John,You picked out the two biggest issues I have, no decent pics of airports, and time. I am unable to get to the airports I design (have never been to any of them except KLGA) and rely on pics off the net or fellow simmers archives. If I could get someone to stand in front of a terminal/building and snap it I could also make beautifully textured buildings...alas I now have to hand draw them which is challenging and time consuming.You also said it right about the time it takes to redo an airport, smaller airport 4-6 months, large airport 9-12 months. The reason for this is of course what you pointed to, work and family (and other leisure activities such as sports). I am lobbying God for a 36 hour day...Darryl, I think one other thing that might be taken into account, the second and third tier airports in the US are very busy airports compared to similar sized airports in Europe. That is why there might be greater interest in them from both developers and users. In Europe the second and third tier airports are less important and the big hub airports are the high profile ones and that is why they might be getting the attention.RegardsShez

I think some simple reworks of a lot of the airports which are smaller is in order. Simply improving the building types would be a great start. Get rid of the silly stuff MS places around airports and replace it with something better. Creating perfect replicas is also not the way to go. Some simple stuff which looks better/more realistic, placed somewhat accurately, goes a long way to making it better. I have done a bunch of airports I am familiar with and while not up to Shez's standard, they are improved dramatically IMHO. Most of the larger hubs are ok with me. I just hate the simplistic textures and buildings which dont look right. Hornit

You know one thing not mentioned here yet is the real PITA it is to bring together the various and sundry SDK techniques/tools to make the scenery. Honestly, were there a more comprehensive tool (as there were for FS98 and FS2000), then the development time that John T. and Shez refers to would be reduced.I imagine finding better source materials is harder too now with Homeland Security and all that mess. Curbside/Landside is somewhat easier to get than great airside photos. J

I would like to also add that most of the larger Class B airports do not allow access anymore (post 9-11), so it's hard to get the level of detail needed to go into today's sceneries. We try to include a high level of detail found at the real airport(s).For us, we do all of our stuff with actual access to the airport and with the cooperation of the airports department(s) themselves. STL will be the first exception, but we have an OSS member who lives there and some other 'key' people helping us, so we were able to get great source material.There have also been alot of developers (us mainly) who have had people who have moved physical locations, taken other real world jobs, added tons of new people, you name it and it has happened.We have chosen some out of the way locations as some of you have noted, but these locations do have very a rich aviation history. For those who are wondering KC does have international flights again (from Canada), but it offers a great stop over for those not wanting to do more than a 2 hour flight to any one location. If you look at the other developers offerings then look at what we have in the pipe you'll see a good mix of airports near each other.We'd all like to do these airports and get them done in a week, but that's not going to be posssible unless we all go full time to do them. Any angel investors out there? LOL. You get the point.I think the mid to later half of this year (mid summer to fall) is going to see the bulk of the scenery releases from the developers.Please be patient and we'll get all your airports done.

I for one am glad developers are doing smaller airports. There are a lot of us that aren't wannabe longhaul uber-real pilots that fly nothing but 6-8 hour flights on 747s and 777s. ;-) I am looking forward to MCI definately! I love PVD...the big ones are nice, but come on. I think things are fairly covered.[/a][a href=http://library.avsim.net/search.php?CatID=root&SearchTerm=fritsche&Sort=Added&ScanMode=0&Go=Change+View]My work...[/a][a href=http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?sort_order=photo_id%20DESC&first_this_page=0&page_limit=15&&photographersearch=Danny%20Fritsche&thumbnails=]See me at Airliners.net...[/a][a href=http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=6673]Also at jetphotos.net...[/a]

I think some West african airport scenery is what we really need! ;)

regardsEd

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Hi, Shez. I am a fan of your scenery.I found more info to what I added to the KMSP scenery I noted above. First I used the airport website to get gate layouts. The FAA airport diagram showed the building locations and I was able to get/interpolate the coordinates from the coordinate scale on the diagram. Last, there was an excellent lower altitude photo shot from the flyover mission shown at maps.google.com with enough resolution to be able to make out the different classes of aircraft and runway/taxiway markings as well as various buildings. Shuttling between the drafted map and the photo shot clarified surrounding roads. These high rez photos have only recently been made available and while not to the same degree in all locations they are quite good.Regards and thanks for your work.

I think KJFK, KLAX and EDDF needs to be done well. The ones avaible are outdated and not done in GMAX. Also some south african airports maybe??:(. Could someone tell me where i can find a good RJAA scenery???.Best regards:Alexander

I would love to see flightscenery work their magic on KLAX.....that would be sweet!