iniBuilds A340 Airliner: Art Development Update 1

[mattY]

Hello!

Welcome to the first iniBuilds A340 Airliner Development Update, following our announcement of the project a few weeks ago. This update is focused on all things 3D Art, but will also cover some key features related to this workstream of development. Instead of being written by our media team, Max, our Art Director is presenting this update himself! You can check out the full development update below from Max! 

In this update, I’m here to deliver some anticipated updates regarding our ongoing iniBuilds A340 Airliner project for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Before diving in, let me quickly introduce myself - I’m Max, the Art Director here at iniBuilds, responsible for shaping the visual identity of all our aircraft. All things aviation and flight sim have been a passion of mine since childhood, and that love for aviation continues to fuel the work for me, and my dedicated team of talented artists worldwide.

Through building on the workflows and expertise developed during our iniBuilds A350 Airliner project, we’re ready to take things even further with the iniBuilds A340 Airliner, delivering upgraded levels of immersion, realism, and detail to provide you with an ultimate airliner experience. Let’s get into it.

Visuals - Exterior Features

For the iniBuilds A340 Airliner, we’ve focused on capturing the character of an (on average) 20-24-year-old airframe. Subtle weathering and surface details by default highlight the aircraft’s age and service history, creating a clear contrast to the cleaner look of today’s modern Airbus fleet.

To build on this, we paid close attention to how time affects specific components. Hydraulic staining, grease accumulation, and panel wear were recreated to reflect years of heavy operation, while areas like engine cowlings feature maintenance patches and material variations that naturally and mechanically occur over decades. These elements combine to give the iniBuilds A340 Airliner a lived-in, authentic feel that immediately sets it apart.

If you look closer, you’ll notice even the smaller elements carry signs of age - placards with faded text, worn markings, chipped paint, and weathered service labels scattered across the airframe.

Of course, what truly defines the A340 is its (not so) distinctive powerplant: the CFM56 engines. We’ve reproduced these in exceptional detail, ensuring they capture the aircraft’s unmistakable silhouette. Each engine features unique texturing and subtle variations, giving them individual character and reinforcing the authenticity of the model. As standard with our airliners, the engine cowlings are openable for service.

For the first time in an iniBuilds airliner, we’re making use of the new MSFS24-exclusive engine ‘shader’ effect for the spinner. Personally, I think it’s a huge step up from the old industry-standard method of stacking multiple textures to fake the blur at different thrust levels. With this shader, the transitions are incredibly smooth, and the effect just looks right - it’s one of those small details that really makes the engines come alive when you see them in motion.

It is known by our art team the fan is turning the wrong way. This is due to a core sim limitation affecting the turbine blur shader properties, simply there is no option to set the rotation direction for a turbine engine in the engine.cfg. The reason other developers have bypassed this is by using different technique for blur with the byproduct being less smooth and balanced animation over all rpm ranges of the fan disk. We've gone for overall visuals over a technical mismatch here as we trust that it will be resolved for us in a future sim update.

Visuals – Performance & Options

Performance is always a key concern with airliners, and it has been a priority from day one on the iniBuilds A340 Airliner. To conserve VRAM and maintain stability across a wide range of systems, we’ve avoided the use of 4K and 8K textures entirely and rely on fully decal-based liveries available through the iniManager to preserve maximum visual quality even at lower settings.

And because this project is built exclusively for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, our integration team has been able to fully leverage the new modular SimObjects system, combining carefully tuned LOD models, refined node counts, and a range of performance-focused techniques developed over thousands of hours of experience to ensure the iniBuilds A340 Airliner is as efficient as it is detailed.

On top of this, we’ve included a wide range of airline-specific options to let you configure the iniBuilds A340 Airliner exactly how you’d like with what’s visually necessary. SATCOM antennas, ice detection probes, brake fans, and more can all be toggled to recreate the variations seen across real-world fleets.

Visuals – Dynamic Wear & Tear

Continuing with the exterior, as mentioned, we’ve placed a strong emphasis on operational wear and tear to reflect the A340 Airliner’s age. The goal was to strike the right balance - neither squeaky clean nor looking like it’s been in storage for a few months - so you’ll find details like speed tape applied in key areas of the hull, much as we introduced with the iniBuilds A350 Airliner.



Dynamic weathering effects also return, adding life to the aircraft. Based on our research of real aircraft, we’ve replicated where dents, hydraulic streaks, oil residue, and flaking paint naturally appear, and you’ll see these elements build up dynamically as hours accumulate in the sim.

Beyond the airframe, we’ve also implemented additional systems-driven effects such as tire wear and brake pin degradation. After multiple landings, brake pins will gradually wear down, tire cords will begin to show through, and you’ll need to address these issues directly through the EFB’s maintenance page - bringing another layer of authenticity to operating the iniBuilds A340 Airliner.

Visuals – Animations

The team has worked extensively on animations throughout the iniBuilds A340 Airliner, with particular attention to areas that define the aircraft’s character. Landing gear compression and retraction have been tuned to behave naturally on touchdown, while the massive wings showcase realistic flex paired with dynamic engine and flap movement.

With so much wingspan comes even greater flex, and we’ve studied countless real-world references to refine it as closely as possible. While adjustments are still ongoing, we’ve prepared a short clip to demonstrate the current state of the wing flex and the unique way it behaves on the iniBuilds A340 Airliner.

Visual Effects

Our immersion artists have created a range of updated effects to bring the iniBuilds A340 Airliner closer to reality. You’ll see clean white wing vapour trails rolling across the surface, engine condensation and over-wing vortices forming in humid conditions, and wingtip trails adding to the aircraft’s presence in the skies. On the ground and in flight, a custom engine heat blur delivers realistic exhaust distortion, while a cold start smoke effect captures the engines spooling up with true-to-life detail.

Realistic Operations

Much like with the iniBuilds A350 Airliner, we’ve made interactivity a core focus - not just for visual appeal, but to make pre-flight walkarounds more engaging and authentic. To that end, you can open and interact with a wide range of exterior features, from the APU access doors to the ground power panel and beyond. Specifically, the following access hatches have been modelled:

• Fuel Loading
• Fuel Coupling 
• Gear Door Ground Opening Hatches
• Low Pressure Ground Air
• High Pressure Ground Air
• External Power
• APU Access
• Engine Cowling
• Potable Water
• Wastewater
• Cargo Door Opening
• Cargo Control Panel

Visuals – Cockpit Contrasts

To cover something the team and I been longing to reveal - that for the first time ever, we are modelling two independent instrumentation configurations, in the A340-300 Airliner’s case: EIS1 and EIS2.

Now most of you will likely be familiar with the more-common EIS2 configuration, featuring a full-glass modern cockpit, however we’ve given special attention to creating the EIS1 model for those who prefer an old-school yet still modern-era flying experience which is still flown in the real world until now.

The EIS1 cockpit as standard features classic standby instruments by default featuring an RMI, artificial horizon, altimeter, and airspeed indicator. But most notably, the primary flight and information displays are all convex-faced CRT displays. For added user customization, we have added a real-world option of swapping out the airspeed, altimeter and artificial horizon for the all-in-one ISIS display generally found on the EIS2 configuration.

EIS2 is the primary development focus, with EIS1 being a nice-to-have feature as part of the product.

Visuals – The “Preighter” Config

In the real world, this A340-300 Airliner configuration is born from turning an active passenger aircraft into a make-shift freighter variant during unique economic circumstances, commonly referred to as a “preighter”. It still has all the characteristics of a regular cabin, but without the passenger seats so it can easily be converted back again. Our dedicated cabins team has developed this as a fun option for those seeking to do more than just haul passengers, opening the door for some unusual routes.

The preighter config features several inspired cargo payload options, which you can view within the cabin and uncover the containers to see what’s inside. These include:

• Live Animals
• Car Parts
• Batteries
• Biohazard
• Flowers
• Food
• Medical Supplies
• Post & Parcels

Visuals – The Cabin

And for the final section of this extensive update, a section we couldn’t pass: the passenger cabin. Like the iniBuilds A350 Airliner, the iniBuilds A340 Airliner features a front-to-back fully featured cabin based on the configuration of a real-world German carrier.

Touching back on performance - this cabin has been created with it in mind. We’ve learned a lot of new techniques with implementing such complex models into the FS24 modular system - some things it likes, some things it doesn’t, and we really worked hard to find a middle ground so even users on the minimum recommended specifications can run the cabin as if it wasn’t even there to begin with. Our intention is that the iniBuilds A340 Airliner’s cabin will be fully suitable for Xbox, with only minor reductions compared to the PC version.

When we built the iniBuilds A350 Airliner, the most valuable insights came from combining official manuals, sessions in full-motion simulators, and conversations with real A350 pilots and engineers. We’re taking the same approach with the iniBuilds A340 Airliner - this time with input from experts on board who know the aircraft inside and out - to ensure the flight model, systems, and cockpit representation are as true to life as possible.

Flying the A350 in the simulator gave us a real feel for how a modern Airbus responds: smooth, light, and highly reactive on the controls. The iniBuilds A340 Airliner, on the other hand, is a very different animal - heavier, slower to react, and requiring a firmer hand. That distinction is something we’re committed to capturing for you to feel the difference.

It’s an absolute privilege to share these milestones with you. Up next, we plan to fill you on the systems, from our head of development, Mike, and some more behind the scenes on visuals from my team and I, so keep an eye on our socials for the next chapter.

Max