I have watched a lot of streamers and I have seen a lot of airports since the release of MSFS 2020.  But today, I saw what I think is RWProfiles Newcastle Airport for MSFS:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2614610173?t=01h57m26s

I am gobsmacked by the quality and detail of some of the new MSFS airports these days - you can even see a faint blurred reflection off the waxed floor, I have no idea how they got that to work.  A lot of custom airports that I own are the Canadian airports and those were developed several years ago by FSimStudios. So I know some of the FSimStudios airport I own are not up to the latest standard for 2025, but several years ago, they were maybe below average, to average, compared to the typical MSFS airport I saw on stream back then. But the new graphical standard for MSFS airports in 2025 and heading into 2026, has gone up since then.

If RWProfiles is the new standard, that's crazy.  Now I know where all the FPS is going to.  I'm not going to complain if this is the new standard for an MSFS airport, because it just raises the bar higher.  But sheesh, MSFS airports are getting so good these days, if you showed me the RWProfiles Newcastle Airport back in 2019, I would have thought you were trolling, because that's not possible in a flight simulator back in 2019.  But the airports are getting increasingly better, and more detailed these days, it's pretty shocking how good they are (I don't know how people can expect over 60 FPS when they land into detailed airports like this).

Edited November 10, 2025Nov 10 by abrams_tank

I don't know I'm on the fence with this one.  No doubt many are of very amazing quality.  Though I've seen a few XP ones that look very nice.  One trend that I find very annoying in msfs payware airports these days are the lack of custom taxi/runway signs at most addons.  The ones they use resemble European style, but even less readable than real life.  It's particularly strange when using US airports.  The other issues I see are PAPI's/ILS's that are often off, runway edge lights all look exactly the same, and LOD's causing airports to be blurry closer in than they should.  I still love the sim don't get me wrong.  

Edited November 10, 2025Nov 10 by micstatic

The Blacksquare Taxiways add on fixes all the signs. I have the US/EU bundle and it is really good. 

7 minutes ago, JonathanC said:

The Blacksquare Taxiways add on fixes all the signs. I have the US/EU bundle and it is really good. 

yeah I've heard of that addon.  But how does it interface with payware?  I must have a few hundred.  Wouldn't that be a heavy manual process for me?  Asking because I haven't looked into it deeply. 

3 minutes ago, micstatic said:

yeah I've heard of that addon.  But how does it interface with payware?  I must have a few hundred.  Wouldn't that be a heavy manual process for me?  Asking because I haven't looked into it deeply. 

It is meant for use with default airports...I recall having to go in and manually exclude files in .bgl for any payware airports I owned since it messed things up a bit if you have a payware version of an airport. I don't have it installed any longer since I rarely fly in/out of default airports. I do agree that a dev should focus a bit more on the airport environment and experience of the pilot vs a detailed Starbucks, etc on the interiors but I guess that makes good marketing material...??  I am seeing a trend of marketing pictures that are nearly all interior shots of the airport. Nonetheless, many of the interiors that have been done look great in the pics, but I don't personally ever go inside the terminal when simming...

19 minutes ago, micstatic said:

yeah I've heard of that addon.  But how does it interface with payware?  I must have a few hundred.  Wouldn't that be a heavy manual process for me?  Asking because I haven't looked into it deeply. 

Honestly, I don’t really do anything besides installing it. Most airports it works fine, at some I have noticed double signs, but really most of the time I just don’t notice it. It’s better to have two signs with the right numbers than one with the wrong one. 
 

@abrams_tank - Yes the RD Profiles EGNT Newcastle is really special. True art work!  Luckily for me, it's one of my 3 local airports, that I fly from frequently IRL 😎  The RD Profiles rendition is possibly nicer than the actual airport itself! 😄

In some cases, detail like this puts me off - for the exact reason that you picked up on - performance.  Smooth simulation is vastly more important to me that uber-stunning airports. In the case of RD Profiles, they've optimized the airport well, and I was gobsmacked to find that I get much better performance with it than I did with the old Orbx Newcastle, that it replaced.

I bought the RD Profiles version just because it's my home airport but typically, if I see that level of detail (and particularly lots of complex interior modelling) I'll run a mile!   

What would be good I think, is for high end addon airports to come with configuration options, so that the user can deactivate certain elements that aren't important to them (for me that would be airport interiors and things like 1000s of modelled parked cars.

What I really crave for in FS2024 (and FS2020 before it) is more 'multi-airport packs'.  They used to be a thing but are almost non-existent now.   I'd love packs that include 3+ airfields in a slightly reduced level of detail.  I bought the France VFR North East Airports pack last week (despite rarely being interested in flying in France!) because it provides 30 airfields.  The quality is around the same - or a little higher than - the stock hand-crafted airports. Good enough for me.   The LH Simulations Hungary Pack 1 is fantastic too - I think about 6 or 7 airports at a greater level of detail than the France VFR pack.  

These packs are quite rare now.  My issue (as a primarily GA flyer) is that often, you get one highly detailed airport for a part of the world where there are no other decent airports around it.  So you end up with this 'pearl' of an airport, that is surrounded by nothing but dull, auto-generated stock airfields!

I stopped using my 2020 airports / planes in 2024 due to bad / blurry textures and major stutters when landing.

2024 airports rock.

dd

Edited November 10, 2025Nov 10 by Sky_Pilot071

5 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

I stopped using my 2020 airports / planes in 2024 due to bad / blurry textures and major stutters when landing.

2024 airports rock.

Yeah, a native 2024 airport should be much better performance-wise since the 2024 SDK now forces the Devs to do proper LOD's.  You did not have to do that in 2020 although most good devs should have used LOD's to some extent.

Edited November 10, 2025Nov 10 by Flic1

4 hours ago, micstatic said:

I don't know I'm on the fence with this one.  No doubt many are of very amazing quality.  Though I've seen a few XP ones that look very nice.  One trend that I find very annoying in msfs payware airports these days are the lack of custom taxi/runway signs at most addons.  The ones they use resemble European style, but even less readable than real life.  It's particularly strange when using US airports.  The other issues I see are PAPI's/ILS's that are often off, runway edge lights all look exactly the same, and LOD's causing airports to be blurry closer in than they should.  I still love the sim don't get me wrong.  

You're absolutely right.
I've got a big excel file with many of such "finer details" but I just can't spend money on payware airports that use a default "Arial" or whatever font for markings and signs. Big no-go for me.
Just like runway markings that doesn't match with real world sat images and published RWY marking charts.
Or approach lighting that doesn't reflect the real world lighting.

I mean, those are super simple things that don't require more working "doing it right" than "doing it just somehow".
On every AFC chart in the Lufthansa LIDO charts on https://planner.flightsimulator.com/ there's a good visualisation on how approach lights look in real life.

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

The Blacksquare Taxiways add on fixes all the signs. I have the US/EU bundle and it is really good. 

An add-on to improve payware add-ons?

It appears that many MSFS airport devs prioritize flashy interiors because they look great in screenshots and help marketing, while core sim details on runways and taxiways take more time and are harder to showcase. Accurate ground networks (hold-shorts, flows, AI paths) are complex to build and test. A premium airport should nail runway markings, surfaces, lighting, PAPIs, and ILS alignment, plus correct taxiway hold-shorts, signage, surfaces, and hotspot lighting. ATC and AI need a clean taxi network, properly coded parking stands, working jetways, ... 

1 hour ago, JYW said:

@abrams_tank - Yes the RD Profiles EGNT Newcastle is really special. True art work!  Luckily for me, it's one of my 3 local airports, that I fly from frequently IRL 😎  The RD Profiles rendition is possibly nicer than the actual airport itself! 😄

In some cases, detail like this puts me off - for the exact reason that you picked up on - performance.  Smooth simulation is vastly more important to me that uber-stunning airports. In the case of RD Profiles, they've optimized the airport well, and I was gobsmacked to find that I get much better performance with it than I did with the old Orbx Newcastle, that it replaced.

I bought the RD Profiles version just because it's my home airport but typically, if I see that level of detail (and particularly lots of complex interior modelling) I'll run a mile!   

What would be good I think, is for high end addon airports to come with configuration options, so that the user can deactivate certain elements that aren't important to them (for me that would be airport interiors and things like 1000s of modelled parked cars.

What I really crave for in FS2024 (and FS2020 before it) is more 'multi-airport packs'.  They used to be a thing but are almost non-existent now.   I'd love packs that include 3+ airfields in a slightly reduced level of detail.  I bought the France VFR North East Airports pack last week (despite rarely being interested in flying in France!) because it provides 30 airfields.  The quality is around the same - or a little higher than - the stock hand-crafted airports. Good enough for me.   The LH Simulations Hungary Pack 1 is fantastic too - I think about 6 or 7 airports at a greater level of detail than the France VFR pack.  

These packs are quite rare now.  My issue (as a primarily GA flyer) is that often, you get one highly detailed airport for a part of the world where there are no other decent airports around it.  So you end up with this 'pearl' of an airport, that is surrounded by nothing but dull, auto-generated stock airfields!

This!

I rather use my FPS on AI traffic than a fully modeled baggage claim area or a duty free shop. I don't mind the level of detail on smaller airports but I have not purchased any major hub with detailed interior modeling.

37 minutes ago, Nemo said:

An add-on to improve payware add-ons?

It appears that many MSFS airport devs prioritize flashy interiors because they look great in screenshots and help marketing, while core sim details on runways and taxiways take more time and are harder to showcase. Accurate ground networks (hold-shorts, flows, AI paths) are complex to build and test. A premium airport should nail runway markings, surfaces, lighting, PAPIs, and ILS alignment, plus correct taxiway hold-shorts, signage, surfaces, and hotspot lighting. ATC and AI need a clean taxi network, properly coded parking stands, working jetways, ... 

No, it fixes all the signs at all airports. Not aimed at payware alone. 

The 2024 native airports are amazing from many vendors.  Don’t really have any performance issues with any of them and will often just drone around inside the airport to see what’s been rendered … or take out a //42 buggy and drive around it … I mean I paid for all the detail so I wanna see it all.

 

I would say that once again, 2020 broke the glass ceiling and '24 is following it up with continuous improvements although XP also has some beautiful custom scenery.  

To be fair everything I "had never seen before" I saw first in 2020...  Passengers, moving passengers, detailed airside and passenger terminals, moving escalators at some scenery like KEWR for example, all things I had never seen before in FS EVER with performance levels that were better than any of it's predecessors "without"all those the details!!  

'24 improves on the foundation that 2020 built with higher texture resolution, better LOD handling and SDK implementation but I haven't seen anything "net new" just improved... 

And then to the points above so much of it is let down by popping LOD, missing AI details, edge lights that magically appear in front of you in the distance etc etc... 
I would say the difference between the same scenery in P3D and MSFS is greater than 2020-2024 but even then I remember a number of times before the 3d Glass and everything above when MSFS was first announced when a lot of airports looked and felt very similar to even P3d...

Then I think it was LGAV that changed everything... 

 

Edited November 10, 2025Nov 10 by psolk