Although NMG Simulations only started a few years ago, we have been in the Microsoft Flight Simulator business since 1984! We have been designing scenery as freeware since then, but in 1999, we went the commercial route to help pay for the expenses we have been incurring to design airports.
We have a wide range of South African airports available for sale, which we keep up to date as changes are made to those airports in real life. We design South African Airport Scenery for Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator X : Steam Edition, Prepar3D and X-Plane.
Since our scenery is used for real world flight training, it is of the utmost importance that the runway, approach and taxiway lights are as correct as possible. If an airport has green centreline lights, our version of the airport will have them too; if a runway has centreline lights, then so will our version. We never add anything in our scenery that does not exist in real life.
Why shop with us?
We offer fast, dedicated support. You will not get stuck using one of our products and you will not need to wait weeks on end for a response to your questions. We typically reply to support questions within 24 hours and we will go that extra mile to help you resolve any issues you may have!
Have one of our airports already? You may qualify for an upgrade discount! Simply log into your account on our website and you can get an upgrade at almost half price! Switching to another flight simulator? No problem! Our upgrade discounts work for cross platform upgrades as well!
No credit card? Again, we have you covered as we accept Electronic Funds Transfers as well! You can pay for your purchase by transferring your payment via Internet Bank to us.
We hope that all this will convince you to buy from us, but of you have specific questions not answered here, then please feel free to contact us and it will be our pleasure to assist you.
Scenery Design History
We haves been actively involved in the Flight Simulator industry since 1984. Scenery Design only became a reality in 1990 shortly after the release of the Airport and Scenery Designer package for Flight Simulator 4. The limitations of Flight Simulator 4 only allowed for airports in the US to be enhanced. True scenery designing on a global scale became a reality with the release of Flight Simulator 5 in 1993.
The first South African scenery package was born in 1995 and distributed as freeware. It contained only the large international airports. Over the following years, several versions of the South Africa scenery was released as freeware, all featuring more and more airports.
In 1998 with the release of Flight Simulator 98, the South Africa scenery package featured all 770 publicly accessible airports in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. It was a milestone project for us. Some of the airports in the package, including the road system was designed by Johan Van Wyk of Aeroworx fame.
In 1999 shortly after the release of Flight Simulator 2000 we decided to go the commercial route. Our reason to ask for money was simply to cover costs on our side. Designing scenery involves taking photos and buying flight charts and airport information, which all costs money. At this time Johan Van Wyk decided that he no longer wanted to be affiliated with us anymore. He formed Aeroworx to preserve the concept of free-ware scenery design.
We released two versions of the South Africa scenery for Flight Simulator 2000: a standard version which was released as freeware and a commercial version which included a detailed road system and upgraded airports.
In 2002 with the release of Flight Simulator 2002, we released net next version of our South Africa scenery for the platform. It was our first fully commercial version of the scenery. No free-ware version was made available. We also released a Mauritius scenery package for Flight Simulator 2002 which unfortunately did not sell well…
In 2004 the demand for higher detailed scenery became a reality. Flight Simulator 2004 had just been released. We quickly realised that covering the whole country with the high detail as expected from our clients will mean that we will have to release the scenery by province. That is why we started with the Western Cape 2004 scenery. The idea was that we will release every province separately as we complete them. Unfortunately, this was never realised. The amount of work and the detail associated where just too much. It would literally take years to complete the whole country! We did however release several packages, including our first stand-alone airport package; Port Elizabeth 2004! We realised that the only way to design high quality scenery was to design the airports separately with as much detail as possible.
In 2006 with the release of Flight Simulator X we released our airport packages separately. Every airport was designed with utmost realism in mind.
In 2009 we were asked by the Simuflight group of flight schools to produce a South African scenery package for their simulators which we did. That is how we ended up in the X-Plane market.
Through the years we have seen many up and downs in the Flight Simulator market. We currently develop scenery for Flight Simulator X, Prepar3D and X-Plane and we are here to stay for as long as possible!
Developing Scenery at the right place.
We occasionally get comments where our scenery is compared to “high-end freeware”, “not good enough compared to overseas products” and a whole lot of other comments. Over the years we have learned to take this on the chin so to speak, because the highest trees will always get the most wind.
We have more than 20 years’ experience designing commercial scenery for the South African market and by now we have a pretty good idea of what the average South African will pay for locally produced scenery. Yes, we can add more detail and we can increase the quality, but all that will do is to increase the price!
We tried designing an airport with all the detail we can master at one stage. The package was Port Elizabeth International which is on sale right now. The airport is more detailed than any of our other packages and it took us nine months to do! Yes, it really takes that long to design high quality scenery. We initially charged R400 for the airport which was in line with what the overseas design houses where charging back then. We sold a staggering nine copies of the airport over six months! The average client where just not willing to pay at that price, no matter how good it was. We need to keep the lights on over here and selling nine copies over six months will not do it!
Over the next year we systematically lowered price of the package to R250 where it is now and now it is finally selling. The point is that R250 is the maximum price the average South African client is willing to pay. Very few are willing to pay more. Unfortunately, the few that are willing to pay more will not be enough to keep the lights on for us. That is the reality.
Some may say, but why don’t you develop two versions: one high and one low detailed version? We tried that with our Lanseria International Airport package. We sold one copy of the low-quality version. People just don’t want low-quality scenery. They want scenery at an affordable price and that is where we are now.
In the end you pay for what you get. We know now what the average South African client is willing to pay and we develop our scenery in line with that strategy, trying to add as much detail as we can for that price, but there is a limit on what is possible for that price.
It is crucial to remember that we develop scenery for the South African market and not the overseas market. That is why our prices are all in South African rand. Our aim is to develop scenery that the average South African client can afford; not just the wealthy. It is therefore useless for us to have an extreme detailed airport that costs R500 and that only the wealthy can buy. There are more average South African buyers anyway and those are the ones that keep the lights on for us.
It is also important to remember that we continuously upgrade our airports. More than any other designer is willing to do. Most of these upgrades are provided for free and this must also be added to the final price that are being paid. Now you know why our airports does not have extreme detail and we can only hope that this will finally answer the question.
To further help the South African flight simulator users, we have recently introduced Upgrade Discounts. You can upgrade any existing package of ours at almost half price to the latest version. You can also cross upgrade your existing package to another simulator at the same discount. Upgrading from Flight Simulator X to X-Plane for example will not force you to re-purchase all your South African airports!
To put it in plain simple English, we are here for the South African market and the South African user. We are here for you!
