On 10/26/2019 at 2:15 PM, Flamingpie said:

Hm, well, I actually think he is being sarcastic and frustrated that MSFS will spoil his business. Time will tell.

Pretty sure Orbx will go where the money is and adapt. Sure that will take time, but they already seem to have been pushing our airports at an increased rate recently, a not unpredictable scenario given there will likely be no need for improved regions add-ons in FS 2020. On the positive side, the customer base will surely explode with the advent of this new ground-breaking home flight simulator, so they may gain in the long run. 

Implementing FSX-style seasons might not be as easy as some of you are thinking it is. FS2020 relies on Bing imagery, not textures like FSX. I'm hoping it comes as soon as possible but there's nothing to suggest it's close to being a feature.

The only reason I'm not outraged is because the Bing imagery makes the rest of the world looks worth it. I hope scenery-makers can make some winter regions early on, somehow.

It might be a "year-lag" deal with seasons, based on how the scenery is created. If it's summer 2019, your winter imagery might be from 2018. In other words, seasons might be entirely connected with the date feature.

20 minutes ago, carbonbasedlifeform said:

Implementing FSX-style seasons might not be as easy as some of you are thinking it is. FS2020 relies on Bing imagery, not textures like FSX.

If I remember correctly in Offline mode the new sim also relies on textures, so maybe winter could be implemented there more easily. For online mode, Bing maps should have seasons too which isn't going to happen anywhere soon. I wonder if a dense cloud layer hugging the ground might pass as snow?

47 minutes ago, orchestra_nl said:

If I remember correctly in Offline mode the new sim also relies on textures 

At no point, I remember it was said  that the offline mode relies on textures as opposed to maps.

I realy hope seasons with shader technoligy will be implented. I dont see flying in the arctic circle in january will be realistic without snow.

1 hour ago, domkle said:

At no point, I remember it was said  that the offline mode relies on textures as opposed to maps.

in the discovery episode "world" it is said "in full offline mode we can synthesise the ground textures" (at ~6:05), as well as offline data of buildings, water and trees".  Wether that may mean that technically seasons are possible is to be seen.

On 10/26/2019 at 9:46 AM, dal330200 said:

I'll scream if there are no seasons in FS2020.  With everything else looking so good, along with the powerful new atmospheric engine, it would be a disaster not to release with seasons.  Same with the night lighting- I caught a glimpse of how some roads look the same as they do in X-plane at night- just lights, completely unrealistic.  I hope they fix that too.  I mean if not, all X-plane needs to do is copy the streaming idea, improve weather and add some seasons, and bam, I don't have to change sims. 

Lol...as if that stuff is easy.

13 minutes ago, orchestra_nl said:

in the discovery episode "world" it is said "in full offline mode we can synthesise the ground textures" (at ~6:05), as well as offline data of buildings, water and trees".  Wether that may mean that technically seasons are possible is to be seen.

He does indeed but I do not understand as you do.  I don't claim to be right, mind you, as he said actually very little on the three modes ! In anycase, we don't see in the video the urban mess that we see today with default or Global LC textures . 

On 10/26/2019 at 4:46 PM, dal330200 said:

I mean if not, all X-plane needs to do is copy the streaming idea, improve weather and add some seasons, and bam, I don't have to change sims. 

Good luck

Again, if a plugin for X-Plane 11, called XEnviro manipulates dynamically any ground texture  to render autumn like hues and adds dynamic snow coverage over the autumn dynamic changes, then MSFS engine will indeed have the capability of doing the same for BING or any textures.

No need to make copies of the texture and manipulate the tones in Photoshop, all is dynamic in the sim.

A slider determines how much snow coverage we like + metar data... 

XEnviro Plugin 1.12 (Dynamic autumn peviews)

https://scontent.fymq3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/72190889_10157275084205199_6597513922108981248_o.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_oc=AQlcgPEmranEIdGZmjdw7kfekT91WwYKwY24bEt2L4EJ5o2eHRit0izAsZooZPy5KHc&_nc_ht=scontent.fymq3-1.fna&oh=922d0866000e54adc6658c1d366e2026&oe=5E62F39C

https://scontent.fymq3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/72954495_10157275083900199_682750743223992320_o.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_oc=AQnYCu3IQhWHCcYR-9W-VhkAhJNtlMEtaJkn21YZWLckpf5wbM5ulUutAfkCM50aT38&_nc_ht=scontent.fymq3-1.fna&oh=28492e871ee2395a56bfcd5ac980de18&oe=5E548DBF

https://scontent.fymq3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/73012031_10157271740390199_1295278852762763264_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_oc=AQkuB0YYzUyh1vnYdMl74h18fqYIAWqUWqH9SiXsx0ZFuLmsn8sk1u3EYuRAU-UW3B8&_nc_ht=scontent.fymq3-1.fna&oh=27e9a4147ea89ce6c131ed6f3c5f6eb5&oe=5E19DEF2

https://scontent.fymq3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/73088339_10157271743755199_4497648241512284160_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_oc=AQkKxevR1ZIz05B1TAiYXtRko3gidVeRN5z5CElvPUNvvyQs0Tg9t8kcQegshEO3kbg&_nc_ht=scontent.fymq3-1.fna&oh=cebc04d15b9988b8ec3152fe41ab0586&oe=5E22A7B7

And dynamic snow coverage example:

https://scontent.fymq3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/71964484_143440806883032_7613992570649051136_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_oc=AQmxFYS0xPgep0rI5t_dC6jdKPtB1zK59o40NOt2f-yUlVH8x4bMHtVwxXGVK8CNdW0&_nc_ht=scontent.fymq3-1.fna&oh=391612eba52323aa16450f8792c2365a&oe=5E5A0A28

Seeing those images of XEnviro gives me confidence that we will see seasons in MSFS.  There appears to be no end to the talents of the developers involved so let's hope for the best.

4 hours ago, domkle said:

At no point, I remember it was said  that the offline mode relies on textures as opposed to maps.

I mean, how else would offline mode work?

And that is the issue with early announcements and alpha features. Everyone becomes an expert on how a developer does something or is supposed to do something, while we have no technical information of any kind on the subject matter.

Edited October 28, 20196 yr by Evros

Having 1 season  would suck as it does in X-Plane. I hope this is not the situation. Because of how the graphics are displayed I suspect the solution would be to have procedurally generated snow, rain etc.