Since the land class system was introduced about a dozen years ago, terrain has become more varied and attractive. With autogen (FS8), the ground was filled with objects and the FS world become more realistic.

 

There is one element that has been missing and that is hydrographic features: rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, lagoons, reservoirs with their dams, wetlands, marshes, canals, etc.

 

Sure, the U.S., parts of Canada, and some countries in Western Europe had these elements, but the rest of the world was mostly devoid of them. People have been flying over large parts of the FS world and most have probably never even noticed how glaringly obvious was the lack of water features.

 

But, I did notice and lamented this. Water is such an important part of the terrain and adds a lot of realism to the scenery. Which is why I have been Wowed! by the improvements in Hawai'i and Alaska.

 

Of course, since they are in the U.S., data sources are more complete than for much of the world, Yet, if you are familiar with terrain creation and design for FS, you will quickly understand that there is a lot more here than data sources. These features have received a lot of attention and work, and they are extremely varied and very appealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not everybody will appreciate or care about this, but it is clear that a lot of effort was put into this aspect of the terrain.

 

Best regards.

Luis

Now you made me even more thirsty about tha panel for the Cub, and news about the upcoming - in three months - region :-)

 

Very nice screens!

I too appreciate the work that has gone into Flight as far as including terrain features, but I have one complaint about their approach. The shorelines are glaring. In my opinion, the textures chosen for both salt and fresh water lakes, rivers, streams, bays, oceans are not very realistic and stick out like sore thumbs. Your fourth pic shows this very well. Maybe this will be toned down in future updates. As with the rest of the program, it's not a deal breaker for me, however. Just something I've noticed.

... Water is such an important part of the terrain and adds a lot of realism to the scenery. Which is why I have been Wowed! by the improvements in Hawai'i and Alaska.

 

Of course, since they are in the U.S., data sources are more complete than for much of the world, Yet, if you are familiar with terrain creation and design for FS, you will quickly understand that there is a lot more here than data sources. These features have received a lot of attention and work, and they are extremely varied and very appealing.

 

I'll admit I am impressed by Flight's water details. It looks far better than any sim I've seen before.

Again, think of how much work 3PD's had to do to make the default FSX ground textures and terrain work well with their more advanced and detailed scenery's. Yet here flight sits and most of the work has already been done! I suspect I would be ecstatic to have Flights already existing assets to work with if I was a scenery designer.

 

The places where they were constrained to fall short would be an obvious place to start. But sometimes Flight gets it very right. Take a close look and walk-through of Mcgrath Airport in Flight for a gander at some of the things possible, including working streetlights.

 

Hidden gems.

 

If the Flight team had done... lets say, 30 (yes I am being greedy) airports in Alaska with that level of detail, they could have (quite rightly) slapped anyone complaining with a big wet fish.