How great would an in-game livery color selector be?!

Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Wishlist
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I came across this interface online for the ACA Scout, and thought Why isn’t something like this in the game? A simple “color-by-number” editor:

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With this, the devs don’t have to make 37 liveries for their planes, only the different styles. Players could bring this interface up in the Configure section and save their color preferences. In multiplayer, the chosen color variables can be seen by others easily. Also for parked aircraft, the sim could randomize colors for some variety at airports

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A simple custom paint job (simply manipulating colors within existing patterns) for personal aircraft seems like a no-brainer QoL improvement. Variety like that would probably go a long way toward satisfying folks’ desire to have a little personal flair.

As far as applying it to static/AI aircraft on the ramp, I’m a little more mixed on the idea. Truth is aircraft paint jobs are fairly standardized from major manufacturers, but give a 10% chance or so to have a “custom” color and I’m on board. Or maybe just the secondary color (stripes, etc) is the thing that’s customized on those.

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I agree on not recoloring standardized liveries.. in aircraft.cfg there is a flag canBeUsedByAITraffic so there could also be canBeColorized

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Absolutely love this idea — full support. A built-in “color-by-number” style livery editor would be a huge quality-of-life improvement for both developers and users.

In fact American Champion has this built right into their website for new “Scout” owners to pick and choose their own livery AND colors upon order-

Instead of packaging 30+ liveries, developers could just include a few preset paint schemes (like Double Sunray, Tapered Stripe, etc.), and the sim could handle user customization from there.

Here’s how something like this could work in MSFS 2024:

  • Paint Scheme Templates: Each livery style ships as a base model with masked regions for 2–3 color slots.
  • Color Pickers: A simple UI panel (built into the aircraft customization screen) would let users assign colors to each region — using a palette or hex codes.
  • Tail & Detail Options: Toggle options for things like tail logos, checkerboard patterns, spinner colors, or flipping stripe orientations.
  • Runtime Material System: The sim engine reads the user’s choices and applies the colors using dynamic materials or decal layers. No need to generate full texture sets per combo.
  • Multiplayer Compatibility: Rather than syncing full livery textures, MSFS could just sync paint scheme ID and color values. That keeps bandwidth light but preserves visual consistency between players.
  • AI Variety: Parked aircraft could automatically randomize within valid color presets for a more diverse and realistic ramp environment.

It wouldn’t require every third-party dev to reinvent the wheel — just supply clean UVs and scheme masks. The rest could be handled by a shared Microsoft UI framework built into the sim’s aircraft config screen.

Would love to see something like this considered for MSFS 2024 or beyond.

— Nick
Hangar Studios 713

Here is an example of a clean UV map

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Then add some real Livery Flair and add some color and make sections selectable by number(color) and there you have it!

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Just to build on this idea even further:

With MSFS 2024’s new decal/texture layering system, devs can also integrate dynamic grime, dirt, smudges, rain spots, and mud on top of the customizable livery colors. That means even with a clean “paint-by-number” UI, the aircraft can still look lived-in and weathered over time — and it’s already supported!

:light_bulb: Think of it like this:

  • Player chooses a clean color scheme via UI (e.g., red/white/black).
  • Sim applies real-time wear layers — dirt streaks, rain stains, grime around panel lines — depending on usage, weather, or time since last wash.
  • You get fully customizable liveries and immersive visual storytelling without any new texture sets.

It’s modular, efficient, and doesn’t bloat packages with redundant files. Just one clean set of masks and a few material-driven decal maps = endless combinations that evolve as you fly.

The system is already here — just needs a unified implementation approach. Huge potential for player engagement and realism.

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100% Yes on this one.

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I’d go even further and wish for a livery editor like in Forza Horizon. Filled with decals and stickers, different colors and paint types to fully customize my livery.

But I do wonder how they could handle only some planes being able to be painted. I don’t think this could work out of the box for all planes, especially 3rd party. Maybe have the editor accessible in the livery selection menu and a disclaimer for non compatible planes explaining why it’s not available?