...what do you think?http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=4948...atic=yes&size=LBig link :)

Wishful thinking! Perhaps FS2008!EricArea51Intel

Maybe one day! :)By the way, if you want to link to a.net pics, use the "short" link posted above the photo, in this case:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/494825/L/Just looks a bit tidier!! :)

Well, if you're talking about the clouds, then we'll get there eventually. If you don't believe that, just load up your copy of FS4, or FS5.1, or FS98......If you're talking about the reflection of the winglet on the wing, then of course we can have that right now. I think that reflection is amazing though cause I've never seen it in real life.....but then again, I'm old enough so that most aircraft I've ever flown on has never had winglets. However, I've been on an A300 (American Airlines) and an A320 (Air Jamaica) and I can't remember seeing those reflections....then again, maybe those winglets are too small.Anyway, the reflection of the winglets can be done (hint, hint PMDG).The clouds.....take your vitamins, visit the doctor regularly, exercise regularly, quit smoking, don't do drugs, and see a shrink every once in a while (for good mental health).....and maybe, just maybe you'll live long enough to see such graphics on Flight Simulator.:)

It will happen one day if we have not already went holographic! :-lol

I second that. I started out with FS5.1, and now don't know how I stood it. That was eight years ago, and at the time, I thought I was in heaven. I was using a Pentium 75Mhz machine with 8mb of RAM and 1mb of video RAM. Eight years from now, we will be using 30Ghz plus machines 12.8Ghz SDRAM videocards (or whatever they will call it/them then) with super large displays, perhaps in 3D. Even though the experience will be super real, FS 2010 will still have frame rate issues because you will probably need a 60Ghz machine with a 25.6Ghz SDRAM videocard to run it probably (with all options maxed in heavy scenery). Unfortunately, such a computer won't be released until FS2012 comes on board -- with the cycle beginning again. Robb

Personally I would love to see the next version of FS as a polished version of FS9 having ATC completely working like normal ATC does, all the bugs fixed, and a good handful of little things added. Then let them totally go photo-real or whatever they want to do and take as many years doing it because I for one dont see much need to keep upgrading if ATC works like real life. Then I could start added payware items and feel good knowing that I wont feel like I am not getting my full value out of it. I mean if you think about all the things FS9 has and then add UT to it the only big thing that needs the most help is the ATC engine. Addon and payware developers have and can take care of the rest and I would like to see one last version of FS that started with FS2002 to have all the parts working great before MS starts with a whole or different way of displaying graphics.

Absolutely we're going to get there! Imagine a computer that could model water droplet light scattering in real time. Such a computer would be able to generate perfectly rendered clouds. I believe it will happen.Btw, I too remember the clouds of FS4, and I remember thinking how beautiful the evening clouds in FS5 were. If we get an equal improvement over the next ten years, we'll have your perfect clouds.

You guys are low-balling your expectations! I believe we'll get there - and much sooner than you might think... Intel recently announced major breakthoughs in making light-speed computing practical and affordable, (http://www.silicon.com/hardware/servers/0,39024647,39118439,00.htm) with improvments in performace up to 50 TIMES that of todays fastest machines. After all, MSFS is primarily a scenery generator, right? I believe that within 10 years we will be looking out the window at a really close simile of the real world, photorealistic with thousands of 3D (not autogen!) objects in view, with automobile traffic, trains going down tracks, telephone poles, power lines, etc. Runways that look like runways and a bump in each one where the bumps are on the real runway.WHy not? This is the most successful game franchise in history - the better it gets the more they wil sell. If Moores law holds true we will be looking at 200Ghz machines or better in 10 years. Of course, in MS Word 2012, a blank documnet will take up a meg of drive space and you will require 10GB of E=MC2RAM to run Flight Simulator.But it will be cool :)

That is a interesting article. That sounds like processors will really be able to do lightning speed processing and we will need that when MSFS comes to that reality in the picture on airliners.net. I do believe msfs will come to look very real in the future as well as it's Train Simulator. It will just take time but I bet by MSFS 2010 or 2014 perhaps sooner like msfs 2008. I also hope it will incorporate the dark sky as you go to higher altitudes. MSFS 2004 claims that happens in this current version but it is very slight and doesn't seem to be as recognizable as it should in real life. MSFS has different skies to that sometimes looks close to that dark sky but sometimes it has a pale blue sky and grey haze at the horizon. Why not have an interface for flightsimmers to choose Dawn-sky Day-SKy Dusk-Sky and Night-Sky to choose from and have it designed similar to fsskyworld. I find some skies I really think are very realistic in this sim and some I find are just plain ugly and not very realistic at all. What is everyone else's take on this? I would be interested to know.

Or you could take flying lessons? :-). Take the money you would spend on FS and use it on your flying lessons.. it will bring you much farther in life. :-jumpy. that's what Ive done.. NEVER regreted it since day one.. Infact, I've used FS once since then.. very boring. since that day I've kept it unistalled.

That's great - congratulations on a wonderful achievment. However, we are talking about simulation - not flight.

Strange, I've had the opposite experience.... the more hours I put in in a real plane, the more I use MSFS. How do you fly MSFS? Do you have a Cassna cockpit setup, or are you just using a joystick and the keyboard? If you're flying a Cessna in the real world, get your home pit as close as you can to the layout of the real one you fly, and it's a great cockpit procedures trainer.Richard

I agree, using FS is a great tool to further your training and education into flight. Ever since my first lesson I have used MSFS and Fly! more than I used to in order to learn more and understand things from the real world in more detail. Yes the simulators are lacking in some areas but they are fantastic in others when it comes to learning and maintaining proficency. Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

I completely agree Philip... For me real-life flying changed how I use FS. ...I'm a little more careful...trying to learn good habits. And Word Not Allowed, I certainly believe we'll have those graphics soon. FS8 would be my guess. Actual Real time reflections is a bit of a stretch but I believe it will be possible. I'm very impressed by LOMAC's shadows and bump-mapping...very nice. With a little ingenuity real time graphics is already nearly photo-real. It's amazing what a computer can draw in 1/30th of a second.DannyCYVR