This is an article about my preferences and what i think is missing from FS2004:I was thinking about the scenery for my sim, i.e Greece, Spain, USA, Asia etc in various photos i have seen at Airliners.net, when approaching an airport at Holiday destinations you can see: * Villas/Hotels with "Swimming Pools". http://www.airliners.net/open.file/694128/M/ * Large beach areas( you can hardly see the default ones) http://www.airliners.net/open.file/643250/M/ * Waves on the sea( the default versions only produce waves when the hit the coastline, even then there is no crash of water, it just disappears, in stronger windy conditions waves can be seen many miles out to sea: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/823414/M/ * Cloud shadows. Im not sure if certain people with a very powerful Graph card have these effects but i dont. I see the aircraft shadows but not clouds.1:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/587953/M/ 2:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/581932/M/ * Something else which i would like to see in Fs, either 2004 or future versions is heat haze effects. When sitting at the threshold of a runway it seems the land infront of you is melting away, http://www.airliners.net/open.file/726144/M/ Also the air which escapes from the back of the aircraft funnel(only minor i know but all adds to the realism)* The colour of seas and oceans. Many addons i have seen are very wrong. When seeing the ocean in real life it does change colour in various locations. Here are some examples; *europe 1:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/823640/L/ 2:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/781636/M/ 3:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/777305/M/ 4:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/614716/M/ *asia 1:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/820600/M/ 2:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/815689/M/ 3:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/445078/M/ *usa 1:http//www.airliners.net/open.file/800128/M/ 2:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/653529/M/ 3:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/571977/M/ *mid east1:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/797915/M/ 2:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/204662/M/ 3:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/675254/M/ All of these photos show different shades of colour, in many addons i have seen the colours are mixed with a lot of time and effort, but unfortunately not the correct colours.In many ways the sea is green, light blue, dark blue and transparent in clear conditions, when overcast the sea is dark blue and dark green. No where i have seen so far shows reflections when overcast. Even with the best Graph cards this does not apply, if anything it looks TOO real, cartoon like.If anyone agrees with me or knows where i can find any addons that include some of the above criteria please let me know.(IF ONLY!!!!!http://www.airliners.net/open.file/796684/M/ )

One should be careful that the colors in photos are often very wrong. While I heartily agree that bodies of water come in many different colors, don't use photos as the end all/be all to judge what color a particular location should be, assuming you want accuracy (hmmm, another whole huge argument).Thomas Perry

I was thinking of making a similar post and you beat me to it--catching many of the visual improvements I'd love to see in the next flightsim. I believe systems are getting close to the point where they will be able to achieve these goals.-John

X-Plane has supported cloud shadows for quite a while. It looks very good when applied to photoreal sceneries like England+Wales, Socal etc. :)It shouldn't be that hard to implement actually. Maybe in FS10 ;)For some seriously real-looking beaches, check out France VFR's Quiberon scenery (http://www.francevfr.com/scenes.htm).

I think that the skies overall is pretty good in Ubisoft