Aircraft used: default 320 & 781, LVFR 320, AT7, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
DETAIL
As with other very large airports on Xbox (IniBuilds’ EGLL & KLAX being prime examples) you’ll find few high-res textures here but it’s completely understandable with the console’s limited memory. Most of the textures are medium-res, becoming increasingly low-res as you fan out from the airport terminals. It’s all good, though, as you don’t really notice unless you get really close with the drone.
The terminals look fantastic and the Qantas maintenance area is particularly well done. There’s a ton of periphery detail quite a way from the airport perimeter, including hotels, restaurants, offices, warehouses, supermarkets, gas stations, advertising billboards and lots of overhead road signage. What lets all this detail down a little is the poor ground texturing, which is even present in the main landside terminal areas. Again not too surprising but it’s something FlyTampa and others are consistently guilty of.
Luckily the ground textures airside are great and the runways have the grooving effect, which in real life is a feature used to rid surfaces of excess water.
Ground clutter is another let-down, there being nowhere near the amount I’d expect at such a large hub. This is less easy to understand since IniBuilds’ big airports manage to include plenty of ground vehicles and equipment. Still, it’s not totally bare and what is here is decent. There are hundreds and hundreds of parked cars in various landside car-parks, some of which I’d rather have sacrificed for extra apron clutter.
PERFORMANCE
Stability is not perfect but okay for an airport of this size. With the PMDG 737 it won’t take too much drone punishment before black screening and it typically crashes very soon after if you carry on nosying around. It fares better when using exterior views, although too much swapping can also trigger black screens. Once it black screens I recommend staying in the cockpit as it sometimes corrects itself. To be fair it rarely CTDs unless the drone’s involved.
It’s definitely better with the two A320s but that’s little consolation for Qantas and Virgin Oz pilots!
Turning live weather off seems to make little difference.
Framerates are excellent, I’ve never experienced any degree of stuttering.
VERDICT
Those requiring Australia’s biggest hub don’t have much choice but, luckily, FT’s YSSY is far from bad. IniBuilds’ EGLL and KLAX are arguably more stable but I’d say YSSY is slightly richer in overall detail, certainly compared to EGLL.
The poor ground textures detract from the beauty somewhat but they’re common at large airports optimised for Xbox.
There are some unique features here, like the bobbing buoys that mark the airport’s marine boundaries, but even with such detail I feel stability could be better. Both KBOS and LGAV are more resistant to black screens and crashes and they’re large airports too. However looking beyond the stability issue it’s certainly possible to enjoy hassle-free operations at this airport as long as you’re mindful of the problem. If flying the PMDG 737, stick to the flightdeck or a single exterior view when taxiing in the vicinity of the terminals and all should be fine.
To conclude, a couple of things worth mentioning…
I have Orbx’s Sydney Cityscape pack installed, which enhances not just the city but the whole area’s ortho too. It’s an expansive upgrade and I’m quite sure FT’s YSSY has suffered as a result. I don’t recall it giving me quite as much grief prior to running the Orbx product. I also run LVFR’s airport statics, which quite densely populates the aprons.
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'Ello, 'ello… 
