Scenery Development Update April 2025!

[mattY]

Hello all!

After a busy and exciting end to 2024, we started 2025 with an all new simulator, which opened the door to some amazing and new possibilities! At the tail end of 2024 we were able to release Brisbane airport, the first scenery exclusively released for FS2024.

Since the release of Brisbane, we've subsequently released the completely remade London Heathrow Premium, as well as 5 MSFS24 Enhanced versions of some of our most popular destinations! 

2025 continues the busy trend with a whole whole host of planned new releases and updates to look forward to. We've already seen the release of our remade Heathrow package has been very well received and extremely popular, which makes us so happy as this was a great project to work on! Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has allowed us to explore a whole new level of detail both in modelling and in ground accuracy which has vastly improved the immersion factor - we hope you've noticed a difference with these!

One of the biggest challenges with MSFS24 has been the implementation of tighter controls over LOD vertex limits. Whilst this is an interesting hurdle to face, as it affects the visual quality you see, it definitely helps with performance, so we want to ensure we give you the best middle ground here! Working with the Microsoft throughout last year, definitely helped us diagnose some of these issues earlier on in our development cycles. Through this time, we used it to develop a workflow that adheres to the new limits much more closely than before. We're now fairly comfortable with these new limitations though there's always more to learn. The result is a better balance between quality and performance, even on lower end systems.

Our personal favourite is the upgraded ground texture system. This allows a much higher level of fidelity and variance in ground surface types, legible markings and other features such as drains and access points. We had fun creating a series of custom textures for each airport project which you'll find in our upcoming releases!

With the introduction of the new sim, we now have two quite distinct development streams - porting and new content. New content is fairly self explanatory but our enhanced airports are where things really start to get interesting! As you're all no doubt aware, our FS24 Enhanced airports are what we would once have referred to as a port but with the addition of several updates to make full use of the updated engine.

For these projects, we start by completely updating the ground poly. This is not just a matter of rebuilding the old project but rather, every ground texture, line, marking and stencil is replaced with new custom textures. Then we add our new custom texture details. Next we review all the models to see what works and what doesn't. This involves updating light settings, reworking LODs and making changes to terraforming and vegetation - all of which have fundamentally changed in the new sim. Finally, we add any new features such as walkable meshes for interiors and passenger handling!

The result is, effectively a new, native version of the airport which has been fully optimised. It's very satisfying to see the airport, particularly the ground, to be more as we intended it in the original iteration.

So far; Palm Springs, Ibiza, Innsbruck, Johannesburg, Dubai & LAX have been given the enhanced treatment with even more in production at the moment! The future is with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and as such we will not be developing any more NEW airports for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. We will continue to support our current 2020 library. 

iniBuilds New York John F. Kennedy (KJFK) Enhanced for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Today we release our next Enhanced scenery product, the highly requested - New York John F. Kennedy for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024! We're so excited to bring you this one, with a brand new trailer showcasing it in all of its glory, be sure you check that out!

As with our other enhanced scenery products - all of the items mentioned above have been addressed and fine tuned for this release.
New York John F. Kennedy Enhanced takes full advantage of MSFS2024’s features — with completely overhauled custom ground textures, improved lighting, updated models, and enhanced terraforming and vegetation around the airport. Every taxiway, stand, and apron has been rebuilt to deliver a better and more immersive experience.

Given JFK’s scale and complexity, we’ve also packed in a wide range of performance options within the scenery configurator, giving you the flexibility to optimise the airport to your system and achieve the best balance of visuals and performance.

Price: £21.99* | £4.99*  Upgrade price with code KJFK- UG
*(EXCL VAT)
Store Page: https://inibuilds.com/products/inibuilds-new-york-john-f-kennedy-kjfk-msfs-2024

Watch the trailer!

What's in our pipeline?

Again it's a busy time for us, with five projects currently being worked on, some of which you will all hear about very soon! We've got a big release schedule for the rest of 2025 and we're excited to gradually bring these to you. One of the most recent projects we announced, was our London Gatwick project, which has been slowly cooking in the background and we're excited to bring you a few more visuals from this scenery today! As with all of our projects, this one is very exciting for the team, however we're making sure it is as true to real life as possible, even working with current Gatwick staff - who have been providing some awesome references to the team!

This project is moving into the final stages of the development cycle, which will include plenty of beta testing from our working group as well as the internal staff to make sure it is released in a great place! We also want to pre-apologise to the VATSIM UK team who will inevitably be inundated with traffic once it releases, we promise it's worth it... 😂

Once Gatwick is almost ready to release, as will most of our other sceneries, you'll start seeing some of your favourite streamers getting copies to stream and make content with, so be sure to keep an eye out for these!

As you can see, the level of detail we're going won't disappoint - as always you can expect the standard iniBuilds features on this one, including an Official GSX Profile upon release, scenery configuration options and bespoke texture sets throughout!

Now, moving onto our project after Gatwick... Which we want to announce today, drum roll please...

Introducing, iniBuilds Doha-Hamad International Airport (OTHH) for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024!

We've been wanting to do this one for a while, however there's been lots of construction which has made it difficult to ensure we get it right. With this construction now getting to the point where we can accurately see what is being worked on, it has allowed us to get the references we need! This scenery will be sold as a premium product and will include those premium features you expect to see.

We won't go into too much detail now - however it is coming along nicely, with the team outputting some impressive models on a daily basis! So we'll leave you with a few teasers which showcases some of the highlights from this scenery!

We want to thank you for your ongoing support, as always it is amazing to receive the level of support that we do, it truly motivates us to continue putting out some great scenery products for Microsoft Flight Simulator! Our Easter sale is still ongoing with some great deals from both ourselves and over 40 vendors, with over 500+ products on offer, there's something for everyone. Be sure to check out our store today and see if something catches your eye, most deals end 2nd May!

Thanks,
iniBuilds Team ❤️