Default airports are going to be so critical for me, as Microsoft have stated there will be around 48,000 airports (if memory serves me correct).  I really hope they're appealing enough to where I don't rely exclusively on payware airports anymore.  I know the face of the buildings won't be accurate, but much of the rest can and hopefully will be.  Payware developers can enhance default with accurate terminal buildings, sound effects, clutter, and so forth.  After so many years of bland default, I'm hoping this sim makes default airports much more inviting.

20 minutes ago, curt1 said:

Default airports are going to be so critical for me, as Microsoft have stated there will be around 48,000 airports (if memory serves me correct).  I really hope they're appealing enough to where I don't rely exclusively on payware airports anymore.  

Plus, I hope they will be updated frequently. A lot of present FSX (and P3D, if that matters) default airports are much unlike their current counterparts. The same applies to the navaids, even though there are (payware) tools available to take care of these.

I really would like to see a buch of smaller and mid-sized (regional-type) default airports from several places around the world

Kind regards, Michael

This is huge for me. They haven't said anything about them have they? 

1 hour ago, curt1 said:

Default airports are going to be so critical for me, as Microsoft have stated there will be around 48,000 airports (if memory serves me correct).  I really hope they're appealing enough to where I don't rely exclusively on payware airports anymore.  I know the face of the buildings won't be accurate, but much of the rest can and hopefully will be.  Payware developers can enhance default with accurate terminal buildings, sound effects, clutter, and so forth.  After so many years of bland default, I'm hoping this sim makes default airports much more inviting.

I agree this is highly important. Can we finally enjoy flying from A to B without needing addons for both the departure and the arrival airport? Of course it would not be like a full Orbx airport, but maybe good enough to enjoy - other than the totally immersion killing default airports in P3D.

We havent't seen default airports yet. I don't dare to hope that all default airports will look like Courchevel and Renton. I found it quite striking that in their latest clips every approach into an airport was cut just before it started to get interesting to see how the airport looks like from up close. So probably they are still working on the airports.

Edited November 19, 20196 yr by RALF9636

3 minutes ago, fakeflyer737 said:

This is huge for me. They haven't said anything about them have they? 

There was a number somewhere which was "huge". Otherwise I don't recall anything. Not sure if Courchevel which they had as a demo in London qualifies as a "default" airport?

Kind regards, Michael

The airport shown in the first teaser video looked pretty sweet. So we can expect at least a few airports in that level of detail.

There were KLAX and KSFO (and maybe a couple more) in certain clips but I don't think these are "default" airports but rather demos of what the engine can do. I can hardly believe all of the major hubs looking like them.

Kind regards, Michael

Southampton looked pretty good from what you could see of it too. Perhaps airports in photogrammetry areas will be of a higher standard. 

I agree to everything that was pointed out above.

Would be a dream to have more accurate default airports. Fingers crossed. 

Sometimes I like to fly to the smaller airports here in the United States.  I will be interested to see what they look like.  I hope they look much better than the default airports in P3D and FSX.

In FSX, most of the airports are bare naked airports.  That is, there are just a runway or two, no buildings and no distinct features.  This is particularly noticeable if you are playing FSEconomy or Air Hauler.  These games love to send you to these bare naked airports.

On the bright side, sometimes these airports are in real pretty or interesting locations.  It's just that the airports themselves are boring.

I expect, if we are lucky, Microsoft will give us a dozen airports which are semi-decently modelled, and a bunch of "autogen" airports that look nothing like the real life version, but the bulk will be these bare naked airports.

28 minutes ago, pmb said:

There were KLAX and KSFO (and maybe a couple more) in certain clips but I don't think these are "default" airports but rather demos of what the engine can do. I can hardly believe all of the major hubs looking like them.

Kind regards, Michael

I think both are photogrammetry. KLAX might have some hand touch, but KSFO, while looks stunning, doesn’t look like having KLAX level of detail yet.

Edited November 19, 20196 yr by aleex

I'm confused as to why people think the new FS airports will be of inferior quality to the rest of the world. It's clear that they are capable of making airports look as realistic as possible based on all the other buildings we've seen. From what it looks like, they're trying to nail the rest of the world first before tackling airports. Even in pre-alpha the airports we do see already look far prettier than FSX's airports.

Yeah, very interested to see how some of these aiports look. To me it's a very important and immersive part of the sim and very enjoyable too, especially with ATC chatter and AI planes coming and going. Having a feeling of the world being alive is a very important aspect for me and i'm guessing one that, in the end, the 3rd party developers will have to polish in order for them to truly shine and have the detail we crave. But, we shall see...!

11 minutes ago, SterlingCrimson92 said:

I'm confused as to why people think the new FS airports will be of inferior quality to the rest of the world. It's clear that they are capable of making airports look as realistic as possible based on all the other buildings we've seen. From what it looks like, they're trying to nail the rest of the world first before tackling airports. Even in pre-alpha the airports we do see already look far prettier than FSX's airports.

I do expect the airport buildings to look good all around the world. But airports are more than buildings. Signs, markings, lights, AI cars and humans (and aircraft of course), all kinds of clutter, and all that adequately placed around the airports -  these are the details that create the immersion. And these details probably can't be done just by photogrammetry. 

 

Edited November 19, 20196 yr by RALF9636