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Monday, November 12, 2012

Dubai. Our impression!

It's the product everyone has been praying for, been waiting for, been... dying for. The mastermind that is Martin of FlyTampa has done it again. Should I even say "again"? Because, if you ask me, this is a first in the history of home PC flight simulation. I don't honestly think a single FS product has ever been hailed as king the way everyone is talking about Dubai. The last product that even came close was Martin's own KatTak and even that is a far cry compared to Dubai. So, let's pack our bags folks because we are going on a FS9/FSX wild ride to the place everyone wants to be: DXB!  Bandwidth Warning!  With over 140 screenshots, this is my largest review ever. Even the Dubai scenery will run faster than this review if you have low or limited bandwidth!
We have finally arrived.



Now a quick note about my review style for those of you who have not experienced one of my reviews before. To start, my review style is anything but mainstream. I don't go into system specs because let's face it, everyone has a different system and everyone will have a different look and experience.  I also don't go into the product install processes unless it is somehow super complicated. I won't go into airport histories and statistics as I don't want to insult your intelligence and besides, you can read Wikipedia articles yourself.
I also don't summarize what was good vs. bad at the end of my reviews as it is a good way for readers to skip the entire thing and go straight to the summary. If you wan't to know those things, you will have to read the entire review. You can expect honesty, fairness, personality, and mindless rambling. Oh yeah, and a 747 load of screenshots!
I have also broken this review into sections so if there is a particular part of the product you are looking for, it will be easy to find without having to read the entire review. And if you are thinking it is long, it's only because i'm not lazy. And clearly, neither was Martin. A scenery of this size and scale deserves a proper review to cover it. So needless to say, this is not your usual 2-paragraph review.

So when you have a product this large, it can be difficult to determine exactly where to start. Not only is the city itself covered complete with the islands and Sheikh Zayed Road, but so is Dubai Marina and Sharjah as well. Thus, I think the best place to start here is with the centerpiece itself: DXB.
Now, I myself have made the grueling long 17 hour nonstop pilgrimage to Dubai via EK's lovely business class seats on board their B772LR many times and there is nothing quite like watching the Sunset after takeoff. Watching the Sun rise again. Then watching the sun set again whilst crossing the North Pole with still 13 hours flying time to go afterwards. Drink, sleep, eat, watch movie, sleep, play game, sleep, poop, sleep, drink, sleep, eat, sleep... Like I said, a pilgrimage.
 Me after 9 hours flying with 8 more hours to go.
But this time, all of this can still happen without getting your fat ass off the computer and still feel as if you arrived in Dubai. This is because the scenery work is so real to life, you can't help but feel as if you are really there and I have been there! And it's this amazing work that makes Martin so damn good at what he does.
Now as this is the first time I am attempting a multi-platform review,  it's important that you know that this review is for both FS9 and FSX and includes a large amount of screenshots from both platforms. It's up to you to figure out which shots are which.

I sincerely hope you'll enjoy!

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THE AIRPORT

I remember my very first trip out of the States many years ago. The first airport I arrived to was LSZH about a month after the Dock E opened. I was so impressed with the architecture of Dock E, I was left wondering why we didn't have anything like it in the US. It instantly became my favorite airport in the world and was only a first in what became several trips to the airport.
In fact, I liked ZRH so much, it became my offical gateway into Europe. So if I was going to London or Amsterdam or Paris, I would purposely book a business class flight on Swiss just so I could visit ZRH. Even though I would go on to visit many airports around the world, ZRH remained the best in my mind... that is, until I stepped foot in DXB.
Now at the time I was an Employee of Emirates and thus on my first trip to the airport, I was given a first class tour of the entire airfield and terminals. I got an in-depth look at everything from the hotels, to the first class lounges and spas, to the dungeons we call: the bag rooms.
As my first trip here was merely weeks after the opening of terminal 3, a lot of finishing touches were still going on. But that did not deter me from being so awe inspired of what immediately became the best looking structure I had ever seen. Needless to say, my lovely Dock E back in Zurich merely felt like ant poop compared to this place. It was... it IS... truly an amazing place and Martin captured it perfectly and true to form. I was one of the lucky few Martin confided in a couple years back when he mentioned to me he was strongly considering rebooting Dubai. From that point on, all I could do was wait and pray. Well Martin has answered our prayers and has come to our rescue like a knight in shining armor!
Honestly, I have to admit: In my opinion, this is the best project ever created for FS. And unless someone corrects me, it's also the biggest in terms of the number of scenery objects present. Now there is another project that comes to mind when I think "biggest" and "best" and that's the Orbx PNW complete with all it's included airports. But these products just don't compare to each other. In scale, both are quite large indeed. 

Besides FT HongKong, I have never seen so many buildings in a scenery before. This trumps HKG by far. Heck, just the number of buildings placed in Sharjah alone are more than what's present Hong Kong. I could be wrong... but I doubt it.
Now if you were to ask FlyTampa fans what they love the most about FT sceneries, I believe the first response would be regarding easy frame rates. The second response without a doubt would be about FT's texture baking methods. Now when it comes to texture baking, I believe the 3 leading developers are FlyTampa, FS Dreamteam, and FlightBeam Studios. Umberto has said some negative remarks in the past on how he believes his methods and texturing are superior to FlyTampa's. I was amazed to see just how many FSDT fans went to FT's defense.  From what I have seen in the many years I have been in this hobby, many people in this hobby regard FlyTampa to be the very best in the business. 
Is this my opinion also? Well, um... hard to answer... and not so hard.

And here's why:

In my opinion, the ultimate FS development group is Orbx. The reason is obvious. But Orbx is not in the business of making A380 capable airport sceneries. And until this year with the advent of their New Zealand scenery, Orbx was not big on creating large metropolitian cities either. Yet still, it's very hard to determine. What I will say is this: Between Grorge and Martin, FlyTampa does make the very best when it comes to quality not being compromised by framerates and vise-versa.
For example: FSDT is good. Damn good. But sadly to this very day, I still tend to have framerate issues with some of their products given my highly superior system. Anyone ever get the stutter just before touching down at JFK?

With FlyTampa, I never... i'll repeat: NEVER have any stutters or framerate problems with any of their sceneries. And what makes them so great is how they manage to do this without compromising the look and quality of their work.
When KaiTak was released, I just could not believe how I was able to get 50FPS with an area so dense when other sceneries not even half that size would bring my (old) PC to its knees.

What also makes Martin's and George's work stand out among all other developments is their affinity to push the environment out beyond the airport perimeter fence. Even with Martin's smaller works, still he manages to keep the default world from completely taking over or leaving a large void exclusion zone around the airport.

This is something I wish all developers did.
With KaiTak, all the city buildings are centered around Victoria Harbour. In this case, the environment stretches miles away from the airport. Close to 35 miles (56km) across to be exact. We can already see from my provided screenshots, Martin has clearly outdone himself in making sure every nook and cranny was rendered to perfection. From the terminal and building textures to the ground textures. Everything just looks so good!

Given the fact that no other developer has ever taken on a project of this scale essentially does make Martin the best in the business. And i'll be clear: This is a project of just 1 person. So yeah. He's the best. There! I said it.
Now I am a fan of photoreal textures. Something I hated just a couple of years ago. But the Guys at D.Design and LHSim really showed us that photoreal can be even more real than texture baking if done properly. The result?  Now, I absolutely love photoreal textures. But in some cases photoreal can look unreal too thus, with the correct texture baking, you can almost never go wrong.

Here, everything was done just right! One thing that makes this product better than its elder predecessor is almost no part of the scenery was left out and it has a much higher degree of accuracy. Everything here looks and is in their proper place.
Where you'll find the usual difference between the FS9 and FSX/P3D versions is whereas FS9 has a matte finish on the terminals and on all glass rendered surfaces, the FSX version has custom specular and reflection maps which render sort of a simulated cloudy sky background that seems to change within the reflection as you move about. It's important to remember, both FS9 and FSX shots are present here. So regardless of which simulator platform you use, the bottom line here is quite clear, both look damn good and FS9 stands up very well for an old grandma of a platform.
Another feature you will find with the FSX version are the transparent jetbridge and walkway windows as well as animated GSE roaming about the ramp areas complete with 3D night lighting.
Both versions come complete with plenty of ground equipment neatly aligned at the gate areas.
Dubai has never looked better! Everything is very much accurate! I must say again: Everything just looks so good.
Now let's move on to the other areas to the airport of importance. Starting with the east section with Terminal 2, FedEx, and DHL. In my future I see PMDG MD-11F, CaptainSim 767F, and the upcoming PMDG777F! Yes this all is going to be fun!
Emirates security center above which is a HUGE importance to the daily operations in Dubai. No EK flight arrives or departs without Emirates security present at the gate. Trust me. I know. Dnata below which handles almost everything else.
The buildings of Sharjah in the background really add to the atmosphere of the city surrounding the airport.
The Executive Flights Terminal is present for those of you arriving in something smaller.
The brand new Emirates hangars capable of handling the A380. All state of the art and recently completed.
 Here we see the Al Majalis VIP Pavilion and Dubai Executive Flight Terminal.
I think i'll park my QW Avro over here.
 Fancy yourself an AirShow? A great place to show off the Saber just released from MilViz.
 Terminal 1 with Dubai Duty Free. I won't say how much I have spent there.
The ground textures are excellent. And very new looking which would be correct.

Now it may be hard to believe but there are actually a couple of things I need to point out here that I was rather displeased with. The first thing is actually very simple yet it displeased me nonetheless when I noticed that the Emirates Airline headquarters was missing the corporate building logo on both ends.

I don't know how Martin missed that. But he did correct this in his V2.1 update as seen below!

And if any of you are interested in what the inside looks like, here is a shot of me at lunchtime. They have a very nice cafeteria as well as a couple nice cafes and eateries. But only expect to find soy bacon for breakfast!! I was all like: "OOh! Bacon! Yes i'll have 5 of those. I thought pork was a no-no here." Took a bite and nearly threw up.
The next thing is what I consider to be the 1 major disappointment of the entire product. And that is the complete lack of presence and depth of the arrival and departure level of terminal 3. In the below shot we merely see the most apparent portion of the area but so much was left out including the sunken area. Refer to the below pictures in comparison.

The difference here is obvious and I have to say that I am downright disappointed with this entire area. Not only was so much left out, but the objects present are incorrectly modeled. This was an area that I felt was seriously lacking in the previous version of Dubai and hoped would be done correctly this time around. It really wasn't. I was however, expecting the FS9 version to look like this not FSX. (both FS9 and FSX photos present above). With the entire check-in and arrivals area under ground, more attention should have been focused in this area given it's major importance. When you taxi by this area, it looks really bad and doesn't seem to make sense. I find myself parking on the other side of the concourse just to avoid seeing it.
photo copyright AirTeamImages
I don't want to beat up Martin too bad here. But for what it's worth, these are the only areas in the entire 23 mile wide scenery area that I had an issue with. I'll cross my fingers for a future update.
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DXB NIGHT SHOTS

Yes! The night textures and lighting! All done so very good! I was quite pleased with the night lighting work including all the 3D night lighting present in both platforms.
One thing I will admit that I liked in the older version was the transparent windows in concourse 1 given it's low windows.


Is this an airport or a spaceport on some far off planet? It's like something out of a science fiction movie. This is how it looks in real life and kudos to Martin for keeping it looking real in the sim.

Moving to the other areas of the airfield, nothing was left out lighting wise.

I just love how beautiful the city looks surrounding the airport on all sides. If I were to make a suggestion, I would have liked to see the city expand further South of the airport a bit as it cuts off a bit prematurely and makes the approach from the South a bit lacking.
Obviously all the FSX shots lack AI. FSX just can't do what FS9 can do with 100% AI present.

Okay the above shot I really wanted to point out because of the lighting you see within the glass walkways connecting the aircraft to the terminal. Very nice touch. My boy pays good attention to detail.
Also note the FSX reflective textures at night.
Overall, I just can't say how impressed I am with the airport. I try to let some of the screenshots do the talking but honestly everything (besides the 2 items I pointed out) just look spectacular. With the city looming on all sides, it makes for an exciting approach. Heck it's just fun to taxi around. There is eye candy everywhere.

Now whereas Martin did add some moving vehicles on the ramp areas, they are very few and thus the FSX version does not look busy at all. In fact, if anything, the FS9 version looks busier with all my AI packs present on the airfield. Martin elected not to use AES lite and in my opinion, that was a bad call.

Another thing is whereas you will find vehicle traffic around the airport, street traffic is limited to this area due to frame rate issues with FSX. In FS9, you could literally cover every road in the entire city area with AES lite vehicles and see little to no impact on performance. My system runs the entire FS9 product in its sleep. But when I run the product in FSX, the cooling fans start screaming. Despite this, my average FPS flying around the city in FSX was 27-45 with all but the water sliders mixed out so still I am still impressed with FT's ability to deliver outstanding performance.

With FS9... hehe... I didn't even look at the frames. But I imagine they were about the same as if it was all default scenery. Purrs like a kitten.

Very well done Martin!
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THE CITIES

So now that we have covered DXB let's move to what is the most eye catching portion of the scenery. The Cities! Just look at all those buildings! It's amazing! Another thing I want to point about the cities is one that is a first in flight simulation development: Animated Dust! As you move through the city, you can clearly see sand pollution in the distance that creates almost a dirty fog effect. As you move closer, you actually see the sand swarms blowing around pushed by the winds. This is the coolest effect feature in the product and FS9 renders these mini dust storms just as good as FSX. It really is a lovely feature and adds to Dubai's realism. What I also love and respect are all the custom trees and foliage covering the entire scenery area as well as the total and complete absence of autogen.

A lot of developers rely on autogen to populate cities around their custom building objects. Few developers get it right, most get it wrong as autogen is just so difficult to work with and predictability of autogenic behavior (yes, I just made that word up) can become erratic at best as it varies from system to system. Also autogen tends to get jealous around custom objects and tends not to show up at all.

In this case, there is no autogen at all. Every single building in custom made and this is how a city should be done. I imagine there must be about at least 3 to 5,000 custom buildings in the scenery and that is what makes this project so impressive. Let's start with the Emirate and city of Sharjah.

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Sharjah



Now if you have been to the region some may say that Sharjah is the "hood" or "ghetto" of the UAE. It's also important to note it is a separate Emirate from Dubai and has it's own government and royal family. But in reality, the royal family of Abu Dhabi reigns supreme here nonetheless as whenever the other Emirates need cash infusions, they go to Abu Dhabi to get it. And believe me, there are caveats to these loans and bailouts.

A large portion of the area is industrial. I have heard many stories among my expatriate friends about this area and most simply stay away if they can help it. But to be honest, there are some very beautiful areas to visit in Sharjah. Just keep in mind that the police tend to be a lot more strict here and the area's laws are not as liberal as Dubai and Abu Dhabi so I highly recommend you leave that bottle of Stella behind. It's illegal.

I always recommend hiring a taxi over renting a car if you visit any Emirate but never in my life was I so afraid for my life as I am when riding the streets in a cab in the UAE. People drive crazy!! Thank goodness for the monorail.

But no matter. We are visiting the FlyTampa version of Sharjah and it's nothing but beautiful. My words simply can't accurately explain just how well done everything is here.

Looking North towards the Persian Gulf.
Hundreds of custom building objects.

Lots and lots of buildings! How did he get them all in there!! It's not even photoreal. He had to texture all of them one by one! Let's not forget: Martin also released 3 other products while this was going on. Kinda makes you think: how does he do this?
Anyone want to guess how much money he makes in the first week of release? I want to say between between 5 and 10 thousand. Worth every penny! I just love all the custom trees and buildings.

How much exactly do I need to say? The pictures speak for themselves. I just can't imagine Martin sitting and hand placing all those buildings. It's incredible! Also keep in mind, if you are using the FS9 version of the product, the helipads are not hard. But a simple search for "finney ground" at Avsim will get you a good freeware product that will make all those pads landable. Also, if you check the FT forum, ED (edetroit) has made a custom afcad to make the Burj Al Arab landable.
Just looking at all those buildings out on the horizon above in the last shot. That is only a part of the entire scenery. Just a part! When D.Design released the Miami scenery, I thought that took the cake! But here, there is over twice as many buildings covering Sharjah and only half of those buildings were actually captured in the shot as the others disappeared as I moved away. I just can't begin to say how amazed I am.  Let's keep going.
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Deira

Now this is an area most important to Dubai's economy and has been since the early 18th Century. If you could say there is a heart to the city, Deira would be the place. Well... Would be the place 10 or more years ago... Over the last 10 years as other parts of Dubai have grown out of the sand, this area has been a bit left behind and has seen a decline as the heart of the city. As a result, it's not the super clean and rich area it once was. But in recent years, efforts have been made to clean up the area. In the sim however, it looks nothing other than stunning.


I just love all the trees!
Thousands of custom hand placed buildings. Other city developers out there, please take note.


Every single building is correctly placed along Dubai creek.
Like I said. Thousands of custom hand placed buildings. This is incredibly amazing.

Dubai national bank and DCCI buildings among others. Very good looking here as well as the Dubai Creek Golf Club below with the buildings of Sharjah in the far background. Sorry, no sea traffic.
It's impossible for me to cover all the custom buildings in this review but I am sure you will discover a lot on your own. Fans of ultralights will really enjoy sight seeing here. Let's continue!

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E-11: Sheikh Zayed Road


Now we finally move on to what is likely the most iconic area of Dubai. This is also where the modern heart of Dubai lies and where growth over the last 10 years is most apparent. In fact, it's so apparent, lets compare and contrast.

Here I present you with 2 photos:
Downtown Los Angeles.

Downtown Dubai along the E-11


Now both images depict large cities before major growth. The Los Angeles picture was taken during the 1920's! Whereas the photo of Dubai is only from 1995! That's barely 17 years prior at the time of this review. Talk about quick development and growth!
Amazing! And Martin's talent clearly shines throughout the entire scenery. Etisalat and Emirates towers clearly present in the background. I remember my first trip down this road. By day, it's amazing! But at night it's quite scary. You see, a lot of these buildings are vacant so traveling down the E-11 at night yields a lot of blacked out buildings and almost makes you feel like it's the end of the world or something. Seeing so many skyscrapers without lights is scary. This of course due to overbuilding in the country which led to high vacancies and foreclosures. But don't worry! All those buildings are beautifully lit at night in the sim!

Very nicely done. How does Martin manage to do all this on his own?



Here we see the Burj Khalifa. Previously named the Burj Dubai. The name was changed to honor His Highness Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan after a multi-billion dollar bailout to Dubai from Abu Dhabi. The rumored caveat of this bailout was the controlling share of Emirates Airline going to Abu Dhabi. Emirates Airline is the crown jewel of Dubai and one of the primary sources of GDP for the region.
Above is Dubai Mall. Took me 2 hours to get the correct exit out. The last time I got lost in a building was in the basement at Louvre in Paris.

Everything was done so well it almost looks real. Can you tell the differences between the FS9 and FSX versions?


The small brown building on the left I believe is the one shown in the real world picture above.
This shot gives you an idea of what it's like driving down the E-11 with skyscrapers towering on all sides.

Here again besides all my rambling, we let all the screenshots do the talking. In this last photo above, do you see the haze in the far background? That's the sand dust blowing across the city. When you get close to it, it's really amazing to watch although barely noticeable here.


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Jumeirah


If there were such an iconic object as the Eiffel Tower in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab would be it and you will find it in Jumeirah Beach. Previously known as Chicago Beach.

Here the architecture of the local buildings are different than in other areas. This also shows the commitment and passion Martin puts in his work. He easily could have just made 2 or 3 generic buildings and placed them everywhere. But from city to city, they do change. As Jumeirah is more of an affluent area, we see a better type of generic dwelling. Smart. Very smart.
Here we see the Burj Al Arab along side Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
Here we have a nice shot of Mina Al Salam Hotel. To the left of Mina Al Salam should be the Souk Madinat Jumeirah (where I personally love to hang out) but sadly Martin overlooked the Madinat. Frowney face.
Have you ever seen a scenery so perfectly captured in FS?
This is a very fun challenge landing on the helipad up there.

In FSX the flag is animated and can be seen waiving about. See the dust pollution blowing in the marina? (far background)

In FS9, the only real difference is the water effects. Still it looks very good!

Ah! Mall of the Emirates! This is my favorite mall! If it's 130 degrees out don't worry! Perfect time to go skiing in 30 degree weather or just play in the snow!
The ski run visible above.
I love all the trees!!!
Okay. Here is another of one of my educational lessons. Take note of the angle of this picture of the Burj Al Arab. Okay? Now I challenge you to find a real world picture from the same angle. You may find a couple but not many. And certainly none in the region.

That is because looking at the building from this angle resembles the Christian Cross. Rumors are: the government after noticing this mandated that no pictures shall be displayed from this angle. Whether or not this is true, IDK. But I will say this, all the Burj Al Arab symbols with the cross depicted on license plates were removed without explanation back in 2004.

Either way, it's a beautiful building and Martin did a terrific job!

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Dubai Marina / Emirates Hills


Here we move on to the richest and most affluent area of Dubai. The first part: The Dubai Marina, is trying to become the worlds largest man-made marina. It will be several years before this accomplished if at all.  Currently the worlds largest is right around the corner from my home in Marina Del Rey. Ours is not as exciting to look at though...

Martin has done an awesome job capturing the entire area. Here we see another type of generic dwelling.
Looking at the above shot still amazes me! It just looks so real!
 Again, outstanding!
 Just trying to imagine Martin researching every building and modeling each one.
A view looking South towards Emirates hills. Looks like a nice place to live even in the sim! BTW, this area was named after Beverly Hills.

 Here is the classic Miami helicopter shot moving low over the water towards the buildings.
I really don't like the brown buildings above. So bland... But that didn't stop Martin from correctly modeling all of them.

 Driving down the E-11 towards Dubai. Sorry! No traffic or animated monorails. Sad face.

Last couple shots of Emirates hills. Whereas the homeowners had a choice on the style of home they wanted to have built, all are tract homes nonetheless thus the generic home seen here still fits.

 Lots of buildings! Amazing!

 Flying through the marina.

Another section to this magnificent work! Have you ever seen so many custom made buildings in a single scenery? I'm still hailing it as the largest project ever for FS.

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 Archipelagos


Now if there is one thing that really makes Dubai stand out from above, it's all the ridiculous man made islands being built. But however ridiculous they may appear to me, they are amazing nonetheless. Martin rendered each and every island and palm to perfection and realism. What you see here is pretty accurate to what each island's current state and development point.
All the roads are present but such a shame to see all of them void of traffic.
The nicest object on the Palm Jumeirah is also it's most prominent: The Atlantis!
Lots of homes already built and sold on the island but I am uncertain of how many people actually live there...
Another thing is there is no bedrock anywhere in Dubai. Those islands in particular. How they are doing all of this is beyond me. Martin don't need no bedrock.
The World is also present with only one villa. The rumors are that the islands are sinking.  One man went bankrupt over the purchase of a few of these islands and committed suicide.

The Palm Jumeirah above and the abandoned Palm Jebel Ali below.

Not only does the Palm Jumeirah look great during the day. It's also very nicely lit at night.

So colorful!
I am very pleased that Martin chose to render all the islands. I only wish he made all his buildings and trees objects useful with EZScenery so we could build our own properties out on the islands! That would be much fun! It's just great to see that everything is present and accurate in the scenery.

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Emirates at night!


OOHH!! Now we get on to my favorite part! The night shots! This city is so much beautiful during the day but it's even better at night! Now whereas the FS9 version is bright and colorful at night, the FSX version is more vibrant and is complete with flashing strobe lights on various buildings including the Burj Khalifa.
Now I could talk a lot about how cool everything looks at night. How awesome and talented Martin is. How this is the best looking scenery to see at night. But I think my screenshots will speak for themselves.











There is just nothing quite like this scenery and the only scenery that comes even remotely close is Martin's own Hong Kong. Now that we are finally wrapping things up here, I am really looking forward to just enjoying the scenery!
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Closing Remarks


To say the effort performed by Martin is truly outstanding would be the understatement of the year. I honestly don't believe I have ever been so impressed with an FS product before. This thing is freaking huge! All the custom buildings, all the texturing, placing the trees... I just can't begin to imagine all the work that went into this impressive feat.

Where I also find my profound respect for Martin is through all the hard work, passion and pride clearly seen in his work. No part of this scenery seemed rushed or half finished. Everything is so detailed and present true to form in their correct places. I really don't know how to properly tip my hat here but to say:

Thanks! and Great job!

Martin continues to swing his home runs time again and this time he has hit the ball so far out of the park, it's hard to believe it all was done by 1 man. This scenery is an absolute MUST have for ALL flight simulation enthusiasts. And if you have no interest in this product then I am sad for you because you are truly missing out on so much. The screenshots shown above just barely scratch the surface of what this product has to offer.

When you get yours, be sure to put the 777 down and pick up a powered glider and discover everything this work has to offer.

I have absolutely no clue how Martin is going to top this. Besides Hong Kong and Dubai where can he go next to show this level of talent on such a grand scale? Tokyo maybe? Spinning my Google Earth globe, I honestly can't decide where he will go next but I will say this. Whatever it is, wherever it is. I want it!

Also note the V2.1 update for the scenery:

- Updated ILS frequences
- Added DBX-VOR
- Made Static Apron Vehicles Optional (Higher Performance without)
- Added Optional Default Runway Lighting (FS9 only)
- Added Green Center Lights always On Option (Real world Dubai)
- Added Emirates Logos to Headquarter Building
- Increased Taxisign visibility radius
- Fixed Elevation Flatten (FS9 only)
- Other Enhancements & Performance Tweaks

And the performance update for FS9:

- Decreased Jetways' visibility radius for Performance
- Decreased Vegetation visibility radius for Performance

Now go and get it!

Thanks for reading!

D'Andre Newman

AirDailyX




No part of this article, contained content or photos may be used in any way without explicit written permission from the editors of AirDailyX.
Copyright Airdailyx November 2012. All rights reserved.


19 comments:

Jim said...

Ooooo it's real deep review.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see Narita or Haneda done over again as many improvements have been made to both facilites. As D'Andre pointed out about his love for LSZH, RJAA is one of my favs as I visit Japan 2-3 times a month.

Anonymous said...

A very deep review, but it makes me wonder why the fawning and oohs and aahs and such a long review when ADX has a reputation for really shallow poor reviews in the past. Did you guys not realise that this looks really unprofessional and fan-boy type of behavioir? ADX has lost even more respect from me now. Find some balance Dom and Andre, and devote the same energy to reviewing other products by developers who spend just as long on projects.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your review. I haven't bought it yet because i will waiting for the PMDG 777.

I would love to see Bangkok in such a great detailed way. The growth of Bangkok is similar to Dubai. It's a high potential city and the city landscape changed a lot in the last couple of years.

Anonymous said...

What I love about Flytampa is that their airports are the real thing!! I agree, this is the best project ever created for the FS series! D'Andre thank you for the review. Cheers, Dario

Anonymous said...

wow, massive review. Great job D Andre.

Anonymous said...

That's why they're NUMBER 1 .....still

DAndre Newman said...

Really? My reviews are shallow? Damn. Given the fact that I am not a writer, I thought my reviews were a good alternative to the mainstream reviews found everywhere else. But I never thought they were shallow. If anything, I thought they had more depth.

As for looking unprofessional. I don't think ADX has ever claimed to be a professional news site. We do what we want. But with that said, I don't think we are unprofessional in how handle our reviews.

I don't write reviews for the sake of just doing it. It is and always has been about how the product makes me feel. How much I enjoy it. From there my fingers do all the work. I have been very open about that. To date, Dubai is the largest product on our systems, to it's the largest review.

That really simple don't you think? Given the fact that it's not just an airport? But an entire damn city?

Anyway. Stay tuned for Warsaw City coming up next!

And thanks for reading!

DAndre Newman said...

Oh and yes, we are fan boys! That's why we take so much time out of our lives work on this blog at all. ;)

DAndre Newman said...

It is underway by A_A Sceneries!

Anonymous said...

Its a great review.

There aren't many, if any, other sceneries as good as Flytampa Dubai. I'm not surprised it got such a massive review. Thanks to Dom & DAndre.

Anonymous said...

I prefer DAndre's reviews to the mainstream crap like AVSIM & Simflight. He's just one of the guys & easier to read.

BTW, who else is devoting as much care & time to their sceneries as Flytampa? Most other sceneries are just rushed crapped barely worthy of freeware.

Anonymous said...

This is the a successor of KaiTak. One of the best sceneries ever done for the community

René said...

Awesome piece, guys!

What I wonder now, who made which scenery at FT? What I know, working backwards:

-Montreal: George
-Dubai: Martin
-Athens: George
-Midway: ?
-Tampa: ?
-Buffalo: George
-Vienna: ?
-Boston: ?
-Grenadines: Martin
-Hong Kong: Martin
-Sint Maarten: ?
-Seattle: ?

Could you help me fill in the blanks?

DAndre Newman said...

Midway - Martin
Tampa - Martin
Vienna - Martin
Boston - George

I think they both worked on TNCM and KSEA but I might be wrong...

Anonymous said...

Martin of flytama mentioned, that New Doha International in QATAR which opens in the second half of 2013 could be a possible project of flytampa. Dubai Scenery took between 1 and 2 years he said. So that means that if Doha really could be the new project of flytampa for the gulf region it would come not before 2014 I suppose.

However it would be also nice to see Abu Dhabi of flytampa.

DAndre Newman said...

If he did choose to do that, Doha is not as big as Dubai so not as many custom buildings are needed and he can recycle a lot of generic buildings from Dubai and Hong Kong.So I think he could do it in less than half the time of Dubai.

gsrlui said...

Stumbled upon this site, this is an incredibly detailed review. Nice, I'll be coming back for more.

Anonymous said...

Hi, ever been to RPLL (NAIA) Manila International Airport? With the entire city of Manila and the Metro (15M population) at its back and the awesome water bays everywhere ... now THAT would make my day.

Just a hopeful suggestion.

Jake

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