In doing some prep work for a scenery of S21 (Sunriver) in Oregon, I noticed the ortho and default airport layout in MSFS20 are very mismatched. I checked in 24, and it is even more obvious.

20:


24:


I recognize they can't catch everything, especially for small airports, but this is pretty surprising. The taxiways were re-done at this airport in 2019, so where is the data from they are using for drawing the default layouts? Was the same data reused for 24? It seems so.

This creates a lot of extra work for developers trying to enhance airports....sigh

11 hours ago, Nandengo12 said:

so where is the data from they are using for drawing the default layouts?

There is no global dataset for airport layouts that includes taxiways. No taxiway data is included in the ARINC spec at all.

Some companies offer AMDB data (airport mapping database), but there are none that are totally worldwide (and also are hugely expensive), and the airport coverage isn't spectacular (especially for strips like this).

So, the data is a combination of AI looking at aerials and OpenStreetMap data. But you can't run that process all the time, as the results have a lot of their own inaccuracies that need a boatload of human intervention still. Areas tend to get special attention and focus with World Updates.

No magic bullets here, unfortunately.

4 minutes ago, MattNischan said:

There is no global dataset for airport layouts that includes taxiways. No taxiway data is included in the ARINC spec at all.

Some companies offer AMDB data (airport mapping database), but there are none that are totally worldwide (and also are hugely expensive), and the airport coverage isn't spectacular (especially for strips like this).

So, the data is a combination of AI looking at aerials and OpenStreetMap data. But you can't run that process all the time, as the results have a lot of their own inaccuracies that need a boatload of human intervention still. Areas tend to get special attention and focus with World Updates.

No magic bullets here, unfortunately.

Interesting...that is more or less what I was thinking might be the case, but they should be able to at least see the basic layouts via a JeppView subscription, no? I guess exporting from that to the MSFS nav database would be the complicated part though...

Edited May 9May 9 by Nandengo12

3 hours ago, Nandengo12 said:

but they should be able to at least see the basic layouts via a JeppView subscription, no?

Certainly not. That data is owned by Jeppesen and using it to improve a commercial product is absolutely something that requires a (vary large and very expensive) licensing agreement.

9 hours ago, MattNischan said:

Certainly not. That data is owned by Jeppesen and using it to improve a commercial product is absolutely something that requires a (vary large and very expensive) licensing agreement.

Understood...I guess they weren't willing to engage a partnership at that level. Though it would drastically improve the base accuracy of the sim's nav data...

On 5/9/2026 at 10:52 PM, Nandengo12 said:

I guess they weren't willing to engage a partnership at that level.

That assumes the party who owns the data was willing to entertain such a thing.

On 5/9/2026 at 10:52 PM, Nandengo12 said:

Though it would drastically improve the base accuracy of the sim's nav data.

The sim's current LIDO navdata equals and in some cases exceeds the quality of the Jeppesen navdata (remembering that taxiway information is not a part of navdata).

For the majority of reports since switching to LIDO we have found folks were comparing to Jeppesen, but it was the Jeppesen data that was out of date. Not every single report, of course, but I'm sure both companies are happy for the extra eyes on the data.

7 hours ago, MattNischan said:

That assumes the party who owns the data was willing to entertain such a thing.

The sim's current LIDO navdata equals and in some cases exceeds the quality of the Jeppesen navdata (remembering that taxiway information is not a part of navdata).

For the majority of reports since switching to LIDO we have found folks were comparing to Jeppesen, but it was the Jeppesen data that was out of date. Not every single report, of course, but I'm sure both companies are happy for the extra eyes on the data.

You can't know if you don't ask, was my meaning.

I don't know the correct technical distinctions...I only had a PPL back in the day. But my airline pilot friends consider their Jepp packages inclusive of airport charts to be the gold standard. I guess in my mind 'navdata' is simply a catchall for navigational references + AFD info.