I think this is the future of addons.

[Nyxx 6,993]

1 minute ago, Ricardo41 said:

So, in theory, if a great flood does away with the Sydney Opera, eventually the building shouldn't show up any more in the sim.

OK!

[edpatino 1,964]

At this point, my feeling is that we'll still need detailed airports, both for GA and airliners, small, medium and mega airports. Probably we won't need to worry about the surroundings, as MSFS should deliver what we'd need.

As for aircraft (all types, from easy flying to study-level), live weather, AI Traffic, ATC, to me we'll still in need of good add-ons. In general, the add-ons have historically been the support of FS platforms, and to me I'll continue to be that way.

Cheers, Ed

[Ricardo41 5,949]

For reference, here is a list of the 341 photorealistic cities in MSFS 2020:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/08/18/all-341-photorealistic-cities-in-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020/

[peloto 213]

12 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

You mean like this

https://orbxdirect.com/product/gaya-eddt-msfs

They have a lot of people working for them and others working with them, am sure making the above does not stop airport development.

Or this coming soon

The EDDT I think could be more realistic in material and building I think, the second screen shot with the slope, water foam etc. looks very good.

[Baber20 1,438]

The default scenery is good enough for me. Sydney Bridge and a lot of other POIs for that area can be downloaded for free from various addon websites. Why would you even want to purchase a static scenery? And if the bing data gets updated for that area, that addon will be rendered useless. 

[fppilot 4,368]

1 hour ago, Colonel X said:

"USA Bridges"

Four thumbs up on that one...  (my two and my wife's two).  The prominent Preston Chesapeake Bay bridge near us is abysmal to say the least. 

And our local regional airport, Easton Newnan KESN has flat blobs instead of buildings and hangars.  Fix those first please.

Edited September 18, 2020 by fppilot

[UAL4life 237]

yeah i love everyone touting that fs would be the "death" of addons which is just laughable. Especially when you see the state of the Airbus and Sydney, London to name a few... Asobo cant do everything and I welcome addon makers with wide open arms.... This will be an instant buy for me as Photogrammetry is not the greatest quality we can achieve, as is proven by these screenshots!

[bobcat999 8,477]

My view is simple.  People should have the choice at least.  If someone wants to take the risk to create add-on scenery and try to market it - all good!

If people want to buy it or not - fine!

A lot is maybe personal. For instance if someone improved my home city, or maybe somewhere I go on holiday a lot, if it looked really good at the right price, I might give it a go.  👍

For most of the planet though, the way it is done in MSFS is good enough for me, and is the way to go, as hand crafting the whole planet is a bit of an undertaking.

OrbX will always do well enough out of what they do anyway.

On that note, I have heard that a new developer going under the name of 'Slarty Blartfast' is improving all of the crinkly bits around the edge of Norway! 😁

Edited September 18, 2020 by bobcat999

[Shack95 2,658]

1 hour ago, Baber20 said:

Stuff like this will make the devs even more lazy. Just like with liveries. They were set to come out on 21st August but since we have a ton of them already made by volunteers, devs delayed the official ones just because we have already something to chew on for the time being. I fear same will happen with regional updates.

I hope you‘re wrong. As for liveries, If I remember correctly they said that they‘re waiting for approval from the airlines, which, due to the pandemic, may have other things on their minds at the moment. 

[SteveFx 258]

2 hours ago, Colonel X said:

I'd rather have MS pushing more Photogrammetry cities. They're still working on these, aren't they. For payware, I'd prefer more general packages, that don't concentrate on one single area. Here are some ideas:

"USA Bridges"
"TV towers of Europe"
"Castles of France"

You get the idea...

You missed “english churches”

[Nyxx 6,993]

2 hours ago, Colonel X said:

I'd rather have MS pushing more Photogrammetry cities. They're still working on these, aren't they. For payware, I'd prefer more general packages, that don't concentrate on one single area. Here are some ideas:

"USA Bridges"
"TV towers of Europe"
"Castles of France"

You get the idea...

They are good ideas for MSFS to do or a developer.

Every country could have a pack for all sorts of things.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Nyxx

[Shack95 2,658]

2 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

I don't really understand the point of addon scenery. I thought Photogrammetry via Bing generated, so to speak, "live scenery"

The question is, how keen are the Bing Maps team on adding new and better photogrammetry cities? Will the sim‘s success have an impact on this development? Hard to tell at the moment.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Shack95

[Keto Ketchup 240]

2 hours ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Not sure if this is the future, as a World Update focused on Australia could end up making this add-on near useless.

I may be an outlier, but I prefer hand-crafted cities over photogrammetry, though mixing the two would be the best of both worlds. Photogrammetry just doesn't look that good when you get closer, and even at a distance the lighting is all wrong. I compared photos I took of Pittsburgh IRL and compared them to the same spot in MSFS, and the city is way too dark in MSFS, probably because of the building faces being in shadow when the photogrammetry images were taken. You also get weird "frozen in time" reflections on glass windows, etc. And don't get me started on photogrammetry buildings. So yeah, give me hand-crafted, at least for the downtown areas, bridges, landmarks, etc, overlaid on photogrammetry for the neighborhoods and suburban areas (nobody expects every single house to be hand-crafted). I'll happily pay for hand-crafted "hometown" cities.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Keto Ketchup

[Shack95 2,658]

2 hours ago, RobJC said:

I am not sure there will be a market for sceneries outside of airports

I think the regional updates will show us where this is going. If they turn out to be a  massive improvement as Neumann indicated the other day, with high-res mesh and imagery, new landmarks etc., non-airport scenery add-ons might indeed not be that interesting for 3PDs anymore. Talking of world updates, it would be nice to have a roadmap showing us when we can expect what area and how big they are going to be. This might also make life easier for 3PDs.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Shack95

[devgrp 1,233]

Future are not, orbx makes great scenery and detailed cityscape is something I'd definitely buy