3D Automation, a new technology for an automated autogen (forgive me please) has recently been developed by France VFR, the little but smart software house I mentioned some posts above ...Take a look to their forum (in french, but automatic translators get better and better ...):http://www.vfrnetwor...lution-autogen/No need for placing buildings by hand ... not anymore ... technology runs ..

That only fixes ONE of the MANY MANY MANY problems with photo-real. How does it fix the 50GB install just for France? How about painting out parked and moving cars and aircraft? Shadows?

That would make distribution practically impossible. I wonder how many DVDs are needed just to cover the US with 4 or 5 seaons and night maps.

That would make distribution practically impossible. I wonder how many DVDs are needed just to cover the US with 4 or 5 seaons and night maps.

Think of it this way. XP10 comes on 8DVD's and DOES NOT use ANY photoreal scenery. All of the US would be in the terabyte range for photoreal.

The space requirement is even worse than we think. Most of those add-ons only offer a Summer variant, but, in fact, there are 6 variants needed (at least in termperate climates): night and 5 seasons (2 Winter, one with snow and one without.) And those variants are all very labor-intensive - there is no easy way to automate that image editing.So, multiply by 6 to get the space for a photo-real scenery of any part of the world.Best regards.Luis

I count at least 7. Night with snow on the ground is very very different from night without it.Hook

I loved photoscenery from it's beginning. Although back then the quality was not as good as today.I wouldn't fly without photoscenery no more. Generic repeating textures don't cut it for me.

I agree with N330DG, and fly ONLY over photoreal terrain since I discovered it some years ago. I never fly over zones not covered by photoreal Better 1 "real" world (summer-day) than 7 or more false onesI hope that the technology will soon offer a way to create 3D objects automatically, starting from cadastral shapefiles or extruding the roofs visible in the orthophotos. And size will not be a problem anymore, with great capacity storage disks and very fast connections.But I'seeing we are divided in two very distinct "parties", the "photophiles" and the "landclassophiles" ...The Flight team could try to make happy the ones and the others by releasing landclass and photographic sceneries alternatively, to choose from, to each one his own ...I agree with N330DG, and fly ONLY over photoreal terrain since I discovered it some years ago. I never fly over zones not covered by photoreal Better 1 "real" world (summer-day) than 7 or more false onesI hope that the technology will soon offer a way to create 3D objects automatically, starting from cadastral shapefiles or extruding the roofs visible in the orthophotos. And size will not be a problem anymore, with great capacity storage disks and very fast connections.But I'seeing we are divided in two very distinct "parties", the "photophiles" and the "landclassophiles" ...The Flight team could try to make happy the ones and the others by releasing landclass and photographic sceneries alternatively, to choose from, to each one his own ...

But I'seeing we are divided in two very distinct "parties", the "photophiles" and the "landclassophiles" ...

Well, the best way is to combine. If you blend it nice, there is absolutely no visible boundary

3D Automation, a new technology for an automated autogen (forgive me please) has recently been developed by France VFR, the little but smart software house I mentioned some posts above ... Take a look to their forum (in french, but automatic translators get better and better ...): http://www.vfrnetwor...lution-autogen/ No need for placing buildings by hand ... not anymore ... technology runs ..

Actually the results look amazing! I was first drawn to the Aerosoft website a few years ago by claims that they had accomplished something similar, but this solution seems quite a bit more comprehensive. If I was MS I would be buying or replicating this tech ASAP.There are still many problems with photo-scenery, but if this works as good as it appears to, then one big problem may have been solved.Actually, the Sim that could benefit the best from this tech right at this moment would be Aerofly FSAerosofts Germany VFR series could also be given a new lease on life

I agree with N330DG, and fly ONLY over photoreal terrain since I discovered it some years ago. I never fly over zones not covered by photoreal

Then you will always be limited to flying in small patches of earth.

Some years ago i worked on a project rendering manhattan (ny) the software used coud look at a database of sat images and geo info and create buildings and the like acurate to the must exact thing you can think of and at the end of the project Manhattan with all the bridges around it was just over 9.7 gigs . It was milatary software at about 8K $ per line .The project later was caned cuase of funds.. imagine how big of a file would be to recreate the US itself.

Then you will always be limited to flying in small patches of earth.

Tileproxy?

Then you will always be limited to flying in small patches of earth.

The photoreal areas I've got on my PC (FSX and X-Plane) are so large I will probably never manage to fly over all of them ... even if I wish ...

The photoreal areas I've got on my PC (FSX and X-Plane) are so large I will probably never manage to fly over all of them ... even if I wish ...

And just how big is your install folders?Im trying to make two points here, both your ignoring. Photoreal is not pheasable for two reasons. Its not mass-marketable due to its size, and its not possible to do large area's due to its limitations (size, and time to edit). It may be everything for you, but the market for photoreal is amazingly small. If it was so great, why doesent everyone do it?

Im trying to make two points here, both your ignoring. Photoreal is not pheasable for two reasons. Its not mass-marketable due to its size, and its not possible to do large area's due to its limitations (size, and time to edit). It may be everything for you, but the market for photoreal is amazingly small. If it was so great, why doesent everyone do it?

Nobody is ignoring your points. But ... Disk space is pretty cheap as is internet bandwidth.Currently you won't get world coverage, but state or country wide photoreal coverages exist today without any problems.In a couple of years even world coverage will be no problem. And... Last time I looked, Flight's coverage was not that big...Furthermore it's not either or. You can have both: Landclass based worldwide (default-) scenery and photoreal for special areas.The customer should have a choice!! And 3PDs should have the choice what they want to offer to the community.