 |
|
|
|
|
Imagine Simulations is well-known for its high-detail airports for Flight Simulator. Together with Just Flight, they have released World Airports 3 North America, a multi airport package for Flight Simulator 2004 and Flight Simulator X. The airports included are KATL Atlanta International (United States), KCLT Charlotte Douglas International (United States), KCVG Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International (United States), MYNN Nassau Lynden Pindling International (The Bahamas) and TJSJ San Juan Luis Munoz Marin (Puerto Rico). Two other airports can be unlocked with the purchase of keys using the link from the installation menu. The airports are KLGA New York La Guardia (United States) and KMCI Kansas City International (United States). This review will deal with the FSX version of the "base package"--without the extra two airports.
World Airports 3 comes attractively packaged on a single DVD in a standard DVD case, which also includes a 24-page manual with all the required info for installation and setup and some info about each airport. The package does not include charts, but they can be downloaded from the FAA web site.
System Requirements as on the back of the box:
Flight Simulator X (Acceleration, SP2 and DX10 preview compatible) or FS2004
Windows Vista or XP SP2
3.0 GHz processor or any dual core
1 GB RAM
256 MB Graphics card
The only area I would take exception to would be with the amount of RAM. 1 GB would be sufficient for FSX under XP, but FSX under Vista would need at least 2 GB of RAM. I tested World Airports 3 on a Dell Studio 1555 laptop with an Intel Dual Core 2.00 GHz, 3 GB of RAM and a 512 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card.
Installation: Installation is easy. Put the DVD in your DVD drive, and if you have autorun enabled, the installation menu should appear. The options are: install into FSX, install into FS2004, install FSX service packs 1 or 2 or purchase two extra optional airports. Installation is quick and easy. The installer will attempt to find your FS path from the Windows registry. After the installation, you will find an Airport Settings tool, which enables you to enable/disable static aircraft for each airport. You will also find a Just Flight Yellow Follow Me Car installed. This can be selected from the FSX aircraft menu like any other aircraft.
Features: The airports feature 5 cm/pixel textures for unprecedented clarity, many moving airport vehicles, new night lighting and interactive docking. In addition, some gates feature animated jetways. You will no longer be able to select a runway for hot-to-trot takeoffs. Using the select runway dialog instead places you at the hold short for the runway. A nice feature.
KATL Atlanta International (United States)--The world's busiest airport, Atlanta International is located 11km south of Atlanta, Georgia. Delta Airlines has the world's biggest hub at KATL, with the airport being a hub also for Airtran Airways and Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Delta Connection).
KCLT Charlotte Douglas International (United States)--A joint military and civil airport, Charlotte Douglas International is US Airways top hub and is in the top 20 US busiest airports.
KCVG Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International (United States)--With three north-south runways and a fourth cross-runway, Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International is one of the most ergonomic for flight operations. Formerly Delta Airlines' second largest hub, operations have been cut back markedly.
MYNN Nassau Lynden Pindling International (The Bahamas)--Renamed in 2006 after the first prime minister of the Bahamas, Lynden Pindling International is the largest airport in the Bahamas, and is located west of New Providence Island near Nassau.
TJSJ San Juan Luis Munoz Marin (Puerto Rico)--A joint civil-military airport, Luis Munoz Martin International is the gateway to the US territory of Puerto Rico. It functions as the Caribbean hub for American Airlines and American Eagle.
The Follow Me Car:
Performance: Expect a frame rate drop as always. Otherwise there is fairly good performance.
Issues: A good solid product with few bugs. However, the World Airports 3 jetways are permanently displayed in the undocked position, as you will see with the screen shots. Also with aircraft shadows enabled, zooming out in topdown view will cause a large aeroplane-shaped shadow to appear over the airport. The airports' basing on a phototexture base looks good, but the lack of blending into the surrounding scenery is a bit of an eyesore. The jetways employ the popup feature to save on frames.
Conclusion: Just Flight's World Airports 3 North America is a solid and good value package. The terminals are well detailed and there is plenty of "clutter" around. The night lighting is excellent. In addition, the roads blend nicely into the default roads. The airports may not be up to the some standards, but are very good quality nonetheless and great value for money. I highly recommend the package.
Test system:
Dell Studio 1555
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00 GHz
3.00 GB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 512 MB Graphics
Alexander Czarnecki
alexczarn@gmail.com
aussiefs.webstarts.com
Learn More Here
Other Just Flight Product Reviews:
Air Hauler
Constellation Professional
757 Captain
Traffic X
[ Back
| Home
| Main Menu
| Logout
]
Copyright © 1996 - 2012 by FlightSim.Com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.