|
|
|
|
KDTW - Detroit Metropolitan Airport
by Imagine Simulation. Reviewed by Gene Davis.
 I have looked at a lot of
airport add-ons and I find very few that really impress me, as most
are bogged down by poor frame rates because of the extensive graphic
environment. With that said, I must say though that I really do like
the enhanced airports and I wish that more could be done to make
them a little more frame rate
friendly.
KDTW is a nice piece of
work, as it comes with most all of the bells and whistles that other
airport add-ons come with. The one thing that really sells me on an
airport add-on is the ability to make it an interactive airport and
the folks at Imagine Simulations have done just that. They have
brought us a major airport that gives you the illusion that you are
effecting that environment. What I mean here is that when you pull
up to a gate, you will be greeted by a ground crew and once the
plane is stopped and after you tune you com 1 radio to a set
frequency; the jet-way will actually dock with your plane. Now, I
know this is nothing new, but this makes it a competitive product as
there are some airport add-ons that don’t offer this
feature.
Once the product is
installed into you MSFS you will need to look over the directions
and it would be a good idea to either print out the airport codes or
write them down so that you can get right into seeing what this
add-on will do for you. The manual that is packed with the download
is a 14 page PDF file, so it’s nothing overwhelming and answers all
the necessary questions.
The
surrounding areas at KDTW is what makes this graphical environment
so impressive, you will see the new construction sites as well as
the old and modern buildings. This airport matches that of its real
world counterpart nicely as you will find all of the surrounding
roadways and airport thorough fairs nicely represented. When I look
at these types of add-ons I generally go right to the passenger drop
off area of the airport, just to get an idea of the detail, and this
was also nicely done.
The
interactive portion of this airport is really pretty cool; you will
be guided in by reader boards when you have taxied to your assigned
parking area and brought to a complete stop. You will also notice
ground crews will shoot into action once you have brought your plane
in for its deplaning of passengers. Now, the whole system works off
of your com radio, so once you have completed your parking checklist
and shut down the engines be sure to tune into the airport code to
take full advantage of this add-on.
 Performance is a big issue
here, now I am running this on a P4 3.0 with an ATI 9800 PRO 256
card and I must say that it runs pretty well with these system
specs. I originally had a FX 256 5600 and it ran pretty slow, so I
does depend quite a bit on what system your card has. If you are not
worried about FPS, and you just want the detailed airport experience
then I wouldn’t worry about it. I have to add, that the more complex
plane you are using the more it will hit your FPS. So, if you can
get away with flying a smaller, perhaps default plane, then it
should work really well. I had the opportunity to try the scenery on
a P4 2.4 with a GEFORCE MMX card and I have to tell you, it wasn’t
worth the time or the effort landing was terrible at frames of about
2-6, as long as you didn’t look in the general direction of the
airport it ran okay.
KDTW is a nice
addition to your airport list, as systems get larger and video cards
get more powerful the issues with frame rates will hopefully become
a thing of the past. If you are looking to buy an enhanced airport
this a very good choice as it is relatively cheap at a price tag of
$20.99. Do I recommend this one, yes! I have had the opportunity to
look over other product titles of this sort and Imagine Simulations
has delivered a nicely done package for those who want a detailed
airport environment.
You can find out more about this and
Imagine Simulations' other products at the Imagine Simulation
website.
Screenshots.
Click on a screenshot to see a larger
version of it.
Review by Gene Davis, posted
on 13 Jun 2005.
Return to the main review page here. |
|
|
|
| |
|