Road traffic would play such an important role in the immersion aspect and this can be further made realistic by having road traffic depend on time so more busy during day time but as it gets later at night less traffic. They should also take a step further and have more heavy trucks at night with their hazard flashing lights. 

Not sure if they have already done this but implement ai ships with dynamic lights so while you're cruising at an high altitude and the ocean is pitch dark you can make out those ships.

I am also seriously hoping MS would make the night colorful so far I am only seeing orange lights everywhere from roads to buildings. Do they not have some sort of night data for roads and buildings that would help Azure place lights in correct areas and correct light colors? 

Isn t real live (road) traffic in their to-do list?

43 minutes ago, be1a1 said:

so far I am only seeing orange lights everywhere from roads to buildings.

In the feature discovery series preview video (1st scene) they showed some yellowish lights among orange ones. But yes, I‘d like so see some more night shots too.

What aggravates me is when a car disappears at the junction of road vectors... 

2 hours ago, domkle said:

What aggravates me is when a car disappears at the junction of road vectors... 

That aggravates you?  Taking things a little too seriously?

18 minutes ago, andyjohnston.net said:

That aggravates you?  Taking things a little too seriously?

OK "aggravate"  maybe too strong. Pick the right verb in the synonyms given by the Merriam Webster and add 'mildy'  or 'slightly' in front of it 😃

aggravate, bother, bug, burn (up), chafe, eat, exasperate, frost, gall, get, grate, gripe, hack (off), irk, irritate, itch, nark [British], nettle, peeve, persecute, pique, put out, rasp, rile, ruffle, spite, vex

 

22 minutes ago, domkle said:

OK "aggravate"  maybe too strong. Pick the right verb in the synonyms given by the Merriam Webster and add 'mildy'  or 'slightly' in front of it 😃

aggravate, bother, bug, burn (up), chafe, eat, exasperate, frost, gall, get, grate, gripe, hack (off), irk, irritate, itch, nark [British], nettle, peeve, persecute, pique, put out, rasp, rile, ruffle, spite, vex

 

Honestly? This is really something I don't give too much thought of. It's not like I am counting cars on approach and will take notes of each and every car pretending to be the "DeLorean". In P3D I don't even have cars for performance issues. But if that's a viable option I will gladly just take it to have life on the streets.... having moving objects on highways and roads (red and white lights at night) is already immersion enough for me, checking on their driving skills would be taking it too far.

Anyways I do agree on your actual topic about night atmospheres. This is something P3D never managed to capture well (I never used X-Plane, but judging by the screenshots it's night atmosphere was too over the top... too colorful and too much contrast). The (very little) footage so far look quite promising, but I too would like to see a little more color and also have those pitch black nights where the only things you can see are lights (no horizon, no unlit terrain features, etc..). And same like having more traffic during rush-hours, have more windows lit on buildings during working hours and less during the middle of the night. These are small details, that make quite the impact to the overall mood and atmosphere and highly add to the immersion.

But speaking of correct traffic flows. One thing I would consider quite something is if airport traffic was actually interactive. Not only being able to handle AI-Traffic (and possibly even other user aircraft online), but have them actually respond to aircraft and other airport vehicles.

Edited October 15, 20196 yr by OSJJ1985

Mmmm, I wonder if traffic will be live. Surely, for security issues be it shipping & aircraft, this will not be allowed, without a delay, which then cannot be regarded as live?

LOL, then airports can use MSFS instead of their radar, & pirates, navies & coastguards can use the sim to monitor shipping.

 

I don't see how "live" road traffic is even viable.  My car doesn't have any tracking device on it, and doesn't "phone home".

Really for me, seeing a car disappear in the sim does not bother me.  I just need to see 'em moving on final, makes for slightly-more-immersive approach sometimes.

 

I sure as heck don't need "live" road traffic..

But - I would love it if the time of day could represent what it should be like (generally) in a given location, which should actually be data that's somewhat readily attainable.

 

It need not be perfect, but nothing drives me crazy in something like X-Plane like seeing rural Idaho roadways with "rush hour" levels of traffic in areas where you'd be lucky to find 3 cars anywhere in sight - ever.  It totally ruins the feeling of being in a remote location (as just one example).

13 minutes ago, Mace said:

I don't see how "live" road traffic is even viable.  My car doesn't have any tracking device on it, and doesn't "phone home".

Really for me, seeing a car disappear in the sim does not bother me.  I just need to see 'em moving on final, makes for slightly-more-immersive approach sometimes.

 

The data doesn't show or capture every car on driving around on the roads/streets, but  there's some data available on bing for road traffic:

 

 

But I wouldn't put live road traffic as a priority for me. Just something that would be cool in a future update (really, no rush). Having cars/trucks driving around would be enought.

Edited October 15, 20196 yr by ca_metal

One of the things I did notice in one of the recent videos was traffic traveling at different speeds on the same highway.  Was neat seeing a car passing a truck and another slower car coming up an entrance ramp.  Although not essential for a flight simulator, I appreciate the attention to detail.  It really is the little things ...

I think by 2025 you will be able to land your  (virtual) aircraft then get in your (virtual) car and drive to your (virtual) house to have (virtual) dinner with your virtual wife (or girlfriend) 😜

8 hours ago, be1a1 said:

Not sure if they have already done this but implement ai ships with dynamic lights so while you're cruising at an high altitude and the ocean is pitch dark you can make out those ships.

Love it!

On ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 12:56 PM, ca_metal said:

The data doesn't show or capture every car on driving around on the roads/streets, but  there's some data available on bing for road traffic:

Fantastic! LIVE traffic (ships, cars, etc.) would be great, and it seems the data may already be right there within Bing (at least vehicle traffic) so may not be as hard to implement as we think it would be.Talk about adding to the immersion level - WOW!

Edited October 17, 20196 yr by n4gix
Removed rediculously long quote!