iniBuilds Scenery Development Update - March 2026

[mattY]

Hello!

It’s been another incredibly busy period for the scenery team here at iniBuilds. Over the past few months we’ve been focused on delivering several major hub airports for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, while also pushing forward with new projects currently in development.

From the United States to the United Kingdom and across to Asia, the recent releases represent a huge amount of work from the team, and we’re incredibly grateful for the reception they’ve received from the community.

Today we wanted to take a moment to recap some of those latest releases, share a small update on what’s coming next, and introduce a couple of developers who have been hard at work on one of our upcoming projects.

Recent Hub Releases
The last few months have seen several major airports join the iniBuilds scenery lineup. From the scale and complexity of Dallas Fort Worth, to the busy aprons of Manchester, and most recently the global gateway of Hong Kong International, each project has pushed our workflows further and helped refine the techniques we use to create large-scale airports for MSFS 2024.

You can check out all our latest sceneries here: https://inibuilds.com/pages/iniscenery

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported these releases. Every project teaches us something new, as such, as our airport projects have grown, our knowledgebase and technical implementation has too!

When FS2024 was released, one of the main issues for devs was the overhaul of the LOD system. Although this proved a challenge to work with, we've now fully adopted the new system into every single asset we produce. This means everything from a chair to a terminal building has been tweaked and assessed for the correct LOD value to be the most efficient possible for the sim engine.

Similarly, we've now fully adopted the new simpropcontainer (SPC) system which allows even further efficiency by grouping together clusters of LOD'ed, detailed objects such as interior fixtures and fittings. We've also change how we apply sim lights so that we can have a slick looking airport without the massive overheads from a vast number of lights! So whether it's improvements in optimization workflows, asset creation, or how we manage the scale of modern hub airports, all of those lessons are already being fed directly back into our upcoming projects, helping us refine both performance and visual fidelity as we continue expanding our scenery catalogue.

Hong Kong Update – v1.0.1
First off, we want to extend our thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy of Hong Kong Airport and the associated city landmarks! The feedback we've received from this airport has been spectacular and we're incredibly grateful for all of the kind words! That being said, we've received a few points of feedback since the release, as such the team has been working on a small follow-up update addressing these feedback points and a number of other refinements across the scenery. Your reports and suggestions play an important role in helping us refine these airports after launch, so please keep them up!

Version v1.0.1 focuses on correcting airport signage, ground markings, and gate infrastructure across Hong Kong International Airport, alongside improvements to terminal details and jetway accuracy. It also resolves several layout issues, missing assets, and visual inconsistencies to further enhance realism throughout the airport.

Changelog v1.0.1

• Multiple Cantonese character corrections
• Updated text for Airport Lightning Warning System
• Added more people around check-in areas
• Add A380 stop lines to N5, S23, D212 and D216
• Glidepath antenna area should have concrete pathed areas and associated assess driveway
• N143 - 145 - Duplicated stop-marker markings
• Underground entrance near gate S3 missing walls
• Check-in area - tsui wah ad reversed x2
• Corrected font spacing on gate totems
• T1 - displaced parking do not carry Lat/Long information.
• Missing First/Business and Economy labels during day time
• Jetway extensions "fingers" missing number sign of next gate + warning signs for height clearances
• Exterior marshaller stairs near VDGS corrected position
• Taxisign corrections

The update is available to download via the iniManager now.

An Update on Liverpool John Lennon (EGGP)
Development has progressed significantly since that announcement, and the team is now entering the final stages of preparation.

If you missed the original announcement of Liverpool, you can check it out in the December scenery dev update here: 

In previous scenery development updates, we introduced some insights from scenery team leads Greg and George, offering a look behind the scenes at how our projects come together. Today we wanted to introduce Kris and Ilias, two developers who have been working extensively on this project. Since development on EGGP has been progressing steadily behind the scenes, Kris and Ilias have been heavily involved in building the airport environment, working across terrain, ground layouts, and asset creation to ensure the airport captures the distinctive feel of Liverpool.

They’ve shared a little insight into their development workflow below:

"My airport development workflow is based on a combination of real-world geospatial data, official aviation references, and custom 3D asset creation. I typically start by collecting high-resolution terrain and imagery data from reliable sources such as LiDAR datasets, DEM providers, and orthophoto services. These datasets are processed using GIS tools like QGIS, Global Mapper, and GDAL in order to generate accurate terrain models, heightmaps, and reference layers. Official airport charts, satellite imagery, and aviation databases are also used to ensure the correct placement of runways, taxiways, parking stands, and ground markings.

Once the base data is prepared, I build the airport environment using a combination of 3D modeling and simulator-specific tools. Ground layouts, markings, and surfaces are recreated with high precision using projected meshes and custom materials. Additional elements such as vehicles, lighting systems, vegetation, and airport assets are modeled and optimized with proper LODs and PBR textures to ensure performance and realism inside the simulator. Throughout the process, I rely on a combination of automation scripts, custom tools, and manual refinement to achieve a balance between visual fidelity and performance. This workflow has become standard across all of our latest and upcoming projects. As for Liverpool, it's exciting to see all that work come together, a final product of which we're sure you'll love!" - Ilias, Scenery Development Team

"Liverpool has been a really enjoyable project to work on, especially as it’s given us the chance to apply some of the newer techniques we’ve developed over the last few projects we've done in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. One of the bigger changes for scenery development with FS2024 was the updated LOD system. It took some time to get used to at first, but it’s now something we’ve built directly into our workflow. For Liverpool, every asset, from smaller interior pieces through to larger terminal structures, has been reviewed and tuned so that the LOD transitions behave efficiently while still keeping the airport looking detailed up close.

We’ve also been making good use of the SimPropContainer (SPC) system. This allows us to group sets of smaller assets, like interior fixtures or ramp equipment, into optimised clusters. Airports naturally contain a lot of these kinds of details, so this approach helps us keep those areas feeling busy and realistic without adding unnecessary performance overhead." - Kris, Scenery Development Team

As we said, we cannot wait for you to get your hands on Liverpool, it's a historic airport and we hope we're able to do it justice! Keep an eye out for this in the coming weeks!

March Madness & FSWeekend
We hope many of you have been enjoying the March Madness sales this week, as well as daily deals from the iniBuilds line up, we've also got hundreds of products discounted across the store from over 50 developers! There are still a few select iniBuilds airports included for a limited time, so if you’ve been looking to expand your scenery collection, now’s a great opportunity to pick something up.

Check out the remaining deals here: https://inibuilds.com/collections/inibuilds-march-madness

We’re also looking forward to seeing many of you at FSWeekend! If you’re attending the event, be sure to come and say hello. It’s always great meeting members of the community in person and chatting about flight simulation, aviation, and what we’ve been working on behind the scenes.

Thank you again for the continued support. The scenery team has an exciting pipeline of projects ahead, and we can’t wait to share more with you soon!

Thanks,
iniBuilds Team ❤️