4 hours ago, jcomm said:

Checked, and apparently YES! because that huge /unrealistic bump in the 05/23 rw is no longer there with Map Enhancement.

Hmmm... OK... It also makes sense because around Bahrain I compared approach to the RWY and while in default scenery there are just a couple of specks of land, with Map Enhancement, there is a whole area with houses that was missing in default. I am gonna check online and try to see if I need to move Global Forests below everything. 

On 2/18/2025 at 7:09 PM, Daube said:

Maybe it was the video indeed. In any case, here is how it looks like somewhere in not far from EPZG:

https://ibb.co/RkgtKhKs
https://ibb.co/1G3R4Lbn

Sure it's not as detailed as the XPlane buildings, but it's a major improvement over anything we had in FSX. Also, keep in mind these are in MSFS2020. I haven't compared with MSFS2024 yet.

Looks absolutely fine to me and admittedly outright fabulous! Really, I don't need a lot of imagination to fill in the blank that this is a small city in Poland (or east Germany). A lot better than what I can do with orthos, X-World and Global Forests in X-Plane. 

Would have provided a comparison shot, but even after digging around the area for way too long, I just can't find out where exactly your screenshots were taken (don't bother though and simply believe me).

So I just paid $5 for this next 30 days of Map Improvement and WOW - what a difference High Quality images make along with Google 1 maps! It's spectacular! At this rate, I am not gonna miss seasons all that much and I barely have a reason to fire up MSFS 2024. There aren't that many good aircraft there right now for airliners - just iniBuilds Airbuses, Leonardo Maddog MD-80 (only the 82 is available right now) and FSS Boeing 727F. JustFlight RJ Avro is available too but that's about it. 

18 hours ago, jcomm said:

Well, I honestly don't often check the exact positioning of power lines in MSFS 2024, but windmills and pretty much all details in the scenery are surely 2nd to no other sim, unless I spend a good amount of $$ in addon scenery.

That isn't what I meant,

I was talking about how XPlane rocks for:

afaik, that was "problematic" at best in 2020 (lots of "delete your community folder" issues), and is no longer even an option in 2024 - afaik there is no "community folder" in 2024.

 

Edited February 21, 20251 yr by mSparks

OK... I found the ULTIMATE map server - it's the Apple Maps... THAT makes everything so gorgeous, it honestly beats MSFS in the looks department. Currently flying from Tunis to Gibraltar on Toliss A321NEO. Jcomm - do yourself a favor! Use Apple Maps and fly that route. Look out to the left and right when flying the SID. It's mindblowing. I am in love! 🙂 I wish I could post screenshots here. 

@BostonJeremy77 I surely will later today as I arrive home and get my simming slot 🙂

I do notice some non-homogeneous tile colouring with Google-1 too. Maybe Apple has better finishing.

Edited February 21, 20251 yr by jcomm

4 hours ago, mSparks said:

That isn't what I meant,

I was talking about how XPlane rocks for:

afaik, that was "problematic" at best in 2020 (lots of "delete your community folder" issues), and is no longer even an option in 2024 - afaik there is no "community folder" in 2024.

 

Ok I see.

There surely is a Community folder in FS 2024, and I have it filled with a few addons 🙂

There was one I couldn't yet install, which corrects the overdone tree height.

24 minutes ago, jcomm said:

@BostonJeremy77 I surely will later today as I arrive home and get my simming slot 🙂

I do notice some non-homogeneous tile colouring with Google-1 too. Maybe Apple has better finishing.

Make sure to set up a view over the wing in the passenger cabin. It has nice slightly tinted windows and it makes everything pop. Watch the climb out. And then the whole flight over the Northern coast of Africa. Apple Maps have MUCH more consistent and natural look than Google. Also, on approach to Tunis, Runway 19, there is muddy water. I thought it was just a "ground" texture made to look like water, but NO! There were boats there! So there is a colour gradient to water in Apple Maps too!

7 hours ago, mSparks said:

That isn't what I meant,

I was talking about how XPlane rocks for:

afaik, that was "problematic" at best in 2020 (lots of "delete your community folder" issues), and is no longer even an option in 2024 - afaik there is no "community folder" in 2024.

 

I have to watch the video to understand what you are talking about, but when it comes to deleted community folders, this was mostly an issue for MS Store users during some kind of updates. And yes, MSFS2024 has a Community folder of course, else we would not be able to install addons.

2 hours ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Apple Maps have MUCH more consistent and natural look than Google

Apple Maps, Bing and Here maps are all identical in lots of areas (Especially where I live), both apply different saturation settings, but it's the same provider. They put out an update beginning of this year that replaced a lot of very decent aerial imagery with low quality cloudy satellite imagery. They also have an annoying habit of blurring out all the airports and military areas excessively (which is completely senseless since any would-be spy could go to Google or government providers and get it :))

That being said, satellite imagery, whilst lower resolution is often much more consistent in colour and perfectly acceptable for 3-4000ft and higher

3 hours ago, jcomm said:

There surely is a Community folder in FS 2024, and I have it filled with a few addons 🙂

Interesting, last I heard (some discord discussion) it was "cloud only", and what I saw from

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/where-is-the-msfs-2024-community-folder/664987

seemed to confirm it.

wonder how many people don't know its not cloud only.

17 minutes ago, mSparks said:

Interesting, last I heard (some discord discussion) it was "cloud only", and what I saw from

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/where-is-the-msfs-2024-community-folder/664987

seemed to confirm it.

wonder how many people don't know its not cloud only.

A lot... The Community Folder is now buried in a preposterous location (Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\Packages\Community), but it's there. My Leonardo Maddog, iniBuilds A300, and FSS Boeing 727 live there. Those are the only three good airliners I have that work with 2024. I am mostly an airliner guy in sims. 

What is Cloud Only is anything you bought on MS Marketplace. They will eventually allow you to download content you bought locally, but because there is no Marketplace right now, it's streaming only. Anything you didn't buy there goes in the Community folder.

Edited February 21, 20251 yr by BostonJeremy77

29 minutes ago, mSparks said:

Interesting, last I heard (some discord discussion) it was "cloud only", and what I saw from

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/where-is-the-msfs-2024-community-folder/664987

seemed to confirm it.

wonder how many people don't know its not cloud only.

Yep, just as BostonJeremy77, mine is polupated by ActiveSky FS, the FENIX A320 CEO, Navigraph, AIG Traffic, FSLTL Traffic, FSHUD and BATC ATC robots, and a few more addons.

Default aircraft are indeed mostly cloud based though 😞 to the point of no longer being possible to modify some basic features 😕

Edited February 21, 20251 yr by jcomm

2 hours ago, Daube said:

I have to watch the video to understand what you are talking about

You can flick quickly to where it was not loading xplane to see, it was just much easier to record it to show exactly what makes me happy about xplane scenery and fixing it. I generally keep my scenery close to default for development because it loads much faster (although this is improved now over earlier XP12 builds), I still have to swap out my orth4xp tiles (because they recently fixed the water - it used to have gaps with the scenery)

what the video shows is what I have to do to go from (almost) default scenery to the contents of any scenery packages in zip files on another disk as folders in my custom scenery folder (and how long it takes to do it)

 

Edited February 21, 20251 yr by mSparks

2 hours ago, mSparks said:

Interesting, last I heard (some discord discussion) it was "cloud only", and what I saw from

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/where-is-the-msfs-2024-community-folder/664987

seemed to confirm it.

As written by others, only default planes and scenery are cloud-only, for the moment. Addons bought from the marketplace can be on the cloud as well. Addons bought on external stores and freeware addons are in the Community folder.

2 hours ago, mSparks said:

wonder how many people don't know its not cloud only.

All those who are using MSFS2024 from the XBox I guess, since they are not allowed yet to install free mods. PC users however, are highly unlikely to ignore the Community folder existence.