YPAD by Impulse

For those interested (esp Aussies) have a good look at ImpulseSimulation’s YPAD - this is very, very good!

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Looks like they should have continued with their YBBN version with the negative feedback on the ORBX release. TRANSAIR ??? Old TAA callsign for company frequency ??

yes, a distinct difference I think
You’re right too!

Yep. I can agree that it is very, very good.

Considering the price, I feel the negativity is quite a bit overblown. It isn’t the best airport, but it isn’t quite trash as some say.

I can speak highly of this product as I purchased it and have spent time traversing carefully around it in the drone camera.

It’s so refreshing to see a major Aussie airport embellished with details and features.

The immersion factor is on the uppermost region of the scales.

disclaimer: I know the devs as we’re in the same FB group representing Australia / New Zealand / PNG in MSFS. That aside, I can honestly, unequivocally and unbiasedly state - this product (ie YPAD) is of a very high standard and the price point is very fair.

Very much looking forward to their next airport scenery production.

I’ve said for many years now, Orbx produce landclass and other scenery (ie FSX,P3D) that was often mindblowing in quality. They were ahead of the curve back then for such things.

Conversely, and in particular, their rendition of major Australian airports like YMML, YBBN and YSCB were sub-par in comparison to other major devs like Flightbeam, FS Dreamteam, Fly Tampa and so on during the same period for the same FS iteration ie FSX,P3D. This was easy to ascertain by simply comparing the airports produced by all these devs in FSX & P3D. I happened to own many airports back in FSX/P3D by all the aforementioned devs.

It’s clear that the MSFS rendition of YBBN is at best lack-lustre in comparison to other Australian airports that have been released for MSFS. These other airports (ie YPAD, YMHB) have truly been produced purely for MSFS and no other platform. Price point is irrelevant. I, like many others in our FB group would gladly have paid full price for a YBBN that has been truly built from the ground up purely for MSFS with rich details and features for the immersion. Orbx need to reconsider their roll-out of any future airports (and I’ll specifically point to major Australian airports in this instance) and ensure the quality and features this new MSFS eco-system allows us to enjoy are fully implemented and integrated just as the other devs are producing.

This is a new era of flightsimming - the very airports we all fly in and out of should be fully immersive which would make them commensurate with the beauty/immersion of the satellite ground imagery Asobo and MS have kindly (and finally) brought to us for our enjoyment.

Price point is always relevant. You always get what you pay for (or at least you do in an ideal world).

Developers price their products depending on how much work they require. The moment they said how much it’d cost, it was obvious that it was a straight conversion from older sim, likely released to let people enjoy the city add-on.

And you can. All you have to do is to wait for someone to do it. Someone will.

Orbx can pretty much do what they want IMHO. It’s their product and customers will vote with their wallet. There certainly is room on the market for cheaper, less fully-featured airports as long as they’re not egregious (and this is far from that level), for those who don’t wanna spend $25 for a big airport but still want something much, much better than the default (which this is).

It’s not for me, but I know lots of people for whom this can be for. If you want better and pricier, it’s a big market. Someone’ll do it.

Back on topic, YPAD is great. I purchased it for myself as soon as it was available and gave away another on our Discord because I felt more people needed to see it for themselves - great work by Impulse.

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This is straight from Orbx re YBBN:
“Brisbane Airport is the work of our experienced team in Havant who have overhauled the airport with a considerable number of updates since our original 2010 release on the ESP platform, effectively rebuilding the airport from scratch. Built using current modelling techniques, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) complements our realistic models with highly detailed textures.”

At no point in that statement from Orbx is it made clear that the product is “a straight conversion from a previous sim”. I see “effectively building the airport from scratch”. This implies/states it is completely reworked without the use of any materials from the previous/older version. Indeed the entire statement by Orbx points clearly toward a “new” build. But that’s not what we’re all seeing with this product.

Price point is determined on several factors and isn’t purely determined by just resources/input by the dev ( as I understand it). So the price point was not the significant factor here indicative of “you get what you pay for”, and we see that in their statement regarding the “effectively building the airport from scratch”.

I agree with you that Orbx can pretty much do what they want. But that comes at a risk as new devs in this eco-system are pushing boundaries with scenery and that this new approach is being embraced by the community at large.

How often have any of us seen duplicate airports being produced by 2 different devs in any of the flightsim platforms in the last 20 years? I know the answer to that question. Rare. Very rare for a number of very valid reasons.

There’s no going back to the old ways…there’s only onwards and upwards…as the saying goes.
:wink:

Marketing spiel will always be marketing spiel and little more. When you see a big airport for $15 from a big developer that usually charges more, you can pretty much imagine it’s not from the goodness of their heart.

There are already several duplicate airports from multiple developers for MSFS, and we’re less than a year in.

A few examples are Hamburg, Key West, Barcelona, Chania, Basel, and those are just some that come off the top of my head without thinking about it too much.

I’m fairly sure there are a couple that have three renditions.

More are already announced like Brussels, Munich, Palma de Mallorca, Singapore, Shanghai, and again, there’s plenty more.

We’re not looking at commercially struggling sims anymore. We’re looking at an AAA product that attracts a LOT more developer resources, with many sniffing the business and jumping on the bandwagon. You can pretty much bet that every major airport and many minor will have two or even more renditions, because people like money, and airports in MSFS are a great source of it.

You’ve definitely provided some examples of how things have changed moving forward into MSFS as opposed to previous FS iterations in terms of duplication of airports.

What remains to be seen, even in a commercially successful environment (according to the figures thrown around pertaining to the number of customers in the MSFS eco-system, which we expect will only grow further with the X-box intro coming soon) is how duplicate sceneries compete and remain viable. Time will certainly tell.

Wow! YPAD is simply fantastic!

Regarding ORBX, they’ve gone noticeably downhill in recent years. My biggest gripe with ORBX is jetways. They’ve been promising custom moveable jetways for 15 years now. The P3D/FSX releases still don’t have them. MSFS gave them an excuse to do some half-assed jetways. KSBA for instance has default jetways, despite the product page banner showing custom. YBBN’s don’t work well at all. I feel like their quality is definitely slipping. Their prices sure as heck haven’t gone down, yet quality has.

Agree 100%.

Complacency is a killer, and if they don’t move with these new times their business will undoubtedly suffer.

Anyone else seeing black triangles instead of ground textures at the gates? Visible from within the cockpit only, ok with external views. The latest update 1.1 from Impulse did not fix it.

I’m getting purple taxiways. Thinking it’s probably a mod conflict somewhere.

Edit: also the black triangles as well.

I’ve not seen the purple taxiways but the black triangles happen without any other addons installed. I had a reply back from Impulse. The black triangles (& jetways not spawning properly) are known issues created by SU5 & we will have to wait for Asobo to fix it. So I wouldn’t worry about trying to track down conflicts in your setup.

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There has been an updated produced by Impulse Simulations which may address the issue you are experiencing. Depending on where you purchased it from, check their website.

Still getting purple taxiways. I’m uninstalling-reinstalling to see if it helps any, but I’m not optimistic…

Update 9.21.21 – It was a mod conflict. Problem now solved!