In the video, Sven Mestas, lead game designer at French studio Asobo reveals the astonishing work done by its airport team, which expanded on the 24,000 simulated airports in 2006’s FSX, to the hugely ambitious target set for this year’s game.
Expect to see airports of all types, from small countryside airstrips to iconic international airports, from airports nestled in small islands to airports adjacent to cities. Airports shown in the video include the Szombathely Airfield in Bulgaria, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Aspen Pitkin County Airport.
The developers used a three-step process and a specially created tool to edit the thousands of airports in the game. First up, the developers trace logical elements straight onto the Bing aerial view map (yes, Bing – this is Microsoft after all). Then they draw the airport perimeter, followed by the runway, defining taxiways and placing parking spots according to real world data.
Secondly, the developers define surfaces. And finally, post-processing is automatically applied via algorithm.