Ninoy Aquino Airport (RPLL) by PacSim
A review by William Reynolds
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Terminal 3 - International Flights (currently ANA, Cebu Pacific, PAL Express, Air Philippines). The latest terminal to be built, and as of yet still unfinished (read not fully complete). It is supposed to serve as the new modern face of the Airport.
Terminal 4 - All Domestic flights except Philippine Airlines. The forgotten cousin...an older and several times renamed terminal, serves the regional carriers as well as some Low Cost carriers. Very much a no-frills terminal.
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Installation
After a very straight forward purchase via the PacSim website, you are given a security details, and access to download the airport package. Download is around 1.3G in size. The installer allows you to choose between FSX, P3D 1.4 and P3D 2.X
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Program will also install a PacSim folder in your Windows start menu. This folder contains a basic 6 page manual, an installation repairer as well as an uninstaller.
Let’s Take a Closer Look
First rule when purchasing an airport add-on...it is just that...an Airport, not the city it serves, the developer puts a lot of effort into the Airport and sometimes a few features that add to the Airport scenery.
How is Ninoy Aquino in this regard? Well, must say they did pack quite a bit in the package....to show this, I set up a simple routine...Autogen is set to Dense, and nothing touched, so we can see the differences between Default scenery and the RPLL pack.
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Without PacSim RPLL |
With PacSim RPLL |
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So by the look of things, they have added way more than expected in this pack, not just to give the airport justice, but also the city of Manila. Notice the mixed use of Photoreal scenery with custom 3D objects. The effects change at night, where some of the photoreal tiles have an elevated effect.
Let's go exploring a bit more...the passenger set down area of the airport
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All the way out to Manila Bay, we find the famous SM Mall of Asia...shopping, anyone? (this is truly on the other side of the city!)
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While we are out here, let's explore Manila Bay...here we can clearly see the mix of photoreal scenery and 3D object overlay. This has been used throughout the city of Manila and I have to say it has been used effectively, despite the obvious overlay here.
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What it does is.... complements perfectly to create a complete package. What a view!
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Meanwhile, back at the Airport....
So as we saw earlier, this airport originally had a single runway, and later a second, wider and longer "International" runway was added. The PacSim package shows both runways active for AI traffic, so no problems there.
What about the detail, I hear you ask? One of my pet peeves in airport scenery is when the taxiway centre lights don't match the taxiway centre lines, or blocky textures under different light conditions. Setting time to Dawn, let's take a look:
Here we see the centre and edge lights perfectly aligned. There’s a slight distortion at the top of the screen. This distortion went away as you move up so it is just the way the Sim has to lay out the light objects. Still it’s impressive.
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Here we see detail of the Ramp area. The green centre lights are perfectly aligned and precisely placed, the paved areas show very good detail, regardless of setting (day or night).
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Looking at the intersection between the older runway 31/13 and the newer 06/24. The runway lights for 31/13 show a little fuzzy from this angle.
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So we can taxi safely day or night here, what about the gates? Let's look at a sample. Here we can see very good level of detail without being heavy on the framerates, there are no moving parts but it looks great.
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Detail behind the Aero Bridges is very good.
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Here’s a good look at the Ramp area adjacent to the terminal. This is good enough to take a drive. Airport tours, anyone?
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So...what can we say about it?
I for one am impressed.... I have flown to this airport as a transit passenger a couple of times and this package matches what I saw. The bonus of the surrounding area (a LARGE surrounding area) is that it gives this package the true "feel" of Manila's main airport. The city surrounds it. It looks like a gigantic urban monster resting around the airport, and it could consume it easily when it awakens.
It still feels like Asia is an area largely untapped by most scenery developers, and although we have seen some very good quality releases of late, it is a Region so rich in variety, you have to say the possibilities are endless.
Why should you consider Ninoy Aquino airport? Well it is strategically located! If flying 1-3 hours is your thing, now you have an airport that can cover flights to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Brunei, Bangkok, Guam etc. within comfortable reach.
If you prefer longer flights, well, the sky is truly your limit. Rest assured though, when you land at Ninoy Aquino, you will get the right "feel" every time you pan around. You will just about be able to feel the humidity as you make your approach.
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Conclusions?
If flying around Asia appeals to you or you just wish to try a new area of the world, then you will enjoy this package. You get a lot of scenery for your money. The amount of hand-placed objects and custom scenery is a very pleasant surprise. For this type of airport and set up, you really do need it if you wish to accurately portray the look and feel of a major airport inside the confines of what is a massive, and very much unique city.
What didn't I like? Not much really. I did notice some fuzziness on runway lights when viewed at 90 degrees and from a distance, and the suburban tiles can be a little too obvious at night, but I am guessing that is more of a Sim base limitation, they truly did not detract from the enjoyment and admiration at the work presented.
The graphics were very fluid and of high quality where they needed to be. Frame Rates were excellent in the Aerosoft A320/A321 and VAS was never an issue. It is worth noting that having Autogen at MEDIUM gave me plenty of eye candy to negate the need to go higher, as the area has truly been worked over properly.
So from me, a big "Thumbs Up" to the PacSim team!
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Test System:
- Intel i7-4790K No overclock
- Asus GTX660Ti 2G
- 8G DDR3 RAM
- Seagate Barracuda 1Tb HDD
- FTX Global
- REX4 Cloud Textures