Aircraft used: LVFR 320, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
Justifiably, Flightbeam have always received enormous praise for their incredibly realistic-looking airports; however at times I feel they’re somewhat overhyped. They are certainly among the top five but the likes of IniBuilds and Pyreegue are, in my opinion, just as good and, in some respects, better. So, does KMSP live up to the hype?
DETAIL
Flightbeam have put the majority of their effort into making the terminal area look as realistic as possible and they’ve done a stellar job. Some of the texturing is a little lower-res than I would have liked but it’s decent enough where it matters.
Despite the marketing claims there’s no real interior to speak of — just a nice-looking vista from the cockpit of a parked airliner but that’s really all you need. You can get inside but it’s a bit temperamental, and what’s to be seen isn’t particularly aesthetic once you’re in there.
Ground textures airside are simply fantastic and retain much of their detail when viewed from altitude. There are no jagged curves in the taxiway and apron markings. The apron itself features those wonderful reflective oil stains we’ve come to love about Flightbeam airports, and it hosts some really decent static clutter, custom-modelled specifically for this airport. It’s all high-res, too! A feature I absolutely love is the airside road tunnel that goes under part of the terminal, near stand G4 — it’s incredibly well done!
The terminal landside isn’t as impressive, with the roads and car-parks being of significantly lower resolution but I’d say they’ve done a slightly better job than FlyTampa or Drzewiecki do in these areas.
Away from the terminals all airside peripheral buildings and structures have been equally well modelled and there are far more of them than I expected. There are three static aircraft dotted about: two Hercs outside the national Guard facility and an old DC-9 used as a fire trainer. The bad news is that, again, some of the ground textures in these areas are much lower-res and in places they’re downright poor. In one location there are flat 2D aircraft — presumably part of an outdoor museum collection — that really should have been erased altogether and replaced with grass if they didn’t feel up to the task of modelling them. Even worse, on Delta’s maintenance ramp there are the dismembered 2D horizontal stabs of several airliners sticking out from the edge of the concrete! This REALLY should have been addressed but, thankfully, it’s an area few virtual pilots will go diligently exploring.
PERFORMANCE
I’ve always been lukewarm towards Flightbeam’s optimisation. Their two New Zealand airports (NZAA and NZWN) aren’t particularly stable on Xbox, especially when you consider they contain a significant number of lower-res textures. However KMSP seems far better optimised for console and I’ve found it as solid as a rock so far, offering superb framerate performance to boot. Surprisingly, the download size is less than 500mb!
VERDICT
KMSP has changed my opinion of Flightbeam slightly, in a positive way. Despite the many lower-res textures, they’ve put the detail where it really matters and unless you get super-close it all looks rather splendid — about as close to photoreal as you can get.
It sits really well within the photogrammetry and performance and stability are top-notch. It’s a shame more wasn’t done to tidy up some of the default satellite imagery away from the terminals but you’re really not likely to notice unless you specifically go looking. Besides, we now know an update is on the way which hopefully will address some of the key flaws.
As a package this airport isn’t quite perfect but it’s well rounded and I fully recommend it to every Xbox simmer. It’s rare that I praise the value of a £17 airport but it’s absolutely worth it.
IMAGES
Hopefully the ugly satellite imagery will be tidied up in the upcoming update. There are back ends of planes that should have been scrubbed, and 3D cars sitting atop satellite ones.
