One thing I would dearly love to see in FSX is a political map showing country borders, cities and towns. Back in the days of Encarta MS produced wonderful maps but unfortunately there was no way of linking that program to FS.When flying over unfamiliar territory I often wonder what city, town or major river I'm flying over. It would also be a great educational tool!Thanks.

Yes and there are other reasons besides education, not least of all it would allow a more powerful autogen system to be developed.

F2004 shows geopolitcal borders, including US state borders.

TDragger,I'm attaching a shot of the map in FS9 (not a moving map and it really needs to be) and a shot of Encarta showing what I had in mind. My original messages asked for cities, towns and roads to be shown. FS9 can't do that.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/145906.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/145905.jpgCheers,

You could buy the CAA 1:250,000 or 1:500,000 charts and all that and more information.

CAA charts are aeronautical aren't they? I want a political map and integrated into FS. What could be worse than fumbling around looking for paper charts? And how much would charts for the whole world cost? Too much by far.In any case I have an excellent atlas - The Times Comprehensive - probably the best atlas in the world. I'd just like to be able to easily identify what I'm flying over without resorting to using a paper atlas. Even if Microsoft don't want to do this I'm surprised a 3rd party solution hasn't been provided. I can't be alone in what I'm asking for.Cheers,

What an absolutely brilliant idea, Ray. Love it.Such a feature would add a completely new dimension to FSX. It would add so very much to the simulation...that I wonder if it can reasonably be done. Wow!Best,Mike

I love this idea, too. And to make it worthwhile to MS, how about doing it by adding in links to info from Encarta, so that the functionality of both products is expanded when they are working together? This would definately make me want to get Encarta, too.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

It doesn't have to be integrated in FS9 at all.It would be great if its developed run independently and all it would need is the location of the airplane. An API using FSUIPC is very possible. The infrastructure is already there in FS9.Using WideFS, one should be able to run this MAP on a second computer and monitor besides the FSim computer.Kinda like this http://fswidgets.com/index.php EFB2004 (Electronic Flight Bag for FS2004)I think, if one is a little creative, you could modify it to show a regular politcal map on it too.Manny

Agreed Manny. As so many of us now utilise a second computer all it needs is a source of quality maps and a program to display them taking the aircraft position from FSUIPC.This site was the closest we got to a year or so ago but it never ventured into political maps - just aeronautical. http://softwares.ranainside.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13I'm afraid I have none of the skills required to do what you suggest hence why I was hoping it might be a feature of FSX or a 3rd party possibility.Cheers,

I don't happen to often run my two computers together. I would prefer to be able to do it all on a single system, and believe that is a more realistic implementation as well for a general product/feature. I do, however, see the value of running two programs at once. I use MyFSGoogleEarth all the time when doing scenery design. MyFSGoogleEarth is too resource intensive to do as a normal course of habit on a single machine, but linking this way with Encarta might certainly be reasonable as an initial implementation.Given, however, that they are both Microsoft products, it may not be infeasible to develop a pipe to access Encarta databases within FS, which may be preferable for performance and UI reasons.I am not expecting this to be an FSX feature. It is only a suggestion for future products or addons.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

Excellent suggestion, I regularly fly with an altas to hand. It does add something to the sim experience (for me)! It would be great to see it as part of FSX...Regards, Stan EGPE.

>A>I'm afraid I have none of the skills required to do what you>suggest hence why I was hoping it might be a feature of FSX or>a 3rd party possibility.>>Cheers,Same here.. I have no such skills either... I am just an Idea man.;)Manny

The CAA charts are overprinted onto OS topographic information which is much more detailed than Encarta. They show motorways, roads, railways, canals, lakes, built-up areas contours etc.If there was a real demand and it could be done at a reasonable price I'm sure a 3rd party would already have met it. The cost of acquiring licences to use the mapping could be significant.Incidentally, Microsoft's Terms of Use for its MapPoint service include:"You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, sublicense, transfer, assign, rent, sell or otherwise convey any information, software, products or services obtained from the MapPoint Web Service without the prior written consent from Microsoft."

No-one seems to have mentioned FSMovingMap. I use this with the US Nav charts and it seems to do what you want for the States. There are less detailed maps available for other bits of the world as well.Paul