ORBX launches San Jose International Airport for Flight Simulator – Reviewed
San José Airport is the commercial airport of the city of San José in the US state of California and the smallest of the three international airports in the San Francisco Bay Area after the San Francisco International Airport and the Oakland Airport. San José International Airport is five kilometers northwest of downtown San José and has two parallel runways. They are named 12L / 30R and 12R / 30L, are 3,353 meters long, 46 meters wide and have a concrete surface. This airport is used by a total of 13 airlines. By far the largest market share has Southwest Airlines, which carries almost half of the passengers, followed by Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Overview
ORBX San Jose is a complete ultra-HD rendition of one of Orbx’s most successful and popular Californian airports. The scenery uses high definition textures with PBR materials and detailed texturing, also for the surrounding area around the airport, allowing a more detailed and realistic approach and take off experience. In terms of price, ORBX San Jose is available from $ 24.99 AUD via ORBX Direct.
Located in the heart of the city of San Jose, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is the perfect airport for regional and long-haul hops to and from the centre of Silicon Valley. San Jose International Airport is the second largest airport in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing unique opportunities to fly to long-haul destinations such as Tokyo, Beijing and London. Alternatively, take flight in a large number of domestic routes across the country to classic Orbx destinations like Eagle County, Santa Barbara and Burbank.
Installation
Installation is quick and simple and does not require any previous knowledge. All we need to have is ORBX Central to be installed, which is the in-house software for managing ORBX sceneries. As soon as we have bought the scenery, we can download it via ORBX Central. This works very comfortably and effortlessly, because ORBX Central automatically detects our installation path for Microsoft Flight Simulator and installs the scenery with a single click. San José International is about 650 MB of scenery – with a moderate internet connection the download takes barely 10 minutes. We can uninstall the scenery just as easily.
Feature List
- Complete ultra-HD rendition of San Jose International Airport
- Detailed PBR textures as standard
- Exquisite modelling work for the entire airport
- Nestled in default photogrammetry area
- Enhanced groundpoly with weathering effects
- Custom PBR GSE and static aircraft
- POIs surrounding the airport
About the Modeling
Modeling of the individual buildings surrounding the airport is pretty good and realistic. You can see that ORBX has taken a model from the real image of the airport and tries to implement as many details as possible. At first glance, the airport does indeed make a high-quality impression. Especially when compared to the standard scenery, it is quite clear that the ORBX scenery contains more details and buildings – to name a few: Avaya Stadium, SAP Center, and the shopping center, which are entirely missing on the default version.
While there may be quite some differences when looking to the real airport, all of the building textures are recognizable and mostly accurate. ORBX also included some static aircraft at the gates, which mainly is Southwest airlines. Numerous parking spaces around the airport also catch our eye, all of which have been modeled and are well filled, which makes the scenery look even more authentic.
Night Lightning
Night Lightning at San José is quite impressive as it puts you in a completely different mood and atmosphere. We can say that the lighting, especially in the terminal and building area, has been well thought out and also looks very good from a distance – but even more so from close up. The rest of the buildings, such as the stadium, are also well lit. However, we unfortunately also noticed that the lighting in the street areas is a bit bugged. We cannot say whether this is due to the ORBX scenery or MSFS. In any case, lights often float in the air, without a mast. But that’s something you will only notice from close up.
Performance
Loading time of this scenery does not really differ from the MSFS default scenery loading times. Overall, the scenery does not seem very performance-heavy, which however ultimately depends on the user’s PC. During our test flight, we had FPS losses of up to 5 FPS during the day, and up to 10 FPS at night – but not consistently. If you don’t run Micrsofot Flight Simulator at its limit, you shouldn’t have any problems with this scenery. If you are already running in the lowest FPS range with default scenery anyway, it might be more difficult for you to maintain a smooth experience.
Summary
Is it worth buying San José International for Microsoft Flight Simulator? It depends. If you actually fly to this airport more often, you will probably have more fun with this ORBX scenery, simply because the scenery is a lot more detailed and complete than the default scenery. Compared to the default scenery, ORBX San José is just fantastic. That’s no question. However, if you don’t hang around this region often anyway, you will much likely be able to get along without it. The overall impression of this airport is very well, the installation is simple and quick. Here and there, more details would be desirable and a real enthusiast will also find some faults. It’s not a 1-to-1 representation of reality, but it comes pretty close. You won’t go wrong with San José if you want to bring your experience at this airport to a new level, but on the other hand, we’d only recommend it if you are very unhappy with the default scenery. This also determines whether the price appears acceptable or too expensive. It is certainly not a bargain, and its price is in the upper segment. However, it can still be worthwhile for the right buyer. To buy and get more information, visit the ORBX product page.
