After almost 3,5 years with MSFS, Asobo launch 15 World Updates:
8 updates in Europe (III in UK, IV in France, V in Nordics, VI in Germany, VIII in Spain, IX in Italy, XIV in Central Europe, and XV in Nordics - again -); represents 53% World Updates. This is excessive, and simmers around the world are waiting updates in another places. Please STOP working only in Europe.
3 updates in North America (II in USA, X in USA - again -, and XI in Canada); represents 20% World Updates. Please STOP working only in first world countries.
3 updates in Oceania (VIII in Australia, XII in New Zealand and XIII in Oceania); represents 20% World Updates.
1 update in Asia (I in Japan); represents 7% World Updates.
0 updates in Africa; i know; few data available, but in 3,5 years after launch MSFS, maybe South Africaā¦something please.
0 updates in South America (Latin America); i know; again in 3,5 years after launch MSFS, some island, Central America, somethingā¦please
0 updates in Antartic; no problemā¦that can be the last one
But please, we are waiting for World Updates in another countries (not only Europe / USA)ā¦please ā¦hear the simmers voice.
Seriously show the Caribbean, Central and South America some love already sheeshā¦ We get Asobo are based out of France, and we may all have our own individual biases, but its hard to get excited about another Europe WU.
These WUās are becoming quite stale and BORING!
The issue is the data required, which is simply much more concise for Europe, North America and parts of Asia (such as Japan). Iād love to see Brazil get a World Update ā and I think that will be the first of the more challenging areas of the world ā however weāve just got to be patient.
I mean, how exactly does a French company, backed by a US mega-corporation, procure data for somewhere like China or Venezuela?
Having retired to Cuenca, Ecuador over 6 years ago I desperately want to see better geographical updates for S. America. Especially for the Andes. It is so beautiful down here and the MSFS scenery is really not very good in comparison, not by a long shot. I would surely welcome a bit of focus on this region as I rarely fly European excursions.
Keep seeing lack of data being mentioned for these sort of areas yet theyāve just released WU Greenland.
Iām sure if they can do Greenland then they can do India, Africa & South America.
I think the more likely answer is that Microsoft can see there arenāt many players in these areas but that doesnāt mean we donāt want to fly them.
Yes, because itās not the data itself which is the Problem. The problem actually is they need official permission from the government, find a local organizations to create aerial photos (for photogrammetry), maybe need to let the government review the data (due to restricted areas) to finally be able to process the raw material.
For western states thatās not a big issue, for states in Africa, the Middle East, China and Southern America itās a different story if a company like Microsoft which is based in the USA asks to make aerial photos or is asking for satellite data of the whole countryā¦
The list above basically shows that as all of the nation are somewhat neutral or have some positive relationship to the USA
Even if gaming itself is not be political - I think in the end it plays a big role here as itās sensitive data for certain countries.
I can see most of the world on Bing maps including sensitive areas Iām sure most countries wouldnāt want you to see so Iām sure Bing doesnāt have official agreement with a lot of these countries to publish this yet they still do.
And even if they do need permission Iām sure most of Middle East/ Africa/ South America would be ok with working with Bing/ Microsoft/ USA.
Aerial photos I can understand a bit more.
Genuine question as I honestly donāt know the answer.
But I would be surprised if player data didnāt play a big part.
Itās the TIN (photogrammetry). As youāll have noticed, world updates always include 3D cities, itās a major selling point of the sim. Imagine if they did a WU Brazil with a few POI, updated satellite but no photogrammetry. Maybe a small section of the user base would be happy but in general Iām sure thereād be an outcry.
To get the photogrammetry they need to fly specially equipped planes over cities at low level in effectively a search pattern. Often they have to use local companies for this, which is probably one reason why the TIN is of such variable quality between WU. Therefore they need local companies with this capability, and approval to fly these routes.
Three was a good discussion on this on the last dev livestream which you can read below. Itās too long to paste here. Scroll quite a long way down until you get to the heading āAvailability of Data in World Updatesā or you could watch the video of preferred.
I will take one quote from there: āIāve been trying to do what needs to be done to get Brazil 3D cities. It even went as far as me thinking about creating a new company, renting our own planes, buying our own camerasā which illustrates the problem.
We all want South America, Africa, and lots more of Asia, but itās just not always possible.
Itās not all bad news, Jorgās piece above ends with some better news about Brazil.
Been doing a world capitals tour the low and slow way. There are a lot of beautiful areas in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. There are areas with nicely looking fields or paddies surrounding small (generic modelled but still good looking) villages - and then there are big chunks of green or brown.
Itās a total hit or miss, all according to the quality and age of the available (and maybe payable) data. And it is understandable, you canāt replicate in the sim what you donāt have. There are also parts of Europe without the bing-map textures, because there was no available data when they created the āworldā for MSFS.
Might want to make the complaint to local government, that because of their lack of sharing, msfs cannot implement the country you like to fly overā¦ or that thereās just no data available, as itās not important enough on the agenda of those running the country to have every square inch of the country registered in digital mesh.
Iād love to fly over other countries, i actually do quite alot, and i feel your painā¦ itās just that not everyone in local government is into flightsimming and āgets itāā¦
Gradually more data will become available for ms/asobo to play around withā¦ but i reckon the defense department of any country will go ape if they produce it without the nationās consent, i guess itās also the trust and recognition that has to be built.
If the rest of the world wasnāt ms/asoboās concern, whyād they call it āWorld updatesā in the first place?
Nobody cares for africa. Its simply not important in flying.
I mean, look at Flightradar24. And how many simmers are from africa? ā¦Not so much. But much more from europa and north america. Thatās the reason why the focus is on these regions.
For me TIN photogrammetry cities are just a bonus. Whatās really important to me is that the DEM is high resolution and that the landscape isnāt littered with cloud patches and super ugly default texture patches where the clouds were removed by AI.
I will happily accept an update that improves on that even with not a single 3D city or POI included. For the most part POIs are tiny dots in the distance and pretty much a waste of space and time anyway. I probably havenāt seen 99% of the POIs yet.
During these chilly months here in the north, Chile would be nice. I have no beef about doing Argentina but I would go nuts if Brazil was shown some love.
We get Asobo are based out of France, and we may all have our own individual biases, but its hard to get excited about another Europe WU.
