Aircraft used: LVFR 320
Live weather: off
DETAIL
“Everything looks absolutely superb… as long as you don’t get too close!”
I reckon I need to elaborate on that statement! There’s so much to love here, but also some things I really don’t like…
The terminal building looks amazing! An incredibly ugly, mostly concrete structure, it really feels grimy and worn! Paulo’s not only included but nicely detailed all the dingy cracks and crevices (i.e. the parts passengers rarely see) and it really makes this airport feel authentic. We are treated to a partial interior too — not quite up to the standard of Viracopos but still very well done — however I can’t help but feel such a feature subtracts far more from this scenery than it adds (more about that later). Like Viracopos there are no passengers, static or otherwise.
Airside, the ground textures are mostly very good but there are a few areas that are of lower quality, perhaps most notably the Azul maintenance ramp. Ground clutter is plentiful, done mostly in high-res and includes many custom objects unique to this airport. We get good quality static airliners too, although a couple do interfere with LVFR’s static aircraft pack. Speaking of LVFR’s pack, this is one of few third-party airports that isn’t really compatible and you’ll see that every aircraft parked at the terminal is offset to the left, nose into a jetway.
The numerous maintenance hangars and FBO buildings have been modelled and again, they’re mostly done using high-res textures. There seems to be some inconsistency in these textures though — for example, neighbouring hangars can show quite some variation in quality.
One very noticeable thing is that, irrespective of how well airside buildings are textured, they all have rather featureless and much lower res roofs.
Moving landside, texture quality generally takes quite a tumble. The inconsistency can again be seen, with some buildings around the perimeter being of very good quality while others look a bit of a mess. A good example is the Ibis hotel, directly opposite the terminal, which is done so terribly that its name is barely readable! I only know it’s an Ibis by the logo! Further away from the terminal area, however, there are some businesses that feature really crisp textures! Go figure…
The whole airfield perimeter looks very good, if you can excuse some of the low-res ground textures. There are some great little details, such as a variety of electricity pylons, the larger examples featuring those garish plastic spheres attached to their lines to make them visible to low-flying manned or unmanned aircraft (including drones and kites). The custom runway approach lighting is excellent and all the surrounding roads have modelled streetlights — although at night you do see way too many Asobo ‘globes’! Paulo’s even modelled a golf course and what appears to be a memorial park at the runway 35 end of the field. To add extra shine, we get some really good terraforming across the entire airport.
Away from the airport we get the city modelled in its entirety — to the point that there’s really very little of the default autogen remaining! Okay, the vast majority of the buildings are quite low-res (remember my opening statement about everything looking superb until you get close?) but they’re all custom to some degree, and while on short finals or departure you’re not going to notice the mediocre quality. The variety of the buildings is excellent, though that’s not to say many don’t have a somewhat repetitious look to them.
PERFORMANCE
Remember when I said there are things I dislike? Well, performance is one of those things. It black screens pretty quickly if you use exterior views or the drone, even in moderation. BUT it doesn’t actually crash following blackscreen and both times I’ve flown in there so far I’ve managed to continue looking around for ages without it ultimately triggering a CTD.
Framerates can drop noticeably when on finals but it’s not as bad as BMW/Amsim’s CYUL or Pyreegue’s EGNX — which is admirable, given the density of the surroundings.
VERDICT
I’ve never been so conflicted when reviewing an airport! Despite its flaws I’m really liking SBSP. It’s got character and that character has been really nicely captured by Paulo. When I first flew in I upped the humidity to near maximum to create a smog-like haze and it made the experience feel so incredibly real!
But the flaws need to be mentioned and considered. The terminal interior is something I feel could have been omitted since the real draw of this airport is its proximity to the surrounding neighbourhoods, all of which are high-rise. I normally wax lyrical about interiors but I really think it takes away more than it adds here — I’d sooner have an increase in stability/performance, no matter how small, than a terminal interior I’m not really going to pay attention to more than once.
But when all said and done one has to consider the real-world location of this airport, and the fact that it would simply not be the same without all the surrounding detail Paulo has modelled. I really fail to see how he could have done a better job, save for leaving out the terminal interior. Congonhas without custom surroundings would be like a tail without the dog!
I own Paulo’s other two MSFS airports — Santos Dumont and Viracopos — both of which are 100% stable on Xbox so I’m convinced he did the best he could here.
In spite of the performance issues I have to recommend this airport because it’s so different from anywhere else. I will make contact with Paulo about some console optimisation but I honestly feel it’s almost as good as it’s going to get, unless much of that extensive detail is culled. I think the removal of the terminal interior would help but I guess there’s only so much that can be done with an airport stuck in the middle of one of the most densely-populated cities on Earth! Perhaps some less obvious textures could be slightly downsized, including those inside the terminal as they’re needlessly crisp.
IMAGES
Quite a few…
