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Globall Art Airport of Rio de Janeiro Version 2.0

Introduction

Actually, it’s better to write Aeroporto Internacional do Rio de Janeiro-Galeão (SBGL). The airport is modeled by Richard G. Nunes. In case his name sounds familiar to you, he’s known for his previous developed freeware airport Congonhas International Airport (SBSP) which has been recently being updated to version 2.0.

In this review, I’m dealing with SBGL.
According to what I’ve read about the modeled SBGL and what I know from the previous version 1.x, it is a large and complex airport. Ok, the airport has only two runways and three large terminals, but there’s so much more to find either situated near these terminals or further away. Let’s have a closer look what you can expect from Richard’s SBGL.

The airport which is an ultra-detailed rendition of the International Airport of Rio de Janeiro comes with the following features:
– Faithful replica Airport Antonio Carlos Jobim / Galeão
– Lanes, custom flooring and taxiways, replica texture.
– Auto Gate
– Static and animated objects, vehicles, people and aircraft
– Grams 3D, true to type lawn from Galeao Airport
– Fixed ground in the airport area
– Built underpass of taxiways M and N (Bridges)
– Customized Approach Lights Systems (ALS)
– Night texture and HDR lighting
– Soil Service animating and aircraft traffic
– Animation reform in progress.
– Corcovado Mountain and Christ the Redeemer
– Expansion of Animation (works) from Galeão Airport 2016
– and much more.

When you’re familiar with SBGL you can skip the next section, else it’s a good idea to read a little more about the real airport. Since the airport is officially supporting X-Plane 11 although this simulator platform still pubic beta, I’ve decided to explore/review the new SBGL version 2.0 with X-Plane 11.00pb15 as per March 12th.

Real Rio de Janeiro SBGL

Rio de Janeiro/Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport (IATA: GIG, ICAO: SBGL), popularly known by its original name Galeão International Airport, is the main airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest airport in Brazil, by total area, and is the country’s second-busiest international airport. It is named after Praia do Galeão (Galleon Beach), located in front of the original passenger terminal (the present passenger terminal of the Brazilian Air Force) and where in 1663 the galleon Padre Eterno was built; and since January 5, 1999 also after the Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim. Galeão Airport is explicitly mentioned in his composition “Samba do avião.” It is the largest airport site in terms of size in Brazil.

On August 31, 2009, the previous operator, Infraero, unveiled a US$431 million or €302 million investment plan to upgrade Galeão International Airport focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which was held in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro being one of the venue cities, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, which Rio de Janeiro will host.

The investment was supposed to be distributed as follows:
– Renovation of Passenger Terminal 1.
– Renovation of Passenger Terminal 2.
– Construction further parking.
– Building the brand-new terminal extension.

All works have started and been completed. The new concessionary Rio Galeão has revised, modified and upgraded those plans to include the construction of a new pier with 26 new bridges, a new apron for 97 aircraft, and 2,640 car-parking spaces to be added until 2016.

And yes, there’s much more to tell about SBGL. You can check it at the dedicated WikiPedia web page. Courtesy of WikiPedia.

Installation, documentation, configuration etc.

The installation is very simple and straightforward. Unzip the package (Globall_Art_Riogaleao_SBGL_v2.0) and copy the following packages into the “Custom Scenery” X-Plane folder:
– BR-Riogaleao – SBGL Roads
– BR-Riogaleao – SBGL International Rio de Janeiro Airport v2.0
– BR-RJ Mesh
– Real Taxilines library v1.0

The order as it is in the above listing (Roads, followed by Airport and finally followed by Mesh) should be strictly followed in the scenery_packs.ini file. You need to check that after you’ve started X-Plane. There’s no need that you load SBGL first before you shutdown X-Plane. After you’ve shutdown X-Plane, double check that the order in the scenery_packs.ini is as indicated above. The “Real Taxilines library” package needs to be placed there where you have installed all your libraries.

When you’ve unzipped the package, you’ll find a Documents folder. It has a sub folder named Cartas, that offers all the necessary airport charts belong to SBGL thus your SID, STAR, ILS and airport ground movements. What’s also needed, well explained in the English or Portuguese manual, is the adjusted you need to make for the runway 15 slope. The description in the manual and the screenshot of the settings to be made, speak for themselves. And finally, you’ll find a README Real Taxiway Library Acrobat file. No need to explain it once more since I did this already in the previous paragraph.

Embedded static aircraft or not?
Richard added for those simmers who prefer no static aircraft at all that are embedded in the SBGL v2 apt.dat file, and prefer to use JARDesign X-Life or any other static or AI aircraft program instead, a updated “no static aircraft” apt.dat file, packed together in the “No Static Aircraft” folder. The unzipped airport package also includes a No Static Aircraft Acrobat file. It’s not a complex procedure to do yourself, but please make first a backup of the original “Earth nav data” folder. When done, copy and paste the complete modified Earth nav data folder and contents, found in “No Static Aircraft” folder to the SBGL v2 Earth nav data airport folder. Startup X-Plane and all the static aircraft are gone and you’ve no longer the problem that AI aircraft interfere with static aircraft.

Configuration for X-Plane 10 and X-Plane 11
Although the manual doesn’t say anything about X-Plane 11, it is fully compatible with the current Public Betas of X-Plane 11. For sure Richard will, and of course when needed, updated the airport when X-Plane 11 will be final.

The following information regarding the rendering settings is only applicable for X-Plane 10.51 and that deals with tick runways follow terrain contours. This is very important that you do that. If you forget it, then for example bridges will show incorrectly aligned with the rest of the roads. The English or Portuguese manual gives some suggestions within the Rendering Options field. You can find them on page 2. Other rendering options are a little bit up to your PC or Mac hardware specifications. With X-Plane running, it’s also a good idea to adjust the ILS runway 15 coordinates as well as the belonging glide slope data.

Difficult?
Not at all! Just check the pages 4 and 5 of the English and Portuguese manuals. And finally, you should unpack the plug-ins “CustomSBDatarefs004” and “AutoGate” and place them in X-Plane folder /Resources/plugins.

When you’ve fulfilled all these steps, you are ready to go, but Richard urges you to read the manual before using the airport. Although the manual is only 8 pages, effectively what’s needed to read are only 6 pages. Richard explains in-depth ground traffic, streets and avenues mesh, grass and some background of the real airport.

Mentioned before, the package also includes “Real Taxilines library v1.0”. According to the manual “This library replaces standard X-Plane Taxiways tags. You will feel more realism when performing the taxi with your Aircraft.” Since “Real Taxilines library v1.0” is a library, it is a good idea to install it near the other libraries in your scenery_pack.ini file.

What and where to look for?

The modeled airport has several interesting spots to look for. In the following screenshot, I’ve marked these areas of interest:
– Orange: Passenger terminals, control tower, car parking etc.
– Pink: Military part of the airport
– Blue: Cargo area
– Red: Fuel supply and offices
– Green: Maintenance area

Not highlighted are of course the aprons, taxi and runways, ground textures etc. Are you ready to check it out with me?

First Impressions

SBGL from the Air
Approaching the airport for an intended landing on runways 15, 33, 10 or 28, is a great experience. Following the glide path from either direction, gives you a great view of the modeled airport from the sky. With its two runways situated in a “V” shape, the passenger terminals and additional airplane parking places are located along runway 15/33. That you can’t miss the apron in front of terminals 1, 2 and 3 isn’t strange.

It’s huge, but that’s because it not only functions as a taxiway, but also to park additional airplanes. So, due to the dimensions of this apron, you can’t miss it from the sky. As in real-life, there was a lot of construction going on at SBGL, but most of the construction that was due to terminal 3 is now completed.

It depends a little bit which approach you’re making, but when you have chosen runway 28 for landing, you won’t miss the large and authentic TAP hangar with additional buildings and offices although many of those modeled buildings are clearly visible. That’s because of the many trees situated around it, as it is in real.

When approaching runway 15, and sitting on the left-hand side of the aircraft, you’ll have a great look at the fuel storage area and belonging buildings. By the way, when approaching runway 10, you’ll see that fuel storage area also, but then you need to have a seat on the right-hand side of the aircraft. Oops, that’s quite confusing, isn’t it?

And finally, on approaching runway 33, you need to swap between the left hand and right hand side of the aircraft to get a bird’s eye view of either the military area or the cargo area.

Overall, from the sky quite an interesting airport to visit, but now it’s time to check out these individual areas and see how it looks like from close by.

Passenger terminals, aprons etc.

Taxiways and runways
Although this section will cover my first walk-around check, the first thing I’ll experience are the ground textures of the runway, taxiways and surrounding green/grass textures. I can tell you, this looks very good. No doubt about that.

The used ground textures for the runway(s) and taxiways are sharp, clear, have a natural grey colour and added to this, the nice and realistic looking ground base. Further on, I shouldn’t forget the taxiway shoulder which has razor sharp textures and the blending with the taxiway itself and the grass areas is very nice. Incidentally When you taxi via taxiway M or N to terminal 1, you won’t miss the airplane bridges which are made with great precision.

It’s not just the bridge itself that makes it special, it’s the tarmac that is realistic, the construction and the road underneath it. Anyway, taxing via taxiway EE, I reach terminal 1.

Terminals 1 and 2
The terminals look from a distance very old, but old doesn’t mean not good. On the contrary, it looks gorgeous. When you look at the real terminal 1 and 2 photos, you’ll see what I mean. The closer I come to terminal 1, the more impressed I am. Yes, I know, I try to be as objective as possible which is not always easy, but in the case of these terminals, it is realistic.

When you’re familiar and own Aerosoft Manchester Airport, then you know what I mean. I decide to taxi to parking location 12 which is straight in front of me. While taxiing to this gate, I have a great view of the control tower. Although the tower is still far away, I can see from this distance that it’s well detailed and, compared to real photos, nothing is forgotten.

Ok, back to gate 12.
Basically, both terminals are of the same design except for the jetway modeling and modeling not only means how it’s made by Richard, but also how it looks in real. Both terminals have a combination of one or two jetways per gate, depending on their location, but the way the jetways are connected to the terminal building is different. Each terminal has the shape of a semi-circle. On the outer side of the circumference you’ll find all the jetways. The inner side of the circle is public area and this means car parking area, and where applicable, arrival and departure levels, roads etc.

Parked at gate 12, it’s time to check out the terminal building and how it’s made. As I said before, the terminal is very well modeled and with the old look, and it feels good. The only remark I have related to the passenger terminal 1 is the slightly blurry windows located at the passenger tax-free/customs floor. And this is also applicable for the windows near the top of the building. When Richard can create better and sharper textures, then I would be very happy.

When you park your aircraft at a position that has no static aircraft, logically, then the Autogate plugin can animate the gate or jetway to the aircraft, but how does this work?
Let me try to explain this although Richard has added this in his manual too.

According to Marginal “This plugin animates jetways and docking guidance systems (DGS) in enabled scenery packages. Supports X-Plane 9 or later. The jetway animates to “dock” with the airplane’s main door when the pilot shuts down the engines with the plane within 0,5 meter of the correct stopping position. To find that correct position, the DGS (Docking Guidance Systems) which is a part of the plugin, guides the pilot to the correct stopping position.”

Added by Richard “The markings on the ground at the gates and parking areas are synchronized with both “DGS” according to each aircraft, but sometimes they are not 100 percent accurate.”

Richard continues “The plug-in needs to know the type of aircraft you are flying and the location of your gate. The plug-in reads this information from the “ICAO code” and the value from “location of the boarding gate” in the ACF file. These values can be edited in Plane-Maker. If the ACF file does not have this information properly registered, the docking guidance systems will display “FAIL ID” and the jetway remains in the retracted position.”

You won’t be alone when you’re parked at gate 12, but this is the same for all other gates, unless there’s a static aircraft parked. You find a lot of ground equipment in and around the gate, passenger buses drive along the lines, trolleys, baggage carts, containers, pallets, GPUs (Ground Power Units), hi-loaders, baggage belts and so much more. But not so much ground equipment that it’s becoming a mess!

No, it’s a nice balance between what’s real and what’s modeled. I even found on the ground, I think, fuel connectors. The overall quality of the previous highlighted ground objects is good. Perhaps one small item; some car textures could be sharper, but that’s perhaps for something later.

Walking from gate 12 towards the other end of the terminal teaches me that some gates are occupied, but most the gates are free to park your aircraft. I didn’t mention this before, but it’s quite impressive to see how the lighted columns which are mounted on top of the terminal roof. And, when I look to the opposite side of the apron, you’ll find the same lighting columns, but they are huge and very high. Do they look real … wow, they look as real as it gets!

Passing gate 12, occupied by a United 747-400 (static aircraft), I noticed also the dirt on the concrete. These dirty spots are at the aircraft parking locations, but when you hover from approximately 50 feet above the ground, I see that other places at the apron are weathered as they are in real-life too. I think I forgot to mention this before, but within the lines, cars and trucks are driving around up to and including gate 7, each gate has two jetways.

Counting upwards there’s only one jetway per position. I’m happy to see that while walking from one gate to the other, not at every position the same ground equipment is modeled. It’s a mix between each position as well as the cars and trucks. Not that I check every gate position and it’s parking place in close detail, but I even noticed that the dirty spots aren’t the same at each location. Have a look to the following apron parking positions of gates 2 and 3.

You probably say “Yeah, but that’s normal. That’s something you may expect.” And my answer to this is … yes, you’re right, you may expect this, but it’s not always the case, how easy it is although it will cost more time to paint all these individual parking spots.

In-between terminals 1 and 2 there’s a large building. For sure it’s used by departing and arriving passengers. It’s I think also used for transit passengers. Anyway, the rest of the floors are reserved for offices. Although the building looks simple and straightforward, it reflects the same as I’ve seen on actual photos. But what makes this building then so special?

It’s the way it’s modeled. It’s the way in which a weathered look it added to it. It’s the realistic modeling and view of the lighting units and the antennas at the roof. My goodness, not one antenna but dozens! The building doesn’t have a name tag on the airport customs side, but on the public side is clearly written “Aeroporto Internacional Do Rio De Janeiro / Galeao – Antonio Carlos Jobim” and on one side there’s written Infraero.

I wrote before that both terminals are basically the same, but I think it’s now time to correct myself a little bit. The way the jetways are connected to the terminal building is different. At terminal 1 the jetways are directly connected to the building while at terminal 2 they are connected to a separate section. Not surprising, but it means for Richard a lot more work to model. Besides that, the roof construction is totally different. All together, a quick look would give the impression that those two terminals are very similar, but the reality teaches me that the making of terminal 2 is a lot of additional work to give it the right shape.

Passing the middle building, I’m heading for terminal 2, gate 24. What I just described about the differences between terminal 2 and terminal 1 becomes now clearly visible. Furthermore, the look and feel of terminal 2, as I’ve seen on real photos, is modeled with great precision and Richard tried to give it a real look and he did succeed with this.

After arriving at gate 24, I see, not the same as seen near terminal 1, a lot of ground equipment and as with the rest of what I’ve seen so far, animated people and movable objects as buses, trucks, baggage cars and much more. I think what I see is realistic although in real you would see much more movable ground equipment, but that would lead to too much frame rate loss. The way it’s now modeled offers a good balance between movable objects and frame rates.

I think I remarked before, while walking along terminal 2, all gate positions have two jetways, clearly mend for large and medium size aircraft. Remember I made a comment on the slightly blurry windows of terminal 1? This isn’t the case with terminal 2. These windows are sharp and crisp.

What was applicable for the apron around terminal 1 is also applicable for the apron over here. It has many dirty spots from oil, tires and others. By the way; not located at concrete level, but worth highlighting. I mentioned before the lighting columns of terminal 1. Terminal 2 has them also and applicable for both is the accuracy of which these columns are made. It seems that no detail is left out and besides that, the light units are very realistic as well as the camera unit, whenever applicable.

Terminal 2 Pier Sul
When you’re the proud owner, as I am too, of Aeroporto Internacional do Rio de Janeiro-Galeão (SBGL) version 1.4 from Richard Nunes, you also know that at the end of terminal 2 there was a huge construction area with some signs of the new terminal. Now, with the Olympic Games of 2016 behind us, Richard finished this part of the airport with the completion of the extended terminal construction or also known as Pier Sul or just a new extension belonging to terminal 2.

It’s really a master piece what Richard Nunes has made. Let me refresh a bit how it was with version 1.4 versus what it has become. Check out the following comparison screenshots. No further explanation is needed. By the way, the first screenshot is a picture taken from the official aircraft website and clearly can be seen the old terminal 2 building on the right-hand side, with on the left-hand the new “T” shaped terminal building with jetways, shops etc. The 1st floor is for disembarking while the 2nd floor is for departures and shops.

And, did it refresh you too?

Impressive isn’t it, but now it’s time to check out this new terminal. Looking from the sky to it, it’s like a “T”, with one side being connected to the old terminal 2 building. The first part of the “T” doesn’t offer any jetways, but half way the “T” there are plenty of gates. It’s not easy to find any detailed information about this new terminal, but for sure it offers also space for the Airbus A380.

Talking about static and/or AI aircraft; you’re able to disable in X-Plane 10 and X-Plane 11 these static aircraft, but some static aircraft are integrated in the SBGL package. That’s a pity since those simmers who are using for example JARDesign X-Life with BBXL packages, could end up that some X-Life AI aircraft are parked on locations where the add-on airport has already a static aircraft parked. Perhaps it is an idea that you can remove the add-on static aircraft with a replacement of the apt.dat file (as far as my knowledge goes about this).

While walking from the old terminal 2 to the new terminal and thus around the T shaped building, everybody can clearly see that a total different architecture is used. I like the old terminal 1 and 2 buildings. It had something, not seen before. Perhaps a little bit too complex to build and model for Richard, while the new T shape building is much easier. Neither less, the modeling by Richard Nunes is well done.

The overall T shape terminal is dark grey, floor levels have dark windows and surrounded by light grey walls. At each jetway position, orange gate numbers are clearly visible, but there’s something odd with that, at least, on my macOS with X-Plane 11.00pb15. When I zoom in on these numbers, everything looks OK to me, but when I move away from the numbers, the orange starts disappearing. Informed Richard about this and I’m quite sure that this will be solved.

One thing that surprises me a bit are the stairs found everywhere around the new terminal building that go from ground level up to the top floor. They are rusty, now already?

The T building is well modeled, no doubt about that, and yes, they look sterile. But that’s I think the consequence of such a modern style compared to the old terminal buildings. A little bit dirty too are all the Total jetways. I think, but I’m not 100 percent sure, that they are the same as the ones at terminal 1. That these jetways are already dirty and weathered, not sure if they are that in real too, but all together with the ground equipment added, it gives the overall a balanced look and that feels good.

The night lighting of the terminal extension is of course different. I wrote already about the dark windows that illuminate during evening and night hours. Looks cool by the way, but you’ve got also apron lighting which does the same job as with the older terminals, but these light towers are of a modern type. Together with HDR active, the platform is realistically illuminated as well as the jetways and other ground objects.

Just a note; using SBGL without HDR active (Visual Effects slider at Medium or lower) isn’t an option at all! These days many airports use HDR for additional illumination and so does SBGL. When you have the visual effect slider at Medium or lower, the whole platform is dark. You don’t see anything. Therefore, HDR is a minimum requirement and that means the visual effect slider must be at least at HIGH (HDR). Curious about the differences of platform illumination with and without HDR? Check out the following screenshots.

Additional Aircraft Parking
Hold on, it’s time to explore the other side of the apron with additional aircraft parking locations and the huge lighting columns. They look the same as situated on the terminals except that these are pulled up from the ground. They are huge and well modeled. What said, this area, at the opposite of the apron, offers additional parking locations for small, medium and large size aircraft. Lucky this apron isn’t so cluttered with lots of ground equipment as I saw on the other side.

Oh yes, there’s a lot of ground equipment, but that’s either parked at the edge of the apron along the road or underneath special parking lots or even in-between these parking areas. The parking lots located at the individual maintenance and aircraft services areas offer space to buses, fuel trucks, offices, and what else more.

The problem with modeling an airport like SBGL, is that the authorities are constantly improving, renewing, cleaning or repainting buildings. Richard needs to find a balance between what has a weathered look and what’s just, in real, cleaned or repainted. I think he succeeded quite well in this by finding a balance of, for example, the apron lighting columns or the airliners maintenance and services roofs.

When you closely look to all these light columns you’ll see for yourself what I mean. And this is also applicable for the maintenance and service stations at each aircraft parking location. Some are old and weathered while some look new. Yes, those locations are repainted by Richard, oops, other way around, repainted in real and modeled in the same way by Richard. At some locations you’ll find static aircraft, but there’s still enough place to park your favorite airline over there.

Public Area and Control Tower

Let me first start with the control tower.
You can’t miss the control tower. It’s big, but not as big as I’ve seen on some US airports, but it must be said that it looks gorgeous and modeled with great precision and eyes for tiny details.

It’s not a standard control tower from the box. No, in that respect the construction and the way to model it, takes a little more time than just an ordinary model. Besides that, the tower has a weathered look as can be seen on real photos too. When you zoom in on the top of the tower, you’ll notice that Richard didn’t forget to model all tiny details like many different size/dimensions antenna’s, air-conditioning units, cameras, even a ATC controller who’s checking the terminals using his binoculars.

As you will see with other modeled payware airports who have a completely modeled control center in the top of the tower, that’s not the case with SBGL. Is that then a disappointment? Some will say … yes … while I don’t mind. Modeling the inside of the top of the control working space means loss of frame rates and that would be a shame for the airport performance.

Since SBGL has only two officially numbered terminals including the extended modern T shape terminal, you will find one road that leads to these terminals. Ok, it’s not just one road, but not a complete road system. It’s always difficult to align these roads correctly together, but I’ve never seen this aligns perfectly. The roads towards the terminals have at many places different kind of trees, road and airport signs, and many other things you normally see at the public area.

Everywhere you look, you will see ortho-photo ground textures although these are slightly blurry. Not strange since I see this with other payware airports too. Along the arrival and departure road of each terminal I see static cars and people, even animated people, but also a lot of animated buses and cars. This keeps me and you awake!

The arrival and departure of terminal 2 is slightly different then seen at terminal 1, but this is not unusual. Can you remember that terminal 1 may look similar to terminal 2, however, they aren’t and in particular the public area of terminal 2 is totally different. In the inner circle of terminal 2 you’ll find a large car parking building which isn’t available at terminal 1. But the overall impression I have of the public area near the terminals is very good as well as the gorgeous control tower.

Just in case you think; how do I access the new extended terminal?
Right, a very easy answer. I mentioned before that this terminal is an extension of terminal 2 so you won’t find at the public area along the roads a departure and/or arrival. The public side of this new terminal building is instead covered by colored squares while the arrival and departure for this belongs to the old terminal 2 building.

Military Area

At the far end of the new extended terminal 2 there’s the military compound or officially identified as “Forca Aerea Brasileira”.

It’s a large complex, very well detailed I must say, including hangars and some static military aircraft. From the entrance, it’s one single road that lead along all compounds, all divided by concrete walls. I see some tennis courts, a swimming pool and at the end of the road, on my left, the first hangar, and directly after that, on my right, the military apron. The apron is empty, but along the sides there are many small hangars modeled that look quite realistic when compared to real photos.

In some hangars, you find parked aircraft and since those aircraft are too long, the tail pops out through the doors. As I’ve stated before, the concrete apron is not just one colour. At several areas, you’ll see dirty spots from oil or tires while at other locations concrete repairs are visible. It gives the concrete apron a realistic look in my opinion. At the far end of the military apron I spot a Brazilian government static Boeing 737, at least, I hope I’m right!

From taxiway G it’s the shortest way to pass runway 33 to reach the cargo area. Ready?

Cargo Area

Oops, when I’ve crossed runway 33, I though it all belongs to the cargo area, but the first building I see is from the Forca Aerea Brasileira although it could be that this building deals with distribution of materials. Sorry, my Portuguese is not good enough to understand this. But what’s more important is the way all these buildings are modeled at the cargo area. Nothing, logically, comes out of the box and is hand-made by Richard.

Next and following buildings at this area are TAM Cargo, Correios (I think Brasilia post), VARIG log, Infraero Terminal de Carga. In-between some of these buildings are spaces for ground equipment and containers or unidentified buildings. At the apron, you’ll see some static aircraft and yes, that’s it. Although basic, it looks realistic to me, and some photos I found on the Internet confirm the way it’s modeled.

Maintenance Area

The TAP maintenance area is a large area that spreads out along the end of runway 28. It’s an area full of trees, but in-between you’ll find many buildings being either offices or workshops. How realistic each building is besides the TAP hangar, is something I don’t know since I couldn’t find any photos of these buildings, but knowing Richard right now, I think he has modeled them all by himself and based on real photos.

I mentioned something about the TAP hangar. You can’t miss this hangar as well as the apron and static aircraft. Via taxiway X you reach apron 6 which is the apron in front of the hangar. And yes, I know, in case you want to check it out yourself, the taxiway has an “X” on it indicating that it’s officially closed and can’t be used for normal passing by aircraft.

The TAP hangar is well made including the external wall structure which looks good. I assume that due to the average weather conditions and temperatures this hangar has no sliding doors to close it. That said, the hangar isn’t empty, but filled with many aircraft and situated near each aircraft you’ll find stairs and other equipment. And as you can see on some of the evening screenshots, the night lighting isn’t forgotten!

The area around the hangar is, as in real-life, filled with trees and offices, workshops and what else I’ve forgotten. Most likely it won’t be your first place to look for when arriving via runway 28, but at least it will give you a nice view of this remote modeled area.

Fuel Supply Area

Although this area isn’t alone dedicated for fuel supply tanks, the majority is. Again, it’s more then only modeled fuel supply tanks. It’s full of all kind of offices. In-between the buildings I see a lot of trees, trucks, buses, and all kind of ground equipment. When you land on runway 15, and sit on the left-hand side, you’ve got a great view of what is modeled. It may be a remote area, there’s still a lot of time put into it to make SBGL complete. But hold on, when I re-check this area once more, I also see an office from Gate Gourmet which has everything to do with catering. The used textures for some buildings could be of a higher quality or at least, the wall textures could be sharper.

Did I cover everything?

I always say … “I hope I did”, but with these kinds of airports it’s very easy that you forget a “spot”, but I think I covered most of the airport. Perhaps I could add something of the used ortho-photo ground textures and the massive amount of grass and trees. I checked many times the airport environment for grass and trees and must conclude that at the real SBGL there’s also a lot of grass as well as the number of trees. In that respect, it feels good.

Some words about frame rates.
It’s always difficult to say if this airport is frame rate friendly or not. On my iMac (27 inch, late 2013 with 32GB 1600Mhz RAM, 3.5Ghz Intel Core i7 and a nVidia GeForce GTX 780M 4GB RAM and several SSDs) I can’t complain, but it must be said that even my iMac is not unlimited in X-Plane 10 and Z-Plane 11 performances. With my rendering settings set quite high, even in X-Plane 11, I can reach with a JARDesign, Flight Factor or FlyJSim large commercial jet approximately 20 frames. That seems not high, but the aircrafts are already heavy frame rate users and the airport itself is quite complex. And, it has been reviewed with X-Plane 11 which gives me also a comfortable feeling keeping the performances in mind.

Oh oh, I forgot something important … the modeling of Christ the Redeemer. Either you’ve seen it in real or just from pictures, Christ the Redeemer, Portuguese Cristo Redentor, is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created by the French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with the French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida fashioned the face.

The statue is 30 metres (98 feet) tall, not including its 8-metre (26 feet) pedestal, and its arms stretch 28 metres (92 feet) wide. The statue weighs 635 metric tons, and is located at the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 feet) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city of Rio. A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and is listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Interesting to read, but is it worth to take from the airport a car or taxi (oh oh, way to expensive) and visit the Christ the Redeemer. Look for yourself, as a gift included with this add-on scenery. It’s a wow factor, isn’t it?

Summary

With a review of this length it’s always difficult to write something in the summary section. Ok, I could start with additional sceneries that I used? Answer is none!

Then I tell you where you can buy it. The review is based on product version 2.0. You can be buy Richard Nunes his SBGL version 2.0 at X-Plane.Org store page. I think I’ve offered you a thorough, and useful review. In case you haven’t bought the airport yet, it will help hopefully help you in making the right decision and as current owners of Richards SBGL version 1.x, it’s worth the upgrade.

Oops, I wanted to finish this impression and suddenly I think … how’s the evening/night lighting? Time to check this out. What could I write about the SBGL night lighting … I would say, see it with your own eyes in the following screenshots.

Anything else?

Want to see more exclusive screenshots?
In that case follow these daylight and evening links. Feel free to contact me if you’ve got additional questions related to this impression. You can reach me via email Angelique.van.Campen@gmail.com or to Angelique@X-Plained.com.

With Greetings,
Angelique van Campen

 

 

Add-on:Payware Globall Art Rio de Janeiro SBGL
Publisher | Developer:X-Plane.Org | Richard Nunes (Globall Art)
Description:Realistic rendition of Rio de Janeiro (SBGL)
Software Source / Size:Download / Approximately 1.8GB (unzipped)
Reviewed by:Angelique van Campen
Published:March 14th 2017
Hardware specifications:- iMac 27″ 3.5Ghz Late 2013
- Intel i7 3.5Ghz / 3.9Ghz during Boost Mode
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB
- 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- 1 internal 1TB SSD (Sierra 10.12.3)
- 3 external 1TB SSDs
- Saitek Pro Flight System
Software specifications:- Sierra (10.12.3) | El Capitan (10.11.4)
- Windows 10 Professional
- X-Plane 10.51c | X-Plane 10.51m | X-Plane 11.00pb15

3 Comments

  1. Andrés Segura

    Hi, I’m Andrés, I buy This scenery (v1 and v2) in Steam but I don’t use anymore, because I buy Xplane directly in they website.

    I can’t download from steam, can I send you the voucher to have the scenery again?

    Or if you know how to download from steam I will appreciated.

    Thanks a lot !

    Andrés S.

    • Angelique van Campen

      Andrés,

      You need to contact the organisation where you bought the product. We’re not a sales organisation. You can show mew your voucher, but we can’t do anything with tat.

  2. Freddy De Pues

    Ramp lights look fantastic.

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