12gb is nothing if you STREAM THE AIRPORT in 2024.  My KSFO scenery is probably 20gb but not a factor because I...

Also I spend more time checking out my addons these days so I suspect they will just get bigger with more detail.

dd

Edited December 5, 2025Dec 5 by Sky_Pilot071

27 minutes ago, Noel said:

I'm curious how many if any of these very developed airport interiors allow one to walk into the airport and explore.  Lately I've been enjoying launching the Fenix 320 w/ GSX, only to be able to walk into the cabin via airstair, then open the door to the cockpit and walk in and sit down to start my preflight routine.  I like the idea of the digital twin not just Earth, but everything which ultimately means the palette is vast to develop for, a true virtual world with an awesome flight component, but as the years role on, much more.  Imagine arriving at an airport and picking up a rental car then driving around the city and surrounding environs, only to end up at a world class golf course, then playing 18 holes there.  Or driving to the track and entering a race, etc etc.  Or doing the bush flight, then heading out to go moose hunting or what have you.  I do some of this already, it's just not all connected...yet!

It’s inevitable, methinks. 👍

I would love to fly a jet into Monte Carlo, drive the race, and then enjoy a high fidelity boating experience!

(and if we think it’s tough to get a good flight model, a good sea-legs model is another level entirely!)

8 minutes ago, Noel said:

Really?  Steam purchases only support full install?  If so, that must only apply to 3rd party content?

Steam purchased assets are MarketPlace delivered, so they stream. 

you buy from Orbx or Contrail, et al, it’s still old school local disk install. 
 

 

7 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

12gb is nothing if you STREAM THE AIRPORT in 2024.  My KSFO scenery is probably 20gb but not a factor because I...

dd

Where did you buy it…?

Just now, UrgentSiesta said:

Where did you buy it…?

MP of course.

dd

11 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Steam purchased assets are MarketPlace delivered, so they stream. 

you buy from Orbx or Contrail, et al, it’s still old school local disk install. 
 

 

That "old school install" suits me just fine. I do not altogether trust streaming absolutely everything, despite what some users say.

Edited December 5, 2025Dec 5 by Christopher Low

18 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

MP of course.

dd

👍
I like the MP, but sometimes I’m looking for things they don’t have.  E.g., the new T-38C Talon, or when I upgraded my MP-purchased A300 to Premium and had to switch to iniB’s store, et al. 

Edited December 5, 2025Dec 5 by UrgentSiesta

5 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

That "old school install" suits me just fine. I do not altogether trust streaming absolutely everything, despite what some users say.

Oh, for sure!

and I don’t really like watching a “heavy” airfield build before my eyes. 

and while 12GB is rather large, I think about the literal terabytes of Orbx TrueEarth and ortho I have installed for XP, P3D, and DCSW, and, well… 😁

42 minutes ago, Nemo said:

I’m genuinely curious about the reasoning and optimization behind it, rather than upset about the actual size.

If 3-5 LODs are now a requirement/recommendation for MSFS 2024 scenery, then I would expect to see airport file sizes to increase.  Less detail would be something you could ask the content provider for, if enough folks want less detail and it's a selling point that justifies ROI, I'm sure content providers would willing to implement lite versions.

As pointed out, optimization is a lengthy process, even more so if the content provider has to manually manipulate 3-5 LODs to deal with object culling.  There will be a finite limit on how much optimization is performed based on time and expect sales and revenue.

 

59 minutes ago, Noel said:

I'm curious how many if any of these very developed airport interiors allow one to walk into the airport and explore.

Most of them do, not sure what you mean by this?  Terminals usually get fully explorable interiors, but not the surrounding buildings ... iniBuilds Manchester is a good example and I recognized some of the lounges, especially the BA one.

20 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

If 3-5 LODs are now a requirement/recommendation for MSFS 2024 scenery, then I would expect to see airport file sizes to increase.

LODs, by their nature, won't materially increase the size of a scenery.

Higher-level LODs (above the full-detail LOD0) use less detailed geometry and, crucially, far lower texture resolutions - that's the whole point. A 1K texture requires just 6% of the storage space of a 4K texture.

Twotone does great walkarounds of the best new airports like the Saint Barts one.

Really amazing work being done thanks to MSFS.

dd

5 hours ago, martinboehme said:

Higher-level LODs (above the full-detail LOD0) use less detailed geometry and, crucially, far lower texture resolutions - that's the whole point. A 1K texture requires just 6% of the storage space of a 4K texture.

You lost me there ... how can additional data (be it lower texture resolution and less geometry LODs) not increase file size?  You have to include LOD0 on up as part of the output file(s), each additional LOD increases the file size.  In most engines it's just one file with all the LODs.  More LODs = more data and more data = larger files. So rather than just one LOD0, you now have 3-5 per file.

Up close to the object LOD0 is used, further away LOD3 or LOD4, or LOD5 etc. 

Let's see Google AI's take on LODs

 

5 hours ago, martinboehme said:

LODs, by their nature, won't materially increase the size of a scenery.

Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean by "size of a scenery"?  As above, file size and storage requirements will increase (OP's original issue).  Now if you mean RAM/VRAM memory requirements during MSFS execution (while in the sim), then more LODs will reduce RAM/VRAM usage a little.  BUT, again, that was not the OPs issue, file sizes was the issue.

8 hours ago, SayAgain said:

You lost me there ... how can additional data (be it lower texture resolution and less geometry LODs) not increase file size?  You have to include LOD0 on up as part of the output file(s), each additional LOD increases the file size.

Yes, LODs will increase space required on disk, but only by a few percent.

8 hours ago, SayAgain said:

13 hours ago, martinboehme said:

LODs, by their nature, won't materially increase the size of a scenery.

Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean by "size of a scenery"?  As above, file size and storage requirements will increase (OP's original issue).

That's why I wrote "materially". An increase in size by a few percent isn't going to make the difference between being able to install a scenery or not. What the OP is discussing is a scenery that's 12 GB instead of the more usual 1 to 2 GB. That doesn't happen because of LODs.

Just took a quick look at my copy. 2 large .BGLs for the surrounding area at a total of 4.28 GB and around 3000 texture files (presumably a large number of which are for the interiors) at a total of 7.30 GB.