Microsoft Flight Simulator already sports the most impressive virtual world ever seen in any flight simulator. Based on an incredible technology that mixes real-world satellite imagery with some kind of sorcery to make it three-dimensional, simmers can explore a realistic virtual representation of our world that has never been seen before.
That said, there are several improvements that can be made to enhance this virtual world, and we’ve seen the third-party development community come up with the most ingenious ideas. World enhancement mods are some of our favorites, with the likes of We Love VFR, Powerlines and Solar Farms, Bijan’s Seasons, or Global Ai Ship Traffic amongst our top recommendations.
Today we’re introducing you to another new project of this kind, which comes from the talented developer behind the aforementioned Powerlines and Solar Farms and also the very cool Project Lifts. This time, with MARINAS – Boats and Piers in the World, Mamudesign has dedicated some time to improving the coastal scenery in MSFS!
As with the other projects, the goal is simple with Mamudesign Marinas: to fill the world’s marinas and piers with boats, not only by the sea but also in lakes and rivers. Similar to what we’ve seen with Project Coastline Italy and Seafront Simulations‘ products, but with a global scope.
It’s a simple idea, but with potentially dramatic results in the scenery of Microsoft Flight Simulator. This add-on uses OpenStreetMap data to figure out the location of marinas and piers in MSFS, and then populates these places with various 3D models of static boats. It’s not as refined as dedicated products targeting a very specific region, but still manages to make the scenery significantly more interesting!
The developer says that this is a global solution that should provide a noticeable improvement in areas where these features are present. Note that it doesn’t cover the whole world just yet, but some of the most popular regions are affected: Europe, North and Central America, and Oceania.
Marinas by Mamudesign is an easy recommendation if you’re looking to further enhance the coastal scenery in the simulator. It used to be freeware but has now turned into a paid mod available available on simMarket for just around $12.00 USD.
