Product Review

Availability and Installation

Bella Coola is available from the Beti-X web site as a 'download only' product.  It is priced at US$24.00, or the equivalent on currency cross rates.

Bella Cool?

Bella Coola isn't the biggest of places to visit. The town itself has a population of just 148 whilst the whole Bella Coola Valley is home to just shy of 2,000 people. There's no such thing as the 'hustle bustle' up here. It's the kind of place where everyone knows your name. You don't come here for the people though, you come to Bella Coola for the scenery. The valley is surrounded by gorgeous forests, towering peaks, and the kind of peace that death itself struggles to offer. Perhaps that's why the producers of 'The Incredible Hulk' film, starring Edward Norton, chose to film here. If it's quiet enough for Bruce Banner, then I expect a lot.

The airport is where we're at though. It sits a few miles from the main town. It's stunning location provides pilots with two beautiful approaches, Runways 10 and 26. From the ramp I take in the surroundings. I've already mentioned the volumetric grass. The grass is nearly the prelude to a fantastic assault on the eyes. The textures here are simply stunning. Making use of X-Plane's 64bit technology, every major object has high definition level textures. The asphalt is crisp, the taxi lines detailed and appropriately worn. Even the underlying photo scenery base around the airport is sharp - at 2cm per pixel though, it should be. Turning to the buildings, the appropriate phrase is 'huwahwahwah, yowza!'. Each building has HD textures, but it also features pre baked ambient occlusion, giving each one an extra air of realism. At night, X-Plane lights the buildings nicely. This isn't an airport that you want to fly in to after dark though, as there's no night lighting for the runways. Finally the buildings are all solid. That may sound like an odd thing to say, but if you hit one, you'll crash. These are ideal for whirlybird pilots, providing plenty of opportunities to practice those difficult rooftop landings.

The township of Bella Coola is home to just 148 people

Welcome to Bella Coola

The view across the main apron is stunning

HD textures are everywhere

Helicopter pilots have options too

Meet the cast of models used to add a lifelike feel

The grass, the gates, and even the traffic cones are beautifully rendered

No detail is left untouched

The helicopter base is beautifully made as well

Dawn on the apron

Evening time is nice to look at, not land in

Night time lighting is great

Airports are more than just runways and buildings. The clutter, for want of a better description, will provide any airport with character. There's plenty of character here. The airfield has a cast of human characters filling up the aprons and hangars. They don't move much, which is actually ok with me. I'm not really a fan of 'zombies' wandering around. For the more non human clutter, well, it's all pretty nice. From the chain link fences to the traffic cones, the various vehicles to the signage, it's all top quality stuff. For best effect, take a trip outside the main terminal. There's a bus that's stunningly textured. Plenty of signs to view and places to explore. There's also a dumpster with the best finish you'll ever see.

Out on the Town

Away from the airport itself, the Beti-X team have been spending countless hours tweaking the roads, hand editing the underlying mesh, and hand placing points of interest. It must have been a huge task as the coverage area that they've chosen is huge. No figures are given for the size of the area, but the manual has a lovely map that outlines the coverage area - it speaks for itself. Best of all, the underlying photo scenery base is a cracking 50cm per pixel. More than enough for any pilot.

At the far west of the coverage area sits the main town of Bella Coola. Here the streets have been edited to look identical to the real thing, to the point of being almost indistinguishable from the Google Earth image. In town itself there are many buildings that are modelled identically to the real life versions, the biggest of which is the hospital. It's not all identical to the real town. There are a few buildings that double up to fill the town, but that will cut down on draw calls for the GPU.

Come for the scenery

All the highways, buildings, and rivers are hand placed

Away from the airport there are plenty of places to explore

The western end of the valley and the inlet

The marina is also modelled

Even the ferry dock is beautifully done

Heading to the river, where the inlet meets the town, you'll find lots of logs, obviously. There's also a marina and ferry dock. Again, this is modelled perfectly, with high definition textures and ambient occlusion all around - only a ferry is missing. To the east of the airport there are a plethora of little hamlets, isolated homes, and all sorts of things to explore. The valley also opens up as a second valley joins, creating a bowl like area that allows you to turn for the approach to Runway 26. Here there are more trees than people. It shouldn't be surprising to discover that the trees aren't your default kind. Instead there are several varieties of HD trees. The trees are everywhere, from the valley floor to the peaks of the valleys.

Performance

There's no denying that Bella Coola is stunningly beautiful. All this beauty comes at a cost. On a single screen, my ageing 4GB, NVidia 680 copes okay. Without any AA, frame rates sit happily in the 25 to 30 fps range. Take that up a notch and that performance halves. With three screens, the results are tough. With the higher resolutions, it's not just that the GPU begins to struggle, but the GPU's memory starts to get flooded. For best performance, you really need a 6GB GPU at a minimum. X-Plane is known to work GPUs hard, with Bella Coola, it just gets tougher.

Feeling the Chill

Included with Bella Coola, Beti-X have produced a set of winter textures that give the airport that 'let it snow' feel. It's best used with a winter texture plug in though, as the airport will look odd if its frozen in a world of evergreen. As with the regular textures, it's all high detail and exceptionally finished. The annoying thing with the textures is that you'll need an external plugin to get them to work correctly. Even with the plugin, it's awkward to set up.

Review Computer Specifications

The specifications of the computer on which the review was conducted are as follows:

Intel i7 4770K, 4.4GHz;
NVidia GTX680, 4GB, x2;
16GB, DDR3, 1866MHz;
Windows 10 Professional, (64bit); and
X-Plane 11.

Conclusion

British Columbia has some of the best bush flying scenery in the world. It's long been a favourite of mine since the release of FSX itself. The tight valleys just begging to be explored, the mountainous peaks just asking to be concurred, and the tiny landing strips you're not sure you'll fit onto, all make British Columbia one of the best places to fly. Bella Coola is just such a place. Beti-X have reproduced this beautiful place in exquisite detail. Almost everything is perfect. If I had to be harsh, and it would be really harsh, the only place that the scenery falls down is where the inlet meets the shoreline. In places it looses definition and becomes blocky. That's the only bad thing I have to say about this stunning work or art. From the beautiful buildings, HD trees, optional winter textures, and an eye for detail that borders on obsession, Beti-X's Bella Coola is simply stunning. Priced at just $24 it's a stunning deal for a beautiful area.

Product Link

Developer's product page