6 hours ago, vortex681 said:

Most other users of the data don't want to see snow, or the colours of autumn, they just want a clear image of the ground (which tends to show detail in the summer).

Actually the best time is early Spring. In the topography world, images with no snow, leaf off, and low sun angles are gold. It is a race during those short weeks to image as much as you can before the buds pop. 

2 minutes ago, Sticky said:

Actually the best time is early Spring. In the topography world, images with no snow, leaf off, and low sun angles are gold. It is a race during those short weeks to image as much as you can before the buds pop. 

You may be correct but the fact remains that very few people outside of the flight sim community would want to see satellite images of snowscapes. Too much of the detail is lost.

8 hours ago, dilore said:

Can you land with skis on a lake if winter is done with shaders?

This is an interesting question. How can imagery simulate the ground felt under the wheels (or skis) differentiating between tarmac, grass, rough terrain, mud, ice or snow.

9 minutes ago, domkle said:

This is an interesting question. How can imagery simulate the ground felt under the wheels (or skis) differentiating between tarmac, grass, rough terrain, mud, ice or snow.

It wouldn't have to be done through analyzing the image. It could be done with a geographic data set based on Lat/Long position, just like current sims do it with landclass-based scenery.

X-Plane "knows" when I'm landing on water, or a grass strip, or a runway, and the sim inserts the correct physics for contact with the aircraft. It "knows" to throw up a dust cloud if I'm hovering a helicopter over dirt. That kind of data can be used in combination with satellite or photogrammetry-based scenery in MSFS.

2 hours ago, RustyFlyer said:

Hopefully you were joking. I would not want that approach utilized by the design engineers on the development team for my wife's or my daughter's automobiles.

People in software development tend to make jokes.  "OK, got a clean compile... ship it!"  Programmers are weird.  We're just wired that way. 😄

Hook

19 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

  It could be done with a geographic data set based on Lat/Long position,  

X-Plane "knows" when I'm landing on water, or a grass strip, or a runway, and the sim inserts the correct physics for contact with the aircraft. I 

 My world mesh is 101 GB with an average sampling of,  ballpark estimate, 19 m (maybe a bit more). But a terrain map would require a sampling of less than one meter  to be convincing. We need to feel the transition from water to beach, from grass to mud, from tarmac to snow  etc. The  related long/lat world database would be gigantic not only to store but also to compile . 

I wonder whether the solution would not be delineating areas with vectorized data. Did I say polygons ?

6 minutes ago, domkle said:

We need to feel the transition from water to beach, from grass to mud, from tarmac to snow  etc. The  related long/lat world database would be gigantic not only to store but also to compile . 

It can't be that large a data set. The entire X-Plane 11 installation with all world data fits on just 8 DVDs. Anywhere in the world, I can land a Grumman Goose on water, float to shore, and transition to land. The exact transition point may not be super accurate, but it's good enough.
 

Quote

 

I wonder whether the solution would not be delineating areas with vectorized data. Did I say polygons ?

 

Right, that's what I meant. Basically a duplicate version of the world as a polygon data set with embedded "type of terrain" info as an overlay, to determine landing characteristics. 

I guess that could also include embedded data saying "this lake becomes ice during these certain months," but that's a stretch unless Azure has access to data that regionally specific. 

On 9/26/2019 at 11:09 PM, dtrjones said:

Hehe did you see the cars going around the Columbus Circle roundabout. Nice one Microsoft!

Aren't the cars going in the opposite direction on the roundabout?

1 hour ago, Noooch said:

Aren't the cars going in the opposite direction on the roundabout?

Depends on your IP address.   If your are in a country which drives on left hand side the cars go the other way in MSFS.😁

I would like 2D panels or 3D sub-windows to easily view certain instruments.

17 hours ago, vortex681 said:

That won't happen. The work involved in re-photographing the entire world for each season is just not economically viable. The current interval between updates of satellite images is usually years, not months. Most other users of the data don't want to see snow, or the colours of autumn, they just want a clear image of the ground (which tends to show detail in the summer). I think seasons are more likely to be done with shaders.

This from an interview with Matt Booty (Head of Microsoft Studios) 4 months ago.

"

It’s interesting. The very first game that Microsoft ever published was Adventure, and then I think the second one was Flight. That was a published game, and then we acquired it? I think that’s how the history goes. There’s so much going on right now.

We put up that little tag at the beginning about satellite data and Azure AI. I don’t know if you know how that works, but we’re taking satellite map data, which is amazing, because it covers the whole planet, but it has big limitations. Parts of the planet are covered at different levels of detail. In order to make a modern flight simulator at the fidelity you need, you need accurate data. We’re using machine learning to fill in the places where we don’t know more than what the satellite data tells us. We know this is a blank spot in the middle of Nevada. Here’s what the stuff around it looks like. We know what Nevada generally looks like. Now we’ll generate that procedurally. There’s a ton of cool stuff in Flight Simulator."

https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/12/how-microsoft-showed-up-at-e3-locked-and-loaded-for-games-a-new-console-and-the-cloud/

And still I only have 4 out of 10 clip locations.

Clip#1

Clip#2    SF Bay CA

Clip#3   

Clip#4    Lake Powell UT

Clip#5

Clip#6

Clip#7

Clip#8    Sun City AZ

Clip#9    Central Park NY

Clip#10

On 9/27/2019 at 9:17 AM, ChaoticBeauty said:

As for the cloud popping, it is there but it's extremely subtle, so much that it's almost a non-issue. You have to look really hard for it. 

Another way to look at it is that if people are having to expend so much energy and concentration trying to look for such tiny flaws (as I did and only when someone pointed them out), then there probably isn't any time or energy left to actually fly a plane - even when on autopilot.

3 hours ago, Poppapete said:

 

And still I only have 4 out of 10 clip locations

 

I‘ve been trying to find the first location for quite a bit but without success. It should be possible though. As for the others, that‘s a rather hopeless endeavour. 

6 hours ago, Poppapete said:

This from an interview with Matt Booty (Head of Microsoft Studios) 4 months ago.

Not sure what you're argument is here. I'm not saying that there isn't world satellite coverage, just that there isn't coverage for all seasons and that they wouldn't do it just for a game.