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Previews had mentioned that there would be ship traffic moving from port to port across the oceans. Has anyone seen this in the released version? In the beta it seemed that ships were just static scenery objects.Not that important, but it was something I thought would be kinda cool.Keith

Here is the same area in FS9 with Ground Environment Pro...this is closer to reality. Even without GE Pro, the default was fairly close, hopefully the retail version of FSX will look better.Keith

Hi, I was looking at Kodiak Island in FSX and noticed the landclass data shows nearly the entire island (and much of the rest of Alaska) as this brown scrub/desert looking texture...what's with that? Is it just my setup? I hope it's just the beta and will be tweaked in the final release. The first pic is of the Kodiak airport area in FSX and the second is a pic of this part of Alaska the way it should look. Previous versions of flight simulator had it correct.Keith

Adding the visibility layers to the overcast layers works until you get to a higher altitude. The visibility layer seems to only extend so far around the position of your plane. Beyond that you can still see through the "overcast"...see pic which is at FL250. Not as big of a deal as when you're on top of it though.Keith

:-) Ha, well I surely wouldn't compare FS to NFS or any other "game" as far as scope or it's intended audience. It just seems that this version of FS is primarily focused on visual improvements and I seriously wonder why the lighting is not also updated. It would surely add to the immersion factor at night. I don't have a clue about programming, but I would think that the same technique that could be done 11 years ago in other programs could be used within FS today. How is lighting the area around a plane different than around a car? Surely the size of the FS world shouldn't make much difference. Framerates maybe? There must be a reason...help me understand!! :-) At least there are replacement textures that look much better, so not a big deal...just puzzling.Keith

Understood about night objects looking much more vivid in a remote area like the Carribean. I just hope that it doesn't show up in populated areas. I guess the Milkyway in the sim just seems too "drawn" on the sky...like it's in front of the stars. I'll try the toned down texture mentioned above.Keith

We're stuck with that horrible washed out light texture on the ground again? Wow, I had headlights that illuminated the surrounding area realistically in the PC game 'Need for Speed' back in 1995. Is it really that much different for flight sim to do this? Why is the lighting so behind the times?Keith

Hi, I'm really enjoying the new visuals that the demo gives a peak at...the world definitely feels more alive and vibrant. The night environment is a little wierd for me though. These are my observations:While the stars look great, the reflections in the water really should be toned down or removed altogether. Maybe in a millpond will you see the reflections of stars, but not at 10,000 feet in the ocean.The moon seems to cast way too much of a reflection in the water, it's almost a blinding white in a large area. I've read that there may be reflection problems.The blotchy patches of haze (Milkyway) going through the middle of the night sky really takes away from the realism of the stars and moon. It's been awhile since I've been somewhere that I could see the Milkyway, but I don't remember it standing out like that.The green glow in the water, I suppose is florecent algae? Does it really look like that at night in the Carribean? If so, that's pretty cool. It just seems overdone.All of the islands seem to glow orange at night, even though they have no city/town landclass on them...weird.I know the night environment is the last to be developed, so maybe these things will all change with the final release, and I know this is only a demo. I just really hope if they stay, we could at least have the option to turn them off.Keith

My display setting were set at Medium High except the water was turned up a notch.Here is another pic of a different area with the sliders turned all the way up. It is taken looking to the north just after the rwy 6 departure from F.D. Roosevelt. Maybe you can see post a pic of what you have.Pretty much all of my coastlines, except for the photo real St. Maarten, look this way. It could be that the detail was scaled down for size of the demo. I would really hope the full version has smoother coastlines...like Ultimate Terrain.Keith

Hi, I noticed that most of the islands in the demo beyond St. Maarten have coastlines with very angular lines (see pic). Is this what we will expect to see for the rest of the world as the new "accurate coastlines", or has the resolution been turned down for the demo?Keith

Hi, I was wondering if the landclass in the demo area is as it will be in the final release, or if it has only "optimized" for the island of St. Maarten. I ask because when flying over Saba, as much as I'm happy to see it is not flat as a pancake anymore, it is covered with a forest of tall fir trees. Seems out of place in the Carribean :-).Keith

Yes that's exactly what I was wanting to do, disable the problem military bases from loading...it seems to do the trick.Thanks for your help,Keith

Hi Jim,Yes, I am aware of the FS visibility "bug" in regards to how quickly the transitions occur. I guess I was hoping for a way to eliminate or subdue the inaccurate military data. I have noticed this happening most recently flying into KSAN, KGEG, KSEA, and KSLC. I know that KSAN, KGEG, and KSEA have military bases nearby so I assume that is what is causing the change...it's fairly consistant with those airports when arriving from a certain direction (near the bases). Maybe I'll have to set the minimum visibility so the effect is not as noticable, though I want to keep low visibility when it is truly low.Thanks,Keith

Hi, I have experienced rapid visiblity reductions when flying into certain airports. After reading a bit in this forum, it seems that they are caused by military observations and a "max 7 mile visibilty" rule they have. Is there any way currently, or perhaps a plan for the future, to be able to disable the military weather reports from being loaded...or maybe at least ignore the visibility information they provide? It is very annoying to be on a visual final and then all of the sudden be in a thick soup and not be able to see the airport.Thanks,Keith