Grand Canyon 2024

[PilotJedi668]

I lived in Phoenix AZ for about 3.5 years, took lots of family to visit the Grand Canyon many, many times. So I have a good feel for how it looks in different weather and different times of the year.

Here is a live webcam from Kolb Studio at 8.12am local:

And here is my best effort with Free Cam, about 20 minutes later:

Well done Asobo it’s a great start. Good detail, sun shadow is accurate in the foreground and it feels like being there.

Colours are not quite perfect. However they change a lot in real life so its tough to get correct.
Notice in the far distance shadows in real life, but slightly over bright in the sim. The North Rim is 10 miles away so its a tricky rendering task as my 1080TI might not be loading the best textures.

Apart from the technical nit-picking, I think it looks beautiful in the sim and the view brings back happy memories.

The Asobo artist that did the sun rendering deserves a big thank you.

[xyzzy44444]

MSFS 2024 is far better than any prior sim at the GC scenery. But there is a problem which has become glaringly obvious as we head toward the summer solstice. The photos they used were clearly taken sometime between late fall and early spring, around the winter solstice. In the summer much more of the north facing slopes are illuminated. The areas in shadow in winter render unrealistically compared to those those that were in the sun. Flying in spring it wasn’t noticeable because these areas were in shadow, but now they look ugly. So close…