It’s been over 2 and a half years since MaccoSim, at the time a brand new developer new to the game of making sceneries for Microsoft Flight Simulator, released their rendition of Manchester Airport (EGCC). Since then they have released more airports including Birmingham and Cancun in Mexico. To this day their Manchester Airport scenery is still a hugely popular product, although we knew a big update has been coming for a while.
The lid on that has now finally been lifted with the team’s codenamed “Massive Update Plan”. In a message sent via the developer’s newsletter and Discord channel, Maxx (one of the team at MaccoSim) confirmed that the team has now finally been given permission from the MAG team at the real Manchester Airport to conduct an access-all-areas tour of the field, which will provide them with plenty of opportunities to gather reference imagery for the big update.
Discussing why this update is necessary, Maxx writes: “From the very beginning, we wanted to make the airport feel as real as possible. Granted, EGCC was developed very soon after the launch of MSFS2020, it is now very much due for an update, but this time using actual reference imagery. This visit will allow us to fill in the gaps which were previously unknown or a mystery, see progress on any construction work, and accurately depict textures and models.”
The update is going to cover practically every detail of the airport from the tower, to the stands, to the textures and landside. Maxx even goes as far as to say that 90% of the current airport will be “thrown in the bin”, adding “As sad as this is for us, we want to do it properly”.
The full changelog of things the team are aspiring to include in the update is as follows:
- Custom satellite imagery throughout the entire airport and surrounding areas
- Real airport textures, and increase in texture detail
- New ground textures, making use of PBR, adding more detail, edges, repairs, weathering, and more accuracy
- More custom Jetway variations
- Land-side ground textures (materials, painted lines, roads, car parks etc)
- Long stay car parks with custom vehicle models
- Full optimization of every 3D object and building
- 5 LODs (levels of detail) for a much better performance
- Addition of new multi-storey carparks
- Full re-modelling and re-texturing of all terminals
- Full re-modelling and re-texturing of ATC tower, STS (formerly Thomas Cook) hangar, fire station, hotels, Signature
- Addition of Train Station, train tracks, and animated trains
- Addition of other landside buildings (warehouses, offices, etc)
- Fully modelled interiors
- Animated passengers
- Fully modelled landside
- Fixing and adding new remote stands (north of airfield)
- New immersive lighting
- Major increase in ground-level details (signs, people, dirt, fences, bollards, posts, doors etc)
- New fire training area
- RVP (Runway Visitor Park) to be fully modelled
- Add-on to have optional ‘less ground clutter’ version
- Full AI traffic integration
- GSX profile to be maintained, and distributed in add-on download
- New, more immersive night lighting
- Smaller objects to be scanned from real world airport object
Finally, the team confirms that due to the sheer scale of this update, there will be regular updates on progress rather than long periods of radio silence. Once a finalised plan has been put together (presumably following the team’s visit to the real airport), more details on that will be shared.
FSElite will continue to keep you updated on the progress of MaccoSim’s EGCC update when we have more information.
