I said this before, but the big difference between FSX/P3D and MSFS is that in the latter even the default airports (mostly) look like real airports. And how much time does one really spend outside the airplane admiring the the airport scenery? For me, the novelty of even a highly detailed airport quickly wears off, leaving aside the fact that many payware aiports practically assassinate your fps.

I must admit I am a sucker for gimmicks 😄

I bought LFKL Brindas for the (static) cows and (static) hot air balloons

I bought TNCM Julianna St Maartens for the animated  beach party on the threshold.

I bought SBVG Governador Valders for the Hang Gliders and animated Freight Train.

 

Just add something funky and animated to the airport and I will probably buy it 😄

 

 

9 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

I must admit I am a sucker for gimmicks 😄

I bought LFKL Brindas for the (static) cows and (static) hot air balloons

I bought TNCM Julianna St Maartens for the animated  beach party on the threshold.

I bought SBVG Governador Valders for the Hang Gliders and animated Freight Train.

 

Just add something funky and animated to the airport and I will probably buy it 😄

 

 

Seriously TNCM and Kai Tak are worth it for those little 3d object features alone!🍻

I am hoping and waiting a decent EDDF either payware or freeware.

2 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

I said this before, but the big difference between FSX/P3D and MSFS is that in the latter even the default airports (mostly) look like real airports. And how much time does one really spend outside the airplane admiring the the airport scenery? For me, the novelty of even a highly detailed airport quickly wears off, leaving aside the fact that many payware aiports practically assassinate your fps.

I don’t agree at all. Heck some default airports don’t even have the corresponding real world taxi ways 

To me the stock airports look abnormally unrealistic, sometimes ludicrously so, and that's amplified by everywhere beyond them being realistic, albeit best kept to a distance. 

I find that pretty darned jarring myself. Since you can spend a while at an airport somewhere that looks convincing is important to me at least. 

8 hours ago, bbsmitz said:

So, here are a thread where a bunch are listed.  Some are out of date, but others are still solid.

1)  https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/590393-best-freeware-airports-for-msfs2020/

Also off the top of my head,

 

2)  Aerosoft Paderborn - https://www.aerosoft.com/en/flight-simulation/news/1st-aerosoft-dlc-for-the-new-msfs-for-free

3) NZA Simulations has a bunch of freeware - https://nzasimulations.com/shop

4)  Orbx also - https://orbxdirect.com/freeware

5)  Flightsim.to has a myriad of things.  If you sort by most downloaded, you can usually find some of the best stuff.  A lot is laid out in the first thread I posted.  SDR's stuff is phenomenal, Alex's as well.  Alex also has a payware site where you can pick up all his stuff for 24 euros - https://beautifulmodelworld.ru/.  

Aside from airports.

6)  We love VFR 1 (Europe) and 2 (North America) by @PuffinFlight is just spectacular.  Antennas, radars, chimneys etc.

7) Aircraft - Working Title CJ4, and FWB A320 are probably the best freeware airliners currently.  Honestly probably the best available currently along with the payware CRJ.

😎 There is also a bunch of addon mesh you can download to help get rid of the morphing.  Just search 'DEM'.

9) Last but not least, the Addon Linker is lets you keep all of this organized in a folder outside of your community directory, so you can only enable the mods you want to cut down on loading time.  Has a map of your addons too!  A must have IMO.

I think that's it off the top of my head.  Anyone have any to add, I'd love to hear it.

 

Thank you 

8 hours ago, bbsmitz said:

So, here are a thread where a bunch are listed.  Some are out of date, but others are still solid.

1)  https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/590393-best-freeware-airports-for-msfs2020/

Also off the top of my head,

 

2)  Aerosoft Paderborn - https://www.aerosoft.com/en/flight-simulation/news/1st-aerosoft-dlc-for-the-new-msfs-for-free

3) NZA Simulations has a bunch of freeware - https://nzasimulations.com/shop

4)  Orbx also - https://orbxdirect.com/freeware

5)  Flightsim.to has a myriad of things.  If you sort by most downloaded, you can usually find some of the best stuff.  A lot is laid out in the first thread I posted.  SDR's stuff is phenomenal, Alex's as well.  Alex also has a payware site where you can pick up all his stuff for 24 euros - https://beautifulmodelworld.ru/.  

Aside from airports.

6)  We love VFR 1 (Europe) and 2 (North America) by @PuffinFlight is just spectacular.  Antennas, radars, chimneys etc.

7) Aircraft - Working Title CJ4, and FWB A320 are probably the best freeware airliners currently.  Honestly probably the best available currently along with the payware CRJ.

😎 There is also a bunch of addon mesh you can download to help get rid of the morphing.  Just search 'DEM'.

9) Last but not least, the Addon Linker is lets you keep all of this organized in a folder outside of your community directory, so you can only enable the mods you want to cut down on loading time.  Has a map of your addons too!  A must have IMO.

I think that's it off the top of my head.  Anyone have any to add, I'd love to hear it.

 

Thank you 

On 6/29/2021 at 12:18 AM, saifs said:

I fail to understand why Orbx hasn't done EGHI Southampton as yet for MSFS. I would've thought it would be the first one they would do. Such beautiful photogrammetry around the airport and yet, no news from Orbx on this at all. Very puzzling. 

Here you go.

https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/208618-throwback-thursday-eghi-southampton-for-microsoft-flight-simulator/

And a direct link to the shop: https://orbxdirect.com/product/eghi-msfs

Edited July 1, 20214 yr by futurebreadmachine

10 hours ago, bbsmitz said:

7) Aircraft - Working Title CJ4, and FWB A320 are probably the best freeware airliners currently.  Honestly probably the best available currently along with the payware CRJ.

PMDG DC-6 is a top notch as well!

Personally I find most smaller/GA airports in MSFS perfectly passable and I wouldn’t hesitate to fly into them without addon scenery.  I will still buy addon scenery for bigger hubs that I will use a lot for airliner ops.  We’ve got a number of great Canadian airports that have been released, I’m eagerly awaiting Toronto Pearson and Montreal Trudeau, hopefully they’re somewhere on FlyTampa’s near term roadmap.

9 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Personally I find most smaller/GA airports in MSFS perfectly passable  

specially when there was no building in P3D for most of the small fields in the world 😉

Edited July 1, 20214 yr by Dominique_K

7 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Personally I find most smaller/GA airports in MSFS perfectly passable and I wouldn’t hesitate to fly into them without addon scenery.  I will still buy addon scenery for bigger hubs that I will use a lot for airliner ops.  We’ve got a number of great Canadian airports that have been released, I’m eagerly awaiting Toronto Pearson and Montreal Trudeau, hopefully they’re somewhere on FlyTampa’s near term roadmap.

Yeah agree.  I would love to have montreal

On 6/28/2021 at 11:54 PM, Bobsk8 said:

The way MSFS 2020 looks now, I seriously doubt if I will buy any scenery again. The default airports look like P3D payware. 

I Agree.  I use both MSFS 2020 and X Plane as both sims have a lot to offer.  

The weather in MSFS is superb.  However,  the same geographic area with the same Orbx TrueEarth scenery just looks so much more convincing in X Plane.  The X Plane atmosphere (not clouds) looks more convincing - weather Addons like Ultra Weather XP sort the overly hazy sky out the box.

Maybe scenery developers are watching how X Plane develops with the first glimpse of X Plane 12 online?

47 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

However,  the same geographic area with the same Orbx TrueEarth scenery just looks so much more convincing in X Plane.  The X Plane atmosphere (not clouds) looks more convincing - weather Addons like Ultra Weather XP sort the overly hazy sky out the box.

Maybe scenery developers are watching how X Plane develops with the first glimpse of X Plane 12 online?

Every video I have seen of X-Plane, with the best graphics settings (4K, all X-Plane add ons, best graphics, etc), and X-Plane still looks like it's 10 years behind MSFS, in terms of graphics.