omg this guy is trolling xD
9 Likes
On that note CLT is also a major AA hub and that and the surrounding city are ai generated. shrug
2 Likes
I don’t know about the airports, but I’m sure the degree of detail of the cities has nothing to do with potential DLCs. The most detailed and accurately represented cities are those that have photogrammetry. As the devs have said on many occasions they have no influence on photogrammetry, It‘s Bing‘s decision which places get photogrammetry and which don‘t. The other option is handcrafted POIs. Now, you can imagine that they cannot possibly model thousands of landmarks by hand. If they were to model all the major landmarks of every bigger city on the planet it would take them years. It’s just not feasible. They have to make a choice. Highly popular cities such as London or Paris have 3-4 landmarks, other cities only 1-2 and most have none. The world‘s a big place. It‘s impossible to please everyone. But I‘m sure it won‘t be long until we see freeware addons created by the community that fill these gaps.
1 Like
I understand your point. Dallas isn’t Dallas without the Reunion Tower and this is coming from someone who spent a few days there on vacation. However like some of the posters above said it is impossible to handcraft every single landmark for every single major cities - someone will always get left out. Asobo did bare bones and Microsoft is trusting third party developers will do the rest.
I understand your point that the tower has been there since MSFS 95 but back then it was a much different development team with different priorities. The add-on ecosystem we know today was few and far between back in 1995. The Reunion Tower will be possible in Dallas either by third party or Asobo’s own future update - it is just a matter of when and how much money.
2 Likes
Hi,
My guess is that MS omitted Dallas and DFW airport on purpose, as well as many other areas of the world, in order to leave room for addon developers.
Seems the whole MSFS is geared towards purchasing addon sceneries and aircraft. My suspicion is that MS will get a cut from every addon sold.
Freeware is unheard of in MSFS and seems to be a d i r t y word here. For freeware you would have to look at other sims like X-Plane.
( can’t even write the word d i r t y here without spaces, as it gets censored) Lol.
Anyway, better be ready to spend a LOT of money to get a great MSFS.
Its a business, nothing is free in this world. $120 for a global flight simulation is like purchasing a printer and the marketplace is where you purchase the ink which is the money maker. Thats if your argument is accurate. I wish it all came with photogrammetry but thats not how it is right now. Anyway dont stress over it, theres enough anxiety in this world especially this year. Just relax and enjoy what we can control at the moment.
2 Likes
Maybe you should ask Bing Maps directly (e.g. via their developer center). MSFS, as far as I can see, has nothing to do with this. I have no idea why they have removed photogrammetry for Dallas, if this is really true (must have been long before MSFS was announced), but, following your logic, wouldn‘t it have been smarter to remove, say, New York or Chicago? Nothing against Dallas but I‘m sure photogrammetry addons for these cities would have been even more popular.
2 Likes
I think at of these areas with erroneous or missing things is caused by MS using the latest satellite imagery and where there is cloud cover it maps junk.
And of course there is a “plan” for future DLC that will cost too much money!
Dude, it’s got “Google” in your URL bar. C’mon man.
If you want to know the current list of cities available by photogrammetry you can check out this site. That list has been growing over the years and will continue to do so.
9 Likes
They can contact with Google to use Google maps data which is much more accurate and broad
Also I proposed they make this available on Stadia but due to corporate politics this was never going to be an option since its all Bing this and Azure that…
My screenshot of the Google maps was only to highlight the fact there in the entire region of downtown Dallas only THIS building is “hand crafted”… its not meant to show Bing maps… Google has nothing to do with it, I could have linked to the stadium’s website and professional photos if that removes confusion, it was merely meant as a reference of what the building looks like and which building I’m referring to etc for those not familiar with DFW area to show them which building to look out for if they wanted to recreate this themselves…
Bottomline, from miles away you can see this building in FS2020 and it is the ONE and ONLY “handcrafted” building in the entire downtown Dallas region… the fact that I used Google maps to highlight which building is not of any relevancy to what I was attempting to highlight.
Yea but Google is their competition they would never use it
3 Likes
Microsoft didn’t include content that you think they should have included, therefore you accuse them of being unethical. Wow. Microsoft may very well have intentionally left out Dallas so a 3rd party can get some business. I hope partnering with 3rd parties WAS part of the decision making process for what content to include in the base sim and what content to leave out. For the base sim, Microsoft HAS TO exclude TONS of content because of limited resources, time, and ultimately the price of the product. So how should Microsoft decide which content to exclude? Coordinating with 3rd party developers is one of the MOST SENSIBLE ways to decide. It keeps the base price down and gives business to partner developers which is very good for the whole ecosystem.
How would you rather they decide which content they can ethically exclude?
I’m okay with Microsoft (intentionally or not) leaving out Dallas for “hand crafted” part to give Orbx some business… but to remove it from the baseline photogrammetry while the much smaller town nearby (Fort Worth) already has such said photogrammetry and also whilst Bing maps already had all of Downtown dallas in full 3D photogrammetry for years if not decades in a brand new simulator that they themselves have pitched or otherwised aided and abetted and nurtured the establishment of the public and community sentiment of “” its so accurate that we encourage everyone to “go find your house” “” … yet every time I take off from the major international airport of KDFW the ENTIRE Dallas skyline and ALL recognizable Dallas skyscrapers and towers are COMPLETELY MISSING… is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
I agree , it doesn‘t make any sense from our perspective but I don‘t see a strategy related to MSFS here. For instance, London or Paris never had photogrammetry in Bing Maps while some smaller and not particularly known places have had it for years. The choice of 3D cities was already strange long before the idea of MSFS was even born. I have no idea on what basis Bing Maps form their decisions regarding photogrammetry, but your assumption seems rather far-fetched to me. You might have a point regarding the airports though.
1 Like
Where is the evidence of this? Are you confusing photogrammetry with satellite data? No shame if so but they’re totally different things.
1 Like
You do know that Fort Worth downtown has always had it ( photogrammetry) in FS2020 right?
I work in Dallas and live in Fort Worth, make the commute everyday. It makes zero sense for Fort Worth to have it and Dallas to have ZERO.
Maybe some cities are easier to do photogrammetry with than others? I have no idea how it works, and nobody here really knows the reasoning on why Microsoft did or didn’t do things. What I am sure of though is it’s not because they’re “evil” or something ridiculous like that. That’s just absurd. And you need to let go of this whole “find your house” junk. In fact, you need to let go of all of this. I can’t imagine how upset you get about something in life that actually does matter…
1 Like
So there’s still zero evidence to suggest that they have had photogrammetry of downtown Dallas for “years or decades.”
I can’t speak to why they opted to focus on the Fort Worth area or all the other places on the list, big or small. Could have been any number of reasons. Could have been they only had time or budget to do X amount of square feet of city. Could have been something about the Fort Worth area was going to be better for developing a new algorithm than downtown Dallas. Any number of reasons, and all sorts of things that you may not be considering as an end user.
I really don’t get being so bent out of shape about Dallas not being a photogrammetry city or without hand-crafted landmarks. To be perfectly honest, as far as points of interest across the globe, Dallas isn’t exactly at the top of the board.
I’d love if the city of Charlotte was more detailed or if KCLT had been hand-crafted (another major AA hub and 7th busiest airport in the world by air traffic). But they currently aren’t, and I’m just not that concerned about it. Even without photogrammetry my immediate area and neighborhood is pretty spot on.
Perhaps sometime down the road Dallas will find its way to being scanned in detail. For right now, it hasn’t been. It just is what it is.
6 Likes
All you’re really saying is Microsoft should have included everything that they have data for and completely used all the data they have–which is absurd.