Overview

FSCloudPort was created as a free community service to simplify the process of building airports for the AeroFlyFS2 Flight Simulator and to easily share those airports via the cloud. This guide provides a brief overview. Full documentation can be obtained from the IPACS website. Airport downloads contain only the airport models without scenery or autogen buildings/cultivation. For freeware scenery and cultivation try Freeware Scenery for FS2.     Version 1.0 : Released 29^th March 2018

Downloading an Airport

There are currently well over 2,000 airports across 100+ countries in FSCloudPort which you can download right now. There is no need for a login to do this, simply click the appropriate country and zoom in to see if a particular airport exists. If it does, click the airport flag and you can instantly download it as a zip file containing everything you need (see limitations below). The download page explains what to download and where to place the files so that the airport is added to FS2. All airports have been created by the user community so airports have been "built" to varying degrees. The simplest airport possible includes a control tower, modelled runway(s) and parking spaces. Once added to FS2, the airport will show up on the navigation screen and it can be flown from though it may not have any airport buildings other than the tower. More built up airports have a darker orange flag and include airport buildings and static aircraft.

Comparison with Commercial Scenery

There are 3 limitations to be aware of when using airports from FSCloudPort (FSCP).

1. These are not commercial quality models built to exactly match the airport but generic airport buildings placed to match the footprint and hopefully building type. Modellers can however add to the airports with additional custom buildings
2. Airports do not include terrain scenery / ortho photos. If you download an airport that is not in an area covered by existing high resolution scenery then your airport will appear on a ground terrain that looks like blurry pixel soup. To obtain high res scenery please try Aeroscenery. Cultivation/autogen is another category of building which does not come with an FSCP building.
3. FSCP uses a pre-generation approach to enable the rapid creation of airports without the need for 3D modelling tools. Tens of thousands of object models were created in advance and the airport configuration (TSC) file positions each object individually. A major limitation results from this approach, which is that runways cannot at present overlap. If they did overlap the terrain flattening mesh of one runway would corrupt the adjacent runway. It is intended to overcome this limitation in a future update to FSCP. The interim solution is that some runways are excluded from the ZIP file download to prevent cross-over.

Creating New Airports

You need a login to create airports. Prior to public launch airports were created by a small group of IPACS forum members who participated in alpha testing. The current version v1.0 should be considered a beta release and during this phase it is being extended to a maximum of 30 users. This limitation is needed to allow the administrators of FSCP to refine administration procedures especially during this beta phase. To request a login you need to be a member of the IPACS forum and should send a PM to Spit40 including your Steam ID.

FAQs

[1] I want to create an airport, how do I get a login account?

IPACS forum members should send a PM to Spit40 including their Steam ID. Accounts will be limited at various stages to ensure the administration workload is manageable. There is a separate tutorial FSCloudPort: Creating Airports available from the IPACS website and a YouTube video Introduction to FSCloudPort.

[2] Can I bulk download all the airports or all the airports in one country?

Bulk download is not currently available. The in-browser ZIP creation technology is not capable of supporting large numbers of airports but other approaches are being worked on.

[3] When will runway cross-over problems be solved?

The current preferred option requires additional (hopefully small) development by IPACS which is under discussion.

[4] Where are the taxiways / aprons / extended thresholds?

The current version does not support these. They are on the list to be added as soon as possible.

[5] Sometimes runways look odd with triangles of different shades - Why?

The same issue which causes runway cross-over conflicts can also affect runways which are close to each other due to terrain flattening. Until a better solution is implemented the only alternative is to exclude one of the runways by commenting it out in the TSC file.

[6] Can I request new features?

Please use the IPACS forum Developer Discussions General and Aircraft

[7] What is the option "Click for Basic TSC"?

This option provides a prototype TSC file, similar to the normal one, to be employed when an experienced user wants to do a 3D modelling of the airport using the appropriate 3D tools.

[8] How can I ask questions or get more support?

Please use the IPACS forum Developer Discussions General and Aircraft

[9] How is this free?

FSCP was created by IPACS forum member Spit40.

Credits

Created by IPACS forum member Spit40 with substantial assistance from a small group of forum members edpatino, Gooseno1, Ian C, JetJockey10, KJKSimmer, larrylynx, Oldar, pmb, Rodeo and last but far from least TomSimMuc.

Terms of Use, Privacy and Copyright

The content and works published on this website are governed by the copyright laws of the United Kingdom. Any duplication, processing, distribution or any form of utilisation beyond the scope of copyright law shall require the prior written consent of the author.

No personally identifiable information is stored by this website service. We do not use cookies for any other purpose than access control and we do not share information with third parties. We do use Google Maps to provide a summary view of airports and to power the editor. Google has its own terms and conditions and privacy policy which you should read in addition to these terms. A link to Google’s terms of use is shown at the bottom of every Google Map.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and we ask everyone using this service to do the same. Anyone who believes that their work has been reproduced in FSCloudPort in a way that constitutes copyright infringement should notify us at the address below.

Phil Hulme (Spit40) [email protected]cloudport.com