Holy Schnikes!http://www.aechelon.com/products/imagery/swus_summary.html

Er .... why?Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Oh, just being silly I guess.It'd be nice to have that quality imagery... everywhere.Hey, wait! Nevermind those guys.They should buy THESE GUYS.http://www.keyhole.com/Sorry, my bad.>Er .... why?>>Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumont>>http://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Hi turner112,Looks great!, Ms have any ressource they want, but they don't have 1gig video cards memory to run large coverage photo sat in msfs default yet, keep your eyes in future version.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

LOL, Turner.The good news is that Microsoft are well aware of all this new technology - they've even used some of it it FS9, as you know - and we will see exciting developments over the next few versions of Flight Simulator. Oh dear, says my wife ... will I NEVER get you back?Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

lol.It's not a case of employing these guys, it's just a case of them using the same image quality.We can all properly expect the next sim to be much better than Fs2004, so much so, that it will make Fs2004 look bad.The reason for this is because technology is progressing nicely at the moment, and they can throw in all these extras, plus build on previous work, to produce a masterpiece.http://www.onlinesimulationsolutions.com/sigs/wdosssig.jpg

The Keyhole products already allows you to "fly" over downloaded photographic sceneries in real-time - it's just a matter of licensing it and making it available in FS. It doesn't require a lot of resources actually. The UK VFR scenery is almost 10 times bigger than Megascenery Socal but doesn't require any more resources (other than harddrive space) and doesn't take longer to load.I think this is a possible way to get realistic scenery for the entire world into FS. Imagine 2m/pixel scenery for the enitre US, all downloaded from a central server. Of course, FS would be a subscription product then, and you'd need broadband to play it.

<>You hit the nail on the head there, Jimmi. Whenever I read "why doesn't Microsoft do this, why doesn't Microsoft do that?" I am always mindful of the fact that their sim has to cross all borders, most operating systems and platforms, all tastes and all the time!It is so easy to pick holes in their planes, airports, terrain textures and other stuff; but I think some forget sometimes that the reason things are so generic and pegged to a certain quality are very carefully thought through, to give the best blend of performance and quality achievable for the price, also keeping FS to a sensible size of install.Don't get me wrong, I love all our add-ons; but I never feel that MS should be the ones to provide them. They're doing just fine with what they give us, in my book.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Yup, the system we have now seems to be working OK - you buy a base package, and then you have the choice of adding additional planes, scenery etc. through addons if you want.

Agreed here, too....just be glad that Microsoft have adopted and stayed with the open-ended format that they use in their FS series, meaning that it's easy enough for designers/developers to produce the fantastic add-ons that we all love! And be glad too that Microsoft encourage that type of 'external' support for their product...they could so easily have stopped all that and made it like many other games where you cannot, or at very least, cannot without great difficulty, produce mods, add-ons, replacements etc....By starting with the kind of generic, and as some would feel, low quality scenery and terrain they also make the sim accesible to those without monstrous PC's, and this can be upgraded as required along with the hardware needed to run it. Kudos should therefore go to Microsoft for NOT sticking us all with a sim that we just wouldn't be able to run satisfactorily for the next 3 years, even though it looked absolutely marvelous!Personally, I am very satisfied with the standard out-of-the-box scenery as provided, though I have of course, upgraded meshes, airports, landclass, etc where I felt it could do with improvement that I would see on a day-to-day basis....and I love the fact that I'm able to do this so easily because Microsoft designed it this way :)

Why couldn't the Keyhole system just convert the data to BGL files? What a HUGE market they would have!Or am I talking about apples and oranges here?FS 2004 is pretty awesome.. If any of you VFR / even IFR low altitude flyers have not discovered USA Roads by Flight One, it really adds realism. (Not to plug Flight One) I find the night flying is just awesome. A huge difference...Barry

You know I could live with a selected area of very high detail and forsake the "whole world" which seems to be one of the limiting factors in providing a realistic product. I think we all know that current scenery seems to be lacking in the current developemt of technologies. Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4][h3]P M D G's 747-400[/h3][h4]coming to a runway near you[/h4][/font color]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

>> You know I could live with a selected area of very>high detail and forsake the "whole world" which seems to beI am of similar mind however I could forsake metropolitan areas for very good airports (small and large). I don't care for example for having detailed downtown San Francisco (though I live neraby). I would rather have scenery of generally mediocre resolution which would get progressively sharper the closer you get to ANY airport.Michael J.

Really? I am right across the bay in El Cerrito ;-)Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4][h3]P M D G's 747-400[/h3][h4]coming to a runway near you[/h4][/font color]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

> Really? I am right across the bay in El Cerrito ;-)No, I am in Oakland (Rockridge Bart station ...).And in El Cerrito (tiny Craft Ave) are very good friends of mine with whom I often dine on their terrace with spectacular vistas. :-)Michael J.