Flying around Milan this afternoon I was struck by just how much better the new ground textures look and how much more realistic the scenery looked as a result. Roads and concrete surfaces are the right colour and fields are more vibrant. I notice too how much more accurately the water has been placed in rivers and ponds which all results in a much more realistic looking landscape. So well done Asobo, Bing and MS, it really does go to show what the sim is capable of.
Here is a screen shot showing the difference between old ground textures on the left and new on the right.
Yes, someone else mentioned in a WU9 topic that suddenly the ground textures in South Africa were better, and I noticed an improvement in the middle of the Nevada trip.
About a month ago, there was a topic “what do you think the june surprise is going to be”. Microsoft gave Blackshark.ai a huge amount of funding after MSFS went live, and there are several other companies who also have given them grants. I made the guess “I wonder if it is going to be BlackShark.ai is going to introduce new textures or autogen” but people generally shot me down on that guess. But seeing some of the improvements in the new WU, as well as some off the beaten track places, I am now generally wondering if the surprise is they are going to overhaul all the base scenery with new Blackshark.ai techniques. You need look no further than main Italy compared to Malta (which people have shown had no change in the base textures) to see the radical change.
I often find those clear and obvious transitions near photogrammetry areas. In this case it could be something as simple as different time snapshots of the satellite imagery.
I have no idea what the reason is, far beyond my digital skills, but Italy after the last 2 updates is really breathtaking. It looks so real! Yes, yes, here and there there is something missing or so, but we are talking about the whole world! Whoever did this, well, many thanks!
Sure, they are taken at different times but there is more to it than that. Look closely (in the sim by flying these areas) and you can see its not just different time that is making the difference. The roads, tarmac and concrete surfaces have a distinct green tinge to them in the old textures, the colours are far more accurate in the new. There have been a lot of complaints about green roads in the sim with good reason, these new textures dont suffer from this issue at all and that makes a huge difference. And rivers not overflowing onto surrounding land, that’s another change that improves things no end.
And yes I agree clafossati, I was really pleased with what I was seeing this afternoon in Milan, it was awesome.
Sure. What would be the point of a World Update if it didn’t include quality improvements to textures and terrain. But you seem to indicate that the old textures are still there, and the problems you mentioned still exist (in other areas), so I don’t see this as a major change.
Oregon doesn’t seem any different. Are you sure this is applying changes outside the World Update 9 area? (If so, it’d be great to have a list of updated areas.)
I was not seeing the magnitude of changes in ground terrain in Nevada that can be seen in Italy. Nevada looked the same with the exception that the painted clouds on the ground were gone. It seems that they were able to find a way to filter that out the ground mesh.
We have had plenty of world updates that have not given us the sort of quality ground texture improvements we have seen here. This is a significant improvement over what came before, a taste of things to come I would hope. If you dont see these new textures as a great improvement, there is not much I can do to persuade you otherwise.
