I just finished the survey of MS Europe and there were many questions, which gave me the impression MS is considering in doing regional versions.Just 2 examples (out of memory):-What would you prefer, a detailed scenery of the area you live in with enhanced airports, cities etc. or anhanced graphics for the whole world.- Where do you fly mostly? In you regional area, in your local area, etc.Wolfgang

Yeah, I thought that too.I for one would not like a localized version, as I prefer to fly anywhere in the world, not just in england.I would prefer the whole world to be "enhanced" rather than a specific locale, due to the fact that I fly anywhere.Maybe europe is going to get the same treatment as the US does in FS at the moment?CheersDan.

It would make logical sense, if a new engine is contemplated. With a combined Europe as far as airspace is concerned, increasingly there are very different procedures and practices that have no equivalent in the US or elsewhere, but which are now, or are becoming common across Europe. Previously it made no sense as to do one European country would have meant doing them all, the variations would never stop. Eurocontrol is changing that. But surveys are never indications of what is to be done, only what questions they are asking. I wouldn't read too much into it, they're simply trying to find it of Euro-simmers differ in any major way from their ROW counterparts.Allcott

Hi Wolfgang,maybe MS think of this. You know that if they use photoreal textures the whole world wouldn't fit on 100, or more, DVD's. So they possible think about higher quality data. But higher quality data means more CD's or DVD's. If you have addon mesh, like the mesh from FSGenesis, you would have several CD's for mesh only. If you buy photoreal texture data these are more CD's too. So if we whant photo real or high quality mesh, MS maybe made special localized versions, where the 'Home region' is higher quality than the rest of the world. I guess that would be a good way to go. I think that people who fly Genaral Aviation in the US (like me) didn't often fly in China, Russia, Spain? I life in Germany but I never flow a minute in China, Russia and many other places in the world. So if MS decide to make high quality data version, I will probably buy the US version and if possible the Europe data too, but I not intrested in very high resolution data of other countries, if this means to spend a lot of money for them.Maybe this is the way to go. And I think it could be the only possible way to go.Just my 2 cents

Trouble is they would have to bring out many, many versions to satisfy everybody, simmers come from all over the world.I think they should just leave it as-is, that way it gives people the opportunity to get scenery from other sources to enhance the area they wish to fly in.I think it would be a nightmare for MS to bring out a number of region specific versions, surely it would be way more costly for MS to produce it like this?.Also, where do they draw the line to who gets a specific version?, could you imagine the outcrys, well region X got a nice version why didnt we who live in region Y.Dan.

I also prefer a whole world aproach, but if MS make localized version they will probably do US in one and Europe as the other. I guess that these are the countries where most simmers are. Maybe a third version for Oceanic (Australia etc).So these where only two or three versions fo MS. And they could sell the high res data as Addons too :)I don't know if MS planing something like this, but if I would do this I would do it this way.

My God, let's all hope & prey for this....Cheers.

Regarding airspace and ATC, I think a lot could be done to enhance the realism with relatively small changes. With FS2004 it feels like you're in the USA anywhere in the world because of the ATC procedures and voices. A few simple things that would make it better suited for the rest of the world:- Say QNH instead of "altimeter" and use hectopascals (millibars) instead of inches of mercury, in the many countries where this is done. Also have regionalised transition altitudes/levels - if they could squeeze all the airspaces and instrument approaches of the world into the sim I don't see why they couldn't have the altimeter setting procedures as well. (Maybe even include altitudes in metres where this is used.)- Make the airspace classes around the world more realistic. Currently they have managed to include every airspace boundary imaginable, but the airspace class often don't match reality.- Make airspace classes, navdata etc more open-ended. One monthly AIRAC update for the whole FS instead of one for every addon would be nice.- Add more ATC accents, or at least "neutral" accents. It's hard to decide what is neutral of course, but I would say a British accent is more "realistic" in the rest of the world than a US accent (i.e. I would rather hear a controller in India or Russia speak British English than American English). One more accent means at least ten or so more voice sets, so obviously more regionalised accents (or even languages) isn't possible, unless there are regionalised versions of the new FS.Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

I am puzzled. I took the survey....and never saw those two questions mentioned above. In fact, I was disappointed that I did not get a chance to explain why I don't like Microsoft Flight Simulator. I would have liked to have detailed all those features of Flight Unlimited 3 that I think should be incorporated in the next version of MSFS.Chris Low.

>One more accent means at least ten or so more voice sets, so>obviously more regionalised accents (or even languages) isn't>possible, unless there are regionalised versions of the new>FS.>There was/is an add on for FS98 and FS2000 called "ProFlight98" re."Proflight2000". This programme had ATC covering the whole world with controllers having the accenct of theit local region. There was e. g. controllers haveingUS eastern accentUS western accentUS southern accentUS mid west accentscandinavic accentgerman accentfrench accenteastern europe accentsdifferent hispanic accentsmany different asian accentsdifferent african accentsaussie accentsetc.And every of these accents had more than just 1 voice.Since the ATC of ProFlight was much more complex than the FS2004 ATC, many more recordings per voice were necessary.So if all this was possible to create for an add on, which was mainly desingned and programmed by 1 single person (the guy who did microwings.com, I can't remember his name), it should also be possible for MS. However I must admit, that the MS ATC transmissions are more fluid. With ProFlight you very often could clearly tell that the sentences consisted of many short receordings.Wolfgang

I think it would be the smart thing if MS did break up FS into regionally specific products.We win (especially if you fly mainly in a particular region) by getting more detail and accuracy in the form of better mesh, coastlines, roads, water, textures, ATC, airports, landmarks etc and of course MS wins because they will be potentially selling more than one version to a percentage of users. Or, as someone else mentioned, MS start producing their own regional add-ons like they did for SoCal in FS98 (I think it was).From the way the questions were put, it does look like they're very much considering how best to add to the product and the fact they're asking has to only be a good thing.http://www.blandreynolds.btinternet.co.uk/DF_PG_sm.gif

Here are the questions, copied and pasted directly out of the survey:What value do the Kings and Rod Machado bring to the Flight Simulator product from a European standpoint?Do you have a location preference for the flying lessons in Flight Simulator?Which of the following would you consider more important? - A Microsoft Flight Simulator with additional data for your region. E.g. Aircraft, Airports, City layouts, Airspace layouts, ATC realism etc. • A Microsoft Flight Simulator with enhanced graphics quality and high detail, but not necessarily specific to your region.Where do you mostly fly to when playing Flight Simulator?- Local: Locally around the area I live - National: Usually within the country where I live - International: Flying between North America, Europe, Australia etc. - North America - European: I fly around the European countriesWhich a

My main concern with different versions would be with discussions about problems on forums such as this one. I can imagine many more questions remaining unanswered than at the present time.