This is definitely not a criticism of the default regions. Everything looks amazing.

I had no doubt OrbX could make better cities or airports than , but in the discovery series video, isn't it safe to say there's plenty of room for guys like OrbX in MSFS2020 for regions? For example, autogen for the Northern Rockies? The right kind of trees and objects for different regions, etc.
 

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by carbonbasedlifeform
Clarification on autogen

What makes you think they won't have the right autogen for the Northern rockies or anywhere else? 

The AI is creating the autogen and tree types, including shapes, colors, and roofs, from reading satellite images. What is Orbx going to do that's somehow more accurate and how would they place said autogen perfectly onto the base texture the way the AI can? 

None of what we are seeing looks like it relies on old style autogen libraries. It looks like it relies on algorithms to read the underlying data to create a building that uniquely fits the ground ortho. 

I don't think "regions" will be a thing anymore. At least not in online mode. 

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by bonchie

6 minutes ago, bonchie said:

What makes you think they won't have the right autogen for the Northern rockies or anywhere else? 

The AI is creating the autogen and tree types, including shapes, colors, and roofs, from reading satellite images. What is Orbx going to do that's somehow more accurate and how would they place said autogen perfectly onto the base texture the way the AI can? 

None of what we are seeing looks like it relies on old style autogen libraries. It looks like it relies on algorithms to read the underlying data to create a building that uniquely fits the ground ortho. 

I don't think "regions" will be a thing anymore. At least not in online mode. 

That's what I'm trying to say on the other topic. What Orbx can do with their tech and data, MS can do better. The only regard Orbx would shine is placing and modeling custom objects to populate the scenery.

And to do that task, Orbx would have to focus on small portions of sceneries like airports and its surrounding area.  

I honestly think people like OrbX will be able to excel at upgraded airports and perhaps seaplane base/harbor areas more than anything regional.

Why are you worried about not having to buy addons ?

ORBX Team will always find a way to do a native feature better..its what they do

I'm personally curious what Asobo themselves think are the areas that 3rd parties can/will/should be addressing.

I'm assuming aircraft are the big one, but it'd be interesting at some point to hear what Asobo/MS would almost "like" to see 3rd parties tackle.  

They are making an SDK after all.

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by irrics

I very much disagree with the OP. Whilst there may be space for some bits and bobs to be added, I think the base sim is so stunning that people would be very unlikely to pay more for slight improvements, at least nowhere near current orbx prices. I thought airports would be the obvious area for them, but even that might be a bit iffy. Maybe there will be something they can do in the offline mode perhaps, but the azure element of the scenery generation tech seems far beyond what anyone other than other big development studios could hope to achieve?

21 minutes ago, irrics said:

I'm personally curious what Asobo themselves think are the areas that 3rd parties can/will/should be addressing.

I'm assuming aircraft are the big one, but it'd be interesting at some point to hear what Asobo/MS would almost "like" to see 3rd parties tackle.  

They are making an SDK after all.

I think aeroplanes are a given. From a few things I picked up from the event a couple of weeks ago I think it seems they are expecting other people to build things to ‘do’ in the sim - so a lot of the living world type stuff I think, and maybe the next gen versions of things like FSEconomy etc. 

Well even if they do, I sure as hell wont be buying them. I am done with that. What I am seeing is sufficient for me which by the way is already miles ahead of what we have in p3d or xplane. Only way they can enhance the current scenery is by making state of the art next gen airports where you can actually walk inside the terminal buildings. Now that is something worth spending money on.

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by Baber20

Now I wonder how often bing 3D data is updated... and expanded.

8 minutes ago, aleex said:

Now I wonder how often bing 3D data is updated... and expanded.

Maybe someone can look into how often Bing Map has been updated during 2018-2019. That should give us an idea of what can be expected in the years to come. 

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by nas123

Probably massively varies by region. Where I live (north west UK) it doesn’t seem to have been updated for quite a few years, whereas google seems to update every 6 months or so. 

I'm pretty anti-add-ons unless they are really needed and I really want my base sim to do as much as possible.

That said...I need to see what some of the more regional and municipal airports actually end up looking like in MSFS release version.  It's still too early to know how complete they will be, but what I saw so far at KRNT isn't enough for me.

 

But-- I'm an enthusiast and real world pilot and use that airport a ton and so I highly value a LOT of detail there (and in many areas of the PNW).  We each will be different and I don't think the mainstream will care like we here might.

That's a long way of saying that I think they'll be a place to extend things for the OrbX's of the world, but it's possible the market size might not actually increase that much for them.  It's just hard to know right now.  Too many unknowns still.

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by irrics

I do enjoy a quality add-on but if this new sim performs anything like promised at launch, I personally will not see the need for Orbx land classes. Airport add-ons is another story... I will certainly continue to support Orbx and other 3rd party developers who make great airport add-ons if they bring their products (old and new) to the new sim.

I am very curious to see what is possible in this new sim from the 3rd party dev community.