Bought this airport in September 2019. While visually well done -- accurate and pleasing, it is an inconsistent performer. Framerates sink to single digits on approach at dusk and can vary greatly (~60 to the teens) from the gate to departure and pattern ALT. Good purchase overall for me, but consider the performance. My machine is a Intel i7-6900K32GB RAM, GTX 1080Ti which generally has no problems with this level of scenery complexity.
Outstanding modeling and texturing right down to the signage for Signature. I'm using this in P3D V4.3. Running ORBX, and the scenery blends nicely. Will look forward to SODE jetways, but that's not a big issue. I run a powerful machine, but this scenery is really hard on framerates especially at dusk/night. It can drop into single digit framerate at times. That is the only downside, although a big downside.
In a word, well done. Minor issue but parking/gates need updating to 2018 (e.g.: Gate 9), but is otherwise relatively current. Also could benefit from SODE jetways, but otherwise accurate down to the ramp level. Terminal nicely modeled (including night lighting) as well as hangers, taxiways and runway lighting. This is a nice alternative to the rather expensive and not current SimAddons CYYT. Hoping for additional quality Canadian airports by this developer. Well worth the purchase.
TropicalSim continues to struggle with elevation issues on their airports. I have Orbx products, and one would think that their testing would have includes users with configs purchasing their products. So, I continue to struggle to get the right combination of BGLs disabled to see the entire airport. I have this now in P3D V4 and had it in V3. As in V3, the airport is modeled nicely, but even in V3 had to work out the elevation issues there as well. TropicalSim needs to take a page out of the book of FlyTampa, FlightBeam, FSDT and even UK2000 to have the install config tools adjust for user environments with or without the more common terrain installation addons.
I am using this scenery in P3D V3.4. It is nicely done. I had the previous version of SBRJ (2014) and it was a great addon to South America the Rio collection of airports. SBRJ 2018 is a step up with respect to night textures and terminal textures in particular. Combine this scenery with PAULO RICARDO's Mega RIO DE JANEIRO AND NATAL CITY PACK 5 and the experience is immersive and second to none. TropicalSim's SBRJ blends seamlessly into Paulo's Rio scenery. If you're looking for one of the most challenging approaches on a flight of less than 1 hour flight, SBRJ's 20L or 02R from SBSP will both challenge and please.
Brilliantly done overall. Terminals, gates, taxiways, hangars, runways and ground is accurate and well detailed. P3D needs more Canada sceneries and FSIMSTUDIOS has done well in filling this void with the CYYC scenery. I'm giving a 5 star rating, but the night textures on the apron leave a bit to be desired as the apron surface is a bit too yellow. In addition, jetways are a bit lacking as well.
To put this review in context, my sim environment is Prepar3D V3.3. From a visual standpoint, TAXI2GATE's modeling and texturing of KSEA is an outstanding work and brings KSEA up to date including the 3 parallel runways. Major and minor visual features of the airport and immediate areas have been represented to the highest level of detail. However, as with other sceneries created by TAXI2GATE, there seem to be lingering issues related to elevation, AFCADs, and integration into mesh and ground textures surrounding the airport. KSEA in particular has required 3rd party fixes to integrate KSEA into the surrounding mesh for ORBX users (with and without Orbx Pacific Northwest). To date, the AFCAD for the airport does not accurately represent instrument approaches for the 3 runways. It is my hope that TAXI2GATE improves their testing before releasing future works as this continues to keep their products below other authors which do pay attention to these details. Many jump to purchase their products for their visual appeal only to discover these oversights soon after ownership.
I've owned this airport for some time and have used it in FS2004 over the time I have owned it. Prior to TropicalSim's KDCA, I had Cloud9's KDCA for FS2004. TropicalSim's KDCA is fairly accurate overall with current gate/parking configurations, taxiways and immediate surrounding buildings/structures. However, night textures/lighting was not realistic with the terminal and surrounding apron a surreal light blue color. I now use P3D V3 (exclusively) and installed the P3D version of this product. Again, fairly accurate overall, but the night textures/lighting for the terminal and apron still has that surreal light blue color (though not as bad as in the FS2004 version). Also, jetways are static in the P3D version which is a bit of a letdown. On accuracy, this scenery gets good marks, but on night texturing and lighting, only average. All said, it's a great value on sale.
This purchase turned out to be a pleasant surprise. As the headquarters and world hub for Copa Airlines, this airport now has a laudable representation in the FSX and Prepar3D simulators. Prior to this purchase, I have owned 2 different vendors' renditions of MPTO (FS2004 versions) and neither was exceptional, nor current. So, I saw this version for P3D (I currently have P3D 3.2), liked the screen shots and purchased. I am happy with this product. Although I have not been to the airport, it seems to be current and accurate. The cargo area in particular is represented comprehensively, the passenger terminal and all gates are accurately represented, taxiway markings accurate, textures sharp and detailed. Night textures are clear and accurate, but the main terminal is a bit on the unrealistically bright side. Custom runway, taxiway and ramp night lighting is well done and detailed. I use FTX Global and ORBX vector and did not experience any issues with this airport. That's a plus indeed. Well done.
I've been waiting for some time for an update to Bogota's El Dorado International (SKBO) by the incumbent, but a pleasant surprise came when VirtualCol released this rendition of the current SKBO (for FS2004). It is well done overall and my compliments to VirtualCol, though the night textures leave a bit to be desired. The night coloring of the terminals and jetways is too yellow and somewhat unrealistic as a result. In addition, navigating taxiways at night is difficult at best as the taxiway textures are essentially black and not even a taxiway centerline is visible. A little bit of lightening of these textures would be a considerable improvement to visibility. In addition, the available taxiway lighting does little to help navigating about the airport at night. That said, taxiways and parking seems accurate according to SKBO 2014 aerodrome charts. There are also some mesh anomalies near the airport (deep pits to the north of the airport), so there seems to be a potential issue with flattens. If these few items could be resolved this would be a 5 star airport for FS2004. All said, if you love flying medium range flights from many major US airports into South America, cargo or passenger, or throughout Central and South America from SKBO, this is a must have.
I certainly wish I would have heeded the information in the other review for this product (FS2004) version. I own a considerable amount of payware scenery including the entire FSDT complement of products, ImagineSim, many of LatinVFR, Taxi2Gate, tropicalSim and others' products and have to date not experienced what I did with this package. My system is an Alienware Aurora and is quite capable to handle complex scenery, but this one locked up Fs2004 when loading this scenery several times. After analysis, it appears that this scenery suffers from issues of mesh/elevation, too many complex ground textures and what appears to be an issue with several BGLs. The ground textures do not match the surrounding scenery and have a blue green color to them. Too many BGLs dedicated to volumetric grass, flowers and vehicles could also be contributing to the problems. On approach to or departure from the airport, the scenery causes Fs to stutter and freeze for several seconds. Scenery load times (if it loads successfully) can be up to 5 minutes or more. So, try as I did to work out the bugs, this one ended up being removed from my system.
I bought this scenery on sale, and it was a good investment. Though I am not from Europe, I find the level of detail and accuracy (compared with satellite photos and current aerodrome charts) to be as close to reality as FS9 permits. Taxiways, gates (and gate mearkings) and runways are quite accurate. Much of the surrounding landmarks, night lighting, overall ground texturing as well as the detail of the airport itself make this a 5-star "sleeper" in my view. Flying online (VATSIM) with this scenery addition makes for an enjoyable, satisfying and realistic experience overall. Very nice work ScanSim.