Xbox X. They have sacrificed LOD (draw distance) for stability of avionics, most noticeable with photogrammetry cities, which don’t render until you are very close. Mid distance will now be low-res polygons. the problem is, it really does spoil the view, which is a big part of MSFS.
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I hope it’s the other way around. Launch the update in MSFS2020 and let the community provide feedback prior to the MSFS2024 launch.
Do we know whether there will be a beta phase before the release of MSFS 2024 yet?
A beta release of the new Bing data in MSFS2020? I doubt it. If they were to release it in MSFS2020 first, my guess is it will be in a World Update.
World updates are focused on specific regions. They wouldn’t release one covering the whole world (lots of power processing required and it also take more time between releases).
But they should think about updating the whole world yearly or every two years. Updating the Blackshark stuff too.
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It was a potential beta for FS 2024 that I was wondering about.
Maybe you are right, but they regularly add airports outside of the WU region. Here is an example. Missing Airports Sent to Zendesk - Bug Reporting Hub / Scenery and Airports - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
Over 130 airports in Brazil were added during WU15.
Adding airports is “easier” (they still need to check for bugs or anomalies). Updating the photoimagery, DEM and photogrammetry needs a new AI scan (so they can remove clouds, shadows, bad imagery and place vegetation and building in the right places).
After the AI work, they still need people to revise the work. Jörg is looking for an automatic solution for the water masks for a while now, but he wasn’t successful so far, they have to use developers for it.
My point is, everytime they update the scenery, they have a lot dev work to do. Updating the whole world would be a work of months, hence why I think they would need more time.
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The way they replace clouds by generic terrain is actually not pretty.
It’s ok from very high above when you don’t really look at the ground. But flying low GA, it’s really bad.
They should have another set of non clouded maps to “copy” the real terrain and not put generic fields everywhere in the world.
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This is literally what they said in the dev Q&A (also in latest one from Wendsday this week). And since the data basis behind the world streaming is shared between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 (there is only one data source) the changes happen to MSFS 2020 the exact same time when MSFS 2024 gets the changes.
But I suspect that the changes would appear prior MSFS 2024 launch so maybe MSFS 2020 gets the chnage some days sooner.
I did see that after posting, so it looks like my money would have been safe 
I didn’t realise they even bothered replacing clouds, I see so many of them printed on the ground. Maybe they only do that im 'Murica because other countries don’t count? (Africa in particular looks like nobody has done any quality checking on any of it).
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I think early on there was this exact impression that was made. And seeing the state of certain areas within the game, one would quickly assume they would update the map data and the AI would build a more current version. Fast forward as the years go on, “updates” would happen but never a blanket region to fix current map data. Even when looking at my local airports, the map data that the devs were building airports on was 10, sometimes even 15 years old. Questioning the vetting process for what is actually there.
Seeing the map mods out there made me a little nervous as to how much would it affect my current gig and how bad the damage would be. I’ve still been half tempted to try it. Hmm
While it might be data intensive and maybe this shows the limit of my scope, would there ever be a new way of processing data as it changes in the game?
At one time, nobody would have thought that’d be possible to render high quality CGI graphics in real time, but processing power has increased massively over a relatively short period of time. Whether that rate of increase can be maintained is an interesting question, but it’d probably be a brave soul who would bet against it.
I still haven’t reach America
It’s all the way from Europe to Asia and in countries not updated.
I have seen green french fields in a desertic area (do not remember where)…maybe a French colony
My result is this: Using the new Bing Data every day. No problems. Everything looks better, everywhere.
On to the most beautiful region in the world, the Tyrolean Alps. (I live very close to Yosemite National Park which to me is second).
Zell am See (by Gayasim) LOWZ, parked on the runway MSFS places you if you click on the LOWZ icon on the map.
The 2 pics with the New Bing has more detailed grass (mowing streaks) the old Bing does not. Also the mountains are more detailed and the brush on the slopes looks more real.
With the old Bing that MSFS uses.
https://i.imgur.com/H3rsLGL.jpg
With the new Bing
https://i.imgur.com/q07Zhaz.jpg
With the new Bing and Brightness turned down, and Saturation and Contrast turned up
https://i.imgur.com/BNS53fs.jpg
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Look at the great detail on the mountain slopes in the new Bing (bottom picture).
All 3 pictures were taken in MSFS of course
So this was a one time update, and they aren’t going to update for another 4 years?
Well that really is less than optimal. South Africa, many of the communities have disappeared off the map. The aerial data was there before in the Bing data before this. Now whole swaths of the country are missing.
Are the “missing communities” areas low resolution, blurried, replaced by IA generic field, or are they high resolution terrain like the rest of the map ?
Totally black areas on the aerial map until you get zoomed in so far, and then it is just random open area.
I am really saddened. The only areas on the map in South Africa are areas that SA officially recognizes. Like Orange Farm is South Africa’s largest informal community. Meaning when Soweto became overcrowded and young adults needed new areas to raise their children, they started building houses on unused government land. Orange Farm is a huge community with a population over 200,000 people. But the National government nor the Gaunteng province will recognize them, because if they did, the government would be responsible for the infrastructure of these communities.
There were times many years ago that data released to Google and Bing was censored by the government. But then they released that data to Bing and Google. Its sad to see we are back to the days where the SA government is back censoring data on communities they don’t officially recognize. And its sad that FS2024 I’m not going to be able to fly VFR because nothing is going to look like it should.