Do we know what areas in the game were heavily modified specifically for FS 2024.

I know the Grand Canyon area was (big time), what other areas are there?

I feel like they are leaving a big question mark by not listing that information.

Edited November 23, 20241 yr by Alpine Scenery

St Barth’s looks a heck of a lot better than 2020 and has a good amount of live traffic there as well!

Im intrested in this too, sorry for necro. So far I found Glacier park , Yosemite and Devils canyon have that high detail like grand canyon.

I’ll have to go check out Glacier Park, it must be stunning.

[MSFS2024] List of new VEXCEL areas (work in progress) - User Support Hub / Scenery & Airports - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

1 hour ago, Ohmsquare said:

[MSFS2024] List of new VEXCEL areas (work in progress) - User Support Hub / Scenery & Airports - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Lots of great places to check out! Not sure what VEXCEL means, but I guess it could be related to photogrammetry?

Quote

There is no clear communication from MS or Asobo vs the new VEXCEL areas.
There was a quick map shown during presentation with no real details.

So far the new VEXCEL areas I found :

Most if not all are super detailed elevation, but colors are washed out, brown yellowish pretty often.

This is still a step below photogrametry, but several step better than generic landscape

USA :

• Grand Canyon NP
• Yosemite NP
• Glacier NP
• Yellowstone NP
• Sequoia NP
• Glenn Canyon South going to Grand Canyon
• South Part of Monument Valley (though it looks weird on some, hybrid POI)
• Mount Rainier NP (and Mount Adams)
• Capitol Reef (average fidelity IMO, partial ? )

Europe :

• French Alps from roughly Briancon to Sisteron (basically south/center and east of French Alps). Goes a little in Italy. Colors are washed out brown.
• Lucerne/Lake Constance area

 

7 hours ago, Ohmsquare said:

[MSFS2024] List of new VEXCEL areas (work in progress) - User Support Hub / Scenery & Airports - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Thanks, been looking for a list like this since release.
 

Tested out a VR flight from Renton to Mt Rainier after reading this thread. Just WOW, that mountain really came alive with this tech. I didnt want to leave and go back and land, was just circling around admire this beaty. Absolutly gorgeous. Its really a taste of what 2024 is capable of. Its gonna be great when they expand these VEXCEL areas in the future:) 

Wow I’m flying through Glacier National Park right now, it looks absolutely incredible.

I dream of this technology / level of detail being applied to Banff / Jasper National Parks some day.

On 12/31/2024 at 8:12 PM, regis9 said:

Wow I’m flying through Glacier National Park right now, it looks absolutely incredible.

I dream of this technology / level of detail being applied to Banff / Jasper National Parks some day.

I mainly fly in Europe, though have been partial to areas of Washington since Orbx first brought out enhanced scenery a long long time ago for Prepar3D.  Never heard of Glacier Park so checked it out.  The mountains are absolutely amazing so I can see myself spending a lot of time in this area.  Sadly I am back to work tomorrow after a long Christmas break.  Not really simmed much whilst off

Edited January 1, 20251 yr by cj-ibbotson

There is no specific area with high detail rocks because these were added globally.

The Alpine Peaks looks stunning from Nice to Vienna. Ok, Switzerland has ugly map tiles since the last WU but the new rock system is rocking any steep mountain wall where it should.

E.g.

MSFS2024

For comparison MSFS2020:

Realworld, streetview:

More random examples:

12 hours ago, fsiscool said:

There is no specific area with high detail rocks because these were added globally.

The Alpine Peaks looks stunning from Nice to Vienna. Ok, Switzerland has ugly map tiles since the last WU but the new rock system is rocking any steep mountain wall where it should.

E.g.

MSFS2024

For comparison MSFS2020:

Realworld, streetview:

More random examples:

Offcourse there is specific areas, and they are far and few beetween… Its very obvious when you enter such a high detail area. Yes they have added cliffs to pretty much all mountains, but the vexel areas are something completly different… Hence the list, because looking for them manually would be like searching for a needle in the haystack… An official list from MS would be nice, just like we have with pg areas…

On 1/2/2025 at 11:19 AM, Kaboki said:

Offcourse there is specific areas, and they are far and few beetween…

Ok, you are right, this is true for Vexcel areas. But as as I understood, these only add a much finer DEM (and much more ugly aerials than default, at least in Europe. It is so ugly, non-Vexcel areas look better).

But the important new feature are the AI generated rocks, which lift mountains to a unprecedented level globally. E.g I have checked El Capitan in Yosemite NP, which appears to be a pretty low-res POI from an early WU. But the rocks on the opposite side of the valley are already done with this AI technology and they look stunning. Whether there is a Vexcel mesh underneath them or not does not make a big difference:

That's how mountains look in MSFS 2024 on a global scale!

32 minutes ago, fsiscool said:

Ok, you are right, this is true for Vexcel areas. But as as I understood, these only add a much finer DEM (and much more ugly aerials than default, at least in Europe. It is so ugly, non-Vexcel areas look better).

But the important new feature are the AI generated rocks, which lift mountains to a unprecedented level globally. E.g I have checked El Capitan in Yosemite NP, which appears to be a pretty low-res POI from an early WU. But the rocks on the opposite side of the valley are already done with this AI technology and they look stunning. Whether there is a Vexcel mesh underneath them or not does not make a big difference:

That's how mountains look in MSFS 2024 on a global scale!

It does NOT look like that on a global scale at all, claiming that is deceiving. This is obviously a vexcel area…  Flown many mountain areas that doesn’t look like that at all, yes those areas have cliff textures too, but not in any way near the detail of what you show in your pics…

Try and fly in Alaska and you will see the big difference of mountains without vexcel and areas that have had the special threatment….

Edited January 4, 20251 yr by Kaboki

Yes although the 3D rocks etc make all mountain areas look a lot better, there is a noticeable difference between the high detail areas and others.

When I was in Glacier National park the boundary of the high detail area  was quite noticeable.