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Airport Layout Enhancement SolutionPublisher: Pyreegue Dev CoReview Author: Brunco EsperancaSuggested Price: $15.99/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.png/images/reviews/ales/title.jpgDescriptionALES - The Airport Layout Enhancement Solution, is an enhancementpackage for X-Plane 11, which replaces default textures with highquality ones. These include: runways (three variants), draped signs,taxilines, asphalt, concrete and helipads. The textures in this package are the ones that are unique; thesehave never been used before in X-Plane. The assets included are 3Dscanned surfaces from the real world we live in using cutting edgetechnology to ensure almost perfect implementation of real surfacesand their properties in X-Plane 11 utilizing all of its PBR features. Purchase, Download, Documentation And InstallationALES can be bought from the FlightSim.Com Store. The developer isnot well known and as far as I could see, this is the first productdeveloped by him. The installation files are equivalent to othertexture replacement packs. You will get a zip (compressed) archivewhich is approximately 1 GB, unzipping to just over 2.2 GB. The zipfile I received contained five items inside - three folders, one basepack and two optional, one user guide and one EULA especially forreviewers. I guess there's a separate one for regular users. Installation is equivalent to other texture packs, and is quitesimple. For example for the base package, inside there's a foldercalled "X-Plane 11". Simply extract this folder to the folder whereyour X-Plane 11 installation is located, so that the files areoverwritten, and you are good to go! This is of course explained inthe user guide, along with a description of the contents and anexplanation of the options you have. The options are basicallydifferent runway wear, and different resolutions - 2k and 4k. System PerformancePerformance should have a small hit, I would say, particularly ifyou are GPU-bound. In my case, my GPU has quite some headroom still,so I could not notice any impact. To test, I tried all combinations atan international airport which is slightly taxing on performance,Palma de Mallorca (this was during the same time of day and sameweather). Four combinations were tested - default, MisterX's AEHDv2, ALESv1.2 2k, ALES v1.2 4k. In any combination, frames were around midfifties, but the 4k textures are noticeably crisper and betterlooking to any of the others, so it was an easy choice. Look And FeelLet me start right off the bat by saying I cherry-pick verycarefully where my money is spent. At the end of the day, I do have acouple of mouths to feed, excluding my own, and I am a student pilotat the moment, so normally if there's a free option for something, Itake it, and it's not easy to make me take payware forsomething. Having said that, someone who will try to fly withX-Plane's default ground textures for taxiways, runways, etc. willdefinitely agree they are atrocious. As you can see in the screenshots below which I have taken for reference, particularly on therunway, the jagged lines are so notorious, it's really not suitablefor a current flight simulator. Thanks to the efforts of the populardeveloper MisterX, we have a freeware that addresses this shortcomingon X-Plane. Default X-Plane Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-03.jpgWe should also quickly talk about PBR. Physically Based Renderingis a technology that was introduced with X-Plane 11 which basicallyimproves the way lights interact with surfaces/textures in a way thatmimics the type of material of the surface. Reflection, refraction,diffusion, will be different with different materials such as metal orplastic surfaces. Initially, this technology was mostly used onairplanes and was noticeable particularly on the metal-likereflections on the outside, but more and more PBR is being applied onscenery and ground textures. Orbx has even announced a scenery whereall surfaces have PBR. As such, default and MisterX's textures also have PBR applied onsome of the textures, most notably, painted lines, as you can also seeon the screen shots. MisterX6 Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-05.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-06.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-07.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-08.jpgIn one way, this makes them look more realistic, but in anotherway, also less realistic. Because it's quite strange to see onetexture with PBR right next to one without it (as you can see also inthe screen shot). My first tests around Palma de Mallorca with ALESproduced satisfactory results. A significantly better job at PBR, withmuch crisper, stronger colors. The result was visually verypleasing, and overall very adequate. Is this alone enough to justifythe asking price? Perhaps, but we don't stop here. Let's load KievInternational Airport. ALES 2k Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-2k-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-2k-02.jpgKiev International Airport was recommended to test this texturepack as it uses most, if not all, the textures that are included inthis texture pack. And so I did, and this is where I think my heartmissed a beat. The asphalt texture is so well done, together with PBR,that for the first time a "flat" surface gave me the impression of anactual rugged surface, similar to current AAA game titles. Not to saythat the other textures are not exceptionally well done, but this onereally took it home. ALES 4k Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-05.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-06.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-07.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-08.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-09.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-10.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-11.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-12.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-13.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-14.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-15.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-16.jpgRegarding the wet textures, the screen shots speak forthemselves. What an impressively well done job. One can see thedeveloper is really talented at texture works and nothing was sparedto get the most realistic depiction possible, using current technologyavailable on X-Plane. Again, the asphalted surface stands out. Pureperfection and a real sight for the eyes. ALES 4k Wet Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-05.jpgNot all is perfect however, with ALES' texture replacementpack. This pack replaces default airport textures in X-Plane - and assuch, airport scenery add-ons which come with their own textures willnot make use of ALES' wonderful PBR textures. Most newly releasedadd-ons also come with PBR textures. I have quite a few airportadd-ons myself with PBR textures, and I can easily say that nothingcomes close to what ALES has to offer, but still, it's not such asignificant loss. If you fly mostly with older add-ons which did notcome with PBR textures, you will have to make a tough decision betweenflying with default scenery with excellent textures, or add-on scenerywith poor looking textures. Pyreegue Dev has released however, alibrary allowing third party developers to include ALES textures intotheir add-ons for free, so hopefully we will start seeing moredevelopers including compatibility with ALES, as we have seen with thelikes of SAM and such. Final ThoughtsI will say it straight, I started working on this review quitesceptical. MisterX's HD free texture replacement was such animprovement from the default textures provided with X-Plane, could Ireally need more? Could a payware texture replacement make sense,could it still make a difference? Well, it does. You can judge by thescreen shots I have provided for this review. And keep in mind noadditional editing was done, and I am using no add-ons for visualimprovement on the sim whatsoever. What you see in these screen shotsis in fact what you will get. So, in my opinion, at the current price point, this add-on doesindeed provide good value if you are happy and flying often to/fromdefault airports. If you are often flying to/from older airport add-onsceneries without PBR textures, and a 3D version has been done by thecommunity for X-Plane you might want to consider using the default 3Dversion with this texture pack. Otherwise, if you are using add-onsceneries which already have their own PBR textures, I am pretty surethey will not have as much quality as the textures from ALES, butpersonally I think the better option is to stick with the add-onscenery. If, however, developers start including compatibility withALES on their scenery offerings, it will be a no-brainer, getALES! This review was done using X-Plane 11.35r1 and ALES v1.2. Also usedwas ASXP 7045 and ortho imagery using Ortho4XP v1.30. No other effectsor texture modifications were used. My hardware includes an i7-9700k,16 GB RAM and an MSI GTX 1070. /images/reviews/ales/pdc-100-ales-1.jpgBrunco Esperanca Purchase ALES
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Pyreegue Dev Co - Airport Layout Enhancement Solution v1.3
Nels_Anderson posted an article in X-Plane
/images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales0908.jpgVersion 1.3 Changelog8 asphalt textures fully reworkedconcrete textures minor adjustmentsminor adjustments to decals2 new runways (Soiled Asphalt, Soiled Concrete)Custom installer added (Windows only)ALESALES - The Airport Layout Enhancement Solution, is an enhancementpackage for X-Plane 11, which replaces default textures with highquality ones. IncludesRunways (3 variants)Draped signsTaxilinesAsphaltConcreteHelipads /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-1.jpg /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-2.jpgThe textures in this package are unique, having never been usedbefore in X-Plane. The assets included are 3D scanned surfaces fromthe real world we live in using cutting edge technology to ensurealmost perfect implementation of real surfaces and their properties inX-Plane 11. Features2K/4K texturesNormal maps using X-Plane 11 PBR at its finestAll taxilines and other lines replaced (PBR)All pavement surfaces replaced (PBR)All draped signs replaced (PBR)Asphalt runway textures replaced (three variants)Concrete runway textures replacedAsphalt helipad textures replacedConcrete helipad textures replacedAsphalt helipad textures replacedConcrete helipad textures replacedWet textures for lr advanced pavements (default runways will not be wet) /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-3.jpg /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-4.jpgMany more new textures will follow in the future as we gather morematerial to work with, stay tuned! As for now, enjoy! Purchase Pyreegue Dev Co – Airport Layout Enhancement Solution -
Airport Layout Enhancement SolutionPublisher: Pyreegue Dev CoReview Author: Brunco EsperancaSuggested Price: $15.99/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.png/images/reviews/ales/title.jpgDescriptionALES - The Airport Layout Enhancement Solution, is an enhancementpackage for X-Plane 11, which replaces default textures with highquality ones. These include: runways (three variants), draped signs,taxilines, asphalt, concrete and helipads. The textures in this package are the ones that are unique; thesehave never been used before in X-Plane. The assets included are 3Dscanned surfaces from the real world we live in using cutting edgetechnology to ensure almost perfect implementation of real surfacesand their properties in X-Plane 11 utilizing all of its PBR features. Purchase, Download, Documentation And InstallationALES can be bought from the FlightSim.Com Store. The developer isnot well known and as far as I could see, this is the first productdeveloped by him. The installation files are equivalent to othertexture replacement packs. You will get a zip (compressed) archivewhich is approximately 1 GB, unzipping to just over 2.2 GB. The zipfile I received contained five items inside - three folders, one basepack and two optional, one user guide and one EULA especially forreviewers. I guess there's a separate one for regular users. Installation is equivalent to other texture packs, and is quitesimple. For example for the base package, inside there's a foldercalled "X-Plane 11". Simply extract this folder to the folder whereyour X-Plane 11 installation is located, so that the files areoverwritten, and you are good to go! This is of course explained inthe user guide, along with a description of the contents and anexplanation of the options you have. The options are basicallydifferent runway wear, and different resolutions - 2k and 4k. System PerformancePerformance should have a small hit, I would say, particularly ifyou are GPU-bound. In my case, my GPU has quite some headroom still,so I could not notice any impact. To test, I tried all combinations atan international airport which is slightly taxing on performance,Palma de Mallorca (this was during the same time of day and sameweather). Four combinations were tested - default, MisterX's AEHDv2, ALESv1.2 2k, ALES v1.2 4k. In any combination, frames were around midfifties, but the 4k textures are noticeably crisper and betterlooking to any of the others, so it was an easy choice. Look And FeelLet me start right off the bat by saying I cherry-pick verycarefully where my money is spent. At the end of the day, I do have acouple of mouths to feed, excluding my own, and I am a student pilotat the moment, so normally if there's a free option for something, Itake it, and it's not easy to make me take payware forsomething. Having said that, someone who will try to fly withX-Plane's default ground textures for taxiways, runways, etc. willdefinitely agree they are atrocious. As you can see in the screenshots below which I have taken for reference, particularly on therunway, the jagged lines are so notorious, it's really not suitablefor a current flight simulator. Thanks to the efforts of the populardeveloper MisterX, we have a freeware that addresses this shortcomingon X-Plane. Default X-Plane Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-default-textures-03.jpgWe should also quickly talk about PBR. Physically Based Renderingis a technology that was introduced with X-Plane 11 which basicallyimproves the way lights interact with surfaces/textures in a way thatmimics the type of material of the surface. Reflection, refraction,diffusion, will be different with different materials such as metal orplastic surfaces. Initially, this technology was mostly used onairplanes and was noticeable particularly on the metal-likereflections on the outside, but more and more PBR is being applied onscenery and ground textures. Orbx has even announced a scenery whereall surfaces have PBR. As such, default and MisterX's textures also have PBR applied onsome of the textures, most notably, painted lines, as you can also seeon the screen shots. MisterX6 Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-05.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-06.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-07.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-MisterX6-08.jpgIn one way, this makes them look more realistic, but in anotherway, also less realistic. Because it's quite strange to see onetexture with PBR right next to one without it (as you can see also inthe screen shot). My first tests around Palma de Mallorca with ALESproduced satisfactory results. A significantly better job at PBR, withmuch crisper, stronger colors. The result was visually verypleasing, and overall very adequate. Is this alone enough to justifythe asking price? Perhaps, but we don't stop here. Let's load KievInternational Airport. ALES 2k Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-2k-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-2k-02.jpgKiev International Airport was recommended to test this texturepack as it uses most, if not all, the textures that are included inthis texture pack. And so I did, and this is where I think my heartmissed a beat. The asphalt texture is so well done, together with PBR,that for the first time a "flat" surface gave me the impression of anactual rugged surface, similar to current AAA game titles. Not to saythat the other textures are not exceptionally well done, but this onereally took it home. ALES 4k Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-05.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-06.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-07.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-08.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-09.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-10.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-11.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-12.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-13.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-14.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-15.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-16.jpgRegarding the wet textures, the screen shots speak forthemselves. What an impressively well done job. One can see thedeveloper is really talented at texture works and nothing was sparedto get the most realistic depiction possible, using current technologyavailable on X-Plane. Again, the asphalted surface stands out. Pureperfection and a real sight for the eyes. ALES 4k Wet Textures Screen Shots /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-01.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-02.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-03.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-04.jpg /images/reviews/ales/t/ALES-4k-wet-05.jpgNot all is perfect however, with ALES' texture replacementpack. This pack replaces default airport textures in X-Plane - and assuch, airport scenery add-ons which come with their own textures willnot make use of ALES' wonderful PBR textures. Most newly releasedadd-ons also come with PBR textures. I have quite a few airportadd-ons myself with PBR textures, and I can easily say that nothingcomes close to what ALES has to offer, but still, it's not such asignificant loss. If you fly mostly with older add-ons which did notcome with PBR textures, you will have to make a tough decision betweenflying with default scenery with excellent textures, or add-on scenerywith poor looking textures. Pyreegue Dev has released however, alibrary allowing third party developers to include ALES textures intotheir add-ons for free, so hopefully we will start seeing moredevelopers including compatibility with ALES, as we have seen with thelikes of SAM and such. Final ThoughtsI will say it straight, I started working on this review quitesceptical. MisterX's HD free texture replacement was such animprovement from the default textures provided with X-Plane, could Ireally need more? Could a payware texture replacement make sense,could it still make a difference? Well, it does. You can judge by thescreen shots I have provided for this review. And keep in mind noadditional editing was done, and I am using no add-ons for visualimprovement on the sim whatsoever. What you see in these screen shotsis in fact what you will get. So, in my opinion, at the current price point, this add-on doesindeed provide good value if you are happy and flying often to/fromdefault airports. If you are often flying to/from older airport add-onsceneries without PBR textures, and a 3D version has been done by thecommunity for X-Plane you might want to consider using the default 3Dversion with this texture pack. Otherwise, if you are using add-onsceneries which already have their own PBR textures, I am pretty surethey will not have as much quality as the textures from ALES, butpersonally I think the better option is to stick with the add-onscenery. If, however, developers start including compatibility withALES on their scenery offerings, it will be a no-brainer, getALES! This review was done using X-Plane 11.35r1 and ALES v1.2. Also usedwas ASXP 7045 and ortho imagery using Ortho4XP v1.30. No other effectsor texture modifications were used. My hardware includes an i7-9700k,16 GB RAM and an MSI GTX 1070. /images/reviews/ales/pdc-100-ales-1.jpgBrunco Esperanca Purchase ALES
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/images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales0908.jpgALES - The Airport Layout Enhancement Solution, is an enhancementpackage for X-Plane 11, which replaces default textures with highquality ones. IncludesRunways (3 variants)Draped signsTaxilinesAsphaltConcreteHelipads /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-1.jpg /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-2.jpgThe textures in this package are unique, having never been usedbefore in X-Plane. The assets included are 3D scanned surfaces fromthe real world we live in using cutting edge technology to ensurealmost perfect implementation of real surfaces and their properties inX-Plane 11. Features2K/4K texturesNormal maps using X-Plane 11 PBR at its finestAll taxilines and other lines replaced (PBR)All pavement surfaces replaced (PBR)All draped signs replaced (PBR)Asphalt runway textures replaced (three variants)Concrete runway textures replacedAsphalt helipad textures replacedConcrete helipad textures replacedAsphalt helipad textures replacedConcrete helipad textures replacedWet textures for lr advanced pavements (default runways will not be wet) /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-3.jpg /images/notams/notams19/ales0908/ales-4.jpgMany more new textures will follow in the future as we gather morematerial to work with, stay tuned! As for now, enjoy! Purchase Pyreegue Dev Co – Airport Layout Enhancement Solution
