turnandbank

Also, the video in question uses a modified version of lights.txt downloaded from the .org to enhance the lighting, not just Reshade. I modify my lights.txt too as the one one available on .org is overdone in my opinion. Combined with reshade, the effect in the video is way overdone. Intense bloom is usually more of a cinematic or photographic effect than what one experiences through their own eyes (unless you have bad cataracts). Just because you see intense bloom in some videos and photos, doesn't mean it looks like that to the human eye. Cameras often over expose night scenes too. Having said that, I do think X-Plane 11's lighting does look more realistic than P3D with thoughtful edits to the lights.txt and a lua script.

I was originally under the impression that orthophotos of the entire earth were scanned by AI to create the building footprints in MSFS (the same method they used to place trees) however there are many large areas in Bing Maps (for instance, large portions of Bangkok, located just outside the area covered in the screenshot shown in this thread) that do not have building footprints for existing buildings. This leaves me wondering if those locations will not have procedural buildings placed on top of the terrain in MSFS. That would certainly take away from the realism in those locations.

Beautiful compositions! Thanks for sharing!

Sorry to hear this sad news. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of EarthAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirthof sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred thingsYou have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swungHigh in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flungMy eager craft through footless halls of air....Up, up the long, delirious, burning blueI’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.Where never lark, or even eagle flew —And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trodThe high untrespassed sanctity of space,– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." High Flight by Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr. RCAF

Interesting read. Thanks!

Just saw this. Hopefully it does not affect the openness MSFS has with the community or the project itself. Unlikely, but, when I saw this news, the thought entered my mind since he was an advocate of the FS franchise back in the day. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-steps-down-microsoft-211546162.html

I do agree, the pros do outweigh the cons, but will they always be an issue? ..... Like domkle, I would prefer not to see double shadows. Azure AI is being used to remove clouds from orthos, so we can certainly hope MS figures out a way to remove or reduce the shadows from them. Not a deal breaker as it still looks better than what we currently have IMO, but it would still be desirable.

Yes, that issue is far more conspicuous and jarring in the Dubai screenshot from the latest update than any other I have seen. Something else I noticed is an AI generated building in the lower right portion of the same screenshot is far shorter than the burnt in shadow indicates it should be. Having said that, I noticed Bing has much better ortho imagery than Google for Dubai, so Google isn't always better - it varies.

It just gets better and better with every Discovery Series! The amount of work going into this is incredible.

Me too! That shot looks awesome.

That is not the case. AvSim has all kinds of control over the categories and types of ads that are show. They can allow interest based advertising, based on what the visitor may have searched for or looked at on other websites but, they can still restrict specific categories of advertising from being shown. The controls on their end are actually very granular, right down to blocking specific advertisers and even ads if they discover some that are a problem. Keeping in mind they need some revenue to cover costs, they still do have control. I have multiple websites that are partly monetized with advertising and have multiple categories blocked. My biggest pet peeve, is that they are not using responsive ads on mobile with many of the ads extending beyond the viewport which in turn makes the main content move from side to side when scrolling down. This is just poor user experience and should be fixed.

There are so many variables. These videos and others on the same channel will give you lots of info and real test results for different CPU / GPU combos on Xplane 11. They will help you get the best bang for your buck.

That's how it was done in the Cessna 150/152 back when I was training. Spins where a mandatory part of training for a PPL in Canada, at least when I got mine in 1975. We did spins with 2 to 3 rotations before initiating recover. Never did one in a Cessna 172 though, but I'm guessing they would spin similarly to the 150 with a kick of rudder right at the break.

This looks so ready already! Ever since I started working with Ortho4XP with custom generated W2XP overlays, I thought it would be neat if the ortho images could be scanned with an algorithm trained to recognize trees and different types of buildings and then create the data to reproduce them accurately in the sim. This would do away with the need for inconsistent data available from OSM and other sources. I also thought it would be neat if the clouds and color matching could be handled by an AI program. This is exactly what they have accomplished and the result is stunning. This could not have been pulled off by a smaller developer, due to the computing power needed, so it is great to see MS back in the game. Even the full offline mode is a huge leap forward from default X-plane scenery, at least in the Seattle area shown in the video.

That is true. I do not know Bing's pricing for their map data and imagery, but it is probably less than Google. With respect to my own use of Google APIs, I found other sources for my website with a much higher free tier and far lower cost above it. Google's data tends to be more accurate and up-to-date than other sources, as their near monopoly in search makes it essential for businesses and organizations to provide with up-to-date data and their massive user base provides millions of updates, reviews and photos. They used to share this data much more freely, but now it is expensive. I doubt the average user knows Google is charging other businesses to use the photos and reviews they provide Google with for free. Having said that, if Google is willing to work with a competing simulator platform by providing data and imagery at a price that allows for a positive return for both parties, who knows what could develop. Either way, Microsoft has a big head start with rendering the world in the sim this way. It clearly takes more than just data and images to do this. There are many issues to overcome, such as color correction, cloud removal and and filling in areas with poor or no images, not to mention efficient compression, streaming and caching. If you look at the thread that compares screenshots from MSFS with the raw satellite images, you can see how much MSFS / Asobo have done to improve the overall look.