I’ve noted that many of the 2024 auto-gen airports have significantly poor building choices as compared to 2020.
An example here is KPRB. In 2020 all these buildings are rendered in the sim as T-shaped hangar buildings and the larger building isn’t some massive structure, but is similar in height to all the hangars. It has also added a second fueling station where there is, clearly, just a ramp with parked aircraft. You can see the correct one in the background.
What I do not understand is why. In the older, theoretically less advanced simulator (2020), it was able to get these right. I would have expected 2024 to be more modern, and using more up-to-date data for rendering these airports. Even the current Bing maps satellite view clearly shows what these buildings are, and their height can easily be ascertained by their shadows. It also clearly shows the ramp has parked aircraft and no refueling station.
Given we are now into February 2026, why haven’t we seen any sort of advancement in terms of rectifying these grossly incorrect interpretations of buildings at these auto-gen airports?
Interesting…
My question is, if they are building a “unified world” for both 2020 and 2024, are they taking into account these types of obvious auto gen errors on the buildings, etc, or just going with "the total resolution is better in (e.g.) 2024 and using it and just disregard the auto gen issues like this?
I can only imagine the complexity of actually cross-comparing the auto gen features in one sim against the other sim are huge. But it is interesting that the auto gen in 2024 misses data like this that are more correct in 2020.
Regards
As I read your post, I’d realized that I haven’t used 2020 since well before SU16. Is my understanding correct in that SU16 brought this element of “unified world” into 2020 and, if so, are these incorrect buildings now going to be at KPRB (and elsewhere) in 2020?
As an aside, but related issue, the disconnect and distance I’ve felt as a user trying to reach MS/Asobo has never felt larger as it has now that the forum has gone from a raging river to a drying stream. I had so much difficulty in the past getting attention brought to issues, that I have zero idea how to get attention brought to them now.
How do I even get this brought forward, and does anyone care?
The lesson I’ve been taught about MSFS over the 5 years I’ve been here is simply acceptance. I’ve had to just accept that this is what they will give us and my voice for change/dialog is nothing.
I suppose oversized and house-like hangars are what I shall receive.
My conspiracy minded opinion of this is that they intentionally do a poor job at airports so as not to step on the toes of any 3rd party developer who may want to do any given airport.
It seems to me that if one has good aerial imagery like you show then it would be incredibly easy to estimate the heights of all buildings based on shadows (airplanes on field of known height and building shadows) and just use the roof imagery and slap on some believable walls.
I can’t believe they even bothered to build a 30 foot tall ten foot wide hangar at all but at least one grass strip in Florida has those.
I think there’s a myriad of issues we care about and would like to see improved but we know that we get mostly silence followed by “surprise, heres a fictitious city we’ve spent our time on”. But the helicopter is great and most appreciated so…
FYI, for those that have not seen it, this was reported way back in 2020 and closed in 2024 as “Won’t Fix”, so it is not surprising that the issue is still present in 2024.
What is odd, though, is what I am noting is a change from 2020.
As I stated, the hangars were correct in 2020 and they are, now, incorrect in 2024.
That seems slightly different to what was reported in that bug. That is stating an incorrect rendering of auto-gen building size/style from the outset when the new sim was introduced back then.
My issue is a change and the question is why the change?
Just speaking from my experience, I noticed these over-sized hangars at many (but not all) generic airports in 2020 that had such buildings. Although I have not flown in 2020 for over a year, I suspect that I’d still see them there.
It may be (pure speculation) that there was a modification to the algorithm that was used to re-generate these procedurally created airports in 2020 that was never incorporated into the original 2024 build when forked from 2020.
As hard as this is to admit. I was completely wrong about these structures in 2020 being correct.
It is a very funny thing – memory. No wonder witness testimonies can be so different from one another.
I found some of my posts from the past before 2024 released. Here is KPRB with all the incorrect structures in MSFS 2020 from January 2024. The building/hangar cluster in the background is the one I’d illustrated in my OP:
These sorts of memory faults are disturbing for me. My entire life I have been known for my elephant’s memory. When it fails me, I feel highly disoriented.
