The Wide World of MSFS

[Bobsk8]

My Grandson and his new bride spent their honeymoon in Bali, and loved it. My daughter asked me last night if I had ever flown to Bali in the sim, and I told her I had no idea where it was and would look it up when I got home. I went to my VA flight schedule and found many flights that had Bali as the destination ( WADD)  I selected one, WICC to WADD, and frankly I was expecting an airport without much around it. To my surprise the departure airport looked great, beautiful trees and foliage all over, and departing out of the airport, the scenery was fantastic. This is an area of the world, that if it were not for MSFS, I would have never flown around. MSFS amazes me, every time I take off. One could fly every day for the rest of their life, and never see even a small percentage of the airports in this simulator. 

[regis9]

A great reminder to get out and explore the world beyond where we regularly fly!

[jcomm]

Did that a few days ago with Lanzarote, one of the best hollidays I ever spent, of the very very few I ever spent out of Portugal.

Scenery, including the airport ( Arrecife ) GCRR, look just like the real thing !

This all with plain / vanilla default scenery.

[airlinejets]

30 minutes ago, jcomm said:

Lanzarote, one of the best hollidays I ever spent

Lanzarote, Fuertaventura or any of the other Canary Islands would be fun to visit some day. Maybe spend part of the winter there. We've been eying Torremolinos also as a winter getaway. Covid has kept us home for way too long.

[jcomm]

1 minute ago, airlinejets said:

Lanzarote, Fuertaventura or any of the other Canary Islands would be fun to visit some day. Maybe spend part of the winter there. We've been eying Torremolinos also as a winter getaway. Covid has kept us home for way too long.

I did Lanzarote in 2018 and Fuerteventura in 2019. Loved Furteventura as well. Those were the only two long / beach holidays I ever spent away from Portugal, and they were really rewarding.

Both are almost true to life in MFS !

 

[The Moose]

55 minutes ago, regis9 said:

A great reminder to get out and explore the world beyond where we regularly fly!

Absolutely!  We all have our favorite/regular places to fly, though I  think for a lot of long time simmers this was party dictated in the past by where there was some decent addon scenery.  The West coast of the US/PNW/Western EU and AUS have historically been the best covered scenery wise.

Now, whilst not all places are as detailed as others, we have the whole planet. Vast amounts in stunning detail and even the worst parts far better than we've ever had before.  There's no excuse not to get out of your comfort zones and actually explore our incredible virtual world. So many of my best flights in MSFS have been exploring and discovering previously unknown (in the sim) places.

Whilst everyone is of course free to enjoy the sim any way they wish, when i see people who "dont need the world updates because i only fly in the UK" etc i can only say... "your loss!"

[regis9]

1 hour ago, The Moose said:

Absolutely!  We all have our favorite/regular places to fly, though I  think for a lot of long time simmers this was party dictated in the past by where there was some decent addon scenery.  The West coast of the US/PNW

This 100% for me.  I find myself doing most of my GA flying in these areas (plus Western Canada) because In previous Sims these areas were home to some of the best ORBX scenery, Plus if I want to fly in real time the West Coast time zone gives me a lot of daylight, particularly in the winter.  Plus of course the scenery is varied and fantastic.

But!  There are many more beautiful areas of the world that I need to get out and explore now that ORBX regions are in are not a limiting factor.

[lwt1971]

Just from my own travels to these places and how they look in MSFS, would highly recommend these areas of the world to do some VFR (or even high altitude) flying over:

- Namibia and Sossusvlei desert area (surreal)
- Himalayas region, especially with the Orbx mesh
- New Zealand all over both South and North islands
- Japan and area around Mt Fuji
- Australian east coast, and central outback regions
- Medditt south coast areas (south France, south Spain, Greece, Malta, etc)
- Banff area in the Canadian Rockies
- Alaska
- Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, also Iguazu Falls area on the Brazil/Argentina border
- Kenya and Tanzania, Mt Kilimanjaro area, Ngorongoro area
- Iceland
- Taiwan, especially with free Taipei scenery sponsored by Nvidia
- Croatia, especially around Dubrovnik
- Dubai
- French Polynesia: Bora Bora, Moorea
- Siem Reap, Cambodia
- Lukla, Nepal
- Cape Town, South Africa

I could go on and on... but ya, so much to see!

[abrams_tank]

After the release of MSFS, I can't imagine a modern flight simulator that doesn't have satellite & photogrammetry of the entire world, including a company like Blackshark AI that converts 2D satellite objects into 3D objects for the world.  It's just not the same, IMO.  

In the 2020s, this should be a basic feature of any flight simulator, IMO.  

[andy1252]

3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

This is an area of the world, that if it were not for MSFS, I would have never flown around.

This is the absolute reason I use ANY sim. I don't have any interest in learning how to fly any aircraft - I just need to be able to get in the air and get down again. I'm interested in all sorts of airplanes from an aesthetic viewpoint (I've got about 15 feet of bookshelves crammed with aircraft books) but I have no desire to play with buttons and dials. But since I got into simming (starting with MS Flight - so go ahead and mock, I don't mind) it's always been utterly and totally about exploring the world for me. I've been through FSX, P3D, AFS2, XP and now MSFS, and it's all about the visuals and the world outside for me. All the previous sims I've used had their moments in their day (with the benefit of sufficiient addons and tweaks), but MSFS is the first one where I really can begin to get the feeling of "being there".

Magic stuff! (when it's working ok <grin>)

[Gazzareth]

 

It seems crazy to me.

Landed in Nice a couple of nights ago, middle of the night and low vis. Loaded up a day later for the next leg and absolutely blown away by the quality of the airport.

The high detail airports really are special!..

 

G

 

 

[dobee51]

Since Day 1 I've been scouring the internet for South Pacific island sceneries in anticipation of a quality DC-3.

I'll have to add Bali to my list...

[Sky_Pilot071]

I fly mainly in external view so with the HJET I push a few buttons and then off to see thee world at FL400.

sp

[Tuskin38]

I've flown to places in MSFS that I've never flown to before because of the sat imagery.

[Cpt_Piett]

I'm both interesting in exploring the world and the technical side of handling various airplanes. A lot of it is about learning something new. Even after 1.75 years, MSFS has the tendency to blow my mind when it comes to visuals and immersion. 

The possibilities for exploration is pretty much endless. I've been to corners of the world I've never visited in any sim, and everything usually looks stunning. In the autumn of 2020 I spend a great deal of time exploring the Andes region - it's simply breathtaking. 

Just recently I've been doing GA flying in Alaska (first time in any sim), and again I'm blown away by the visuals, light, shadows, haze, turbulence...