Introduction

Humberto Delgado Airport (LPPT) is an international airport serving Lisbon, Portugal. Its yearly average of 33.6 million passengers makes it the busiest airport in the country.

Its history dates back to 1942, when it opened during the height of World War 2 as a neutral airport, smuggling people in and out of Europe, regardless of nationality. Such neutrality made it so it was heavily monitored by both the Axis and Allied forces and even earned it a movie plot.

The post-war period saw a fast expansion, reaching the 100,000-passenger mark by 1954. At that point, it was served by Air France, British European Airways, Iberia, KLM, Sabena, Pan Am, and Trans World Airlines.

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The late 50s/early 60s brought a runway upgrade to accommodate larger aircraft such as the 707 and the DC-8. In 1962, a new 3130-meter-long runway allowed even bigger aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, for Lisbon’s first direct route to New York in the 1970s.

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A new terminal was built in 2007 for exclusive use by low-cost carriers. It features 22 check-in desks and fifteen departure gates.

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Terminal 1 was expanded shortly after, in 2011, with a large new shopping area, new jetways and parking positions, and a new underground metro station. The airport’s infrastructure was also hugely improved during that period, with new cargo facilities, fuel storage, multiple refurbishments, and more.

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In 2019, the government unveiled a new expansion program, which has been widely opposed due to environmental concerns.

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It’s a hub for TAP Air Portugal and an operating base for easyJet and Ryanair. Aer Lingus, Air France, American Airlines, Air Canada, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Iberia, KLM, Latam Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss, Turkish, United, and Wizz Air also serve it.

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The scenery promises an accurate rendition of the airport, with custom ground textures, true-to-life runway elevation profile data, custom jetways, custom vehicle models, PBR textures, an up-to-date ground layout, and more.

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Installation

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The scenery is distributed via Contrail, featuring a one-click installation process. 

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First Impressions

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Their first Lisbon rendition just so happened to be one of my last purchases for Prepar3d and one of the first for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, when I decided to finally adopt the newer platform as my daily driver for my virtual airplane needs. While V1 was not a bad product per se, it didn’t take advantage of the new possibilities within MSFS; it was just a functional conversion from P3D.

It was an okay scenery despite everything, but hardly more than that, and MK suddenly didn’t feel like the top-tier developer they once were during the P3D days, where people would always hold them in high regard. 

Over time, though, especially with scratch-built MSFS products, MK has learned the ropes of the new platform and how to extract the best out of it with as few compromises as possible, bringing great products that strike the right balance between quality and performance. Would Lisbon V2 be the same? 

Being a v1 owner and formerly a regular visitor (virtually, of course), I was curious to see whether the new product would bring enough to the table to justify an upgrade. Thus, it was time to pick a flight (I like to fly into new sceneries instead of just loading in) to find that out.

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The route of choice was a quick - for recent standards - leg from London Stansted with Ryanair, slightly under three hours of flight time. The journey went on without a hitch, aside from an Azure connection issue that killed my photogrammetry right after the top of descent, essentially ruining what would otherwise be a stunning arrival and also simultaneously hindering the performance gauging as the lack of photogrammetry makes the simulator run a lot better. 

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Far in the distance lay Lisbon Airport as I hovered through an ocean of default landclass and autogen toward runway 20 for my first ever landing in the brand spanking new runway, now featuring its real elevation profile (which thankfully isn’t sloped around the touchdown markers - the bane of my existence). 

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A gentle touchdown and a bit of taxiing later, my 738 was finally parked on stand 201 and ready to deboard a bunch of eager Britishmen who were very much looking forward to their holiday in Lisbon. As for me, it was time to whip the drone out and see what the new product offers.

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What I could notice at first glance – right upon arrival – is how much better the ground poly looked in comparison with the previous version. Night and day, one could say. Taxi lines were sharp, runway textures had that bit of wear and tear that we all come to appreciate, and there were no elements at hand that would give me flashbacks of a distant past where we had to use a Lockheed Martin simulator for entertainment, ultimately violating their terms and conditions that did not allow for any fun.

Modeling / Texturing

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As mentioned in the section above, the texturing work is visibly better than version one, and the new models used throughout are equally superior in every regard, with finer details that were completely absent beforehand. 

The terminal area has been heavily improved, with great consistency, custom ground clutter with accurate logos, and interesting details, such as the LG-branded air conditioning units, yielding an immersive airside experience.

While the entire terminal doesn’t have a full-blown interior per se, the boarding areas have it wholly recreated. It strikes a great balance between detail and performance, not looking like cardboard cutout seats, furniture, and people but also not overly photorealistic. It gets the job done, though. 

The ground clutter work is consistent even around the many remote stands scattered through Lisbon’s massive area, with functional VDGS (Nool or GSX) to assist with parking your bird, no matter how big or small it may be. 

There’s also custom vegetation around the airport (especially around the remote stands), which looks great and is very much in line with what you would expect to see in Portugal. 

Terraforming is also crucial given the airport’s non-flat nature, and it certainly does not disappoint, either, featuring properly carved drainage structures and so on.

The maintenance and general aviation hangars look much more detailed than they previously did, which contributes heavily to the project’s overall consistency. 

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All in all, the rebooted version is a much better product as far as visuals and overall quality go. It matches the expected quality for a modern MSFS 2020 scenery that will definitely look the part in MSFS 2024 as well (the developers have promised a free upgrade).

Night Lighting 

The night lighting is consistently good, be it around the terminal area or the remote stands, with a convincing range and color temperature. Not too bright, but not too dark either, as you would expect it to be.

The same can be said about the interior lighting, which is plenty good, all things considered, even more so considering it’s a flight simulator rather than a passenger simulator. 

The taxiway and runway lighting do not disappoint either, allowing for easy navigation during nighttime operations.

Overall, the lighting is up to the expected standard, which is a massive upgrade from the previous version.

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Performance

My Setup: 32 GB RAM DDR4, Ryzen 7 3700X, NVidia GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB, 3 TB SSD non-NVMe.

Like their Okinawa scenery, their new performance optimization technique worked wonderfully well, even though LPPT is technically a bit trickier due to the photogrammetry area within its surroundings (photogrammetry is a known performance killer). 

The frames were consistent during arrival, taxi, and parking, with no dips or stutters, regardless of whether photogrammetry was enabled. There were also no noticeable frame drops when moving around it with the drone camera at nearly full speed. 

The LOD work is stellar, with no random parts of the terminal making the GPU go from 30-40% usage (my average usage when I lock my frames to 30) to 99%, which sometimes happens with certain sceneries. It’s all done consistently, so the usage figures remain consistent through pretty much every corner of the scenery.

While it doesn’t feel like the scenery is not even there (like Okinawa), the overall performance figures are outstanding for an airport of that size and within a photogrammetry zone. Having flown into V1 recently, V2’s performance is on a whole new level (definitely an upgrade on that aspect, too).

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Conclusion

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For roughly $18.35, or 25% less if you already own the previous version, Lisbon Rebooted is a commendable upgrade throughout. It brings a complete rework of one of their first products for MSFS (which was essentially a P3D port), making use of the latest scenery development techniques. This shows through its extensive amount of detail and how it runs despite everything.

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There’s a huge variety of route options for short, medium, and even long-haul appreciators, covering much of Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and more. 

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It’s surely a nice addition to one’s virtual airport library and a worthwhile upgrade for those planning to get MSFS 2024. This version will get a free update to the new simulator, whereas the old one won’t. Two birds with one stone!

Thank you to MK Studios for providing us with a review copy!

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