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X-Plane is kinda doing just that (excluding the AI part), using detailed hyperspectral imagery, if you ignore the old textures (the art work) for a moment, you will notice X-Plane is quite accurate in choosing where to apply the right kind of materials/textures. A great example are those circular fields all over the US. But it gets as detailed as the low quality mesh, as there are no vertices to hook data to, to get better at landclass in X-Plane you have to have a better base mesh. When LR re-cut a global scenery, lots of time goes to cut back detail. That's what UHD meshes where all about (like the older aipilotx stuff), but the current system is not designed to be scalable enough. Hence the move to raster tiles, which is needed even for stuff like global 3D grass. Overall, it sound like X-Plane next-gen scenery formats is going to probably have this kind of structure, Cesium 3D tiles were mentioned in one of the recent blog post IIRC: Couldn't have said it better 🙂

I will be surprised if a meaningful scenery re-cut (one that majorly improves scenery) is coming before the new scenery formats. Raster tiles will enable them to use much more data in a scalable manner that in return might neglect most of the need for orthos indeed. You can do some of that in DSF now (like UHD meshes), but at a painful performance and memory cost. The most dramatic improvement imo should be the mesh quality & raster/mask-based vegetation data (unlike the current .for polygons), this will make X-Plane's scenery much more accurate, plausible & good looking, way before any autogen or ground texture improvements.

To be fair, I think @mSparks was talking about what is show cased in these videos: The camera is NOT coming in 12.10, if I had to guess, it will be 12.20. Generally there is lots more information in Laminar's public discord than in other public channels. There is new autogen coming in 12 10 as well: A new HUD view (new night vision was hinted as well) New FX:

If you want to put your focus on a very particular instrument/avionic type, sure. Having said that, in reality, this has nothing to do with IFR training courses that include mandatory simulator hours. In my club, it's a P3D setup. XP is certified as well. MSFS is not, does not mean you can't learn and put some extra hours to gain more knowledge using it, it is a great simulator, but this won't take you any step further as a student. Also, ironically, while not mandatory, P3D in my school is being used as a VFR navigation simulator as well for those who want/need extras, the conclusion about MSFS that it didn't include anything meaningful in it's scenery to create a new setup for it as all you need for VFR is already in P3D as well, if you've seen a VFR chart, it is pure landclass.

There is a fix coming for how clouds affect ambience/scattering, can't remember if it's for 12.1.0 or will be part of the planned major lighting update slated for 12.3.0 this year.

Look at those curved edges though 😝 Absolutely, also being a more than one trick solution, I could imagine you can patch orthos just where they are actually useful, not so much for dense urban areas or forests (for those you'll just need a vegetation mask).

Here is the last follow-up blog post: https://developer.x-plane.com/2024/03/we-are-all-raster-farians-now/ The last paragraph is interesting to read, it won't be just an improvement for orthos based meshes but also for procedural landclass based texturing. The ability for more varied & complex data to play with the current already procedural texturing methods in X-Plane sounds very promising especially with 3D vegetation masks, I can already imagine some seasonal 3D crops in farmlands and such, even 3D pebbles 😝 But more importantly, the situation with current meshes should be solved with the new file formats, hopefully no more chatoic "mesh compatibility patches" for users and developers alike.

A larger update than expected, what should have been mostly a graphics update now has new systems, better flight model & possibly a new camera system. Well done LR! https://www.x-plane.com/2024/02/whats-new-in-x-plane-12-1-0-oh-boy/

He did mention there is another blog post coming about that, but generally, I think the main difference is algorithmic generated vs pre-baked into assets. So now, to get a 3D forest, you have to draw a polygon, then X-Plane has an algorithm driven by the .for asset it self to determine density/patterns using a perlin noise (that can't be made to correlate with the terrain texture). With a raster approach, you can have a mask to go with the terrain textures that defines where & how dense vegetation is in every given texel. The other advantage is vegetation density LODs, those in a raster approach can simply be driven by mipmaps in a seamless manner. Here is an example: For mesh, It really depends on what effect you are trying to achieve. Personally I like to think about a procedural 3 step approach, you have the real world base mesh itself, then you can have a height map texture to define some medium-scale detail (think about stuff like large rocks, cliff patterns), then another height-decal for small scale aspects (pebbles LOL) OR just a normal map/ parallax effects to fake 3D little details. The good thing is X-Plane terrain texturing already kind of conforms to this scheme & will be even better once 12.1.0 comes out with normal decals, it even has a slope shader (to pick textures based on slope, so you can have custom cliffs & other stuff), various tiling/detailing control maps & other effects to expose other textures. But the mesh pipeline will have to change along with the new formats imo, to support tessellation/mesh shader alternatives.

https://developer.x-plane.com/2024/02/the-turtle-needs-a-new-shell/ Some key takeaways from this post & the following comments: 1) New file formats to replace DSF are WIP. DSF will still be supported though so current sceneries will still work. 2) New formats will be based on 3D tiles structures, like: https://github.com/CesiumGS/3d-tiles 3) Mesh patching, will finally be possible, including sculpting/modelling terrain. 4) They are moving to raster images; this will probably make mesh reacting to shaders & pathcing possible (think tessellation stuff), also since they mentioned they want 3d grass for the future, I can imagine the vegetation layers may move to raster images as well, meaning that we may be able to use masks to "grow" vegetation out of a texture, so no more flat 2d baked trees textures.

Water turbidity will be implemented in 12.1.0 IIRC

Well we know that Vulkan for mobile is WIP, also, looking at the format specs for what appears to be the foundation that XP next gen scenery will rely on, they appear to support and scale to mobile as well.

It's not just that, it's a completely new eco-system/uses infrastructure that they are building called "Laminar Identity", they are also hinting for other stuff that'll rely on it. Austin for example has been talking for a while about "unifying" XP-mobile with desktop for a massive multiplayer & networking X-Plane-Verse. I would not be surprised if in the future, XP-mobile (or other non PC devices) will be for X-Plane PC what MSFS for Xbox does for MSFS PC, who knows, maybe even for 3rd parties as well.

Based on what's coming, especially for graphics, performance & scenery, I have a strong feeling this is only the beginning. They really were not joking about the next gen "glorious future".

They were not kidding when they said it is the most successful one to date eh? Are there any numbers regarding X-Plane 11 sales btw? Did Austin let a number slip at some point about v11 since it's launch in 2017?

More information will probably come in the future but here are some takeaways for those interested, about graphics and scenery ONLY (there is lots of more information about avionics and stuff but the majority is developers oriented talk) Note that none is NDA'ed in fact they specifically mentioned those details are NOT under NDA. -WED2.6 & new scenery entities: 1) Probably the biggest one is a new entity called "terrain objects". WED 2.6 can convert and load very detailed meshes (DEM, LIDAR) that can "patch" with the default mesh + orthos (or anything else, for the matter of fact). Note, at least from what I gather, this is not a replacement for any future modern mesh/scenery system, but having the ability to convert VERY high quality terrain models that can be patched to X-Plane's terrain is a really good step. Or to better describe it, this is like X-Plane's version of photogrammetry, but on a more targeted & efficient manner, not a new global scenery, yet. 2) Exclusion zones can be polygons, works on roads only for now. 3) Shapefiles for plugins. 4) Decal stage for OBJs + new normal map decals & PBR attributes that modulate on-top of current ones. This is a BIG deal for artists workflows and will result in much better looking & optimized art assets all around, as they work on everything, this includes any OBJ (scenery, cockpits) but also any terrain textures. -Lighting: 1) HDR & atmospheric model large improvements coming, for example clouds shadow light scattering, the pictures look incredible frankly. 2) Rain shafts coming as well. 3) Overall HDR & Sky values calibration, they want to hit real world values as close as possible for lighting. 4) Some SSR reflections & roughness (PBR) fixes. 5) Once they are done with the atmospheric & HDR model, they will work on Auto-Exposure2.0 & Tone-mapper2.0 & Exposure-fusion2.0. 6) SSR (Screen Spcace Reflections) are NOT coming for cockpits. LR are aiming for better, they mentioned more cube maps And/Or Ray Tracing for cockpits in the future. All of this should finally fix dark cockpits & dramatically improve the way X-Plane lighting looks. -Particle Effects: Lots of options are coming, including contact/collision effects, brownouts, sprays, wash, snow, thrust...

Still can't edit my comments. @fsiscool Just to clarify, that is the what I commented on: "How very predictable of you. And oh, he's actually talking about 3D objects being placed there by the AI based on its analysis of the topography of the terrain and photogrammetry."

You were not even the one I commented to, originally, so I would suggest YOU go ahead and read again 😉 This is the quote I commented on: And oh, he's actually talking about 3D objects being placed there by the AI based on its analysis of the topography of the terrain and photogrammetry. AI is not live tracking pebbles and placing few inches sized objects. They are not objects. They are high-freq greyscales with a mesh accelrated using tessellation shaders. Hence, Asobo called this feature "tessellated materials". Not "AI pebble tracker". MSFS already apply those high-freq details for ground textures NOW. The new feature here is the shader.

Ok my bad 🙂 FWIW I saw many claims that the fact that many people download addons for other simulator is a disadvantage hence I made the wrong assumption about where you were leading with your comment.

Come on now 🙂 I think he means what you get out of the box. With that being said, I agree some there is some hypocrisy here, if there was no demand for 3rd party addons in MSFS then we would not have so many addons for it.

Hopefully, never. I don't care about watching my house real footprints, as far as scenery accuracy is a concern, I care about what is in the VFR charts, that's it, anything beyond that is just pure "eye candy" hence no reason to be limited to blackshark assets that have subpar quality and can only create limited shapes. LR should invest in new shading pipelines for scenery plausibility; a new mesh system (that can make roads affect mesh as well), moving the vegetation meta-data to raster based-images to place 3D through masks & more OSM content to make cities recognizable with quality, instanced & regional art assets using the same powerful autogen scenes concepts. For scenery accuracy, in a world where LR can deliver at least 1 point per building data, by default (AGP VS facades footprints) I'd hope they just gateway roads & autogen scenes placements, creating an updateable scenery data base, just like they did with airports. For larger structures, facades can be used, just like they do now for tall buildings.

BTW, why I can't edit my comments? Sorry about the many typos 🙄

Again, this has nothing to do with AI. You have an image, you have it's rgb values properly keyed to place roght details (green is probably grass etc..). You have a mesh, then you have a slope sensitive shader working to place the correct details. Non of this data needs any AI magic, just normal procedural rules in the shader. If you want further insights, shoot a DM.

You are mixing 2 different aspects here. 1) What kind of ground texture you have to begin, generic or satilite imagery. 2) Procedural rules that are applied to place high-freq detail, typically color keyed, slope-sensitive shaders etc.. Second part is already possible now in default SDK in other sim as well, it's just last time the ground texture there got a large update it was a decade ago. Anyway, if you want discuss technical aspects a bit more, we can do that in private, let's not dive into what other engines can do 🙂

This has nothing to do with AI placing any pebbles. Tessellated materials work by subdividing the mesh to smaller pixel size parts then the new geometry gets displaced based on a greyacale height map (i.e. flat high-freq image). The only thing AI does is try to apply the right materials to right kind of surfaces, probably with less accuracy than artist driven masks. Honestly, nothing that can't be done with some quality normal maps. But yeah a cool feature indeed.