There are sloping runways in Flight actually...

And there are sloping elevations into water too.

Im seeing conifers! This makes me happy since it means there is not a simple "global" vegetation they use like in FSX. Your seeing pineapples in Hawaii, and conifers in Alaska! Also we are getting seasons back!

Umm, I go to Alaska in FSX and it is full of conifers and Hawaii full of tropical vegetation, just like its supposed to be. So this variable vegetation is nothing new from FSX, though I think trees do look a bit better in Flight.

Excuse me, Kevin, but FS X did not have the same trees everywhere in the world. Just like there will be in Flight, there was regional vegetation and regional land class. The differences between the trees in the tropics and in the temperate climates were quite great.

 

If you would like a little more information about autogen, please see this tutorial in the Avsim library:

 

Using the Autogen Annotator

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=140537

 

 

Clearly, Flight also must have different ground textures and vegetation for Alaska, since there are probably not a lot of coconut palms and pineapple plantations up there.

 

Best regards.

Luis

no elevations sloping into water - and tsunami waves still there !

if this has to be the next generation of ms flight simulation - they really need to fix this past generations problems ! also sloping runways is a must these days.

 

Have you even tried Flight? The free look at the Big Island will show you several sloping runways, one pretty seriously sloped, variable-grade one. There are also many places where the ground slopes into the water. You can land the Icon in the water, extend the gear, and taxi ashore.

 

And before you say you're talking about Alaska, let me remind you that we haven't exactly seen the entire 33,000 mile coastline nor every airport in those handful of teaser shots.

 

The wave textures do need some work, though. You can't use a mid-ocean wave texture for coastal waters, nor inland bodies of water and expect it to look right.

Its truly looking awsome! The best part is that its also frame friendly. Yep...i will buy Alaska as soon as MS releases it. Although i guess i wont play it for long. This is a huge piece of land...flying all alone...in my Maule...all by myself. Nothing lives, nothing happens...it will be even more quiet than Hawai im afraid. MS reached out toward us with TIR. Hopefully there will be a day to see AI and ATC. I dont want 737/747/380's, just my Maule with some AI and ATC.

Its truly looking awsome! The best part is that its also frame friendly. Yep...i will buy Alaska as soon as MS releases it. Although i guess i wont play it for long. This is a huge piece of land...flying all alone...in my Maule...all by myself. Nothing lives, nothing happens...it will be even more quiet than Hawai im afraid. MS reached out toward us with TIR. Hopefully there will be a day to see AI and ATC. I dont want 737/747/380's, just my Maule with some AI and ATC.

 

That is kinda the way it is when actually flying in most of Alaska.

You aren't even in radio range of a controller all the time, and you certainly aren't in radar coverage.

 

You make position reports when you pass over a communications repeater station way out in the middle of nowhere.

 

If you see another plane, wow! It's busy up here today!

 

 

All things considered... Alaska is a place where the lack of ATC and AI traffic in Flight could almost go unnoticed.

Very nice pictures and agreed ATC and AI are not so important in Alaska but weather it is.Let's see if we have some new on weather dynamics.

Have you even tried Flight? The free look at the Big Island will show you several sloping runways, one pretty seriously sloped, variable-grade one. There are also many places where the ground slopes into the water. You can land the Icon in the water, extend the gear, and taxi ashore.

 

And before you say you're talking about Alaska, let me remind you that we haven't exactly seen the entire 33,000 mile coastline nor every airport in those handful of teaser shots.

 

The wave textures do need some work, though. You can't use a mid-ocean wave texture for coastal waters, nor inland bodies of water and expect it to look right.

 

Third picture from the top - you can clearly see the water cutting neat the mesh terrain very likely the waters poly are sitting on top of a 'flatten switch set altitude' - it is an old issue of ms simulators - is there and plain clear to see it. It is a very old as old as the history of fs issue. Picture one also show it and notice the 'Zig Zag' along this streches of coaslines.

 

here in fsx the same as an example:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/364147-river-in-trench/

It looks to me like a glacier, not a normal mesh coastline, and aside from the fact that the textures could be better, that's how glaciers look. five still pictures aren't enough data to criticize a product fully, wait till it's out, then actually play it, then make comments

That is a glacier, and that is how they look. Glaciers don't make smooth slopes down into the water, they abruptly drop off as the glacier calves bergs, leaving your "zig-zags."

 

I'm a little surprised that anyone would think that's a terrain flattening issue, and much more surprised that anyone would think that such a problem would be highlighted so prominently in a preview pic.

 

Those FSX screens were pretty bad. The stock terrain textures looked a lot better than that.

 

The Alaska Flight pics are incredible. I've been trying not to get too excited, and these pics are making it hard.

 

Hook

All in all, as far as terrain goes, there are enormous improvements in Flight over previous versions. The way that those glaciers fall off is surprising and would have been difficult to achieve in FS X. Great work by the devs.

 

But, also the snow-capped mountains that could only be reproduced through custom (photo-real) ground in FS X, at least to that level of realism. And the way that the sparse conifers follow the gradient up to the summit...

 

In short, those of us who have studied these issues and are familiar with the techniques cannot help but be impressed by the progress in Flight.

 

Best regards.

Luis

 

they really need to fix this past generations problems !

 

They did.

 

It's a bit odd to complain about things they actually DID fix, isn't it? The coasts and cliffs in Flight are SO MUCH better then in FSX: it's incomparable. And sloped runways are all around. Maybe you should give the game a try.

I don't really know if we should give flight props yet for the sloped runways, they are there, but to be honest you can have sloped runways in FSX and FS9, you just can't have AI on a sloped runway. guess what we don't have (yet) for flight? I'll give major props when I see a flight AI craft take off and land on a sloped runway. The shots look awesome, I flew a few flights when it came out, but I've been waiting for Alaska to spend any serious time in this sim.