Introduction

The other day I was browsing theFlightSim.Com Store looking for an airport to review as I am somewhatlimited in what I can do at the moment. My main flight sim setup iscurrently a long way away from me and I'll most likely not be able tofly it again till December at the earliest. I instead have a littlejoystick and my laptop which is MSFS capable, so airport reviews itis. During my search I happened across a company called RealworldScenery, who I had never heard of. I took a quick look at what theyhad to offer and decided to take on their rendition of KSTL, anairport which I have flown out of multiple times in my FS2004days.

First Impressions

Installation of the airport is very simple, akin to installing a sceneryinto X-Plane 11. There is no installer at all, meaning you download the full3.3 GB file at the start, and unzip it directly into your communityfolder.

Loading into MSFS, I was greeted by an airport which seemed to be quitewell done, however I soon noticed an issue straight away. On my laptop withan RTX2070 Max Q and an i7 at 3.0 GHz, I can usually push around 35-40 fps inMSFS on high settings. With this airport though, I get the same frame rates,but then it becomes a stutter fest for a few seconds while everything loads,before returning back to normal. This might sound like a loading issue butlook away for a few seconds and then back again, and the issue returns,almost every time, without fail. I cannot vouch for desktops, including myown, which is considerably more powerful than my laptop, but this issue isslightly concerning. Perhaps it comes down to some bad optimization (or anissue at my end), but I can't say for sure. Moving along, I can see thedeveloper put quite a bit of time into creating custom textures for therunways, taxiways, and taxiway lines, and these all look quite nice. I'll gointo more detail in the next section.

Exploring The Airport

Starting off with the main terminal, I was intrigued to see how Realworldcreated the terminal and major buildings of STL. The building itself appearsto be a somewhat high-quality model, but it is quite easy to see thepolygons, and the model itself is let down by its textures. The main terminalhas no interior modeled, and the windows are a simple black texture andnothing else. While it looks acceptable during the day, the same cannot besaid for the night. However, the concourses are modeled well enough to passas St. Louis and the overall feel is quite nice. To their credit, thedevelopers have included little details, such as baggage carts, vehicles andother small items to add to the immersion.

The gates are standard MSFS gates, which is sadly becoming anall-too-common practice among most developers which I dislike. The reasonbeing, each airport has its own style, and using the same gates everywheremakes it feel generic.

The buildings and ramp of the former 131st Fighter Wing are representedquite well, and I have no complaints. Moving to the cargo ramp (a place Iwill frequently visit when the TFDI MD-11 makes it to the sim), is done quitewell, and I actually really like the ramp. Realworld did a pretty good jobwith the building and the ramp itself and is one of the better parts of thescenery. There are plenty of containers and other items placed on the leftside of the apron, though I would like to have seen more of them spreadbetween each of the parking spaces like in real life. Also, adding someairstairs would be helpful so as to assist aircrews upon arriving at theirparking spot. The private jet ramp, located right in front of the cargo ramp,is also done quite well, with Signature flight support being the maintenant.

One thing I did notice, was that the airport lacked a boundaryfence. There was no fence anywhere to be seen and is a detail which shouldreally be present, especially in a payware scenery.

Textures

The texturing of the airport is a mixed bag in my opinion. On one handmany of the textures look quite good, yet on the other, some look very blandand low resolution. The textures of the terminal are mediocre but still havea bit of weathering, which I quite like, as this appearance adds immersionover an otherwise clean object. Non-airside, the textures are quite lowquality and could really be improved upon, but the impression is there and tobe honest, they are not seen nearly as frequently, unless with the dronecamera. The textures of the taxiways, runways, and apron are decent and arerepresentative of the real airport, however they don't hold snow, and whileeverything else is white, the taxiways and runways are just wet. There areseveral spots where an airplane can be seen showing through the groundtexture, but none of them are at the main terminal, and most are faint butstill noticeable.

Lighting

The night lighting of the airport is where the scenery really takes a hitfor me. While some of the airport is dynamically lit, the main terminalwindows are not. They are instead just squares that glow and really do nothelp the look of the airport at all. The private terminal is one of the worstoffenders in my opinion, with the windows being blank white textures andhurting the look of the building. I think that this issue of flat windows andlack of terminal interiors could be somewhat improved by the use of parallaxtechnology MSFS allows to give an impression of a 3D space in 2D, but thatwould be up to the developer to implement, and I really hope they do.

Conclusion

My thoughts are mixed on this airport. On one hand the modeling is prettygood and could be brought up to another level with better textures, but onthe other hand it is held back by the same. If the developer revamps thetextures and some of the airport models it could be greatly improved and thenbecome a good rendition of St. Louis airport. Until then, however, it will beup to the consumer to decide whether it is worth the $18.00 price tag. It ishard for me to say. Will I fly here? Yes, I will, but I really hope to seesome improvements to the textures, night lighting, and overall optimizationof this scenery by the developer. If this is their first scenery for MSFS, itis a good start, and I'll be interested in checking out some of their othersceneries.

Joshua Moore

Purchase Realworld Scenery - St. Louis Lambert KSTL for MSFS

See other RWS add-ons for MSFS 2020