VFR Reviews
OrbX’s AU YMML – Melbourne International
By Ashton Lawson

Another day, another product, though today, I’m proud to present another review of a scenery addon that borders on the insane when it comes to detail.  So insane, that most would conclude that only insane computers like mine would be able to run this addon.  Is this true?  I suppose we’re about to find out.

So much detail would obviously result in a massive download, and man is it big.  Just shy of 800MB, it took me around a day, perhaps less, to download it, but to find that it had downloaded so quickly was quite surprising, and much like other products, installation was a breeze.



On your first start up, besides being greeted by a pretty slideshow, you get overwhelmed with the amount of detail before you.  After tweaking the settings, something I’ll go into later, you completely forget about flying.  Instead, you select the ultralight and immediately fly over to the main terminal, just to check out what it’s like.



Ground textures are insanely high-res, with 1m to 15cm pixel ground textures, making the ground visual pleasing to look at, although strange in some respects due to the fact that the texture used is mapped at an angle, so even with high-levels of texture filtering the runway seems a little bit like the line painter decided to go for an abnormal style of painting.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Runway%20has%20Tiny%20Light%20Things.jpg

However, the same can’t be said about the grass, since it really does look quite detailed, and mapping angles are undetectable in textures that are generally considered as a form of chaos.  It’s definitely higher-resolution, or appears to be so, than the runway and taxiway textures.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/High-Res%20Grass%20with%20Visible%20Runway...

In fact, my only other complaint about the ground textures would be the very apparent transitions from one resolution of ground texture to the other, most noticeably the borders of grass to runway, which is a bit of a shame.

Another thing not present in this package that seems to have become a trend in many other airport addons is the grass fringe around grass borders, to make it seem like the grass is three-dimensional to an extent.  Fear not though, since other tiny details are thrown in, like 3D runway lights.  These things even cast ground shadows if you have that setting checked.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/More%203D%20Runway%20Lights.jpg

Speaking of some ground textures, the ones that are high-resolution look really awesome when you’re flying low, even better at greater altitudes, but it seems somewhat annoying to find that some buildings, which are present in these ground textures, were not modelled.  I suppose considering how intensive this scenery already is, it would seem rather silly to make it more of a performance killer, but I say if you’ve taken it this far already, why not go all the way?  No matter though, still very nice so far.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Flat%20Satellite%20Image%20Apart%20From%20...

Alright, now we look over what I assume to be the control tower area.  At first sight, very good, apart from the tree shadows when you have the “Scenery Casts Shadows” checked.  This is because ‘shadow plane’ and ‘shadow volume’ don’t take into account the alpha-map applied to the cardboard-style construction of the trees.  The easy fix is to turn off scenery shadows and just allow the shadows already on the ground textures.  That’s right, this scenery comes with fixed shadows on their ground textures.  This would seem wrong, a bit like the ambient-occlusion effect in FlyTampa’s Hong Kong scenery, but the similarity continues in the sense that it’s unnoticeable, and it still looks very cool.



http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Unfortunate%20Shadowing.jpg

The control tower is quite stunning.  Standing tall and surrounded by both flat and 3D cars in their various parking-spaces along with buildings that, presumably, also use the satellite imagery for their roofs.  The control tower itself though  doesn’t appear to use photo-real textures around its sides though, so up close it can seem a bit out-of-place at times, much like the generic buildings the simulator is already known for, but here’s the awesome part:  there are two people inside (and the woman is animated).

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/The%20Tower.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/People!!!.jpg

So, enough about textures, we’ll concentrate more on the other kind of detail.  Three-dimensional detail.  We’ve already seen the tiny runway lights.  We’ve already seen the buildings with photo-real roofs.  We’ve already seen the many, many vehicles parked throughout the place.  But we haven’t seen it all yet.  There’s more of what we’ve already seen plus extra, all at the terminal area.  Check all these out:

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Much%20More%20Stuff.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Oh%20Look,%20a%20Weather%20Station.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/AI%20Passing%20By.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/British%20Petroleum.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Check%20out%20the%20Traffic.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Distant%20Tower%20and%20Storage.jpg



http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Fuel%20Tanks.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Lots'a%20Taxis%20and%20a%20Water%20Tower.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/McDonald's%20and%20Now%20the%20Holiday%20Inn.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/More%20Photoreal%20Ground.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Oh%20the%20Detail.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Oooh,%20Lights.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Pure%20Detail.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/So%20Many%203D%20Objects.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/So%20Many%20Vehicles.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/The%20Hilton.jpg

Yes, we’ve got absolutely everything in this place, including service vehicles,  hotels, a gas station, oil and fuel tanks, the main terminal, lampposts, trees, large awnings, regular vehicles, animated control tower people, parking spaces, more vehicles, multi-storey car-parks, tiny and medium-sized runway lights, high-resolution and not-as high-resolution textures, even more vehicles, 3D buildings, flat buildings, flat vehicles, a couple-hundred more lampposts, many aircraft gates and parking spaces, a fire and weather station, a whole line of taxis, a water tower with Tiger Airways written on it, and yes, you guessed it, even more vehicles.

It’s like pure computer-suicide.  Or is it?

To be fair, only a future computer, or perhaps a liquid nitrogen-overclocked computer, will be able to run this scenery on maximum settings, and I mean maximum, but what about your machine?  Your machine will not be able to run on maximum settings obviously, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it.  This scenery is definitely extreme, but if you just shift your scenery sliders down a notch, you’ll be getting quality much like any other scenery addon, if not better.

The analogy is much like the popular computer benchmark, and game, Crysis.  It is the most intense game around there in terms of graphics, because there is no doubt that it possesses the best graphics engine out there, with the only issue being that you need a very, very good PC to run it.

So, what do the regular people with not-so-insane computers do?  They don’t select “Very High” and expect the best, they actually go for something lower, like “High” or “Medium” so that it will run.

The deal is, even on “High” or “Medium” settings it still looks quite a bit better than other games out there.

This is how OrbX’s YMML should be treated.  You’re given the computer-suicide option, but you shouldn’t take it, since lesser settings will still give you quality equal to, or beyond that of other addons.

For those of you who lean more towards detail over performance, the manual does provide good tips on how to optimize your settings for YMML, and if you also have FTX AU Blue, this too will help increase performance with this addon.

So if you’re now settled about performance, it’s time to tackle the price.  Upon release, this package would’ve burned a hole in your pocket roughly 50-60 Australian Dollars in size, and I was quite stunned myself when I saw that figure on FlightSimStore.  Fear not though, since there was a price cut, and the current price is basically $40 (30USD), much more reasonable considering what you get in the end.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/A%20ZOMG%20Moment,%20Brought%20to%20You%20...

To wrap up this review, we ask the question: “Is it worth the money?”  This question, as always, is quite subjective and your answer will depend on you.  If you love Australia and want everything perfect, then yes.  If you want many, many detailed airports in your FS, then yes.  If your computer is a beast and you want to prove it, yes.  If your computer is below modern-day standards and you can’t even run 2x water in some cases, no.  There are a number of scenarios I can detail, a task I don’t wish to continue with, so if you understand this addon much more now, you should be able to make your own decision.  Happy flying.