Aircraft used: LVFR 320, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
Despite the fact that FSimStudios claim they’ve employed ‘new techniques’ with Winnipeg (they would, wouldn’t they?), I was upon purchase VERY sceptical about this airport’s stability — after all, their CYYC has been reworked a couple of times now on Xbox and STILL has major issues. So is Winnipeg another one to avoid on console? Let’s find out…
DETAIL
The first thing that struck me about this airport is how very ‘Flightbeam’ it feels — which of course isn’t a bad thing!
The terminal is nicely modelled, adorned with high-res textures and includes an interior which, although toned down a bit compared to its PC counterpart, is still pretty detailed. The landside isn’t the most impressive I’ve seen but it’s more than adequate, featuring a number of custom roads (the elevated sections are particularly well done), lots of signage and a handful of fantastically-detailed cars.
The airside features plenty of custom clutter, including some animated ground service vehicles. We also get a great variety of custom static aircraft, many of them unique to this airport.
The airside ground textures are fantastic and include full Canadian runway markings. The curves in taxiway edge/centrelines are convincingly done, rather than being comprised of a series of straight sections crudely pieced together to form a curve (something we unfortunately see all too often).
Landside textures look mainly default to me, and while they don’t look terrible, I think there’s room for improvement in this department.
Away from the terminals the high-res detail remains consistent, with all manner of peripheral buildings and structures modelled, both airside and landside. I particularly like the Tim Horton’s restaurant right under the RWY36 approach, complete with cars queueing for the drive-thru!
The whole airport sits very nicely within the area’s photogrammetry and an approach to either runway from the south puts you in close proximity to downtown Winnipeg; while approaching from the opposite direction necessitates flying low over what appears to be some quite bleak marshland.
PERFORMANCE
I honestly suspected stability would be similar to Calgary — perhaps a bit better given the airport’s smaller size — however it really has surprised me by being pretty rock solid on Xbox! My first landing and taxi in was done entirely in external view (with a lot of panning around), followed by a 30 minute session with the drone. No issues whatsoever and it was only after a further 45 minutes’ drone use (shooting the pics for this review, incidentally) that I got black screens. I’ve flown in and out several times since and have experienced zero problems. Basically, if you want to black-screen it, it’s certainly possible with plenty of punishment — however under normal flying circumstances it’s extremely unlikely to cause you any bother.
Framerates are excellent, I’ve not had a single stutter! Looks like FSimStudios are the next reputable dev to have cracked the Xbox optimisation conundrum!
VERDICT
It feels odd wholeheartedly recommending this scenery but being unable to do likewise regarding the only-slightly-older Calgary. They’re similar in many ways but Winnipeg is a notch up, both visually and stability-wise.
It’s not without its flaws and it perhaps isn’t an airport everyone’s going to want, since there isn’t a great deal of international traffic (save for that coming from/going to the USA and Caribbean) — but for any Xbox users looking to add a stable, quality Canadian airport to their collection, look no further than FSS’ CYWG.
IMAGES
These CRJs are so detailed you can see who they once belonged to: one Delta, one Jazz!
Two images illustrating the presumed elevation issue that causes a very small number of objects to ‘float’.
