The default airports as supplied with the sim are excellent. Same could be said for the little and out of the way places constantly impressed how good they are. Now when I say good I mean they are accurate well made and visually satisfactory. You can see the continuous improvements and development that WED and the Gateway have made possible there is a huge number of keen airport scenery buffs doing changes upgrades and mods all the time. We can all find pay ware examples of some, but not really all that many when you consider there are over 27000 airports in the sim, that are well better in terms of visual fidelity so they look like the real airport does (buildings, landscape surrounds etc etc). So here is a tip - only buy something or download that freeware airport if you are convinced that it is visually better or there are significant deficiencies in the stock airport ( a missing or changed taxy way sign is not my idea of a problem but it is for some). 

As for the broader landscape or world scenery - most of XP is fine but there are some standout issues - first the polar regions are not even provided, go figure that one. You want Antartica or the Artic then you have to get payware addons and the ones available fill the holes and are not bad. Nothing to fix the coastal outlines (ala ORBX Vector) alas for XP and the issue of roads as for a broad brush enhancement then you cannot go past the work and contribution of the SIMHEAVEN addon makes to fixing some of this. 

So here is a perspective - or advice - Look at the default airport in the sim first, look at pictures of the real thing and then decide if you can live with it or you just have to have a more realistic look in the sim. If you install that add on and it is a problem child XP will tell you straight away when it loads and tell you why in the error log. 

Now here are the major issues if you go for 3rd party addons for scenery (The unfettered tinkering route) this is why - 5 days ago I had a major drive crash that rendered XPlane inoperable - I had to remove it all download a new copy and reinstall it and start again - I decided to stay with what Laminar offered with the sim unless convinced that what I had stored away (freeware and payware) was so significantly better it would enhance the scenery experience in the sim.

Now the next issue is scenery and object libraries - in adding on a bunch of stuff before I realised I had accumulated and needed to install 73 different libraries dependent on the developers whims and use of objects from buildings to textures etc etc. A really unnecessary process really given what XP12 default already does. Remember stuff that goes in and is provided in the sim via the Gateway has to work and be compliant with XP12 scenery standards if it is not it will be rejected and not published. Laminar reqularly uploads into the sim with the updates the improved airports (some are from payware developers)

I also had been less than demanding about missing stuff or stuff that did not work anymore for various reasons - for example SAM which was a tool to implement moving gates at airports because prior to XP12 only some default airports had it and many did not. Now it implemented across the board for default scenery! And the developer of SAM abandoned the software - SAM  creates all sorts of nasty problems with the sim as a result - so next round of filtering of addons by me has been to remove (delete) each and every addon that required SAM. Stuff that used outdated SASL scripting is also similarly toxic in the sim.  Now there is a huge number of addons from XP11 around, most I have found can be installed and look ok in the sim (if that is the look and place you want) but you will now be stuck with outdated objects of poor texture quality and those dynamic trees in XP12 well forget that as well you will get the old fashioned texture cardboard cut out look similarly lots of places are unable to manage the lighting changes in XP12 and as a result can look very strange especially at night! You can also get caught with so called XP12 payware addons - case in point FLY TAMPAS YSSY brilliantly accurate and touted as XP12 compliant - no it is not the gates do not work!

So the test now is simple does it really enhance the look of the sim airport, does it work and it is well made (that is not loaded with junk scripts and objects)

So now with XP12 reinstalled and rebuilt with 5 days of testing- how many addons of airports have I added - ZERO! and there are a few to go when I get round to it - if they are XP12 compliant or compliant, if not OUT! AS an inveterate tinkerer and hoarder of scenery (bad habits developed as a result of the deficiencies of FSX and P3D) I had accumulated and put into the sim a very large number of airports and sceneries not any more - most are not needed and add nothing of any import!

Any scenery issues I do not like in XP only one - Meyers insistence to incorporate those dumb balloons everywhere and randomly and to lump them in with the boats so you have either both or none!!! 

Sim runs better all up and now I go flying instead! To be added some very nice regional sceneries with some airports that do enhance areas where the landscape is neglected in XP - such as the Pacific or Patagonia for example! Still waiting for a decent looking Australia and Central Asia.

The weather and skies are brilliant and now we have weather radar working (note - the inbuilt map display too also displays weather as a superimposed image on the map - poor mans radar)

Edited October 8, 2025Oct 8 by coastaldriver
grammar

On 10/7/2025 at 4:17 PM, Litjan said:

The goal is to provide a good customer experience. It is not to assign the blame to the user, even if in fact it is his own fault.

This is along the same line of why Laminar takes more and more choices away in the UI - people have a hard time making the right choices, will rarely read or heed "warnings" (have you looked at the latest US statistics on literacy rates of High School graduates?) and will not remember what options they picked when troubleshooting - instead turning to Laminar support with a "but why can´t I see that new airport you are writing about in your release notes, heeeeeeeelppp!!!"

Ultimately the user will rarely blame himself, even if Laminar support explains to him where he f**ed up - it´s always "oh well, that is stupid, why do you make it like that?". People are people.

The way to provide the user with a satisfying experience is to take the ability to mess it up for himself away in the first place - even if that sounds like leaving him with less choices. 

By that logic, X-Plane shouldn't have support for any third party content whatsoever, as users apparently automatically blame Laminar for any issues caused by it. However, I claim that without all that third party support, XP would be a whole lot less successful.

 

 

19 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

You must be feeling rich...

It should go without saying that the idea with the deposit wasn't quite serious as it's utterly impractical.

Yes, the default airports are great. I dont' feel the need to download anything. For the scenery I have Map Enhacement, SimHeaven, Global Forests, and it works really really well. I don't really feel the need for anything else for my style of XP flying (mostly airliners - for really low and slow VFR I use MSFS). 

In MSFS 2024 there are some great default airports (the ones that are hand crafted), but the vast majority of the autogen airports are .. yeeesh. You do need third party airports - but the scenery is amazing. Kinda the opposite to XP.