We have been lucky to have been chosen to test the scenery development part of the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
In our previous message about this subject, we mentioned that all our seem to be fully compatible with the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This is true, but since the satellite ground layer has been updated, we have found that the taxiways and runways at some of the airports have shifted. The airport still works; it just looks funny with the photo-real not matching up with the runways and taxiways!
We have since been updating our airports by adding updated satellite ground images to compensate for this issue. We have also been making all our airports so that you will know which ones will work straight out of the box so to speak. You will see that we have marked our airports that are fully compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the logo below.
Please check our website for the airports with this logo as it will tell you which airports we have updated, and which still needs to be done.
So far, we have updated these airports and more will be updated as we progress. We highly recommend that you re-download these airports and install them as they are updated from the version you currently have.
FABL Bloemfontein International Airport
FACT Cape Town International Airport
FAEL East London Airport
FAGG George Airport
FALE King Shaka International Airport
FAOR Johannesburg International Airport
FAYP Ysterplaat AFB
FHSH St Helena International Airport
KCMI University of Illinois / Willard Airport
Please be aware that these updated airports are not native MSFS 2024 airports. They were designed for MSFS 2020 and you can use them in MSFS 2020 after downloading the updates. All we have done is to update them so that they work in MSFS 2024 as well.
Microsoft has built in backwards compatibility for MSFS 2020 scenery and aircraft. We believe that this is just temporary and in time, Microsoft will remove this backwards compatibility all together. We will therefore be upgrading our airports for MSFS 2024, but until the release of MSFS 2024 and until all the tools become available to fix our airports, these updates will do just fine for MSFS 2024.
We have now made a Roadmap available on our website that will show you the progress as we update our airports for MSFS 2024. It will fist show when the airport is MSFS 2024 compatible and later it will show when we have converted the airport for MSFS 2024 use only.
As for MSFS 2020, these updates will probably the last updates we do for it as we will be concentrating on MSFS 2024. We have tried over the years to cater for multiple flight simulators, but that never works out, so it is always better to concentrate on the new than the old.
Three of our airports (FABL Bloemfontein, FATP New Tempe and FASS Sishen) will need to be completely redone for MSFS 2024 as these airports are starting to show their age. Sales for these airports have also been extremely low over the years so there is a possibility that they may never be made available for MSFS 2024 at all. This may be a shock for some, but this is how business works. If it does not sell, then there is no point to spend time and money on keeping it updated. A final decision on this will be made at the end of this year.
We will keep you posted on our update progress via this newsletter. You may reply to this message should you have any questions.