Addons for 2024 temporary solution

Discussion Hub Airports
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I’ve stopped playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and I have to say, it’s been a frustrating experience. The biggest issue for me is the state of the default airports. While they might be a slight improvement over 2020’s, they’re still far from the level of quality I expect for a new sim. What makes this even more disappointing is that many of the addon airports (also features) I bought for 2020 are now deactivated, leaving me with far fewer options for realistic and immersive flying. Further making me uninterested in the new sim.

For those of us who invested time and money into creating a rich, detailed world in MSFS 2020, this feels like a huge step backward. The marketplace helped build personalisation to the sim. People could buy specific items that they found of interest. When 2024 was announced, backwards compatibility was promised, and many of us assumed we’d be able to carry over our favorite addon airports seamlessly. Instead, we’re stuck with basic versions of airports that are critical to the flight sim experience. It’s especially frustrating for Standard Edition users and those on Game Pass who don’t have access to premium upgrades. 2024 feels very generic for all users and with a flight sim being such a diverse game, no addons really makes it dull.

I’m not asking for a massive world update or new scenery across the board—at least not immediately—but Microsoft really needs to make the transition easier for players by reintroducing some key airports that are widely used and popular. For example:
• EGLL (Heathrow): One of the busiest and most iconic airports in the world, crucial for European and international routes.
• EGCC (Manchester): A major UK hub for short- and medium-haul flights across Europe.
• EHAM (Amsterdam Schiphol): Essential for anyone flying routes in and out of the Netherlands and beyond.

These airports, among others, are vital to the experience of flight simulation. Many of us spent years in 2020 building our addons library and flying to these detailed airports, and losing access to them without any alternatives has left 2024 feeling incomplete. By adding more of these key locations—even just a few to start—it would allow players to feel more invested in 2024 and see it as a viable upgrade. For those who may only have the standard edition or rely on addons for their experience.

Right now, 2024 feels more like a stripped-down version of 2020 rather than a significant leap forward. Even if the new features and aircraft have potential, the lack of quality and variety in default airports holds the game back. If Microsoft wants players to transition, they need to show that 2024 offers something better for all users—not just those willing to reinvest in addons.

A few small changes, like enabling these crucial airports and releasing some widely used ones as high-quality updates, would go a long way toward restoring confidence in 2024. For now, though, it’s hard to see why anyone who enjoyed 2020 would make the jump. I hope Microsoft takes this feedback into account because 2024 has the potential to be great—it just needs to respect the investment players have already made and offer a more complete experience out of the box.

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As far as I know the picture is a bit murky regarding the timeline for some of this stuff to be re-enabled. Some stuff I’ve read has given me the impression that it could be in the coming days/weeks and not kicked down the road until January, but again, I haven’t seen anything solid either way.

But likewise, about half of my marketplace airports available at launch were working just fine, and nothing was preventing me from starting the sim, so this move to temporarily block everything has been a regression for a lot of people.

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Either way, I think this idea will help to drive people to the new platform.

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I get 40-50FPS on high-end graphics settings in 2024, vs. 12-15 in 2020.

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That’s super interesting. I wonder if that’s because of less addons though and a more vanilla state. Did you use a lot of extras in 2020?

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Are any addon airports at all available today? Or can we only use stock scenery until the markerplace will open?

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They are not available today and we have no idea when they will be made available

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I have more than 100 custom airports bought in MSFS2020, all outside marketplace. Every single one I have tried so far ( perhaps 20) looks fine in msfs 2024 when dropped in the 24 community folder, except for the known bug of taxi lights. No fps drop, no CTD, no visual glitches.
So, today, marketplace customers are beeing punished, despite having provided more income to MS…
Strange…

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If think if you add up to some people’s addons, it’s like way more then what they paid for the premium/aviator edition. It’s such a crucial part of the experience!

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I don’t get this either. Many of us under 2020 were reluctant to purchase from the MP because of various reasons, but after this, even years from now I know I’ll think twice before doing it and will (unless unavailable elsewhere) by externally.

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well I came across several payware airports that had issues in 2024. Especially small one often have two sets of building - default and payware - over each other, and some have terraforming issues. Also there seem to have been instances with marketplace scenery causing CTDs. Therefore MSFS2020 scenery is currently disabled and the issue is under investigation.
For me it’s another argument against the marketplace.

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I was (am) HEAVILY CPU-limited in 2020. The streaming actually makes a huge difference, as I think the CPU is required to track/move less data between your hard drive and memory than in the old sim. That’s my theory, at least. Some evidence is that if I load in with a local-drive-based aircraft in a local-drive-based airport, the performance drops by 10fps or so. I think that’s reflecting that more data needs to move when you’re using community folder items.

Also, I think DX12 is way more optimized in the new sim, such that DLSS provides more of a benefit for me now.

Honestly, it was shocking to me how much better the new sim ran when I first fired it up. I expected it to run horribly, and figured I’d be staying on 2020 until I could build myself a better computer. My laptop runs the new sim swimmingly (so far), and I think I don’t need a hardware upgrade (yet).

I will say - I have FiOS internet, which gives me a very reliable, relatively fast internet connection. (I don’t have the top-end data plan - I have 100mps up/down - but I may be forced to upgrade to 300/300 due to Verizon retiring my model of cable box). I think that makes a big difference, too.

Edit: I did have a ton of mods in 2020 - usually around 900 active at any given time. I’m getting these far improved speeds with about 700 active in 2024, so while it does have some impact (5-10fps I think), 2024 still comes out way ahead.

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BTW - I am furious about this as well. While I have dozens and dozens of add-on airports from FS.to and third-party sources, my most-used airports (by far) are all Marketplace buys. And I can’t use them, even though they were all working just fine before Asobo pulled the plug.

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What I think is happening is that LOD limits are enforced a lot more in MSFS 2024 in an attempt to cure performance issues. This may put many addons that worked perfectly in MSFS 2020 into an unacceptable state. While we all hoped for a more seamless transition, there are parts of the new sim that need to be accounted for which requires more work.

I believe they will release more addons as each proves that it will not negatively impact sim performance.

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The worst of all is that the marketplace is also grayed out in msfs2020. All my bought airports are not shown in the game. Is that so for all users or do I have a problem?

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Yes, it’s that way for all users.

They found a lot of issues with scenery and how it interacts with the sim.
I think in going through all the airports, i.e. MSFScenery products, they realized how poorly so many were developed, and that, while the airports might not cause CTD’s on their own, when in combination with others, they will. Also, a ton of authors had no idea how to manage Airport Services (They didn’t pay attention to the fact that capilization matters in the AirportServices directory name for instance), and that broke services for a whole installation. These are just a couple of problem areas, there’s more.

IOW, there’s tons of problems with Marketplace airports that Asobo didn’t realize, so they’re working through trying to figure out how to make them all work I imagine, or they’ll be right back to CTD fest. Especially because FS2024 is a lot more strict now with things like the file size term in layout.json and many other things.

In any event, Jorg said they pulled the Marketplace on purpose, and the scenery in particular, so they could “fix some issues”. He originally thought it would be back on in mid-December. I think in the last stream it’s now “indefinite”.

I’m glad I made the choice long ago, for a whole host of reasons, to not purchase from the Marketplace. Managing my addons is a royal pain for that, but, at least I can manage them, fix issues like those I listed above, and, in 2020 keep my library organized.

Another pet peeve: Now my aircraft library organization is completely out the window in 2024. There seems to be a couple of bugs that are causing planes to be out of place (there’s no way to get livery packages to be placed as a livery of an existing variant), and, the aircraft.cfg files are not accessible to us, and they have critical information that we would need to reorganize the library if we want to. And I don’t think the SDK team understands the consequences of that for users. I think their attitude is 3rd party products are beyond their control, and therefore they’re not responsible for the mess that 3rd party products will make of the organization of the library (even though the concept for how the library is organized and what control we have over it is in their hands).

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I just play 2020 where my stuff works and my experience isn’t full of default airports.

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Thanks for your respone. I posted my marketplace grayout issue and I also received this response:
There is this support article:
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017006900-How-to-fix-a-grayed-out-Marketplace-tile.
I suppose this doesn’t help as you said that this is an issue for all of us (msfs2020).
Could not check it out as my internet has problems and even all aircraft are not shown the place to choose aircraft is completely black except when I first start the sim but some bougth aircraft as PC-12 and Tecnam 12 are not there. When I go to data or any other site in msfs2020 and come back to choose a plane, all is black…
I do not think this is normal even if internet is not working…

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Well, I’m not sure what you’re wondering is normal, but, yes, it’s normal that the SWS PC-12 and Tecnam 2012 to not be showing. The Carenado PC-12 might be available, or, might not. I don’t have that plane, so I can’t say.

There aren’t many Marketplace planes showing up currently. They’re starting too, but very, very few. All the Standard/Deluxe/Premium/LL/FF planes, however, should be available to you.

The black library view you’re saying is not normal.

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It seems some things have been undisabled. Is this the start of the revival of 2024??…