Review: FWI Dublin For FSX

By Tony Dillon
23 April 2010

Dublin Airport, or to give it is full name, Aerfort Bhaile Atha Cliath, is Eire's busiest airport, with over 20 million passengers a year flowing through its gates. Surprisingly, this is an airport given little attention by Microsoft, being rendered as nothing more than bland generic terminal buildings and gates and has always been a thoroughly uninspiring place to fly from in virtual terms. A shame, considering the amount of money currently being pumped into airport development by the Irish government to create a world-class facility - think an Irish Terminal 5 - which is fitting given that the airport is home to Aer Lingus, Ireland's premier airline and partner airline to British Airways.

Dublin - A Brief History

Opened in 1941, shortly after the creation of Aer Lingus, the new airport was awarded prestigious architectural awards and then granted listed building status for its striking design, reminiscent of luxury ocean liners. Over the last sixty years, the airport has grown at a rapid rate, with development of the all new, ultra-modern Terminal 2 due for completion towards the end of this year.

With such rapid expansion, it seems only fitting that Fly Wonderful Islands (FWI) should take a break from creating exquisitely detailed Meditteranean airports and head for (often) colder climes. Their aim: to create a fully authentic Aerfort experience, complete with all the new developments currently underway. Working from the original plans, they have created Dublin Airport as it will be, rather than as it is now. Some might say this is a risky approach, given as the best-laid plans are prone to change. To counter this, FWI are offering a free upgrade once the airport improvements are complete, to ensure full authenticity.

First Impressions

Being from Irish heritage, and having spent the last 30 years flying in and out of Dublin, I just had to see what they could create in a 200Mb+ download. A quick blast of superfast broadband, simple and straightforward installation and we're ready to go.

The first thing you'll notice on starting up your flight is the sheer level of detail on offer here. Dublin is a busy, busy airport and this is clearly reflected in the sheer amount of airport "furniture" on offer. Every little detail is beautifully replicated, with cargo and baggage cluttering the apron, heavily branded jetways and buildings, wonderfully rendered buildings, hangars and gates - even the apron itself is slightly grubby and oilstained, befitting an airport of this age with this much heavy use.

The detail doesn't stop there - the surrounding airport buildings are also fully realised, with Ryanair and Aer Lingus hangars, even grassy parking areas for GA aircraft.

The same detail continues as the sun sets, with highly detailed night textures for all areas of the airport. This isn't your run-of-the-mill, one-size-fits-all texturing either, where the same texture is wrapped around numerous buildings to create an overall theme. Each building has been lovingly created with highly realistic lighting effects to create an overall atmosphere of a busy international airport running at full capacity.

The airport has been designed to work with AI traffic as well, with key gates reserved for certain airlines. Around Terminal 1 you'll find banks of Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights (if you have the appropriate AI traffic installed), while the smaller airlines such as Aer Arran, are parked further afield. A touch of genius, if you ask me.

Performance

So the big question is; what is the price of all this detail? To be honest, it performs well. Very well, in fact. Of course, this much information, these many objects and these many textures are going to hit the frame rate somewhat, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected. On my rusty old 8800GTX, I still had consistent frames in the 18+ range while in the heart of the airport, and 20+ on approach.

Summary

FWI have done a fantastic job of recreating a thriving, vibrant yet often overlooked airport. If your graphic card has the muscle, it's a real indication of what is possible in FSX if you are willing to take the time to do things properly, and is a big step away from the identikit airports we are all used to in FSX. Those long flights across Europe might just have got a little bit longer.

Tony Dillon
tonyd49@hotmail.com

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