MS Flight Simulator SEASONS are horrible.. must petition Microsoft

[Guest strobear]

Ever since MS Flight Simulator 2000, the seasonal textures have not properly matched the area at all. In fact, they're downright ridiculous! Typical winter textures realistically seen in US Georgia and the Carolinas are being used in the tropics all around the world, which are lush and green year round. I was hoping Microsoft would finally get this right, but time and again, they never fix this. This isn't hard to fix either, as they had it right with Flight Sim 98.All we have to do is get enough people to tell Microsoft to fix this, and they will address it. If they don't notice it or think it's a problem, then they won't address it. I mean, it's utterly ridiculous to have winter textures in southern Mexico and Central America. Granted at least it's not snow, but still brown, yellow ground with bare trees AUTOGEN and no palm trees. Come on Microsoft!

[oktorn777 0]

I noticed the same thing! I flew around some where in aquatorial region with naked trees and brown land! I don't remember which country it was, but somewhere in asia. It also doesn't matter because this wrong winter textures are all around the globe!I don't know why MS did a this bad job on seasonal textures. How can you possibly overlook something like this??I don't know which files regulate the seasons in FS. Maybe it isn't even that hard to fix?Can anyone from the scenery departement respond to this?best regards,Claudio

[Guest shanwick]

>Maybe it isn't even that hard to fix?>Can anyone from the scenery departement respond to this?MS have issued one patch - I don't think they will issue another one.MS staff don't respond to threads in forums so I don't think anyone from their scenery department will be commenting.David

[LAdamson 240]

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[hookandbook2 0]

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[Guest kurtj]

I fly mostly in the US and I find Las Vegas ridiculus. Snow in Las Vegas from late November to late March. I hope this is fixed. I think MSFS should go to satalite imagery for landclass textures.

[LAdamson 240]

>I fly mostly in the US and I find Las Vegas ridiculus. Snow>in Las Vegas from late November to late March. I hope this is>fixed. I think MSFS should go to satalite imagery for>landclass textures.Las Vegas picked up some snow just two weeks ago. If Micorosoft "didn't" think of including snow for this area, I'd probably have complained! ;-) Looks like MS was thinking ahead!!!L.Adamson

[Guest strobear]

See, it bothers me a lot, since I'm originally from southern Mexico and enjoy flying around my hometown (which is always lush, green, and tropical year round). It never gets brown and yellow with bare trees.Yes, the same is true all around the world. In fact, parts of Amazon Brazil are barren until the equator and the seasons change. This is ridiculous.Ok, now that there is a problem. How do we make Microsoft aware and seriously get them to change. I understand that there won't be a fix for FS2004. But it's definitely not too late to get this fixed for FS2006 or whatever the next version will be. I've waited 6 years for them to fix this, I don't want to wait any more. I've had enough!

[Holger 0]

Howdy,since you're so passionate about this problem perhaps you'd like to learn more about the technical aspects of seasonal landclass (land use) placement files and textures? This might help you understand the difficulties in finding and processing the proper data to provide the entire planet (!) with reasonable approximations of textures and seasons.Two good sources are the MS FS2004 Terrain SDK documents, which explain the use of regions and landclass files, available here: http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimul...sdk.asp#terrain . For example, the document tells you that the current system is developed to allow for expanding land use classes and textures in future versions (FS currently uses only four out of ten regions) and how anyone can make their own add-ons to improve on the situation (and share with the community).The other source is Chrstian Stock's "Terra Model File Manual", tmf_manual.zip, here in the file library. It's two years old but still provides the best overview, IMO, of how FS displays seasons and land use textures. There's always room for improvement but understanding the technical obstacles regarding source data and display processing definitely helps to appreciate the current limitations of regional and seasonal detail. Cheers, HolgerP.S.: Using satellite imagery or aerial photography, i.e., photoreal textures, won't help because they are single-moment snapshots and thus the exact opposite of daily and seasonal variations.

[Guest strobear]

Heck, no need to be arrogant! I'm not and never will be a software/programming type. I'm not saying you're one of these (so don't take it the wrong way), but I've dealt with arrogant intellectual elitests all through college, and they annoy me more than ever.I'm not complaining about highly precise and accurate seasonal variations. I mean, at the very least, if Microsoft could leave all global textures below, say 27 degrees latitude or what not, in their respective perpetual summer textures, the majority of the issue would be solved. Granted, although it won't be perfect, I would be quite happy if they would just leave the areas in the tropics in perpetual summer mode. That's not so hard!

[Guest]

The arrogant one is you, pretty much claiming that Microsoft deliberately made no effort to get the seasonal textures correct for every part of the world for every day of the year.They MUST have used an automated tool to calculate the seasonal texture changes, probably determining the textures to be used based on distance from the poles, and altitude (plus possibly slope).Putting in some manual factors (like knowing that some areas are desert or rainforest) is possible, doing so for every day of the year for every spot on earth is an impossibility.Maybe once climate modelling becomes perfect and can be done on a PC you'll get perfect textures in FS for every day of the year always matching what the real world looks like at that exact spot, but until then I'd say they've done a pretty good approximation.Even met agencies using multimillion dollar supercomputers can't do much better and certainly not on a global scale...

[Guest CYYJ1968]

>I'm not complaining about highly precise and accurate seasonal>variations. I mean, at the very least, if Microsoft could leave all >global textures below, say 27 degrees latitude or what not, in >their respective perpetual summer textures, the majority of the issue>would be solved.Here's an ad hoc workaround for you: change all your flight start dates so that they always take place in the spring and summer months. Another couple of mouse clicks at the start of each flight and, hey presto magnifico, lush tropical scenery all year round! After all, the actual calendar date doesn't make any difference when you're in the game anyway, does it?

[Guest bobsk8]

Regarding this catastrophic problem I think we should:1. Boycott Microsoft and all their products2. Start a pettition to have Bill Gates impeached.3. See if we can involve Greenpeace in restoring the proper greenery in FS.4. Refuse to fly MSFS until this problem is fixed, including deleting it from our hardrives and sending all the deleted files to Microsoft, as a protest.;)

[Guest strobear]

And this helps how?Yes, I understand how difficult it is to get precise seasonal changes, etc. People make mistakes, and understandably, the tropics area probably isn't a top priority for Microsoft, but this is something they can easily change is they were notified about it. Right?

[Guest strobear]

Did you read my last post? I'm not asking for a highly complex revolutionary change. I'm just asking for a simple fix for the tropic region. I don't think that's so hard.Don't be rude.GO EAGLES!!!