February Developer Stream: Closed for Questions

[CaptShawarma]

Points of Interest:

The Scenery Gateway Sustem feature request was primarily for world POI enhancements by the community in addition to airport enhancements.

Right now, only making amends to airports are allowed.

Are there any plans in the future where the scenery gateway system will allow for world POI enhancements as well? (With very tight rules on the 3D objects being simple)

Example: I want to correct the way an Iconic building looks in my city. Can I update it with a new 3D object?

[ady7970]

WU New Zealand Weather:

Will Asobo be adding additional NZ METAR sources to FS2020 as part of this update? It’s such a shame to be lacking everything except NZWN, NZAA and NZCH.

[BroughtSinger97]

Hello,

Airports:
I also wonder why the Taxiway Signs are not there or incorrect, even on bigger Airporrts.
All data are available in the Navdata files.
Also the Gates are mostly wrong named in the default Airports.
That is also a big Problem when using ATC like Vatsim.

Can this please be fixed ?
Another Flightsims have it also out of the Box, so it should be possible.

Thanks
Matthias

[zaelu1702]

Airports - many have their jetways doubled or cut out from the building. Is this a known bug and work is done for it?

POI - most of them are misplaced by kilometers - any info if is logged bug and work to solve it is underway? (I fly mostly in south of France but I’ve seen same issue in other places too ie Scotland, Himalaya, New Zeeland )

POI. Any plans for adding controls for toggle POIs and Cities Markers etc On/Off like we have now for Player labels, CFD, Taxiway, etc?

[N316TS]

Airports:

Okay, this question is similar to this Q&A question about Kai Tak. Maybe they could be asked together, if they get asked.

KJFK has an unusual approach lighting system for the Canarsie approach, with a couple of extra “rabbits” along the way. You can see the video here:

Follow the lights to the runway! New York JFK 13L approach and landing!

This is not “eye candy”, but instead a navigational aid when doing this visual approach.

As KJFK is a bespoke airport, are there any plans to support unusual approach lighting systems such as these?

Bug report here:

There are no leading lights "Rabbit" JFK Canarsie Approach, to RWY 13L

There are no leading lights “Rabbit” JFK Canarsie Approach, to RWY 13L on MSFS 2020! Sad!!! : ( Ed

[N316TS]

Airports:

Runway approach lighting in real life is directional. In the sim, you can see approach lighting from any angle and from very far away, often making it way too easy to find an airport in the sim compared to real life.

I cannot speak for the rest of the world, but the FAA has documentation on the visibility of various approach lights here:

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap3_section_4.html

Conversely, airport beacons, which should be visible from very far away so that you can distinguish airports from other ground lights at night, are only visible within a few nm of the field.

FAA documentation of airport beacons is available in this advisory circular. Viewing distances are not given, but bulb intensity is (see page 8):

https://www.faa.gov/airports/resources/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.current/documentNumber/150_5345-12

What is the plan to correct these lighting distances?

Runway approach lights - should be directional

It is not realistic that one can see the runway approach lights when one is 90 degrees off (or greater) from the alignment of the runway. They are FAR too prominent from a great distance, especially if not lined up with the runway, and this is not at all realistic. I think you’ve enabled it so the VASI/PAPI lights on runways are directional - that should be the case with the approach lights as well.

Unrealistic airport lighting distances

Title says it all, breaking down the issues as follows: Approach and REIL lights are way too visible (bright) and visible from too far way. In real life, it’s very difficult to find an airport, especially in cityscapes where there are a lot of lights. In the picture attached, the distance to that airport is over 20nm away (look just below the wing, can see the approach and REILs). You would never be able to see these lights at that distance. Conversely, have noticed that the airport beacon…

[Vicgames2000]

Airport:

Guarulhos International Airport (SBGR) is the busiest airport in Brazil. Both runways designations has not yet been updated with the new runways headings 10L/10R and 28L/28R which is causing problems with navigation data, will be updated?

[Loris0513]

Hello,

Airports:

Any news about white squares around airports when it has custom aerials? Thank you.

[Bendead]

POI :

Would it be possible to turn POIs and other things off, on the world map and SAVE this setting.

It can be very tricky to find an airport in Europe for exemple and going into the menu every time is boresome.

[WombiiActual]

Sometimes when arriving at an airport, especially terraformed airports, runway and taxiway lights are above or below the terrain. One cause seems to be that the lights are loaded and locked into position while low quality terrain is still active at the airport, before you get close enough for the high quality terrain to load.
Will this be as hard to fix as I suspect it is?
( Floating Runway lights - PC & Xbox - #50 by WombiiActual )

[DrVenkman3876]

Airports:

There are numerous reports scattered around the Forum here about “broken” or “orphaned” jetways. Essentially, the middle segment of the jetway disappears, leaving the aircraft-end segment and the terminal-attached segments in place. This seems to be LOD-related, and generally (not always) occurs upon arrival at a destination airport, but not if/when one spawns into that same airport as the departure airport. Have the developers acknowledged this issue and/or identified a cause?

[Jummivana]

Hi all! Thank you for posting your questions the past several days as well as filling out feedback on Missions and Localization. I am going through everything today and will review with the three of them tomorrow, so I will leave the threads open for one more day if you have anything else you’d like to add!

[XeOperator]

Airports

1. It appears that airports with multiple comm frequencies for a particular function (e.g ground, tower) only have one in use in MSFS by ATC. Will airports have allocated comm frequencies to specific locations/areas on the airport? Example. KATL. has 3 ground frequencies and 5 Tower frequencies allocated by runway.
2. There are several airports that have uneven terrain along taxiways, ramps etc. e.g. KDEN and KPIT which can cause damage to aircraft. Are there plans to address this?
3. Are there any plans to further develop airport ground services (better pushback UI, deicers, etc.) beyond what we currently have?
4. Any plans to add additional locations at airports to request taxi instructions to (runup area, deice pad, named ramps and FBO’s)?
5. Will pilot controlled lighting be added to the sim?
6. Does any of the data received from NavBlue AIRAC updates contain airport information such as runway designations, airport ICAO code and name, frequencies, etc. or is it all IAP related?

[EnsiFerrum666]

Airports:

Better PushBack Controll (There are a lot of apps on flightsim.to, but only for PC)
Remove the crazy cars, trucks, busses, etc. from taxiways and runways
Remove high obstacles (like trees) in the glidepath

[FlashedUnicorn1]

Given the plethora of some issues with existing airports would it not make sense to have a dedicated 3rd party team (like Working Title but not them as they don’t do modelling ) that would examine and bring stock airports into a review and fixing issues where they existed ie runway signs, frequencies, and other issues against a set criteria of what to examine and fix?

I also agree with a suggestion above of removing third party airports from the Marketplace as newcomers to MSFS would inevitably blame MSFS for issues with an airport rather than the third party. It seems grossly unfair that a newcomer to MSFS purchasing an airport on the marketplace which then causes issues with their purchase of MSFS

[Saurer01]

Airports:
during rain or fog the whole airport gets shrouded in mist, except for glass textures, resulting in glass panels visible through fog or rain, even though the rest of the airport is shrouded or even invisible. Why can’t glass be made invisible too in these conditions?

[EnsiFerrum666]

Airports:

Make the marker where you start (or end) your flight smaller, please.
Or better, update the complete UI.

[Speedbrake22]

Airports:

Are there plans to add pilot controlled approach lights to airports that have them IRL?

Pilot-controlled lighting

---

(another one, but there is a post limit which is annoying, feel free to split so separate votes can be cast)

Airports:

Are there plans to fix approach lights on airports, so that only approach lights for the runways that are currently in use are enabled and the others are off?

---

Airports:

Approach lights are too bright. Airports are too visible during the night. In real life this is not (always?) the case. See for example this video where the surroundings are much brighter than the actual runway lights.

---

Airports:

When selecting a gate for departure on the world map, the UI moves slightly so the departure point is put next to where the gate is which makes it a departure in the air instead of from the ground. This has been introduced in one of the latest updates. Is the team aware of this bug and will this be fixed soon?