Since the release of FSX, 13 years ago, the basic landscape of the FS world has incredibly changed for the better with OrbX fat regions, Global+Vector+OpenLC, Allen Kriesman's Ultimate Terrain sceneries and Pilot's and some free meshes. What we see below has nothing to do with the horrible (for me, YMMV) default flatish ground. 

The trailer is impressive  but we don't see much of the ground except for some landmark landscapes and urban areas. As sat imagery is not high res everywhere in the world (or at least imagery for the general public 😇), I wonder whether what we have now will the baseline for what MS willl bring to the table where no imagery is physically or commercially available. 

Obviously we can’t tell much from the trailer, but there are several bits where you can see what looks like bog standard ground and it looks way more detailed than fsx. Look at the giraffe bit where the ground clearly shows stones and rocks, as well as various different types of grass. It’s similar in a couple of the mountainous bits too. Looks like a satellite picture with some added detail laid over the top. 

I am really hoping they use 100% sat images with Azure at minimum rendering the general area with 3D geometry AI.  I want to see every lake, river, and waterfall in the Amazon jungle, and not some generic jungle ground texture like in fsx.  I want to see the proper foliage density within the jungle, even the areas where massive deforestation occured.  I want to see exactly where desertification starts when flying over the Sahara to match exactly where it is on a satellite image.

So, generic textures such as trees, sand, dirt, grass etc. would be fine, as long as the global terrain changes  matches exactly what is shown on Sat images.

Edited June 27, 20196 yr by Heli

8 hours ago, Heli said:

 

My expectations too !

We are already beyond generic textures and I hope that the baseline won’t be FSX textures where there is no imagery. Orbx brought more diversity, more accuracy with Global. Still not perfect (eg  no small rectangular rice field so typical of Japan) but much better. There is also another textures addon by another developer whose name I miss right now.

And Azure processing of low res imagery could output new LC maps, more precise. The Amazon forest is an excellent example.

EDIT Why the 2nd paragraph is in a larger font is a mystery to me. Not  intended.

 

 

Edited June 28, 20196 yr by domkle