On 6/25/2020 at 7:11 PM, JohnH90 said:

Is that a solar eclipse in the last image?! I used to play around in fs2000 trying to get the 1999 eclipse to happen.....

It certainly is, and that is very interesting. I wonder just how accurately Asobo are calculating the relative positions of Earth, Moon and Sun?

Edited June 30, 20205 yr by Christopher Low

11 hours ago, MatthewS said:

Clearly his statement infers he believes it's a choice between the over-sized, homogeneous 3D trees of MS2020 or the correctly scaled, heterogeneous 2D trees of X-plane.

But that's not at all what Hi Flyer said, it's what YOU are saying.

You have a bad habit of seeing things only as you want to see them, don't you MatthewS?

Enough with the flipping trees already. Move on! 

20 minutes ago, Mengy said:

But that's not at all what Hi Flyer said, it's what YOU are saying.

I guess one of us failed comprehension at grade school. 🤔

Edited June 30, 20205 yr by MatthewS

15 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

I guess one of us failed comprehension at grade school. 🤔

Hi Flyer never said he didn’t think the oversized tree problem could not be (or would not be) fixed in MSFS. He said that he would take the MSFS trees as they are now (even if oversized), over the default trees in XP.

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

It certainly is, and that is very interesting. I wonder just how accurately Asobo are calculating the relative positions of Earth, Moon and Sun?

 

https://fselite.net/originals/an-overview-of-the-technical-details-for-the-new-microsoft-flight-simulator/

 

Quote

 

Night Lighting

A full day and night cycle will be present within the simulator, along with a full yearly cycle. Whilst there was no mention of seasons, the team did confirm that the sun will be higher during the summer and lower in the winter months. Stars are all accurately replicated in the simulator and moon phases too will be accurate.

 

 

There is a big difference between accurately simulating the phases of the Moon, and accurately simulating solar eclipses. If you want to do the latter full justice, then you need to perform a lot of complex calculations for the motion of the Moon.

@MatthewS, I agree with @HiFlyer on this, MSFS current trees are a problem.  X-planes trees are a BIGGER problem.  I would take the lesser of two evils, wouldnt you?  Being that MSFS is still in development, there is a GOOD chance that this will be resolved.  I'm an alpha tester and really looking forward to alpha 5 to see what improvements will be implemented. 

6 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

There is a big difference between accurately simulating the phases of the Moon, and accurately simulating solar eclipses. If you want to do the latter full justice, then you need to perform a lot of complex calculations for the motion of the Moon.

I suspect it can't be that hard: Years ago, Outerra accurately modeled such things. I even made a (primitive) video of it, so I guess Microsoft could probably do it with both hands tied behind its back......

 

 

I am not talking about the visual aspect, Devon. I am talking about the location aspect. If I set the date to 1999 August 11, will the simulator calculate the correct speed, direction, size, and date/time of the Moon's shadow? That is certainly not easy.

Edited June 30, 20205 yr by Christopher Low

2 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I am not talking about the visual aspect, Devon. I am talking about the location aspect. If I set the date to 1999 August 11, will the simulator calculate the correct speed, direction, size, and date/time of the Moon's shadow. That is certainly not easy.

I'm not sure I see why not. Perhaps Outerra did it the simple way. They have an actual life-size moon in actual orbit around their 3D Earth, moving in the correct speed and position with the Sun.

To make that video, I actually input the correct date and time, then moved to the correct location to view, and raised my altitude to 100 miles.

That will teach me to watch the video properly, and not just skim through it! I hope you are right, and that Asobo can accurately simulate solar eclipses. That would be a nice touch

What's next? High and low tides? 🙄

12 minutes ago, MaVe64 said:

What's next? High and low tides? 🙄

I honestly wouldn't be surprised. 😄 

I was using some version of SkyGlobe to display the stars and planets several decades ago on a 286 computer.  The calculations to produce an accurate sky have been know for a very long time.  There is no reason why we shouldn't get accurate eclipses.

Hook

12 minutes ago, MaVe64 said:

What's next? High and low tides? 🙄

Its always seemed to me, that there are about three ways to make a sim:

• Make the whole world first, then add planes, cars, trains, etc.... (Outerra)
• Make the planes and airports and the aviation etc's, then sketch in an at least partially acceptable world. (X-plane)
• Make the world and vehicles together, with near equal priority. (MSFS2020)