Photogrammetry boost through sponsored cities/ads while waiting on loading screens

Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Wishlist
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In as few words as possible :sunglasses:

Why don’t we use the time waiting in front of loading screens in a productive way?

No one likes ads, i get it. But if an advertiser makes photogrammetry happen in that area you want to fly… i take it. To make it clear, i do not suggest that we overload the sim with advertising, just use the time while the loading screen is shown and you have to wait anyway…

To get the some more context… :thinking:

AI generated buildings in random areas with regional differentiation are great and getting even better over time, thanks to Blackshark! But as good as AI replicates average and is making huge areas believable, as bad it is (and how could it be) when it comes to varieties of cities with highly specific architecture and art that is all but not average and touristic poi’s, that are always “special” and therefore the AI can’t replicate them.

I really love the improvements that the teams make in the world updates, but with that pace, if you look at the whole world… and i get it, it’s not cheap to get good quality material - some acceleration would be great!

And then there are that minute(s) we all are sitting in front the simulator waiting for loading in a flight and it’s scenery. And there is not much you could do, as the amounts of data are huge…

Why don’t we use this loading time productive?

No one likes ads, i get it. But if an advertiser makes photogrammetry happen in that area you want to fly… i take it. To make it clear, i do not suggest that we overload the sim with advertising, just use the time while the loading screen is shown.

I am pretty sure that there are many folks/“real world influencers” outside the gaming/simming community that would be interested in these kind of permanent sponsorship/advertising. Especially as the simulator is reaching a wider spread of age groups then usual games…
Local companies that would love to see the communities around them well presented, touristic development agencies that are desperate to find new ways marketing e.g.
And with the sponsorship these groups can be associated with the simulator and the advertising is a long-term investment…

This partnerships could be announced within the simulator e.g. each week “City of the week (proudly sponsored by…)” and the advertiser could use the cooperation with MSFS on his internet presence/marketing material… The gained data could be used to improve even the Bing service and the simulator would get a recurring presence and visibility, and free advertising for itself through the sponsors and their media presence.

And yeah, not every kind of advertiser should be allowed in the sim, for sure.

Let’s make the world even more accessible.
Thank you for your work! :blue_heart:

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Absolutely hate ads/marketing. Prefer freeware or payware. Cheers.

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No.

Nooooooooo (so I have enough characters to post this)

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I do not believe that MS and Asobo need that much money to make upcoming world updates, merely time, permissions and efforts. I believe you might be confusing AI with Blackshark AI, and photogrammetry, where Blackshark AI takes care of autogen buildings, and photogrammetry creates a 3d result of large amounts of pictures put together from a plane. These sources often vary in quality and age, and the Microsoft Bing Maps team is constantly working on getting new sources, permissions and a variety of places.

Opening the simulator to advertising on a loading screen is the precursor to a risky trend already seen in other segments, namely the gaming industry. The moment advertising is acceptable on loading screens, it will become acceptable to push the limits further, something that I personally wish to keep completely separate from a simulator that people bought or subscribed through the game pass.

I can understand people want the simulator to improve quickly to have a perfect experience as quickly as possible, but I do not believe it is worth falling into advertising or subscription (like many posts have suggested in the past). A simulator like this takes years (remember how long it took for xplane and p3d?), and will improve over time. I think its important to remind ourselves and not set too high of an expectation as for the timelines.

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no

    

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How does an advertiser make photogrammetry happen? Do they have to make it themselves by collecting the data and then generating meshes from it? Or do they simply pay Microsoft for ad space, and that ad revenue goes to the Bing Maps team? I’m assuming it’s a local business that would pay for ads, which are targeted to simmers located in that area (or maybe loading a flight in that area), otherwise why would they want photogrammetry created for that area. So I’m wondering if the numbers even add up. It’s probably pretty expensive to generate a photogrammetry city.

How about we instead use the loading screens to display the latest official and third party news? Grand Theft Auto 5 Online does this and it’s a nice feature.

Even better, how about the loading screens show some of the latest additions users made to the world using the Scenery Gateway system? I feel like the Scenery Gateway is the only way we’re going to see dramatic improvement on a large scale.

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Madness!
If ads are allowed during loading screens, take it as a given that loading times will become artificially longer.
This is known behaviour across all media.

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That’s about the worst idea ever.

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And just when I thought I had heard everything, this appears. C’mon man !

How about they pay us to use the bad PG…now that is an idea I can get behind.

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I know it’s not what you’re suggesting, but it’s definitely where we’d end up.

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Photogrammetry ? why ? You seem to think advertising inside the scenery is difficult. But it is the easiest thing, actually… It does not have to be plain text with disco colors advertising… just put some objects into the scenery - at their proper places - that represent a certain brand, e.g.

toekan-de-valk

… everyone in the Netherlands knows what brand of hotel/restaurant this bird represents :yum: no tourist will even notice it. Good selective advertising. Sometimes they are placed on a large pole (40m or so)

A collegue told me that car drivers in the Netherlands used these signs in the past, as a helper to navigate, when routers did not exist yet.

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This is not a reply to the last post.

This is a request that everyone please remain respectful of each other. It is okay to disagree. But please remember that there is another person on the other end of your message.

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I really like your phrasing, lovely! :blue_heart: My idea is not to spam you with minute long ads. I did not say that it have to be a video on your loading screen, folks with low bandwith can get a static ad instead. If youre having high bandwith it isn’t a factor. :blue_heart:

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It’s alway nice to exchange arguments, thanks! :blue_heart:

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Totally agree! I am the first one that is zapping to another program… But if the ad doesn’t hurt? If it does not consume a second of your valuable time? And if it improves your sim from good to near reallife? I don’t think that the majority is able or willing to pay for every scenery the want to fly in… Cheerio! :blue_heart:

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Definitely NO !

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if don’t influence any mode or in the gameplay is a great way to get more found for the game 2K did this with the NBA series

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I have to disappoint you, i know exactly what i am talking. And here i am talking photogrammetry and how to get a lot more of it into the sim.
You are right that it isn’t just money, some countries will not allow photogrammetrie and nothing anyone could do here.
But as far as i know, this planet is pretty huge and the planes that gathering the necessary high quality data are rare, can only fly under good conditions etc., meaning they aren’t cheap. I am assuming that photogrammetrie on big areas of the world does cost a lot of money.
With the given business model i really doubt that we seen improvements on photogrammetrie (!) on a larger scale. Many folks seem to forget that it’s not only the development of the game that adds to the costs of this endeavour, think about the cost for running the server farms. The amounts of data are huge and if you want to play that simulator for years. I doubt that the revenue stream of the ingame marketplace is huge…

Really people, think about what you are expecting for your 60 to 120 bucks! Ten years of free streaming? Pretty sure you get this, and that is an amazing bargain! Do the math… e.g. 12 bucks a year?! How will you keep the pace of development up if the initial investments are gone?

If this would be seen as an option, the community need to discuss what is acceptable and were the boundaries are, i mean no one wants as much advertising as in CP2077!

In my opinion for the permanent sponsorhip of a city/region it is enough to have a statement on the loading screen (static or short PR video) and maybe (in case of a company) a poi sign over their buldings that states the company name e.g.

I am not a marketing guy, definitely not… just a flying nerd for years and i have seen MSFS develop from alpha state and i am hoping for major evolution over the years. I just try to be creative to keep the development going. I love the idea that the world is just a few minutes away, but i am seeing the boundaries of the ingame world and i really like to improve it with little effort. :blue_heart:

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Thank you for your productive contribution! :blue_heart:

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The community efforts are great, agree! If youre talking quality of sceneries it varies… and sometimes it’s just disappointing.
E.g. Palma de Mallorca. 2 sceneries available, one with low quality that looks really bad. And one with high quality that looks good, but as it is not optimized it takes few seconds to overload at least my 32GB of ram… and is therefore unplayable.
And i really doubt that google is allowing this piracy if it is intended to fill all the gaps of BING longterm.
The idea to use the loading screens for presenting the news is great, agree. But it doesn’t get any revenues into photogrammetrie, what the only intention of my post is… so, you have the News section in the UI that, if they would fill it with life would really do the job, i believe!
:blue_heart: