McCrackenAir

Lol yeah, this is exactly why we ended up designing our own towers... Almost 95% of the msfs towers have no interior (basic if they do) and often times they don't allow the camera to collide through the glass. Was very frustrating. I wanted our live radar screens in the actual ATC towers at real airfields. Not possible (currently) unless every single tower gets redesigned. I imagine this feature from Spotty will run into many of the same issues. Maybe we can work together to solve it 🙂

Hey, yeah! This is being actively worked on right now. I don't have a date, but really the last thing that needs finished is the native EFB app and msfs toolbar app. Those apps will drive the new tech we're gonna use for the standalone app, allowing people to place their objects at their airports while loaded into their airports in msfs

Man, when I made Project Airports I was so excited to figure out whatever system they had the live animals behind. Was devastated to learn they're essentially locked and not spawnable. Couldn't tell you how much time I've spent trying to find animals natively in msfs and failed.

That's significant? That's already done and entirely possible for the current editor. I can't imagine it'll be difficult to do for existing airports at all. I'll triple check and make sure before committing 😂

This definitely qualifies for freeware. We do have a supporter option, but it's an option, and 100% not needed for any aspect of the program. Ober 95% of our users have never paid, will never need to, and will never be asked to pay. I intentionally leave out promoting supporter purchases, as I feel thats a decision a user should make after they decide the program is worth supporting. Outside the one time supporter option, there is no way to purchase the currency. This is intentional. I don't want people coming in, spending hundreds, and pushing the rest of the community out. Users earn currency by flying, visiting airports, or having people visit their airports. That's it. They can increase their earnings by using other third party apps like Navigraph or BATC, increasing the multiplier they earn as they fly. Avsim is historically the slowest place to adopt new concepts in the flight sim world. I will try to clarify these questions on the front page, that's really good feedback. There's thousands of other simmers out there who DO want to make fictional airports at locations that mean a lot to them :) Aside from that, we are actively developing a utility that does exactly as you ask, to existing airports. It's just a bit more complicated and we've only been around 2.5 months :)

Hey Folks, It's been a quick 2 months since I last posted a project update here - Lots has been added, tons of updates, and we just crossed 10k users! Finally got around to creating a video showing off what we've been up to. If you've been interested, but don't quite understand what we're doing over here, this will give you a solid understanding. .... Though what I really want to show off to the Avsim crowd is below the video. We just added our own ATC towers - with working Radar/Arrival/Departure/Movement boards! These currently work with PA traffic only, but I plan to integrate with other ATC services as well as current sim traffic. This was mostly a proof that it COULD be done. Now comes the work to make it worth using. It might be possible to bring this to existing ATC towers as long as they have an interior but will need some research. I know this has been something a lot of dedicated simmers have wanted for a very long time. Genuinely shocked this hasn't been done by Asobo, it adds a TON of life to the interior of the control tower. Can read a little more about the latest update here: https://projectairports.com/blog/10-000-users-a-living-world-built-by-you-working-atc-radar

I know, I know, what does this have to do with building Airports? It's tough to explain - It all began with wanting a Crop Dusting plane at my farm airport. I figured people might want other static planes they could place around, so I added what I could find. While placing that plane, I wondered if I could add a small decal.... Well, the answer was "Heck yeah I can". So I added it. Then came the ability to draw a bit on these static, simple objects. At that point, it became easier to create a new environment to edit these objects, instead of painting them at your airport. Became the first version of the Livery Workshop. Figured out how to strip down actual flyable models into easily paintable exteriors, and added 18 flyable, paintable Airframes - including the Cessna 172, A320, and even the A400m. And they look awesome. With very little effort. This update is a big one because it opens two parts of Project Airports that make the whole experience connected: Flying your very own painted livery, at your very own airport, that YOU made. It's an experience MSFS has been missing. Check out some before/afters below, and give it a shot yourself this weekend: Livery Workshop | Project Airports | Project Airports

Hey thanks for sharing your experience! I just checked out your airport, very nice place right alongside the cliff! My personal experience with the sdk might not be considered "Advanced", which is in part a large reason why I made this tool. What would be some intermediate/advanced things you'd want to be added? Hammer on nail on the monetization - I don't want to charge the everyday simmer and want to keep it free, and the supporters make that possible. Wouldn't be possible without them, and people generally don't become supporters without some sort of perks. I also don't want people to join, claim 10 spots, build giant ugly airports and cause havoc. A progression system really helps weed those folks out, and people who are able to make those large airports, will be the people willing to put in the effort to make them look nice. Eventually, I'll release an offline tool with no limits for experimenting without the MP aspect. I plan to support creation of full on international airports, this isn't going to be some small airport tool. Will be fun :) Look forward to seeing what you build up!

Hey just had a chance to look - it looks like you grabbed the claim next to the RAF field, and neither the north/south parts? Join our discord, we'll figure it out!

Cool area! I've removed the blocks for both claims - claim one and let me know the other you need.

I'll just leave these two comments together to say yeah, you should try it - and no, you don't need to shut up😉 That sounds like a really cool project, would love to help out. Hit me up on Discord and I'll attach that second tile for you 👍

With that kind of experience with WED, how did you find the ease of use of my editor? Any suggestions?

This is a very interesting idea. I was able to import an airport file and reverse it, placing the airport on my claim map/editor. Had it's fair share of issues, but I think this is something worth ironing out. What kind of aspects? Genuinely curious, I'm not a fan of using devmode (obviously) and that pain point might be solvable 🤷‍♂️

Alright, so there's clearly some demand for an offline version of this - how would you envision that? What would be most useful/helpful to you? Editor with unlimited everything? Selecting existing airports to edit? I'm more than willing to branch out and add to the roadmap if there's a need!

I thought about that as well - however, I'd like to avoid conflict with paid scenery as much as I can. I think it could get messy fast. Perhaps I can spin off editor for real airports someday :)