Nestled in the vibrant capital city of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport stands as a bustling hub for both local travellers and those journeying from afar. Immerse yourself in the vast terminals and facilities. From the bustling concourses to the hand-crafted interiors, every detail has been carefully designed to enhance your journey.
Explore the seamless integration of modern architecture and traditional Arabian hospitality as you navigate through the airport's expansive airside and landside areas. With full GSX compatibility and a host of unique features.
Embark on journeys to a myriad of destinations from Abu Dhabi, with renowned airlines such as Etihad Airways, Air France, British Airways & Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, whisking you away to exotic locales across the globe. Whether it's European capitals, the cultural treasures of Cairo, or the idyllic beaches of the Maldives, the possibilities are endless.
I'm unfamiliar with the real airport but it all feels authentic to me. Good level of detail across the airfield. Performance for me is excellent (better than their OMDB), even with FSLTL traffic (but I do have a high-end PC). The free Yas Marina add-on really enhances the approach from the west.
Good work, old terminal is not accessible for heavy aircrafts as the jetway penetrates into the cockpit. New terminal interior is very dark during day and night. I'm sure nothing an update can't fix.
It requires a lot of nerve to design such a huge airport. Mixed success. Inside modeling is barely visible on day light. The Terminal 1 and 1A is slightly below expectation (no inside modeling). And the huge Midfield terminal appears quite desert. Not improved for GSX neither. BUT
very promising work.
The scenery greets you with the usual mostly very good building modelling and texturing ini is famous for, texture colours seem quite authentic, and the night lighting is done very well.
And this time ini also did a good job with ground texturing.
Unfortunately they stopped shortly before delivering a very good solid release:
- The runway textures are just not authentic. The real runways have a darker paved middle strip. To simulate this, ini simply put heavy very repetitive tyre marks all along the complete runway, while the darker pavement bits are missing. That is just not realistic looking.
- All taxiway signs at night are completely covered in self-illuminated red all around, except at the lit-up area. So they look extremely unrealistic in the dark.
- There are numerous flat buildings visible all over the scenery. Some are smaller service buildings, some are next to aprons (with half transparent textures over them), and the worst part is behind the new terminal, with one huge area and a covered parking facility being all flat, and unfortunately both areas are visible very well when landing on runways 13R and 13L. The completely flat vegetation landside of the new terminal doesn't help things either.
- The Jetways of Terminal 3 must have been taken from somewhere else, because they are way too big. Most of these stands you can't use because the retracted jetways block the stand.
- And there's this smaller issue but quite annoying; The red rotating beacons on many jetways are lit up and rotate all the time, even when the jetways are stationary. The lights simply never turn off. So you park and you see this rotating red light effect glow going on outside all the time, that is rather annoying unfortunately.
- Perimeter fences in some areas simply stop when they shouldn't, however most of the time fencing is done quite nicely.
In short: Potential for a solid release! But it is in dire need of better runway textures and proper night-time taxiway signs. And it needs to be filled with many missing 3D buildings/objects, especially in the area of the new terminal. It's just not nice to see flat buildings when looking out of the cockpit while landing, taxiing or parking.
Can I recommend getting it? Yes. Does ini need to put in some additional work? Also yes.