus associated army vehicles. None of them have specific Greek markings but… who cares, really? Well, maybe if you’re a mil pilot, but…
Outside the perimeter fence (yes, there are a couple of custom fence models that completely encirle the airfield), we’re treated to an assortment of surrounding buildings, including supermarkets, apartments, warehouses, plus a selection of local touristy POIs (the more prominent eamples having their own night-lighting). Most are not modelled to the standard found on the airport proper but this sort of surrounding eye-candy arguably doesn’t need to be super-high-quality.
Moving onto night-lighting generally, it’s the typical standard we expect in FS2024 (i.e. very good). All navaids seem to be in place and I saw no issues with arriving or departing AI traffic.
PERFORMANCE
Pretty solid for me but I did notice the odd stutter while moving at speed across the airfield with the drone. As always, it’s hard to offer comprehensive advice re performance since setups and systems can differ significantly. There’s no PG for hundreds of miles and, as I pointed out earlier, the terrain textures on Crete aren’t among Asobo’s finest. However the airport is very detailed throughout, and there can be a lot of traffic mid-summer, so those with more modest PCs might want to be slightly cautious.
VREDICT
When I land in Greece in the sim, first and foremost, I want it to feel like Greece. Aside from the mediocre ortho around the airport, I’m amazed by how Greek this airport feels, from the moment I touched down. The immersion generated by the custom vegetation growing out of every seldom-used inch of the airfield surface cannot be understated. It’s a simple addition that adds so much authenticity to almost any airport in the southern Mediterranean, and is probably the ONE thing that makes this airport so immediately special for me.
But there are many other things that make this airport a winner: convincing weathering, the abundance of custom assets (airside and landside), the superb terminal interior (the best of any Greek MSFS airport, I’d say), and a good number of POIs in the airport’s vicinity.
Lisium’s LGIR is the complete package, and while it’s not perfect, it’s got almost everything you need to significantly enhance your Greek sim experience. I have no serious complaints but I guess if I had to mention a few things I’d like to see added or improved, they’d be: a) a better ortho image covering the airport, b) some animated GSE, and c) even more POIs around the perimeter (last one’s just me being greedy, though!).
In the summer, flights arrive here from all over Europe, plus of course Athens and neighbouring Islands. There are also a limited number of flights from the Middle East/West Asia. It’s great to finally have one of Greece’s most important airports done well in the sim.
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