What are the best MSFS scenery add-ons?
The best Microsoft Flight Simulator scenery add-ons are targeted upgrades for places you genuinely fly: Honolulu and Oahu for island VFR, Yosemite or Monument Valley for terrain sightseeing, and an improved airport such as KGCN for realistic operations. Choose by coverage, simulator compatibility, performance cost and conflicts—not screenshot appeal alone.
Best MSFS scenery add-ons by flying style
These are our strongest scenery picks for distinct types of flying rather than minor cosmetic changes.
| Scenery | Best for | Why it stands out | Check before installing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad Honolulu and Oahu regional overhaul | Island VFR and city flying | Covers Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki and a substantial part of Oahu with improved terrain and high-resolution photogrammetry. | Broad coverage makes it more demanding than a single-airport package. Avoid overlapping Honolulu or Oahu scenery. |
| Detailed Yosemite Valley terrain upgrade | Mountain sightseeing | Improves major features including El Capitan, Half Dome, Glacier Point and the valley's waterfalls. | Other terrain or mesh packages covering Yosemite can produce seams or elevation conflicts. |
| Refined Monument Valley mesh and ground textures | Desert VFR | Gives the famous buttes and mesas clearer shape and definition than the broad default terrain. | Use one terrain replacement for the area at a time, especially if another package edits elevation data. |
| Upgraded KGCN airport package | Grand Canyon departures and arrivals | Corrects taxiways and improves aprons, buildings, signs and ground activity at the main sightseeing base. | This upgrades the airport, not the whole Grand Canyon. Pair it only with regional scenery that does not also replace KGCN. |
For dense urban VFR, the enhanced City of Dallas pack is a better fit than a wilderness terrain package. Zion Canyon scenery is the more suitable alternative when the aim is close canyon flying around landmarks such as Angels Landing and the East Temple.
Which type of MSFS scenery should you choose?
Choose scenery according to the part of the flight you want to improve, because airport, city and terrain packages solve different problems.
- Airport scenery: Best when you repeatedly operate from the same field and care about correct taxiways, parking positions, signs, aprons and terminal buildings. It normally does little for the surrounding region.
- City and landmark scenery: Best for low-level VFR, helicopters and recognisable skylines. Dense custom buildings or photogrammetry can increase storage use, loading time and rendering demand.
- Terrain and mesh scenery: Best for mountains, valleys, coastlines and canyons where the shape of the ground matters. Overlapping elevation packages are a common cause of cliffs, trenches and runway steps.
- Regional scenery: Best for an entire route rather than one destination. It provides broader visual consistency but creates more opportunities for overlap with other installed packages.
What makes a scenery add-on worth installing?
A worthwhile MSFS scenery add-on improves something visible or operational without introducing conflicts that outweigh the benefit.
- Confirm simulator compatibility. Check whether the package names Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 or both. Do not assume that every 2020 package is fully compatible with 2024.
- Check the exact coverage. Two packages with different names may still edit the same airport, city or terrain tile. Keep only one replacement active for each feature unless the documentation explicitly says they work together.
- Look for operational improvements. At airports, accurate taxiways, parking, lighting and elevation matter more than decorative vehicles. For VFR scenery, distinctive terrain and landmarks should be visible from normal flying altitude.
- Read the dependency list. Some freeware uses objects supplied by an official World Update or a separate object library. Missing dependencies can leave buildings absent or textures pink and chequered.
- Match the performance cost to your flying. A large photogrammetry region makes sense for regular local flights, but not if it adds loading and stuttering around an area you rarely visit.
Will MSFS 2020 scenery work in MSFS 2024?
Some MSFS 2020 scenery works in MSFS 2024, but compatibility is not automatic and should be confirmed for each package.
Simple landmark and airport packages may load correctly, while terrain replacements, materials, navigation data and packages tied to older default assets are more likely to show problems. Keep the Community folders for the two simulators separate and do not copy an entire 2020 add-on collection into 2024 without testing it in small batches.
Manual Community-folder scenery is a PC option. Xbox installations cannot use ordinary downloaded package folders; console users need scenery supplied through the simulator's supported in-sim distribution system.
How do you install and test MSFS scenery safely?
Install one scenery package at a time, confirm that it loads correctly, and only then add another package covering the same region.
- Extract the downloaded archive. Do not place the ZIP or other compressed archive directly in the Community folder.
- Find the actual package folder. The folder containing
manifest.jsonandlayout.jsonbelongs in Community. A frequent mistake is leaving that folder nested inside an extra wrapper directory. - Use the correct Community folder. Its location varies with the simulator edition, installation source and any custom package path. Never put freeware packages inside the Official folder.
- Check requirements. Install any stated official content or object-library dependency before loading the scenery.
- Restart the simulator and inspect the area. Test the airport or landmark in clear daylight so missing objects, duplicate buildings and elevation faults are easy to identify.
- Add other packages gradually. If a problem appears, remove the last addition first rather than reinstalling the simulator.
Why is installed scenery missing or broken?
Most scenery failures come from the wrong folder depth, an unmet dependency, an incompatible simulator version or two packages editing the same location.
- No visible change: Verify that
manifest.jsonandlayout.jsonare directly inside the package folder and that you used the Community folder belonging to the simulator installation you launched. - Missing buildings or pink textures: Re-extract the archive and check for required object libraries or official content packages.
- Double terminals, runways or landmarks: Disable the other add-on covering that airport or location. A handcrafted default airport and a third-party replacement can also overlap.
- Terrain spikes, trenches or raised runways: Remove competing mesh, terrain and airport-elevation packages until only one product controls the affected ground.
- Crashes after adding scenery: Move the suspect package out of Community and test again. With a large collection, remove half the add-ons, retest, and repeat with the affected half until the incompatible package is isolated.