Max, the Art Director at iniBuilds, is first to provide a significant developer update since iniBuilds revealed their new A340 Airliner project for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Let’s see what we learn!

Focused on the art of the A340

We’ve learned a fair bit about iniBuilds efforts to bring the A340 Airliner to MSFS 2024. The aircraft is being built entirely for 2024 and is making use of a variety of new technologies available within the sim to make the project work.

One of the first standout mentions in the update is word that the team are looking to preserve VRAM as much as possible with this project and are using the sim’s decals and specifically the decal based liveries to paint the aircraft. The new sim’s modular systems, level of detail control, and other refinements are all reportedly aimed at improving performance. This is all, hopefully, a good sign as iniBuilds airliners have been traditionally quite heavy on system resources.

The aircraft is going to feature things like dynamic wear visuals as well as physical and systems based features like dynamic break pin wear and tire wear (features we’ve seen in the A300 and other projects).

The aircraft is going to focus a fair bit on interactivity with ground walkaround features going above and beyond the basics giving users the opportunity to check out the ground power panel, fuel loading and coupling, and cargo control panels.

Inside the aircraft, they are offering both the EIS1 and EIS2 variants of the Airbus cockpit. EIS1 will be the more classic look which includes CRT displays while EIS2 will feature a more familiar (to most of us) LCD screens. No word if there will be system differences to match.

Another interesting feature is the move to a shader based engine spinning animation which reportedly offers multiple advantages over the older style of texture and model based spinners. It does come with the caveat that it currently spins in the wrong direction for the CFM56 but iniBuilds seem confident that Microsoft will offer an option to spin in the other direction in a future Sim Update.

The “Preighter” version

Interesting note from iniBuilds is word that they will be featuring a cabin mod that includes the seats removed for what they are calling the “preighter” version. Some A340s were reportedly configured this way with the ability to put the seats back in but, when removed, can be used as a more makeshift style freighter. iniBuilds will feature visual options that include car parts, live animals, food and medical supplies.

Future updates

Unsurprisingly, iniBuilds visual work on the A340 Airliner appears to be outstanding and making full use of the latest technologies in MSFS 2024. The developer is going to need to come to the table with this latest project showing that they are able to improve the performance of their aircraft while keeping the visual fidelity but what I hear does sound encouraging.

Their next update will be systems focused so it’ll be interesting to learn a little more about what they plan to do there.

Read the full update from iniBuilds right over here!