Why are buildings or autogen missing in Prepar3D?
Buildings or autogen disappear in Prepar3D when the Scenery Complexity or Autogen settings are too low, a photoreal layer lacks autogen annotations, an exclusion suppresses objects, or scenery files, libraries, textures or indexes are damaged. First determine whether the loss affects every location or only one add-on area; that distinction identifies the likely cause.
How do I restore missing buildings in Prepar3D?
Restore missing buildings by testing the relevant display settings first, then checking scenery activation, package contents and layer conflicts. Autogen Building Density controls generated houses and commercial buildings, while Scenery Complexity controls many placed objects such as terminals and hangars. A custom airport terminal is usually a scenery object, not autogen.
The setting names vary slightly between Prepar3D generations. Autogen and Scenery Draw Distance also matters when buildings appear nearby but vanish unusually early.
| Symptom | Likely cause | First test |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings are absent almost everywhere | Autogen Building Density, default content or generated configuration | Test a default city with medium or higher building density |
| Only one photoreal area is empty | Missing .agn annotations or an intentional exclusion | Disable that imagery layer and reload the area |
| Runways show but terminals do not | Scenery Complexity, missing object BGL, library dependency or layer conflict | Disable the airport add-on and check whether default buildings return |
| Buildings appear only at short range | Autogen and scenery draw distance | Raise the draw-distance setting one step |
| Building shapes exist but are grey, black or untextured | Missing or damaged texture files | Check the package's texture path and repair its content |
- Establish the scope. Load a default airport near a built-up area, preferably one not covered by third-party scenery. If buildings appear there, the global Prepar3D installation is probably sound and the fault belongs to the affected add-on or region.
- Test the three relevant sliders. Set Autogen Building Density and Scenery Complexity to a middle or higher value, then use a moderate Autogen and Scenery Draw Distance. Reload the flight or restart Prepar3D before deciding that the change failed. There is no need to maximise every slider for this diagnosis.
- Confirm that the scenery is enabled. Legacy installations normally use the Scenery Library, while package-based installations rely on add-on discovery and an
add-on.xmldefinition. A listed package can still fail if its paths point to folders that were moved or renamed. Do not register the same scenery through both systems. - Isolate exclusions and layer order. Disable the affected airport, regional imagery and landclass layers one at a time, restarting the simulator after each change. If default buildings return when one layer is disabled, that layer contains an exclusion or has priority over the scenery supplying the objects.
- Check all package components. A scenery BGL may place objects supplied by a separate library BGL, with textures stored elsewhere. Missing that library can leave an empty site even though the main scenery file is active. If the package is incomplete, use only scenery and autogen packages explicitly offered for Prepar3D; copying unrelated FSX libraries into P3D can create another conflict.
- Rebuild indexes only after checking the above. A stale scenery index can preserve an old path or prevent an updated BGL from appearing, but deleting configuration files indiscriminately also removes working settings and add-on registrations.
Why does photoreal scenery remove autogen?
Photoreal scenery supplies ground imagery, but it does not automatically generate buildings over that imagery. Default landclass-driven autogen can therefore disappear unless the package includes matching .agn annotation files or separately placed scenery objects.
The annotation files normally accompany the imagery's texture assets and are tied to specific geographic cells. Renaming or borrowing unrelated .agn files is not a valid fix because the buildings will be misplaced or ignored. For comparison, this photoreal Hawaii package combines imagery with airports and placed buildings, illustrating the extra content required beyond the aerial image itself.
If the add-on documentation describes only imagery, empty-looking towns may be a limitation of the package rather than an installation fault. A texture enhancement also cannot create buildings where no autogen annotations or object placements exist.
Why are airport buildings missing but runways remain?
Runways and buildings can come from different BGL files, so one can load while the other fails. Airport packages often exclude the default terminal before placing their replacement; if the replacement BGL, model library or texture folder is missing, the result is a working runway surrounded by empty ground.
Disable the airport add-on and restart Prepar3D. If the default terminal returns, the exclusion is working but the replacement content is not. Check for a missing library dependency, an incorrect package path, duplicate airport files and a higher-priority regional layer covering the same airport.
If the terminal returns after raising Scenery Complexity, no file repair is needed. Keep that slider at the lowest setting that displays the required objects and still provides acceptable performance.
When should I rebuild scenery indexes or repair P3D?
Rebuild Prepar3D's scenery indexes when correct activation and layer changes are being ignored, or when scenery remains visible after its package has been disabled. Close the simulator first, preserve working configuration files and follow our terrain and scenery-index troubleshooting steps rather than deleting arbitrary Prepar3D folders.
Repair the simulator when default buildings are missing across several untouched areas with all third-party scenery disabled. Use installer components matching the exact installed Prepar3D release and repair the Content and Scenery components as appropriate; repairing only the client may not replace missing models, textures or default scenery. Back up modified default files because a repair can overwrite them.