Hello and welcome to another X-Planescenery review. This time around we will be looking at BoundlessSimulations rendition of Isle of Man Airport; their very first paywarescenery.

The Isle of Man also known as Ellan Vannin in Manx is aself-governing British Dependency, situated in the Irish Sea betweenGreat Britain and Ireland and is rich in history, as human habitationwas established there around 6500 BC.

The Airport

Also known as Ronaldsway, the airport is located in the south ofthe island near Castletown, about 6 nautical miles southwest ofDouglas, the island's capital.

Installation

Installing the product could not have been easier, as all I had todo was place the extracted folder into my X-Plane Custom Sceneryfolder.

Documentation

The package includes a brief PDF containing an introduction,installation details, a note on known issues, details of futurereleases and finally the contact details for Boundless Simulations ifrequired.

Initial Look Around

Note: all screen shots in this review were taken with Orbx TrueEarth GB installed.

My initial view of the airport was highly favorable, with a lot ofdetail used in the textures of both the buildings and aircraft. Anice feature of this airport is the animated service vehicles whichreally helped bring the airport to life. All too often this feature isomitted/neglected by developers, so it was highly welcomed.

A standout feature of the airport is its Art Deco passengerterminal building, and you'll be glad to know that this has beenrecreated in X-Plane in high detail.

The airport's car park is populated by well made 3D vehicles, butit was a shame there were not more of them, as in certain places, theortho imagery of the car park showed through.

Another thing I noticed, like many sceneries I have reviewed, wasthe complete lack of any 3D people. It was a shame none were present,as in my my view, it really helps bring a scenery to life...especiallya busy airport such as this one.

Looking around the scenery, and I'd have to say that on the whole,building textures were above average, especially at this price range!There was also a considerable amount of airport clutter located aroundthe airport, which again, really helped bring the airport atmosphereto life. In my experience, it is small detailed items like this whichmake all the difference to a scenery. For someone who enjoys exploringevery nook and cranny, I really appreciate things like this, so welldone Boundless Simulations!

Going further afield, and it was nice to see that the developer hadincluded the airport's fire house down near the shore. By the look ofthings, this was completely custom made and included the practicefuselage.

Another feature of the scenery I appreciated was the custom madefoliage dotted around the airport. The texturing of both the trees andbushes was of good quality and again really helped polish the sceneryoff.

Both the runway and taxiway areas exhibited good texturing andappropriate markings, and there was a degree of weathering to be seentoo.

Night lighting is done reasonably well. As well as the mainairport lights, there are also lit windows for the majority of thebuildings, plus some of the signs. The animated vehicles have bothhead and tail lights which are also illuminated at night.

Performance

Using the new Vulkan API (not the standard OpenGL we've all come toknow), I managed to achieve roughly 60 FPS at most parts of thescenery, which...considering my system specs (see below), was prettygood I thought.

• Windows 10 64 bit
• Intel Core i5 - 3350P
• CPU @ 3.1 GHz
• 16 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GTX1050 Ti

At no time did I experience stuttering or slowing down.

Boundless Simulations aim as mentioned in their blurb isto "Bring immersive and high quality scenery to X-Plane 11, but ata much more reasonable price", and I am happy to report that thisairport is indeed immersive, and of high quality. So what about theprice? Well, the cost of the package from Boundless Simulations atthe time of writing this review is US $14.99, GB £11.51, AUS$20.71. So is that reasonable? Yes...I think so!

Conclusion

Considering this airport is Boundless Simulation's first foray intopayware scenery, I must say I am very impressed! The quality of workon offer, for the price asked, is excellent in my book, and well worthconsidering. When you factor in the custom made objects, the excellentperformance, plus the location, then I really think you are on to awinner!

Well done Boundless Simulations.

See you next time.

Regards

Paul Mort

Purchase Boundless Simulations - EGNS Isle of Man Airport

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