I was curious to know, I’ve been looking at the regular World Updates and they look terrific, but how much difference do they actually make to the country? Aren’t the landmark buildings already there, even if not quite as polished, in countries that have not yet been ‘updated’?
Or are the updates so good that flying to a country that has been ‘updated’ is well worth the diversion?
Thanks. I’m not yet in the Sim as I’ll be joining with the Xbox crowd in a couple of weeks. 
Usually a ton of NEW landmarks. Also usually new elevation data to update landscapes and new autogen building models. Also around 3 to 5 new hand crafted airports. So yeah well worth at least a fly around. And also new photogrammetry cities.
It depends on the country and how much was added. You can see everything that was added in each update here: Map of all Points of Interest, 3D Cities and Hand-Crafted Airports up tp World Update #19 Brazil, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana
Landmarks might be there already, but just in the form of a generic office building or nothing but a flat picture on the aerial imagery. Unless they’re in a photogrammetry area which captures everything, yet still not as detailed as a handcrafted landmark.
These world updates are also the time when sat imagery is updated. The game started with a copy of old Bing map data (about 7 years old) and while Bing gets updated, the updates only trickle on to FS2020 in world updates (so far)
The world updates also add a handful of ‘regional’ buildings used for the ‘autogen’ scenery and in many places the satellite imagery is better resolution too. Both of these help a fair bit too. It’s not universal and even in the ‘World Update’ regions, there are some patches that are better than others.
Good to know, thanks for those thoughts. As a UK-based flyer I guess I’ll be starting in a country that has already been ‘updated’ which is nice.
I think until the UK update came out Buckingham Palace was shown as a block of flats
The UK update also updated the Bing Maps data along with building types - a small housing estate built 10 years ago near me was still a building site before the UK update.
Not all areas are equal. I took a flight over Newcastle and out to the coast up to Bamburgh Castle which had half its famous (that Potter boy went to school there) ramparts ‘melting’ into the landscape. Whilst much of the South is well covered, as I saw when I flew from the Scilly Isles and up the west coast of Cornwall … beautiful.
MSFS2020 can produce some stunning sights…and some disappointing ones. 
The world updates also include new autogenerated building types and elevation data.
I do not use photogrammetry, but I would not want to miss out on more building types and updated elevation data.
Plus they always have some handcrafted new airports in the World Updates and propably something else I have forgotten.
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