ADX FirstLook: Jo Erlend Oslo!

P3D. He has done it again. So good in fact, that it's actually quite hard to believe I was ever so fond of his first version. In v1's defense, it was mighty good for it's time. I am referring to Jo Erlend and his 2 fnatastic renditions of Oslo Gardermoen. His recently released v2 version is so well put together, I had to actually had to go in and visit the older version just to see how big the difference was. It's huge and regardless of whether or not you owned the older v1, one thing is for sure: it's one of the best releases of 2013. A good thing too as he barely got it out before years end. Hop along with me as I make my way up to the bitter cold of Norway for some digital photography of Jo's latest masterpiece sponsored by Aerosoft! Bandwidth Warning! You know how we do it!

Now why, might you ask... Why on Earth would D'Andre start off this FirstLook featuring an old relic scenery? 3 reasons:

1. I still highly respect the products Cloud 9 delivered all those years ago.

2. C9 Bergen still looks mighty damn good for it's age.

3. Hint for Jo to add Bergen to his future list of developments.

Thus, this trip starts off at C9 ENBR and will be a very short flight into Oslo. I was really hoping for some decent weather but sadly, this would not be the case.

For this trip I fired up the good ol' AXE! Scenery area coverage for both Bergen and Oslo includes Orbx FTX Global + Vector and it all comes together so nicely!

Alright, we go from our extremely short cruise to decent below the weather which was worse at Oslo. Even though I did not get a view of the surrounding fjords, even in low vis, the area is well covered and dense with forest.

Once on short final, I start to see the photo terrain blend in with FTX. It does so perfectly. Unless you are looking at an overhead sat view, it's almost impossible to tell where FTX ended and Oslo's terrain begins Well done.

Really good ground texture work.

From a distance, the biggest difference is the new terminal extension.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Oslo where the current time is eleven am temperature is 6 degrees. We sincerely hope you have enjoined this morning's flight and hope to see you again soon."

These shots were taken in P3D v.1 and ground shadows deactivated if I remember correctly...

One area I was super impressed with was performance. With the AXE, 100% AI activated and weather, average frames was 30 while set to unlimited. Huge improvement over the last version! I want to say this again, I am impressed with performance. No micro stutters either.

Totally digging the texture work. Another massive improvement complete with fully transparent glass jetbridges, walkways, and terminals which come complete with full interior modeling. Take notes developers. A common excuse in the past was that interior modeling would kill performance. I think FlightBeam, LHSimulations, and Taxi2Gate proved you can have the best of both worlds. I really hope to see more of this in the future.

Then scenery comes complete with a few static aircraft for those afraid of AI. Very interesting winglets there. Don't think they will deliver the desired performance improvements. But hey, those birds aren't flying anyway... 

One area that was not done well at all is with the vehicle objects. Very blurry and lacking detail. I hope to see improvements in this area in the future.

The texture work overall is very lovely. I did notice some blurry patches here and there in certain areas but it didn't bother me in the least bit. Note that I do tend to dig into these sceneries a bit deeper than most.

Also note: On the Aerosoft product page, they show the big block OSLO logo on the terminal building. This logo no longer exists. It was in the previous version and I imagine the shot they are using is from v.1 not sure what the deal is there... But the above shot reflects the building as it is today with the new logo titles. Personally, I like the Oslo titles better...

Of all the gates my AI had to choose from, they choose the gates the statics sat on. Dorks..

I wish I could say I miss the MD-80, but I actually still see them weekly here at LAX. AA still has many in active service. But the above shot reminds me of Swissair. I flew on Swiss the very same month they took delivery of the brand new A340-300's. When I arrived in ZRH, there was a fleet of MD80's like this parked in a pile awaiting their fate... It looked sad. Those MD80's were built just 20 minutes away from where I sit writing this article. Sadly, with the last C-17 now complete, we no longer make aircraft here in Southern California. Snif...

Jo left nothing out. All airport surroundings are present.

I cleared the weather a bit so you can see just how beautiful this airport looks under blue skies.

Here is the scenery coverage area blending with FTX Global+Vector.

That's a lot of trees!

The terminal under blue skies.

Full winter textures.

Night textures look great with the interior fully illuminated.

The only other negative thing I noticed was the approach lights don't seem to be attached to tower objects but floating. Did I miss something?

Otherwise, just when I thought the previous version couldn't possibly get any better, Jo swings into action and clearly shows just how much his talent has improved over the years. Oslo v.2 is a must buy for all Mega Airport fans! Also don't forget, a new rendition of Trondheim Vaernes is on the way. Pair that with A-flight Helsinki, DFS Arlanda, and the upcoming Copenhagen from Fly Tampa and Scandinavia is alive and kicking!  Now if only we could get a proper Amsterdam going. Another Cloud9 product i'm still using!

Grab Oslo v.2 from Aerosoft here: http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,D12893

Quick note: As it turns out, I was using the lower res textures which explains the amazing performance. This article will be updated with screenshots including the high res textures later today so be sure to check back.

Happy Flighting!

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