The Ultimate Hawaii Scenery

Introduction

The first question we can ask ourselves is, “Do we like to fly in and around Hawaii?” If the answer is YES, then you must read this review. Moreover, if you are an Orbx fan, flying to Hawaii becomes very interesting since Northern Sky and Orbx have teamed up with many medium-sized airports.

This review deals with a product from Taburet, “Hawaii Plus Reef,” which equals version 1.2. The big difference between the previous version and the last one, released on April 13th, 2025, is the implementation of 3D forests throughout the islands.

You could say, “Do I need such a Taburet add-on package for Hawaii, and is there no freeware Hawaii photo-real ortho scenery available?”

Let us check that out.
You have Hawaii Photo Real Scenery for X-Plane 11. The website is still available, but the island of Kauai is under development. Although their website still offers the links to download the older Hawaii X-Plane ortho packages, they seem no longer available. Looking at their Discord channel, it appears that any further development for X-Plane has stopped in favour of MSFS2020, P3D, and others. I also have no idea if their ortho packages include the mesh files as the Taburet Hawaii X-Plane 12 package does.

Then, you can find on the FlyAway website a freeware package of 7,4 Gb from the complete Hawaii. On the dedicated “X-Plane Hawaii Complete Photoreal (Orthophoto) Scenery” FlyAway web page, it is written that “The photo data included in the pack is based on ZL (zoom level) 14 and ZL 16 imagery, so even low and slow flights benefit from the addition of this pack; but, when flying at higher altitudes, at looks even more realistic.”

The ZoomLevel (ZL)16 is the same as the Taburet quality, but the ZL14 is extremely low. You can download it for free, but this will take ages. You could opt for a monthly Pro membership of 4.99 USD or 54.89 USD. It is a bit expensive to download their Hawaii package, and yes, I know you can download much more for one or the other subscription. Since I haven’t downloaded it, I do not know the quality.

Then, when you do another search, you can find a complete Hawaii package from X-Plane.Org user Forkboy2. This was made, compiled and released in 2017, so it’s pretty old. It was intended for X-Plane 10 and 11. You can still download the package with the torrent files, but that said, it is too old.

Now that we know what’s available, let’s concentrate on the Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef package. As Taburet says, “Hawaii Scenery Plus Reef is an X-Plane 12 scenery with 10 m mesh terrain, updated hydrography with 3D forests, and photorealistic textures coverage at 2 m resolution. The photorealistic scenery takes advantage of the new X-Plane 12 bathymetry system to extend the photorealistic textures  underwater to include most of the coral reefs of the Hawaii islands.”

It’s time to explore the Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef package.

Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef

Installation, documentation and settings
Let us first start with the basics: the installation.
After downloading the package from simMarket or X-Plane.Org, you extract the hawaii_plus_reef_1_2 and the Hawaii_Plus_Reef_DOCS files. The extract hawaii_plus_reef_1_2 folder offers 30 dedicated island folders. Next, copy and paste all these 30 folders into the X-Plane custom scenery folder. You either directly edit the scenery_pack.ini file, or you start X-Plane, and at the X-Plane startup screen, you quit X-Plane. The advantage of this action is that all the Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef entries are in the ini file. The only thing we need to do is to set the proper order. See the correct order below. Just a note: the order/position in the scenery_pack.ini of the 27 Taburet island packages is not fixed, except for the mesh and forests packages.

<——————– Airports ——————–>
Own add-on freeware or payware airports
<—————————————————- >
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii2_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii2_A3/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii2_B1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii2_B2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii2_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_A3/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_B1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_B2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_B3/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_B4/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii1_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Maui_B1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Maui_B2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Maui_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Maui_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Kahoolawe_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Lanai_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Molokai_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Molokai_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Ohau_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Ohau_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Ohau_B1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Ohau_B2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Kauai_A1/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Kauai_A2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Niihau_A1/
SCENERY_PACK *GLOBAL_AIRPORTS*
<—————– libraries —————–>
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/OpenSceneryX/
<———————————————- >
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii_Forests/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii_MeshXP_Overlays/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Hawaii_MeshXP/

Since the package depends on OpenSceneryX, you must download and install It from this URL. Then, install it via the installer, and you’re done.

Adding SimHeaven X-World America
Another possible package from SimHeaven is X-WORLD America and X-WORLD Vegetation Library XP12. To clarify the word “possible,” Hawaii looks excellent without SimHeaven X-World America; however, SimHeaven X-World adds just a bit more reality. Since it is based on OSM (OpenStreetMaps) data, all information, like houses and offices, aka objects, offers an even more realistic environment. More information can be found at the SimHeaven XP12 scenery website.

Some additional words regarding the installation of X-WORLD America, X-WORLD Vegetation Library XP12 in combination with Taburet Hawaii Forests.
First of all, X-Worlds America needs the X-World Vegetation Library. Without the vegetation library, you get the necessary failure messages at X-Plane startup. Having both packages (X-World and Taburet Hawaii) active in the scenery_pack.ini could conflict with the X-World America 7 Forest folder and the Taburet Hawaii Forests.

These screenshots show you versus Google Maps what is possible and what it looks like when using any combination of SimHeaven X-World and Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef. The only comment I can give is that when using only the Taburet packages, the forests look pretty much as seen on the Google Maps photo. When X-World is added with or without their forest package, forests become unrealistic and are placed in places that do not exist.

Settings
There are a few settings to make in X-Plane; however, a note regarding the MSAA Antialiasing is worth highlighting. Other settings depend on your PC or Mac hardware.

We need to adjust the X-Plane tab Graphics slider MSAA Antialiasing. You probably have this slider somewhere, but not to the far left. Having the slider somewhere to the right is not a problem, but the coastlines aren’t looking good—far from good. You only see straight beaches or coastlines with some underlying reefs. This ugly-looking coastline—sorry for the wording—can be easily solved by placing the MSAA Antialiasing slider far to the left or one position to the right. Just try out yourself what solves it.

But leaving the MSAA Antialiasing slider OFF is not suitable for the look of, for example, your aircraft. The fuselage skin, wings, tail, and so on are jagged. This is not good, so tick the “Enable FXAA Antialiasing” box. Then, that problem is over, and you still keep the smooth beaches.

Important note:
To get the best and most realistic view of the modelled reef, it first depends on your PC or Mac, but I suggest that you also set the MSAA Antialiasing from the far left one step to the right and the Lateral Field of View to approximately 115 to have a greater overview.

The following screenshot shows the difference between the MSAA Antialiasing: set one stop to the right, the left-hand screenshot, and the right-hand screenshot, with the MSAA slider to the whole left.

What else can I add?
After firing some questions to Ray Taburet, he informed me that the overall ortho textures have a resolution of (ZoomLevel) ZL16. It would be sharp at low altitudes when the ZL was 17 or 18. The disadvantage of higher ZLs is the dramatically increased size of the package. That is then one of the reasons Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef uses ZL16. This, too, keeps the overall ZIP package size reasonable.

Another note regarding the Hawaii_MeshXP_Overlays folder: According to Taburet, “Overlays are simply X-Plane 12 default overlays, and because the mesh blocks the default overlays, I had to remake them and put them in the custom scenery folder as if they were not, they would be blocked.”

Add-On Airports Integration
How does the scenery work with Northern Sky Hawaii airport scenery? That’s no problem at all. One remark regarding integrating the Northern Sky / Orbx scenery. It is possible and logical that the Northern Sky / Orbx airport ortho textures differ from the area where the Taburet ortho textures start.

The screenshots in the remainder of this review are based on the Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef package and OpenSceneryX. Is there a need to show you the default X-Plane Hawaii? No, not really. Using the Taburet package gives the Hawaiian island the flavour it needs.

Scenic Island Flight

Here is the plan. Since the Taburet Hawaii package primarily deals with island ortho textures and modified mesh, I have decided to make a scenic island flight. That means my scenic flight starts from the island of Kauai, which lies northwest of the island group. After taking off from the private airport of Princeville (HI01) near the city of Hanalei, I fly around via the northwest coast, exploring Niihan, then towards O’ahu, the north coastline of Molokai, then around Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe and finally a roundtrip around The Big Island.

One note regarding the last island, The Big Island.
The island is often called the Island of Hawaiʻi or Hawaiʻi Island to distinguish it from the state. It is also called The Big Island due to its size relative to the other islands.

Exploring Kauai
After takeoff, I make an immediate right turn to pick up the flight plan. Before I knew it, I connected the Auto Pilot to make it easier for myself. It’s easier because I plan to explore the ortho scenery from Taburet. The plan is to follow the flight plan that crosses from one island to the other. It is roughly 600 Nm, so enough to explore. For a good overview, I climb to 8,000 feet, which should offer me enough bird’ s-eye view to explore Taburet Hawaii.

While approaching my first waypoint, I noticed at this side of the island that the ortho ground textures are a bit light, overexposed or, perhaps a better word, pale. That it is not sharp is logical since the ortho textures are based on ZL16. Therefore, I decided to overfly the island at 8000 feet. Oh yeah, before I forget it, I created a new colour profile on my macOS Sequoia with a gamma of 2.6. All other standard gamma profiles provide a too-light X-Plane environment.

I cross over towards Niihan via the north of the island. What I see so far is very nice. I don’t want to know how the default X-Plane landscape looks, but it is 200 percent different from what you see below.

I have almost finished my quick flyover at Kauai, and I am happy, to be honest. When I took off from HI01 (Princeville), I had doubts, but that has changed until now. From 8,000 feet, the landscape looks as real as it is, keeping in mind my first comment: a bit pale.

Exploring Niihan
I’m leaving Kauai behind me and heading for Niihan. I’m not sure if the island is a habitat, but the beaches look gorgeous from a distance. And wow, many beaches are on the southeast and north of the island. I’m not sure how this island erupted, but it has a mountain rim on the south side, which looks good—very good, to be honest.

The island is small, a bit stretched out, neither less; there is a lot to see. I mentioned the beaches and the rim on the south side, but the west side also offers a different landscape. The ortho textures aren’t pale anymore. They are well-balanced, although a bit more “fresh” green would be nice. From a cruising altitude of 8000 feet, it looks sharp, and swamps can be seen too. The colours and borders on the west side of the lakes are nice and realistic.

I finally turn south of Niihan and cross the water, heading towards Oahu. I say goodbye to Niihan, with Kauai on my left. I am heading for PHPA (Port Allen Airport), which lies south of Kauai. While overflying the airport, I make a slight right turn, moving to O’ahu.

The south is mainly flat with some beaches. Since I decided, as earlier explained, not to install SimHeaven X-World America, I only see the default X-Plane objects like houses, industrial areas, and so on. The houses are mainly along a road, which is not always correct. They don’t look realistic, but remember, this has nothing to do with Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef. This is the default X-Plane, and therefore, I had hoped that together with X-World, it would look a bit better. Pity, it isn’t!

One last “shot” and not heading for O’ahu.

Exploring O’ahu
It is a long flight to O’ahu. Only water, even more water, but there is, far, far away, O’ahu.

The same happens here, as I circle the island to see “almost” every beach, volcano, mountain rim, farmland, forest, and more. While arriving in O’ahu from the northwest, I saw PHDH (Dillingham Airfield or Kawaihapai Airfield). Still, much more attention was paid to the beautiful look of the island during the morning with a bit of fog. Wow, this is something unique.

PHDH is spotted, along with the cities of Mokuleia, Waialua, and Haleiwa. More important is the shape of O’ahu. The west point stretches out to the more significant part of the volcano. The north coastline is full of beaches, while south of them are the majestic mountains or parts of the volcano. Colour quality is OK with me. There are no pale/overexposed textures here, just the right colours, although the result depends on everyone’s gamma value.

Flying over the north of the island, I am impressed by the ortho textures. The colours are vivid, and the number of trees is nicely balanced. This area of the island seems to be used as farmland. This valley stretches out to the northeast with another mountain ridge. Since I forgot my flight plan, I know now that I have passed the mountain edge, which is gorgeous, making a right turn along the coast before turning to the south coast of the island. And worth highlighting are the coastal areas with the reef, actually, underlying reefs. Typical for these areas. Check out the special “reef” screenshots.

Flying towards PHNG (Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station (Marion E Carl Field)) and the city of Kailua, then making a right turn, crossing to the south, heading for Honolulu. You can’t miss the Honolulu International Airport from this altitude and distance. It is big but just basic. Not only is the airport basic or default X-Plane, but it also applies to Honolulu. But again, it has nothing to do with the Taburet ortho package. And yes, the default X-Plane road system looks, what shall I say, basic.

On the other hand, I enjoy the different parts of the landscape. The ortho textures and mesh in this Hawaii Plus Reef package are also used. It is not the most significant island, but there’s a lot of “living” out there. Many highways connect the mountains between the north and south, so they are pretty busy. Besides Honolulu, there’s a lot more to see. There’s farmland, many golf areas, remote urban, what I said before, lots of roads and so on. And yes, I want to remind you that the package doesn’t come with its developed objects.

The next island on our hopping trip is Molokai. And yes, you and I can say, “It is probably all the same”, right? That could be, but hopping from one to the other island gives me a good impression of how those ortho textures are.

Exploring Molokai, Lania, Maui and Kahoolawe
I have combined the following islands—Molokai, Lania, Maui, and Kahoolawe—as one. They are situated near each other and are overall the same, except for the volcano at Maui. We will see when we’re there.

We have reached the beautiful flat area of Molokai. There is nothing to see, no houses, no airports or airfields, no lakes, only gorgeous ortho textures. Oops, let me not forget the beaches. There are plenty of them. While the northwest of Molokai starts flat with beaches, many cliffs can be found in the east part of the island. Although every island is different, one thing they have in common. All look nice, realistic and a total metamorphosis versus the default X-Plane scenery. Although I have seen some flaws, the overall is gorgeous.

The second island, Lania, also seems empty; however, the ortho textures make it complete. The colouring is subtle—not too much red, brown, or green—perfect. It is primarily flat, with one mountain ridge, and that’s it. And again, I should not forget the beaches. You won’t find too many of them, but what I see is very nice.

I am approaching Maui with a huge volcano—or, actually, two volcanos.
Haleakalā, or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive, active shield volcano that forms more than 75 percent of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. Another volcano forms the western 25 percent of the island, Mauna Kahalawai, also called the West Maui Mountains.

This is typically such an island that has more or less in the middle a volcano, with all the slopes down to the sea. The flight plan brings me to the middle of Maui, and I could be wrong, but it seems these ortho textures are a bit pale/overexposed again. Neither less, it looks gorgeous. I must check it, but I am flying over a dead volcano. I’m not sure if I need to adjust my cruising altitude since I noticed that the flight plan goes more or less over the top of Maui. We will see, or else I switch to HDG mode and steer away from the volcano.

Just in case and to prevent a collision, I have decided to climb to 10.000 feet. I am not flying over the volcano but along the east edge. It is an exceptional experience, but it feels a bit unrealistic. Flying along the volcano slope upwards and crossing the volcano at 10.000 feet before moving to the last island, Hawaii, or the Big Island. This is so awesome. Wow, flying over the volcano. The colours are rich, vivid, sharp, and as real as they get. Even a top view over the island is worth the trip, but I have seen some glitches in ortho textures that aren’t correctly linked to each other. A slight rift is seen. It’s not a big deal; perhaps Taburet can solve this someday.

Exploring The Big Island
We are almost there, the last and most significant island. The plan is to approach it via the west, south along the coast, around the volcano, and via the north to Hilo. I am curious what to expect. You’re reading it correctly: while flying from Maui to the big island, I am also writing down my experience. That’s fun.

It is a big island—much bigger than all the others I’ve seen. You and I will see it in a minute or two. The northeast of the island is mostly flat, with nothing to see. I think the used ortho textures are a bit bleached. I ain’t; I know that too, but looking down at the island, it is almost a desert. There is not much vegetation besides the default X-Plane adds, but this doesn’t mean it is not nice.

Perhaps it is like this: nothing, sandy and brown colours mixed. Before turning toward the island’s east side, I noticed something was incorrect, at least along the southwest coast. Most of the textures down here are almost blue; thus, they are not pale but blue. I’m unsure when this can be repaired, but we will inform Taburet about my findings.

I did see a couple of glitches on the Big Island, not only the blue coastline but also some ortho textures with different colours. Overall, the textures are reasonable and sometimes unbelievably realistic. I sincerely hope the flaws I found can be solved because this package isn’t inexpensive and offers a lot of fun flying here. Although it may not come with homemade landmarks or objects, it is still a worthy package. Add the available freeware and payware Hawaii airports, and you’ll have great fun.

Summary

It has become an enjoyable adventure. I left out my experiences of the Northern Sky/Orbx airports and airfields and tried to concentrate only on the Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef add-on package. I also left out the SimHeaven X-World America package because it didn’t feel good, particularly the created forests in some places in a way that doesn’t exist. On the other hand, the SimHeaven package fills or recreates parts of roads and urban in a way that reflects each island’s reality.

The planned flight was a success. My adventure started in the Far West, hopping from one island to the other and ending at the most significant island. I saw some glitches on my flight, which were passed to Taburet, but the overall impression was that it was a pleasure to review this add-on scenery. Add to this Taburet Hawaii, and add on some freeware and payware airports or airfields. You can have a nice time exploring these islands. Perhaps there will be a solution that will allow us to implement the SimHeaven X-World America package.

All the screenshots in this review are unedited or recoloured. They were made on an iMac Pro with a Retina display with a modified colour profile and a gamma of 2.6, the only modification I made.

Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef can be bought at the dedicated simMarket store page or the X-Plane.Org store.

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 Taburet Hawaii Plus Reef
Publisher | Developer:	X-Plane.Org / simMarket | Taburet
Description:	realistic ortho package of the Hawaii Islands
Software Source / Size:	Download / Approximately 3,9 Gb (zipped)
Reviewed by:	Angelique van Campen
Published:	April 14th 2025
Hardware:	- iMac Pro - Intel 3GHz Intel Xeon W / 4.5Ghz - Radeon Pro Vega 64 16368 MB - 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 - 1 internal 1TB SSD (Bootcamp Windows 11) - 1 external 2TB LaCie Rugged Pro SSD (Sonoma 14.x) - Thrustmaster TCA Captain Pack Airbus Edition - Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls - Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant
Software:	- macOS Sequoia (15.4) - X-Plane 12.1.4r3