Reviews (by Mark)

Arizona was already a great place to fly, with its stunning canyons, extensive mountains, and epic rivers. But it just got even better with this package of over 40 bridges, dams, and other objects. Like all of RKBridger's bridge packages, the objects are meticulously crafted, appropriated (and often dramatically) lit, and the often unruly MSFS water tamed. Tempe Town Lake is one of the highlights of the package, with all of the crossings delightfully modeled (car, rail, light rail and pedestrian), with great night lighting. Note these are directly under the eastern the approach to Sky Harbor (KPHX). Roosevelt Lake also looks great with the big steel arch bridge, feeder bridges, and dam. Another highlight of the package is treatment of the Colorado River crossings, which include highway, roadway, rail, and even old pipelines, as well as a couple of dams. It makes an already interesting flight from Las Vegas, NV to Yuma, AZ a delight. Needless to say, I very highly recommend this package, especially since you are getting over 40 detailed and accurate structures for roughly 15 bucks (US). I call that a bargain!

Another outstanding, visually stunning package from Jeppeson2001. The models are well crafted, beautifully lit, and include engaging vignettes. Every time you return, you'll discover new details. Very highly recommended.

Another outstanding set of bridges from RKBridger! All 27 bridges look great, are architecturally appropriate and are well lit. The Montmorency Falls have been lovingly crafted and look great (unlike the mess provided by the default scenery). I highly recommend this package to anyone who regularly flies in the area.

Lots of great details, even the curbs by the terminal are rendered. This is a delightful addition to the "Dr.Z" Chicago Landmarks. They work great together as long as you change the Meigs mod's name from "aa_..." to "zz_..." (just changing the first 2 letters). I hope that SimMarket can remove my previous 3 star review because those issues were caused by the buggy MSFS airport included as part of the 40th Anniversary update. As long as you remove the default airport in the Content Manager, this delightful version of Meigs will look great.

Ottawa already looked good in the sim and adding this bridge package is icing on the cake. While none of the bridges are architecturally significant (there's no Golden Gate or Humber Bridge class bridges in Ottawa), all of the bridges in this package are well crafted and have appropriate night lighting. Highly recommended!

Adds life and drama to the night and I especially appreciate that there are multiple emergency light patterns used. Highly recommended, especially given the wide coverage area.

Well crafted, with good night lighting. Includes good coverage of Manila's highrises. Works great with the freeware Manila mods in my collection. Highly recommended.

Quite effective at adding a bit of life to the surrounding skies. The traffic density is quite believable, occasional and not too busy, and the models are good. This is a bargain given the vast area covered. Highly recommended!

After flying the Malaysian part of the Malaysian Peninsula, I can report that this package makes the mountains look great. The lowlands no longer randomly undulate, and both the flowing water and water bodies align well with this DEM. Only the cities still suffer from random lumps and spikes, hence my awarding only four stars, though I can understand why the author might avoid cities, as they have done with the airport. Performance was also excellent; I didn't notice any drop in frame rate. I highly recommend this package as it is a massive improvement over the default mesh.

Outstanding effort! The airport is not architecturally interesting, but it is delightfully executed. The addition of some well-crafted downtown high-rise buildings and the port of Miami make this a must have airport for anyone who enjoys flying in southern Florida.

This package greatly improves the general Vancouver area, which had some of the worst Bing 3D bridges I've seen in the sim. It also seamlessly compliments the Samscene Vancouver scenery package. Of special note is the masterful upgrading of the water masks. The log rafts and dock areas are crips and add greatly to the overall effect. Kudos to the author, another bridge package well done and highly recommended. Performance-wise, I have found these RKBridger packages actually improve my frame rate slightly, as compared to when the sim is trying to render the often awful Bing 3D bridges.

Stunning, a masterpiece! The falls look great, with fluctuating mists and surging waters. The Zambezi River's canyon downstream makes for a GREAT, scenic, aerobatic river run. Just be sure to fly a very nimble plane! Always keep an eye out because there are delightful scenes, often with animation, scattered throughout the area. With several well-located helipads, whirlybird fans will find a lot of great sightseeing. I very highly recommend this package!

A disappointing product from the normally brilliant SamScene. Floating buildings plague both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Tel Aviv has numerous big lumps, one several stories high, right up the side of one of the major skyscrapers. The textures in Jerusalem, especially horizontal surfaces on the major historic buildings, look amateurish. On the plus side, the modern buildings look good, and old Jerusalem's walls and minor buildings are a big upgrade from the default. Putting a little effort into cleaning up the mesh and upgrading a few textures could push SamScene's Israel Scenic World into 4-star territory.

Previously I've loved SamScene city packages, but Vancouver was a disappointment. I'd have given the package 3.5 stars, if that had been an option. The north side of Vancouver Island looks great, but the western and southern shorelines have numerous default photogrammetric buildings that look awful. SamScene's New York City, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai all have great waterfronts, among their other great features (accurate buildings, night lighting, etc.). Hopefully, Vancouver will get a bit of polish and earn the 5 stars of their other products.

Another excellent bridge package from the author. With 66 bridges, the improved water masks and Tampa's container port getting cranes, this is a complete package. Highly recommended for anyone flying in southern Florida.

I was surprised by the price, but not after I read that this mod covers 41 bridges. RK always does a masterful job of modeling the bridges and cleaning up the area's water masks, so I happily purchased the product, and I was not disappointed. Every bridge shows a dedication to detail and the night lighting is delightful and appropriate. Warning: Do not run the freeware mod "Water fix - Philadelphia County" (phcpawaterfix) with this product because RK does a great job with the local water masks and the Water Fix mod undoes it (the water is removed from under the bridges). Please note that I highly recommend mistercoffee1's other "Water Fix" mods, just not with RK's bridge coverage. I can only hope that Vancouver, British Columbia will soon be bedecked with RK bridges.

A truly great fighter ruined by the latest update. The previous cockpit layout was a bit of a challenge to learn, but it had great features. It was the best jet fighter cockpit layout of all that I've tried, with everything I needed for expeditions (weather radar, terrain height mapping, etc.). But with the latest update all the great instruments are ripped out and a green screen GA cockpit replaces it. It's a GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS!!! I uninstalled the new version and went back to the old one. It's so sad when a developer ruins a great product. I have to confess, when I first bought his plane I wanted those GA instruments, but once I learned the original instrumentation, I realized how wrong I was.

Excellent product, with a little tweaking, it could be just almost perfect. In my first flight, from Hyannis, MA to JFK I encountered a variety of nicely rendered air traffic at a variety of heights and bearings. I saw a hot air balloon, a soaring glider, a couple of old school ultralights, a few little sports planes, and a whole lot of helicopters, as many as 6-8 a minute. The night lighting for the helo's was excellent. My only suggestion is turn down the helos, please. I understand I was in an air corridor that would be helo rich, but with only 3 different colors (that I saw), it got to be very repetitive, especially when I saw them in bunches. Just like South Oak Company's delightful Birds of the World series, this is a must have mod for anyone who enjoys puttering along under 6,000 feet.

Both planes fly well and are best described as accurate, but not photorealistic. For example, even fuses are implemented and you can eject the canopy in flight, in the Me-262, but the cockpit and exterior are last generation in appearance. The exteriors looks fine as long as you don't zoom in to look at rivets and seams. What earns this package its fourth star is the variety of variants. You get 5 versions of the Me-252 and they are all nicely rendered, with ample polygons to handle the complex curves. You get 4 variants of the He-162, including a forward swept wing version. The airbase looks more like a WWII reenactment gathering and the ships are inexplicably rusty, but still a fun addition, if you look at it as a freebie. Note that the aircraft and airbase are combined into a single folder, so you load all or nothing. I wish I could drop the airfield in my German bucket in Addons Linker, but no big deal. The planes are simply enjoyable to see and to fly, so I recommend this package!

I give this mod 3.5 stars (they don't do half stars here and this is better than 3 stars). The main problem is really Asobo's water masking, but until that is fixed, using coast morphing requires compromises or a water mask needs to be included (adding to the cost). Pros: Offshore rocks are no longer flat, they have height and character. Where Asobos coastal data is limited resulting in ruler straight coastline segments, this product rocks, restoring the natural variations! Con: A lot of water climbing the shores, not very far (a few tens of feet), not like the old days when it was hundreds of feet. Still, quite noticeable if you are flying under a couple of thousand feet and a deal breaker if you are sailing on the water. So, until Asobo finally fixes their climbing water or a companion water mask product is released, I'm not going to run this mod. But I truly look forward to running it one day, the rocks and natural coastlines are winners. And, with the awful state of the Alaskan panhandles coast, I may well buy and install Taburet's Alaskan Coast Morphing Effects Fix even with the current compromises.

A masterpiece! Watching a 737 being assembled is a joy, and the highlight for me as the ballet of the overhead cranes, as they take a bare fuselage and move it, in stages, to the flight surfaces assembly. The detail all over the airport is amazing, with additional care given to the area surrounding the airfield. Kudos! Very, very highly recommended!

I've been flying the Mississippi and its tributaries, after buying all the appropriate bridge packages. Today, following the Ohio, I finally got to Pittsburgh, and I was stunned to see so many delightful bridges, they just kept appearing on the rivers through Pittsburgh. And I thought the New York City bridge pack was amazing with 29 bridges! You really get your money's worth with version 2 of this great package and its 38 beautifully crafted bridges. Highly recommended.

A nice enough little addon, but I wouldn't have bought it if I had known I was going to have to install yet another Orbx-like application (though not nearly as nice as theirs) just to install and maintain one little mod. Had this been a .zip or .rar file, or even a serial number checking .exe installer, I'd be recommending this product.

A great addition to St Louis, with excellent details, night lighting, and a delight from the air or water. Highly recommended.

A great addition to your collection. These bridges are all wonderfully detailed and add greatly to any trip up the Mississippi. Highly recommended.

Spectacular from the air and from the water, all are great, and some are masterpieces. Highly recommended. Goes great with the Sam's Scene NYC pack.

I loved the author's New York City, St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati bridge packs, so I automatically bought this one and now I'm sorry. I bought this to replace the ugly default Photogrammetric bridges IN BOSTON, but the majority of those bridges are NOT replaced by this package. The few that are are very nice, beautifully detailed and merged nicely with the existing scenery, but again, the majority of Boston bridges are not replaced. The package also includes the Cape Cod Canal, why? I can get those freeware, assuming I even cared about them (and I don't). I wanted and paid to upgrade Boston, not some distant canal. I understand why a few of the bridges weren't replaced, some were low, stone, and not badly rendered, but several desperately need upgrading. To the author: Just because a bridge may not be tall, doesn't mean it shouldn't be upgraded. While I highly recommend this author's OTHER work, don't buy this one, you'll be disappointed.

Italy's west coast has a lot of unwanted trees, but not after installing this mod. Normally Taburet claims a 90-95% success rate, but I just flew from west of Genoa in the north all the way to the toe of the "boot". I only found three groups of unwanted trees, and they were all on breakwaters (all the cliffs, bays, and beaches were perfect): Genoa (near LIMJ) Centaro Marina near the toe (near CS08) And in the northeast: Eastern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon (near LIPV) So, I'd call that a 99+% success rate over the hundreds of miles of coasts I just flew. The process of reducing the tree sizes near the sea worked great, kudos! I highly recommend this package.

Both of these boats are a delight to pilot, with good wave action, even when using 2x and 4x time (to skip those awful cloud patches, etc.). They are ery nicely detailed, the night lighting is good, and the development plan for these boats promises to add another star. These boats add a whole new perspective to MSFS. After I fly a riverside or seaside city, I now check it out via boat, and sometimes my whole perspective changes. Highly recommended, as long as you understand these are essentially early release, but still a lot of fun, just as they are. Some "missing features" are clearly explained, in the description, as being part of the development plan. I for one am looking forward to watching these develop into mature, full featured products.

I had bought the other two boat packages and asked myself, do I really need this one? Right after I bought them, the sim had the answer, YES! The first place I tried to cruise, with the speed boat, was Venice. But Venice is having sim water issues and I couldn't start in the lagoon (it would only let me start at 1,500 feet!). So, I started pretty far from Venice, out in the Adriatic Sea, but at 70 knots the speed boat just ate up that distance. It is a charming aquatic speedster, with a lot of details, and its own niche in my boathouse. The "luxury yacht" proved to be just the thing for exploring the Eastern Scottish coast because the North Sea, with weather set to "Live" can get quite choppy (kudos Microsoft) and the other boats would have been swamped, but the big party boat just cruised right through it. Hint: FSRealistic users, enable your Cabin Ambiance/Small Cabin and set to Random, volume 24, to add a party to your boat. You'll hear folks chatting and having a good time when you are at the helm. I also suggest turning way down or off all the "Wind" settings because these boats have very pleasant sound effects. As charming and usable as these boats are, the development plans look to turn them into 5-star craft. The new live maps and bits of animation are great additions. And there are some very creative camera angles too, though we really need simple right and left views from the default pilot's position. Highly recommended for seeing your favorite sea and riverside locations in a whole new way.

I'm really enjoying visiting the great coastal cities of the world in these delightful boats. The author has made it clear that these are basically early access, but he's already added live map displays and that bodes well for the rest of his plans. This is why I've given this package 4 stars, it is quite satisfying as it is, and if his future plans are implemented as well as they have been so far, a 5th star is a real possibility. I do have one suggestion for a critical missing feature, good side views. The are some great views from these boats, but they are all front and rear views (the latter showcasing the great interiors). There are no useful side-to-side views, which is odd given the main purpose of these boats is sightseeing. We need to be able to look to the right and left when at the helm, especially since a boat spends a lot of time paralleling a shore and it is ridiculous to have to go to third person view to look right and left. Some folks don't appear to be reading the descriptions of some of his boats packages because I've seen negative reviews based on features the author has clearly stated aren't currently present but are in the development plan (like the helm moving). Great package, highly recommended!

An absolute joy to fly, feature rich, and an incredible view from the cockpit. I fly this not as an active-duty fighter, but as a surplus 40+ year old civilian plane on my expeditions to fly the world's great rivers. I have no complaints at all about the package, but I do have a short wish list: - There is a great variety of military liveries, but could we get a couple of civilian ones (deep red or blue, maybe a black and gold), please? - Also, in its civilian role, would it be possible to have a hot spot that swaps out the monochrome displays for PMS50's GTN750 panels? Those old military panels would be one of the first thing to go when reoutfitting an old F-16 for civilian purposes. Plus, the GTN750 is a touch panel, so no other changes would be required for the existing panel buttons. This is a great implementation of a classic fighter, highly recommended!

Spain has some wonderfully rocky coastlines, especially along her northern shores, but they were corrupted by numerous trees popping out of cracks and surf lines. This mod cleans up well over 90% of these wayward trees. The mod's other splendid feature is to smoothly reduce the size of trees right on the edge of the sea, mimicking what mother nature does with salt air and rocky soil. A big side benefit is that the few trees that escape the water edge purge are greatly reduced in size, largely mitigating their negative effect. In fact, you can often overlook them now. I can only hope that Taburet can retro fit his previous coastal trees products to include the marvelous tree resizing, it would be a big help with dealing with the few trees that slip through the cleansing.

Conceived and executed beautifully. The model detail is exquisite, you can zoom in all you want on that little engine, the wear marks in the cockpit, the delightful selection of liveries, all make for a highly recommended package. The flight model is so detailed that you have to consider ballast if you are flying solo (easy to manage in the aircraft settings when composing the flight). The inclusion of an autopilot is a huge help to those of us with accessibility issues (me, I'm old with arthritis) and it works perfectly with my Logitech Multipanel. The little GPS unit's position can be adjusted to avoid glare and even has a synthetic view for all your IFR ultralight flights (LOL). I have to get annoyingly nitpicky to find any fault. The only things I'd like to see changed are the beautiful all blue liveries need a black cockpit like the others because of horrific glare and reflections in the little wind screen. It'd also be nice to see a blue stripe or something on the nose of the blue & white float livery. That's it, that's all I could find "wrong".

Looks and flies great. Aeroplane Heaven's tail wheel code makes takeoff in this tail dragger a lot easier. I'll leave it to others to speak on its accuracy, but I found it to be a notable improvement on my other tail draggers, especially the fighters. The sound is good, especially when taxing. I expected my sub-woofer to get more of a workout at speed due to the big Wright radial, but overall, it was fine. The seven liveries are well executed, and I appreciate four of the classic carriers being represented (Wasp, Enterprise, Saratoga, and Lexington), along with generic WWII US Navy and Army schemes, and one civilian. The interior modeling is very good. A delightfully quirky plane, highly recommended.

Effectively removes the trees from all the rail lines I've checked. It is a delight to see rail yards free of trees and bushes. The only places trees and rails are still found together are in rare locations that aren't typical. For example, in one major Austrian maintenance yard, I found an engine storage area where trees had crept in, but there's no way for Ray to get 100% coverage, not at this most reasonable price. I also have confirmed that the clearing of trees does NOT impact overhead bridges, signals, or structures in any of the photogrammetric cities I've checked. Everything looked just fine. Highly recommended for anyone who flies the rails in Europe. I'm also a big fan of his North American Railways Tree Cleaning package.

This is an update to my prior review (3 stars). The mod has been updated and all my issues have been resolved, so the product is now worthy of 5 stars. Pros: The trees and bushes are removed from the rail right of ways very nicely. Best of all the rail yards are now free of foliage. Cons: None, the old problem of trashing bridges and buildings has been fixed. Everett, WA has now been saved from Godzilla's tail, where the rails goes under its downtown. Kudo's to the author for not only resolving all my problems within 24 hours, but the fix was available from SimMarket within that 24 hours! That's the definition of good customer service for both teams, thank you! SimMarket editor: Please delete my prior review as this supersedes it and I don't want the old one dragging down the average score.

Absolute delight! This tiny commercial airport is one of the most detailed, authentic feeling airports I've flown into. You'll spend several minutes exploring the property and discovering all of the vignettes. If you enjoy inter-island commuter flights, you'll find some great passengers and many satisfying hours here.

Should be 2.5 stars, but better to round up. The same small windows texture is used over and over and over on the terminal building, giving it a B grade, freeware feel. They even recycled billboards from a Caribbean airport, big ones that are hard to miss. The airport is basically okay, with nothing special. If you can get it on sale, I'd even recommend it, since we don't have a lot to choose from in the area.

A large airport, with numerous buildings, a convincing military presence, and a lot of good detail, undone by two fatal flaws. The airport is on a gentle slope, but this mod is flat as a pancake, which dramatically distorts its borders with the world. Also, the gates are messed up, so Simple Traffic just bunches up the AI traffic into tight clumps, not at the gates. Hopefully the elevation issue and gates can be resolved, at which time this otherwise nicely executed airport could earn a solid 4.5 stars (which is very good for a municipal airport).

Let me be clear, this is a great product that answers a dire need, believable planes at our commercial airports. I'm a GA pilot, not a commercial jet simmer, so my needs are simple, AI ground traffic that appears generally accurate. It would be nice if the right livery only appeared at the appropriate gate, but that requires a lot more effort and cost, and exceeds my needs. Simple Traffic provides just what the title says, simple, attractive ground traffic donning appropriate livery. And it is easy to install and configure, at a VERY attractive price. The only reason it isn't a 5 star product lies with the limitations of MSFS. Aerosoft is quite clear in their excellent documentation what those limitations are, as well as providing very clear configuration instructions. Simple Traffic sounds like it will gain that fifth star, given that Aerosoft's plans include adding more liveries and improving the product as MSFS evolves. Now if MSFS would quit turning off and on my now delightfully liveried AI ground traffic...

After two days of flying this bird, it is a four star plane in search of its 4th star. To get that 5th star, it needs: The 3rd person view ASI isn't calibrated correctly (I'm usually going faster than it indicates). The scale also stops before I hit the top cruising speed (maximum speed, while keeping things in the green, not the economical cruising speed). The external ASI's scale is wrong. The plane's own ASI is in MPH, but the 3rd person's is in Knots and KPH. The knots is handy, but the KPH should be MPH. The reflectivity of the passenger door' exterior is quite different than the panels on either side of it and that's distracting. Otherwise the exterior is quite nice. Note this is my second review because I couldn't find a way to edit my previous one to reflect my additional experience with the plane, both are 4 star.

I'd like to give this 4.5 stars because is really is better than a 4 star rating, but it may take a few updates to put the polish 5 stars require. Handles great, including in vicious Aleutian crosswinds. Love the choice of classic autopilot or a modern GPS/AP with the throw of a cockpit switch. Do wish it was a little quieter in the cockpit so I could clearly understand ATC. I also like some of the advanced instrumentation, such as the advanced vibration sensor (turn it on, you'll love it). The interior is well rendered, including the passenger cabin, with its touch of whimsy. A dozen excellent liveries and a simple drag and drop installation (like most mods) round out this outstanding package. I love it and highly recommend it.

Remember the tale of the Ugly Duckling? I recommend buying this delightful ugly duckling, then download some of the great liveries for it, and turn your vintage beast from a "barn find" into a beautiful swan. She flies great, is more powerful than I expected, and has a very detailed and animated interior. I have no idea why the creators appeared to go out of their way to make this plane so ugly with such hideous liveries, but thankfully JK and the other great livery makers took good care of this wonderful plane.