Hi, everyone,

What do you think of Hawaii terrain textures? I recognize that Oceania is an area where I fly very rarely. But after the WU13 update, I thought there would have been major improvements. So today I visited PHKO (Kona) and, later, I flew around PHNL (Honolulu). 

Sincerely, I don't like at all what I have seen. Perhaps it would be more interesting not updating such large geographical areas and concentrated, with each update, on smaller areas.

Greetings.

I have many of the Hawaii add-ons (vessel traffic / airports) so my experience may be different than yours. However, I agree that the SU13 difference is small. I don’t see any additional water masks or better mesh. Maybe I just haven’t come across the better enhancements yet.  That being said, I do love Hawaii flights.   

yes was disappointed with Big Island, hoped to see updated high res textures but perhaps the imagery just doesnt exist

Oahu was improved, especially the water masks around Honolulu 

Yes, very disappointed. Had to check to see if I had gone offline. Thought this would be fixed.

Aside from the terminal at PHOG Kahului Airport (Maui) completely missing, I'm generally liking what I've seen.

I think veteran users especially need to keep WU expectations in check. They're obviously updating these regions due to some sort of new imagery, but let's face it: they probably aren't getting their hands on insanely improved images over what they had previously. 

I'm just a simple manatee, I try to remember my mangrove forest is the product of many years development. I try to see sim updates in the same way. 

I worked on a project prior to the pandemic developing Hawaii for Aerofly 2. Concentrating on the Bing orthos and they weren't the best with a lot of over saturated greens. I haven't fired the update up in MSFS yet but from the screenshots I've seen, the aerial images don't appear to have changed much, if any since when I was working on that project.

Not only mediocre textures, but building placement is also much less accurate than I've been spoiled by previously. Tons of buildings seem misaligned from their orthophoto footprints, something Blackshark has made me unaccustomed to seeing in the last few years..

Haven't done the update yet...but, this doesn't sound great.  I have used G***le imagery on another project and it's very good.

1 hour ago, Donka said:

I worked on a project prior to the pandemic developing Hawaii for Aerofly 2

I liked that scenery. Thanx!

15 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Tons of buildings seem misaligned from their orthophoto footprints, something Blackshark has made me unaccustomed to seeing in the last few years..

You find that quite often in those areas. I flew a circle around Tahiti and saw the same thing, including patches where there is no footprint of any house on the satelite image.

 

It seems that what Blackshark draws is extremely dependant on OSM data. If the OSM data is not showing the shape of a house then Blackshark does not draw anything at all. And if that shape in OSM deviates from the satelite image, it will also only draw what OSM data shows. The only thing that Blackshark takes into consideration from the satelite image seems to be the colour of the roof.

Quite some AI that is not capable to recognize on its own what a building is from a satelite image even after having been fed millions of them through OSM data...

11 minutes ago, Farlis said:

It seems that what Blackshark draws is extremely dependant on OSM data.

I'm not sure this statement is correct. Where did you see that? From my understanding it uses AI to figure out from satellite imagery where a building should be, not only the rooftop colour.

3 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

I'm not sure this statement is correct. Where did you see that? From my understanding it uses AI to figure out from satellite imagery where a building should be, not only the rooftop colour.

Everywhere where OSM is sparse or non existant.

My impression was that Blackshark scans satellite-imagery/orthophotos for building footprints, then sometimes uses other available data from Osm and etc. for building usage, heights and additional information to help the ai decide exactly its looking at and should place on the footprint.

 

Seriously? No sort of work for PHNL at all in this WU? That place needs love and attention bad.

Maybe another dev has big plans for Honolulu? So MS/Asobo left it alone?

Airports

• A collection of highlands dirt airstrips in Papua New Guinea
• Easter Island’s Mataveri International Airport (SCIP)
• Hawaii’s Kona International Airport (PHKO)
• Nusatupe Airport (AGGN) on the Solomon Islands
• Bora Bora Airport (NTTB) in French Polynesia
• Moorea Airport (NTTM) in French Polynesia