Sky Blue Radio

INSTALLATION:

I found the installation process as a whole, pretty painless, as most download and install software is these days. One of the nice things about all of FSDreamteam’s products is their ‘try-before-you-buy’ option.

The installer is freely available on their website, www.fsdreamteam.com, and installs relatively quickly. Not only that, but if you purchase for FS9, FSX is included.
I do think, however, that the process of entering the key could be better thought out since you have to do this from within Flight Sim.

Like any other software developer, there are decisions to be made about what trade-offs are necessary in order to achieve the best possible outcome. After the installation is complete, you only get one good chance to look around before the buildings disappear so make the best of it, before they do. The only way to get them to reappear is to purchase the software and enter the key they send to you via email.

PERFORMANCE:

In general, as is always the case, your experience will vary depending upon your system specifications. Testing for this review was done on a home-built system utilizing an Abit AT8-32X motherboard running an AMD Athlon64® 3700+ processor with no over clocking and using Windows® Vista 32 bit for the operating system supported by 2GB of Crucial PC 3200 memory viewed with an ATI Radeon X1600Pro video card running FSX.

As you might expect, frames were a bit lower during periods where I was near and viewing the main terminal buildings. However, for me at least, this was bearable with an almost consistent 9 to 13 frames per second at the lowest. Once I taxied out towards the runway, my frames shot up to around the low to mid 20’s. Personally, I can get by with 10 fps. Yes, I know it’s a little jerky but as long as my system isn’t producing 5 fps or below I can live with that. I mean, there’s a lot of detail packed into this airport. The trick that FSDreamteam uses is that not all of the detail is rendered until you’re up close to it. I’d say the limit is something along the lines of 50 to 100 yards; however your sight distance settings in FS may have an effect on this.

Something I did notice with regards to frame rates is that they seemed to be higher at night time, despite the level of detail that is still evident in this scenery package.

Of course your system set-up and any other programs you run in addition to Flight Sim, like Active Sky, for example, will have an effect on your computer’s ability to produce a decent number of frames per second. Your definition of decent most likely is different from mine, though. On my current system, I can have my sliders maxed out in FS9 and get as high as 60fps – depending upon the scenery and aircraft type and traffic involved.

Pros:

The high level of detail here is incredible. Add that with the fact that you’re actually getting scenery for two platforms for the price of one, which is €21.90 exclusive local VAT rate if you live in Europe.

You can choose to be billed in US Dollars or your national currency, during the purchasing process.
For this particular product, prices are: $33.90 USD, £16.90 and 35.00 CFH. Billing in USD is always available for everyone.
FS Dreamteam's Chicago O’Hare is distributed as a 'try-before-you-buy' product. The download is freely available which is a time limited, fully functional Demo version, that will run for a short time. The timer restarts if you exit and restart your Flight Simulator. The Demo can be unlocked, once you have purchased the product, from within the Flight Simulator. FSDreamTeam’s Chicago O'Hare is compatible with Oliver Pabst’s Airport Enhancement Services (AES), which only serves to make this great destination – or departure point – become even more alive than it already is.
Can you make a 25 minute turn around at one of the busiest airports in the world?

Cons:

Depending upon your preference as to how many frames you think you need to see, you may need a couple of hardware upgrades for this system. I did notice that there were a couple of gates side by side in the International Terminal that were both labeled as being M1.

Since I’ve spent a lot of time picking up and dropping off both passengers and packages in real life at O’Hare, I decided to take a ground based vehicle for a spin through the unsecured areas. I was somewhat disappointed to see that instead of rising up with the road into the upper level passenger drop-off, I just went right through the pavement as if I were a ghost. It’s really not that big of a deal to me because, as I mentioned before, as with any software developer, trade-offs must be made somewhere – especially when end users like me try and extend all the life possible out of our current systems. Then there’s the AFCAD issue. Some have reported on the FSDreamTeam forums that their AI aircraft aren’t parking at the correct gates, among other AFCAD issues. As such, the team has put together several AFCAD’s in an attempt to meet the individual tastes of their customers. They are also saying that a patch to correct the issues mentioned here, in addition to a few others, will be made available in the near future. How near that future is will be anyone’s guess since the FSDreamTeam is busy working on their next release, New York’s Kennedy Airport.

Final word:

With this being such a beautiful rendition of an airport that I still consider as home, I can say with confidence that FSDreamTeam’s Chicago O’Hare is high on my recommend list. Sure, there’s a couple of minor problems that I encountered during testing. But these are easily explained as developer trade-offs; except for the double M1 gates. Since Chicago is such a major transportation hub for not only airlines but also trains, I would think it to be inconceivable that anyone would not want to add a product of this caliber to their list of Flight Sim enhancements.

Would I recommend this product to others? The answer is an resounding yes!
In fact, I already have.