This post makes one feel good.

1 hour ago, yanfeng12342000 said:

This post makes one feel good.

I agree - the thing about the birds really got to me.

ns

5 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

 The only negative are the stationary birds flapping their wings but never go anywhere!

Ive not got this program but they could be humming birds, or even some ospreys.  Their wings can make a back and foreward motion simutaenously

I will recommend any new comer to start from Courchevel Airport, and you will never go away.

16 hours ago, Chock said:

I want real historical weather, where you type in 25 October 1415, and as you fly over the Pas-de-Calais, you see it chucking it down with rain and the Battle of Agincourt going on below you. 🤣

No, Alan, that is more than just weather. You want an actual time machine.

16 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

Like you mentioned, train simulator, truck simulator, etc.  If Microsoft can enhance the satellite & photogrammetry even more, such that everything at street level is very detailed and looks really good (right now, satellite & photogrammetry is not the best at street level), there is a huge application for the MSFS engine.

I'd like to see that too in my lifetime but I think you are expecting a bit too much. The quality of MSFS on the ground (in cities) is total word not allowed compared to what a basic modern game offers nowadays. It doesn't even come close to something like Midtown Madness from 1999. Photogrammetry is even word not allowed (when you look good at it) while flying, let alone when you position yourself on the ground.

I would also love to see a realistic and living world down there and being able to hop into a car and drive around while thinking 'Yes, this comes close to GTA V' (which is old already) but I don't see that happening within 10 years. 

Concerning the weather: it's great and awesome but I also really miss historical weather (as AS did it). Creating the weather yourself can't compare to AS's historic weather feature where weather would change during a flight as it would at the set date. MSFS presets are dead and boring imho and I seldom use them. Which means I am stuck with winter textures for months and months on Norway. Realistic, yes, but just as I like to fly at daytime while it's night time I'd also like to be able to fly at summer with realistic weather while it's actually winter. Good realistic weather is something I'd pay for.

44 minutes ago, tup61 said:

The quality of MSFS on the ground (in cities) is total word not allowed compared to what a basic modern game offers nowadays. It doesn't even come close to something like Midtown Madness from 1999.

MSFS solves the most difficult part: creating a copy of the real world. Every house is where there is a house in real world. Globally. All the other games just create a fantasy environments. Typically handmade, which allows more (again fantasy) details, but makes it impossible to cover the whole globe.

Having solved the difficult part (worldwide coverage of the base scenery), a MSFS based train simulator e.g. would only have to recreate the railway related details (tracks, stations, infrastructure, tunnels, bridges). A good railway AI could recreate the whole global railway networks in a convincing way. I certainly see it as a possibility at hand for MS. As far as I have analysed the SDK it could even be done in MSFS by 3rd party devs.

1 hour ago, tup61 said:

I'd like to see that too in my lifetime but I think you are expecting a bit too much. The quality of MSFS on the ground (in cities) is total word not allowed compared to what a basic modern game offers nowadays. It doesn't even come close to something like Midtown Madness from 1999. Photogrammetry is even word not allowed (when you look good at it) while flying, let alone when you position yourself on the ground.

I would also love to see a realistic and living world down there and being able to hop into a car and drive around while thinking 'Yes, this comes close to GTA V' (which is old already) but I don't see that happening within 10 years. 

Check out this video which uses Google street view to generate a street view 3D models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizgVZ8rjKA&t=91s. This is technology that exists today, albeit, at a smaller scale.

Also, if you know how Google Street view works, how they gathered that data was that they had a special camera mounted on a car, and this car would drive around every street in the world to collect street view data: 

What they would need to do is have an additional special 360 degree camera that can capture the environment and convert it to 3D models, when they drive this car around to capture the street view data (the Bing Maps team for Microsoft would need to do this).  Or they can find a way to convert the street view data into 3D models, like the Youtube video I linked above, on a larger scale.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have such technology in the next 10 years.  The Youtube video above already shows existing technology that converts the street view to 3D models, but on a small scale. The technology in this area is going to get more and more advanced over the next 10 years.

 

 

Edited March 30, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

1 minute ago, mrueedi said:

MSFS solves the most difficult part: creating a copy of the real world. Every house is where there is a house in real world. Globally. All the other games just create a fantasy environments. Typically handmade, which allows more (again fantasy) details, but makes it impossible to cover the whole globe.

Having solved the difficult part (worldwide coverage of the base scenery), a MSFS based train simulator e.g. would only have to recreate the railway related details (tracks, stations, infrastructure, tunnels, bridges). A good railway AI could recreate the whole global railway networks in a convincing way. I certainly see it as a possibility at hand for MS. As far as I have analysed the SDK it could even be done in MSFS by 3rd party devs.

Yes, this is the other possibility.  If AI can be enhanced further, AI can potentially fill in the "gaps" to generate a plausible street view with 3D models.

1 minute ago, mrueedi said:

Having solved the difficult part (worldwide coverage of the base scenery), a MSFS based train simulator e.g. would only have to recreate the railway related details (tracks, stations, infrastructure, tunnels, bridges).

I think you are underestimating the detail needed in order to make MSFS look a little bit like Trains Sim World. You say 'would ONLY'... is of it isn't much work!

9 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Check out this video which uses Google street view to generate a street view 3D models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cizgVZ8rjKA&t=91s. This is technology that exists today, albeit, at a smaller scale.

Dig into that a bit deeper and you will see how small the scale actually is. That tech was from 2018. It's for years later now and where are all the video games using this incredible tech...? Nowhere. So how do you think MS will solve this little problem in the coming 8 years? They aren't even close to what Google can do right now and even Google isn't even close to using their tech for games, not even small scale games.

12 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

What they would need to do is have an additional special 360 degree camera that can capture the environment and convert it to 3D models, when they drive this car around to capture the street view data (the Bing team for Microsoft would need to do this).

LOL Yes, right, let's do that. Let's add an additional camera and save tons and tons more of data all over the world from scratch again.

Anyway, I think you guys are expecting too much and underestimating the work and time this needs, the amount of data needed and still you might not get the quality handcrafted games have nowadays.

I do believe things like this will be possible in time but not the coming 10 years (of which 2 have passed already when it comes to MSFS).

14 minutes ago, tup61 said:

I think you are underestimating the detail needed in order to make MSFS look a little bit like Trains Sim World. You say 'would ONLY'... is of it isn't much work!

Dig into that a bit deeper and you will see how small the scale actually is. That tech was from 2018. It's for years later now and where are all the video games using this incredible tech...? Nowhere. So how do you think MS will solve this little problem in the coming 8 years? They aren't even close to what Google can do right now and even Google isn't even close to using their tech for games, not even small scale games.

LOL Yes, right, let's do that. Let's add an additional camera and save tons and tons more of data all over the world from scratch again.

Anyway, I think you guys are expecting too much and underestimating the work and time this needs, the amount of data needed and still you might not get the quality handcrafted games have nowadays.

I do believe things like this will be possible in time but not the coming 10 years (of which 2 have passed already when it comes to MSFS).

Well, I disagree with you. Also, you said the next 10 years, which means the next 10 years starting from today.  In the next 10 years, technology can change a lot and advance a lot.  Converting street level view to 3D models is definitely within possible technology in the next 10 years.

And as @mrueedi said, the data and capturing of the data doesn't have to be perfect.  AI can fill in the gaps.  Especially with the use of AI, a realistic street level with 3D models can definitely be done in the next 10 years.

Typical Avsim, the OP started with a question and now is drifted to birds and 360 cameras 🤣 

This topic has morphed into a general discussion about MSFS. I'm sure the OP has enough info to make an informed decision. Topic now locked.