Taxi2gate Bratislava : Review !

FS9/FSX. Yes, Taxi2gate is one of our advertisers. But wow. Stop it. You have just arrived. This second Slovakian airport (after Kosice) is a great piece. And the team did it in less than 2 months.

TAXI2GATE BRATISLAVA LZIB AIRPORT

REVIEW

Version tested : FSX V.1.0

File size : 569 MB

Installation : Very easy / all automatic.

Manual :  Yes (4 pages, english) + a dozen of charts.

Utilities : No. Installer expected to add trees and grass in winter.

Framerate : 
With ATI HD6570 at max quality settings + volumetric grass + FSX sliders at 100 % + REX V.2 :
= 10-13 to 20-25 fps at the apron, aboard the PMDG NGX.
Volumetric grass are massive all around the airport. Deactivating them will provide much more fps.
My (old) system : I5 3,4 Ghz, 6 MB, ATI 6570, Resolution 1280 x 1024.

Important remark : Taxi2gate is now working on a service pack to fix and updates a few things :
(blank building and 2 or 3 things).

Important remark :
Another team has taken the opportunity of releasing on  Simmarket their scenery of Bratislava.
The screenshots are pretty nice. But at least, releasing their own work just after T2G, they should have mentioned the compatibility with T2G airport and surroundings.
Reference is : bratislava-fs-sk

The bad :

* Winter textures but not for trees and grass ( still in summer colors). A new set is available on T2G website and they are working on an installer.

  

The good :

* A large and very detailed scenery !

* Central location between Western and Eastern Europe. Another Slovakian airport, done by the same team, Kosica, is the eastern side of the country.

All the charts are included in separated PDF files.

 *** SURROUNDINGS ***

The surroundings of the airport include motorways and road traffic. There are no specific bridges on the motorways though. But these surroundings have a lot of photoreal textures. Different areas can be clearly identified : industrial, residential.  

The size of these surroundings can be estimated here on this shot.

The next two pictures show that every building is textured. With this level of precision, i assume that the second developper, Radovan (a local ?) has been granted access to the airport. You really need hundreds of photos in order to get this realism.

I think you will have a good idea of the size of these surroundings here :

From the airport to the bottom of the picture, there is 10 kilometers !

A comparison between Taxi2gate airport surroundings (above) and (below) FSX defaut...

All around the airport, a lot of ground textures and VFR visual objects. To the left, river sides are textured. To the right, fuel depots and photoreal textures.

* * * * AIRPORT *  * * *

Although the terminal is brand new, the runways of Bratislava LZIB are still very old and cracked. A lot of tires traces have been drew too. On the both sides of the runway, the volumetric grass adds more density.  

Check the rusty marks on the roof of the terminal. And all the signs (above) and poles on the main place. You can also find a lot of street ads, cars and bus traffic. No animated people here. But i like this choice. Taxi2gate re-included these people in Asuncion but that was not too good. The terminal is so realistic that developers really need something new. I am not even shure is Orbx People Flow would fit well here.

The terminal is irreproachable. Textures, night lights, details, everything is carefully designed.

I try the old MyTraffic Lite and it has added a few local aircrafts. The streets around this terminal are custom. They are not just a photoreal copy showing real cars shadows.

These 2 Ryanair are static and included with the scenery.

Several shadow textures on the main tower. A rather difficult building to model.

A very detailed old fashion mirador. Absolutely no problems here with the fence nor the stairs (i mean, no flickering).

In this screenshot, showing the fire station, you can have a rather good glimpse of the volumetric grass, all around the taxiways.

Many static vehicules have been included near the tower and terminal. They are enlighted as well.

The terminal at dusk.

* * * * * LIGHTS AND SEASONS * * * * *

It's possible to guess the details in offices through their windows, here, on the left building.

Another interesting shot showing the attention brought on the textures. A lot of small objets are added to enhance the realism ; trash bin, wood boxes, pallets...

I have taken this view at night time. The terminal and aprons are still very well enlighted. As a matter of fact, the lights are quite different from dusk to night. That's rather seldom. A lot of sceneries show the same lights during evening. Here at night, you are absolutely not blind in your aircraft. Every detail of the airport can be seen.

Taxi2gate could not design Bratislava without winter textures. It's done. Bratislava in its mantle of winter and all the surroundings are white too.

So this is an example here of what i said about the winter textures. They are great if you are just ready to forget that trees and 3D grass are still green (not frozen). The team is working on it.

 I am very impressed by the main apron in winter here and the snow traces.

More pictures ?

 http://secure.simmarket.com/taxi2gate-bratislava-lzib-fsx-(fr_6790).phtml

Conclusion :

Designing Bratislava was a good idea. 5 years ago, it did not make any sense because it was an old (ex-communism era) airport. I think i landed there for real, in 2006 for a report. It was just about to be renovated.  Now, Bratislava is a busy industrial town and still has its gorgeous old city. And the airport is much larger. About Taxi2gate job here, i am surprised by the size of the scenery and the details. I mean, everything is there : traffic, photoreal areas around the airport, seasonal textures, static aircrafts etc etc. And the service pack will fix minor details. Behind the story, if you remember, Taxi2gate started to design San Diego airport but Latin VFR was on the same work. After the deal, T2G had to find another target. And they did it really good. In less than 2 months.

Thanks !


Airdailyx October 2012
Direct from Bratislava,
Dom Mason