It occurred to me that MSFS 2020 with its excellent VFR characteristics would be an excellent way of visiting places by air - that had some educational aspects,  and so with this thought in mind, here are two links to online resources that enable some of us to achieve this, by being a stimulus for the reasons to find places to visit.

This first link is the google earth in a browser site, where if you click on the dice icon it will randomly transport you to different places around the Earth with different degrees of interest:  

https://earth.google.com/web/

The next link is the youtube channel of 'worldfromabove' videos that can be quite fascinating to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiDnCQ6JCtzcZ3FNgFGcj3g

Happy perusing! 😊

They could add a feature where users could share locations or even "scenic flights". But then the question would arise, are we using this as an earth simulator or as a flight simulator :-). The purists may dislike such a feature. I wouldn't.

I'd love to see a "Vector to" feature, whereby you lookup a geo location or point of interest by name / postal code / whatever and the sim gives you a vector (and distance) to that point.

i was talking in a different thread about this, you have to imagine its the whole world not just a few hectare,

not even Asobo know every place on earth and what the created, alot of places have to be explored,

i see alot of adventure flyers (me) especialy with random weather changes, cant wait to start the engine! ;D

Edited November 5, 20196 yr by Nedo68
typo

1 hour ago, siggy said:

They could add a feature where users could share locations or even "scenic flights". But then the question would arise, are we using this as an earth simulator or as a flight simulator :-). The purists may dislike such a feature. I wouldn't.

Hey Siggy isn't what a screenshot forum or a flightplan forum are all about  ? 

10 minutes ago, domkle said:

Hey Siggy isn't what a screenshot forum or a flightplan forum are all about  ?

Agree, for us. For newcomers something built into the sim that suggests flights might be better for them: "Now I have this new flight simulator, where do I fly now?" 🙂

Hopefully FSEconomy or an equivalent comes soon. But in a lot of ways you either catch the flight sim bug or you don't.

In FS9 I made it a goal to fly to at least one airport in every state in the US (except Alaska and Hawaii) and I started by looking at maps of an area in a direction I wanted to fly and I would find an airport that looked like it may be interesting to visit (usually based on the approach) and then fly there.

I found some great little places to visit back then but that was with FS9 scenery.  I wish I had kept track of all the airports I visited.

You never know how great a place is to visit until you actually do so you just have to be curious and a little adventurous and willing to fly a while.  You never know what you might see.

This is a huge game changer for me. For the first time in a flight sim, you can actually explore. Now let that sink in ! Cant wait to visit places I have never been to. 

Just looking at random at the GE map and finding a flight to do is a lot of fun. Good mesh, vector map and  landclass make already an interesting experience in many a place in P3D. 

An example : Japan. Default is dreadful. Add a good sharp mesh, Orbx Vector and the Haruo-san LC map with Orbx Global and you have  quite a delightful flying experience. But FS20 will definitely bring more. The Global textures are so-so (small rectangular rice paddy fields, urban sprawl etc.). An ortho  should do marvels.