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MSFS 2024 Native Aircraft: Why Your Favourite Add-On Still Isn’t There

2. May 2026 14:34

Bluebird Simulation aircraft ported to MSFS 2024 - image 2

By SimDispatch.de | May 2026

Have you ever wondered why it took so long for your favourite third-party airliner to show up in MSFS 2024? Especially given that Microsoft promised near-seamless compatibility? Most aircraft are there now, including Fenix, A2A, PMDG and many others. But the road was longer and messier than anyone was sold on. Comment sections along the way were full of frustration, accusations of laziness, and the occasional conspiracy theory. But what if the developers were simply telling the truth?

The context here is BlueBird Simulations‘ long-awaited Boeing 757, being published through Just Flight at $80 for the full package covering both the -200 and -300 with Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney engine variants. BlueBird’s CEO Shervin Ahooraei recently confirmed the aircraft has entered Stage 2 of a three-phase beta. Nice, but the MSFS 2024 version will be compatible but not yet native at launch, with a fully native build following later as a free update. Later. Somewhere between months and Nirvana. Ahooraei explained the why in a comment thread. He describes a conversion process that is “needlessly tedious and complex,” with folder counts potentially tripling. The community responded with scepticism.

Having spent time in the SDK documentation and developer forums, the frustration makes a lot more sense than the community is giving it credit for. But it also deserves some context, because plenty of developers have already made the jump.

many aircrafts in MSFS2024, but issues for 3rd party developers thansk to a different architecture in comparison to MSFS2020

Others Have Done It. So What’s the Problem?

Fair question. Fenix Simulations delivered its A320 update for MSFS 2024 free of charge. Just Flight updated its entire catalogue without charging existing owners. Black Square committed publicly to free compatibility updates and followed through. PMDG got its 737 line running in 2024, however, not without controversy, charging $29.99 for the upgrade, which prompted sharp criticism from long-time customers who felt they were paying twice for the same aircraft. PMDG’s defence was that the cumulative investment in the 2020 version justified the fee; not everyone bought it, especially when Fenix had done the same thing for nothing.

So yes, it can be done. The question is not whether porting from MSFS 2020 to 2024 is possible — it clearly is — but why the native version of a complex airliner like the 757 takes so much longer, and costs so much more to produce, than anyone expected when MSFS 2024 launched.

Here is what the documentation actually shows.

Why Is It So Complicated? Microsoft Changed the Entire Architecture.

The most disruptive change between MSFS 2020 and 2024 for aircraft developers is the shift from monolithic SimObjects to what Microsoft now calls Modular SimObjects. The name actually undersells how different the underlying structure is.

In MSFS 2020, an aircraft lived in a single self-contained package: one model, one set of config files, one folder. The MSFS 2024 SDK describes what that meant in practice: “if you wanted variations of an aircraft — for example, an aircraft which can have floats to land on water, wheels to land on the ground, and skis to land on snow — you would need to create three different SimObject packages. Each package would require its own model, textures and set of config files, even though maybe 90% of each of the three aircraft packages is the exact same.”

MSFS 2024 solves that redundancy problem, but the solution creates a very different kind of workload. A native 2024 aircraft must now be built from a common base, with each major component (engines, landing gear, doors, fuel tanks) authored as a separate attachment living in its own sub-folder, with its own models, textures, animations, and config files. The SDK confirms that the new structure requires at minimum four distinct top-level folders: Common, Presets, Attachments, and Liveries.

developer mode in MSFS2024 — Developer mode in MSFS2024

A simple GA aircraft can absorb that overhead. A complex narrowbody like the 757 with two engine variants, multiple landing gear assemblies, detailed cabin interiors, and dozens of liveries runs into the dozens of attachments before a single line of systems code has been written. Ahooraei’s claim of folder counts doubling or tripling is, by the SDK’s own structure, accurate.

And that’s before you get to the audio. The SDK states that “all modular aircraft created in MSFS 2024 must use the updated 2024 Wwise audio project”. This means that the entire audio implementation has to be rebuilt alongside the model structure. The 757’s sound package, recorded from the actual aircraft, is not something you port with a checkbox.

The LOD Vertex Limit Isn’t a Bug. That’s the Problem.

The second major sticking point is the LOD (Level of Detail) vertex limit MSFS 2024 places on individual model parts. The mechanism Ahooraei described as forcing developers to “break the model apart.”

The limit isn’t a fixed number. A bug report filed with the MSFS DevSupport team, cross-referenced against the SDK’s own table, shows “the vertex limit is 250,000 for a 100% screen size object on high graphics settings, and up to 1 million vertices on ultra settings.” It scales with how large the object appears on screen relative to the graphics preset — and it applies per attachment part, not per aircraft as a whole.

Microsoft’s reasoning is sound. As Simulation Daily reported from the 2024 SDK developer stream, “because LOD limits are applied per part in the modular system, developers can create super-detailed parts when up close, without a performance hit when the camera is further away.”

The performance logic holds up. But for a developer porting a 2020 aircraft, where fuselage, engines, landing gear, and interior were one continuous mesh, the old monolithic model has to be decomposed, re-rigged, and restructured around the new attachment system. That’s not adjusting a configuration file. That’s rebuilding the model.

Compounding it further: developers on the FSDeveloper forum have found that when 2020 projects are compiled in the 2024 SDK, “LOD settings from the XML can be ignored entirely — the simulator overrides them,” meaning LOD setups can silently break between builds with no warning. PMDG’s own CEO Robert Randazzo noted publicly that his team “never received a working DevAlpha” before launch. This meant that developer access was going straight to release day without being able to verify compatibility.

That’s the environment every complex developer was working in.

Career Mode Locked Out Until You Convert

Beyond visual fidelity, there’s a practical commercial reason to push through the conversion: Career Mode.

The MSFS 2024 SDK is unambiguous: “modular aircraft are the only types of aircraft that can be used in Career Mode.” A 2020-compatible aircraft running in legacy mode can’t do cargo runs, fire suppression, or search and rescue. For a developer releasing a commercial airliner, that’s a meaningful chunk of the simulator’s appeal locked off until the native version ships. And this also explains why many aircraft simply do not run in career mode. Frustrating for MSFS 2024 users.

career mode is the issue — Career mode in MSFS2024: still broken, but also hard on developers.

What Does Transfer Over

Not everything is a rebuild. Flight models carry across 1:1 — per the official MSFS 2024 FAQ, “if developers don’t change anything, the aircraft will behave exactly like it did in MSFS 2020.” Systems logic, RPN animations, and avionics gauge code survive the move in most cases. For BlueBird specifically, the 757’s C++ systems architecture is portable. The flight model, tested by real 757 pilots, goes with it.

What doesn’t: the 3D model structure, the LOD hierarchy, the folder schema, the livery system, and the audio. Everything the passenger sees and hears has to be rebuilt around the systems core that does transfer.

So Where Does That Leave BlueBird?

The 757 will ship compatible with both MSFS 2020 and 2024. The native 2024 version will follow later, free of charge. The $80 price covers both, with the 757-300 coming as a free update after initial release. That’s a reasonable position — arguably more transparent than some of the larger names in the market who charged for the transition and then had to defend it.

The community’s frustration with the timeline is understandable. BlueBird has been in development for years, and “it’ll be native later” is a sentence that requires some trust. But the technical explanation holds up. Microsoft changed the rules mid-game, gave developers little runway to prepare, and built a system that does not make porting a complex legacy aircraft easy.

“Months after release” isn’t a holding statement. It’s just what it takes.

Sources:

FAQ: MSFS 2020 to 2024 — The Most Common Questions Answered

What is the difference between a “compatible” and “native” MSFS 2024 aircraft? A compatible aircraft runs in MSFS 2024 but was built with the MSFS 2020 SDK — it flies, but misses 2024-exclusive features like Career Mode, walk-around mode, and the new aerodynamic model. A native aircraft is built using the MSFS 2024 Modular SimObject architecture and takes full advantage of everything the new simulator offers.

Do MSFS 2020 add-on aircraft work in MSFS 2024? Most do at a basic level — Microsoft promised that “virtually all” MSFS 2020 add-ons would function in 2024, and that has broadly held true. However, some aircraft have texture issues, broken systems, or LOD problems, and results vary depending on how recently the add-on was updated.

Why does porting an aircraft to MSFS 2024 take so long? For complex airliners it is less a port and more a rebuild. MSFS 2024’s new Modular SimObject architecture requires the entire model to be broken into dozens of independently managed components, each with their own geometry, textures, and config files — a large airliner can go from 50 folders to 150. Flight models carry over cleanly; everything visual and structural does not.

Why can’t MSFS 2020 aircraft use Career Mode in MSFS 2024? Only native Modular SimObjects can participate in Career Mode — Microsoft’s own SDK documentation is explicit on this. Legacy aircraft running in compatibility mode are locked out of cargo runs, firefighting, search and rescue, and all other career activities regardless of how well they otherwise function.

Did Microsoft promise full compatibility between MSFS 2020 and 2024? Yes — Microsoft stated that “with very few exceptions, virtually all add-ons” would work in 2024. Basic compatibility held up, but the promise didn’t account for the depth of the architectural changes, and several Sim Updates broke add-ons that had been running fine. Major developers including PMDG received no working developer alpha before launch day.

What is a Modular SimObject in MSFS 2024? It is the new native aircraft format for MSFS 2024, replacing the single unified package used in MSFS 2020. A Modular SimObject splits an aircraft into a common base with individual attachments — engines, landing gear, doors — each managed independently. The system improves performance and variant flexibility, but makes migrating legacy aircraft a substantial undertaking.

Why do some developers charge for MSFS 2024 upgrades while others don’t? There is no industry standard. Fenix, Just Flight, and Black Square all updated their aircraft for free; PMDG charged $29.99 for the 737 upgrade, drawing significant criticism. A full native 2024 conversion costs real development time — whether that cost is passed to customers is a commercial decision, not a technical one.

Which major developers offered free MSFS 2024 upgrades? Fenix Simulations, Just Flight, and Black Square all committed to and delivered free updates. PMDG’s 777 line is planned as free, though the 737 upgrade carried a fee. On the scenery side, most third-party airports have required no additional charge to function in MSFS 2024.