I got an email from a pilot friend who wanted to know if I could identify the location of the picture he sent me.Instead of tell him he was northwest of Mt. St. Helens, I fired up FSX and Carenado Cessna 206, and took a screenshot to match his photo. We both got a good chuckle out of "my answer"

Even more impressive side by side (so to speak):http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/188885.jpgCheers,

From that first picture, I'd say your friend has a bad case of the blurries. What video card is he using? Tell him to move his sliders to the left; he needs a better CPU, GPU, and definitly more RAM. R-

And that's an nGod iEye 2 video card with terrabytes of onboard RAM!Quite a demanding simulation Earth is.

Well, to be totally punctilious about things, Earth WAS a demanding simulation until the Golgafrincham got to it. Just ask the mice.There, if that isn't a solid gold geek moment, I don't know what is.Back on topic, there are some incredible moments when FSX seems to be photorealistic. Every time I fly and look out the window, some passenger blurts out, "Man, that looks just like Microsoft Flight Simulator!" Well, usually, it's just me, but still, you get the idea.My all time favourite moment of matching FSX to the real world came when I was writing my review for FSAddon's Vancouver+ for FSX. About a month before, I played host to some long-lost friends from Scotland. We rented a luxury SUV and went on a photo tour of Vancouver. The day was spectacular. Naturally, we gravitated to Stanley Park. I took a few dozen tourist shots, because honestly the only places I seem to go any more are home, the grocery store, and maybe the mall once a month. So I am writing my review, and I am thinking, "Wow, Vancouver+ looks just like the real thing! What I need is some photo to prove it."I picked a scenic panorama looking at the Lion's Gate Bridge from Stanley Park. Then, I took the DH-2 Beaver in FSX and boated to the exact same spot in FSX. The views were identical! It was eerie how close the real picture meshed with the screenshot. I liked the picture so much, I made it the splash image at the very top of my review. Please look at it here:http://www.avsim.com/pages/1207/VanPlus/VanPlus.htmJeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

Oh, man... great shots...And what a time for a Douglas Adams comment! Towel day tomorrow! At any rate, I have my towel to get me through all of the problems with FSX, so everything's cool and froody.

The hourly rate is sure a lot less with Flight Simulator :-)