Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Version reviewed: FS2024
Add-ons: BATC, GSX Pro, GFX, Global Shipping '24
This developer came to my attention at the end of 2024, when they released Kumamoto at Simmarket. Turns out they also offer Fukuoka and Saga for FS2020/2024, so I’m surprised it took so long for them to come onto my radar! A few days ago they dropped Hiroshima, so with my love of Japanese aviation — along with the recent PG for the city — I took a chance on this unknown company. I’d actually emailed them beforehand and got an almost immediate response — they’re certainly Japanese (judging by the name of the respondent) and I suspect a one-man band, given the lack of any real online presence.
I rarely buy from an unknown developer but the marketing images and the quick and polite response convinced me. Did I act too hastily, perhaps?
DETAIL
Sadly, Hiroshima city is far enough away from the airport to offer no glimpses of the excellent new PG — even landing from the city side — but the approach is very pleasant, nonetheless. The airport sits atop a plateau with steep ravines on all sides.
My origin of choice for the first visit flight was the hand-crafted Haneda and after just under an hour in the air, I was on approach to my new ‘unknown quantity’. The first thing that hits you when landing RWY09 is the enormous red gantry system which supports the (entirely custom) approach lighting. It’s very imposing and clearly a marvel of Japanese engineering! After a bit of a long flare (oops!), I was down on RJOA’s single 3,000m runway, and experiencing my first disappointment: low-res ground textures. Vacating the runway, they were no better on the taxiways, but once on the main ramp there was a noticeable improvement. Improvement doesn’t mean great, however — overall, ground textures are not this scenery’s strength (although ground markings are fine). What SNJ have done is used a custom ortho overlay, but instead of hand-modelling the runway and taxiways, they allowed this overlay to do the job for them. The actual runway textures are reasonable, upon really close scrutiny, but the ortho does a annoyingly good job of making everything look quite blurry.
I must admit, at this point, I was fearing the worst. Rarely have I been initially so underwhelmed then later gone on to really like a scenery. But of course, I had to give it chance and explore further… and I’m glad I did!
Almost everything else in this airport scenery oozes quality. The terminal building is beautifully modelled and features a partial interior, limited to just the airside gate areas. It’s fairly basic but includes custom Japanese airport signage (with which I’m very familiar, having spent a lot of time in the country in real life). Sadly, there are no people.
Its outdoor landside presents more of the ugly ortho and I really wish they’d custom-modelled this surface, too — there’s not a lot more annoying than seeing expertly crafted buildings sitting on top of poor ground imagery — it reminds me of the Orbx, FlyTampa and Drzewiecki airports we used to get a couple of years ago, that had similarly poor ground ortho. Luckily, some of the canopies in the car-park do a good job of hiding a lot of it, as do the hundreds of custom cars (including some very popular Japanese models) that litter the scenery. For good measure, SNJ placed a ton of fixed assets like roadsigns, foot/road bridges, barriers, bollards, etc. (but again, no people).
Thankfully, the level of quality remains consistent across the entire airfield, with no one area feeling neglected. Even the most outlying buildings look good, and are surrounded by various bits of custom clutter. Makes a change not having to set eyes on a single Asobo car in an airport scenery!
Outside the airport boundary, SNJ have included some local POIs, including hotels, businesses, offices, gardens and a number of bridges (ranging from small pedestrian types to huge examples spanning ravines).
Night-lighting is solid, being the typical standard we expect in FS2024. I saw no issues with BATC-injected traffic and all navaids are intact.
PERFORMANCE
I had no issues — the ‘local’ PG is miles away and you at least can’t say the ground imagery is intricate enough to cause problems! It’s not a huge airport and there are only ever 4-5 aircraft on the ground simultaneously.
VERDICT
Usually, when a landing doesn’t particularly impress me, things tend to go downhill the more I explore. Hiroshima surprised me because my opinion of it actually went up as I moved the drone across the scenery. The somewhat nasty surprise is the first and only one, and if you can get over it, almost everything else is fantastic. There is, however, no denying the decision to completely overlay the airport with poor ortho wasn’t a good one. Perhaps worse still is that the dev didn’t choose to then revisit the runway and taxiways to touch them up — but in spite of this, what we have here is a very detailed airport that has an awful lot going for it (to be fair, the ortho does actually look very good from altitude). Every airfield building is highly detailed, the bespoke approach lights look amazing, the variety of custom GSE clutter is noteworthy, and the sheer number of parked vehicles landside do their best to hide the mess underneath. I can even overlook the incomplete perimeter fence, since it’s a custom model that’s been placed in the most visible areas (i.e. in the vicinity of the terminal). Then there’s the surrounding modelling, which really does include some intricate (if not superfluous) detail.
For £13.60, I’m a very happy camper! There are a lot of far worse airports going for similar money (often more) and I’m pleased to be able to spotlight a small, relatively unknown developer so positively. Kumamoto costs around a pound more — and has no terminal interior modelling whatsoever — but I will be buying it soon, such is my newly-found confidence in SNJ. I’ve only had limited correspondence with them (him?) so far but it’s been very encouraging, with the promise of fixes if I find anything fundamentally wrong (not sure this extends to the ortho situation but I will offer constructive feedback).
For a country with a substantial aviation history, Japan isn’t as represented in the sim as most of us would like — so another dev doing high-quality airports there can only be a good thing. We should soon get two versions of Haneda (Axonos & Technobrain), and we already have excellent renditions of Narita and Naha. Hiroshima and Kumamoto are more-or-less halfway between Tokyo and Naha, and are served from both those cities.
On a closing note, sales aren’t really a thing in Japan and it came as no surprise to learn that none of SNJ’s products have ever been discounted. Never say never but you might be waiting a long time…
If you’re a fan of Japanese airports, this needs a place in your collection.
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