Here it is in a nutshell. You asked for photoreal scenery you got it.Those that have the retail or demo or beta look at your cities folders.see that huge bgl in each one well thats got to be the photoreal scenery that was asked for by many simmers remove it then you see your fps shoot right up the only problem is that your mesh tiles become genric mess.:) The bgl must only trigger mesh and some buildings. Guess its not just the autogen as you can see it is handled pretty well.Maybe third party guys can do there magic.

The reason is the number of polygons being drawn by the autogen, AI cars and boats, etc... plus the fillrate hit that things like the shader 2.x water and the light bloom have if you turn those on. I don't think it has anything to do with BGL size or photoscenery...

Ok in this photo you see the Aerial bgl removed with the most trees that FSX permits also the water is set to high. Since I dont have the retail yet not I'm not sure how each citys bgl is overloaded in FSX its close to 70megs just in St. Maarten.That's not including special buildings hotels landmarks water towers stuff like that.