From what I read in the article we'll also get a zoo! This Jorg Neuman, he is a biologist. And haven't we already seen a flock of flamingos and a herd of giraffe?

1 hour ago, ca_metal said:

I can imagine the flight simmers “playing” together with other guys playing train simulator, truck simulator  and ship simulator online.

Don't forget Goat Simulator! 😛

Without kidding, they could incorporate real ship traffic.

Just like they plan with air traffic via FlightAware, there are similar services for ships, like https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-7.0/centery:50.1/zoom:4

The article hints they are looking into this, and also into rail traffic.

6 hours ago, Stratocruiser1 said:

I did take the Super Chief from LA to Chicago as part of our 44 day AMTRK Around America Tour in 2013.  Fantastic Trip. 2 and 1/2 days on that leg. Fond memories 

I have fond memories of a coal fired steam train excursion from Washington DC to Baltimore and back in the late 70's.  I was friends of friends of the organizers, and when we got to Baltimore they got an antique streetcar out of a museum and we rode around the city in that, getting lots of odd looks from the populace.  Several of our group worked in the various rail systems.

At first I didn't understand why the antique streetcar looked so familiar, but later I found pictures of my grandmother working on an identical streetcar in a conductor's uniform.  Apparently I'd been on such a streetcar when I was a toddler.

Having a road and rail system detailed enough to provide such an experience will be something to aspire to some time in the future.

Hook

On 6/28/2020 at 6:21 AM, Tierborn said:

I do not think trains in a flight sim add much to realism.   If that is on the development list, it should be very far down.  Simulating passengers, airport operations, ATC should come before trains.  

Well, they are already including the migratory patterns of birds based on locations and seasons so I would anticipate that train and boat traffic would be higher on the list!

Not everyone seems to like seeing moving trains in a flight sim (won't quote anyone), instead people seem to prefer seeing passengers walking into their aircraft, luggage being loaded, catering being loaded. Some may feel that moving boats on a lake are a must, others may want to see birds flying around, and perhaps even to try recreate the 'going down in the Hudson'.

IMHO, but of course your mileage (or kilometrage, if you live in a metric country 🙂) may wary, for instance, the trains in the Inn-Valley in Aerosoft's or ORBX' Innsbruck scenery, add to the liveliness of the place. They run often enough so you can see them from the airport.

Ideally, the sim would have options that allow you to turn on/off certain scenery features. E.g., I would not want environmental sounds such a birds tweeting, if I wanted this, I just would go outside where they tweet all year. But the bush flyers may want this, not sure.

Besides options for AI air traffic, there could be options for the following categories to turn on/off:

• Highway traffic
• Street traffic
• Trains
• Boats (none/static/moving)
• Stars (none/pseudo/correct)
• Moon (none/correct)
• Roaming animals (with or without their sounds)
• Flying animals (with or without their sounds)

At the airport:

• Luggage vehicles
• Catering Vehicles
• Freight vehicles and freight loading
• Buses
• Monorails (e.g. at SFO or SIN)
• Passengers
• Outdoor furniture, e.g. at visitors terraces at airports

With these and possibly more options, everyone could tailor their simulator world and their frame rate to their heart's content. I would certainly turn a number of them off, but not the trains, for me, they add to the liveliness.

Moving trains, cars and boats/ships on another vector than your ownship give an irreplaceable sense of depth to the simulation when you fly below 10K, they are not only candy for the eyes.  I hope to see them built-in.  But, as you say, tailoring is the way to go. No use for the airliner crowd,  I suppose.

For the moon and stars, I wonder how many of us navigate using the sky at night.  Not too many  But these guys in Bordeaux are capable to give us a full planetarium on top of a flight simulator, you'll see 😄 !

Now for the tweeting and quacking heard over the roar of a big radial as today ? Maybe not.

 

For me, road traffic is a major part of the scenery.  I also notice it in videos of a landing over a road.  I like seeing boat traffic, but I have the frequency dialed down in P3D.  I'd appreciate seeing a train or two once in a while if I'm navigating by rail.

I don't know how many might want to actually navigate by the stars (there will be someone who will) but seeing familiar constellations while flying makes a difference.  I often compare the moon phase of the sim to real life.  "What's that bright light in the sky?"  "That's Venus."  This might be the only time some people look at the sky, at least for any length of time.  Many people have never seen the Milky Way in real life.

After flying the DC-3 from Yakutat to Sitka and shutting down the engines, hearing the ambient sounds is pretty special.  These aren't the main course, they're the icing on the cake.

Hook