Checking back in to stir up troub… Er… Umm… I mean check on progress and rumors?
So very pleased Asobo has added improvements to Toronto and Vancouver to the official TO DO list!!! Thanks for listening and working to make those as good as Asobo can make them, as good as they deserve to be. But I do hope they don’t limit Canada WU fixes to just Toronto and Vancouver???
There really needs to be some automated tools for Bing/Asobo to find wildly unrealistic topology around rivers and such. The crazy errors in altitude should be findable without rocket since or tons of human searching. ANY terrain that’s pretty much VERTICAL needs some human eyes on it!!! TWO YEARS after the sim released!!! That’s basic sanity checking and it’s really annoying that stuff is still rampant all over the world AND is left in place a moment’s flight from bespoke hand made POIs in a WU coming out at this point.
I have to say I was a bit excited to see there is now the SamScene3D Vancouver City Times, but on inspection, it really depends on tastes and expectations whether it’s worth a buy? There’s some things that look really nice to have modeled, but the materials/texturing/color is very primitive in many places and just looks unnatural and too visually distinct from the photogrammetry and default ground textures. I can only say I really hope Asobo’s improvements to Vancouver make most of that obsolete. I appreciate the effort and having the option, and people should certainly have a look at it, some people may find what that adds to be worth the money. I do really appreciate the more detailed seaplane ports and that the corresponding seaplane port in Victoria (CYWH) was included. I want to buy this to support the developer and anyone making add ons to support Western Canada and seaplane ports in general, but I just can’t for the money given the visual quality of the materials/colors. Maybe that will get major improvements after Asobo improves Vancouver?? I hope so.
Wasn’t FSimudios or some other devs rumored to be considering a Vancouver City add on? I sure hope we do get a very nice, really detailed, top notch city add on for Vancouver, but I want one that adds accuracy and details to Vancouver AFTER Asobo does a much better job on it. I have to worry the currently available add on was just a rush to cash in on Asobo’s failure on Vancouver before they fix it? I hope I’m wrong and once the dust settles, we end up with a gorgeous default Vancouver from Asobo and one or more paid add ons that really look like they match and greatly enhance the default WU Canda scenery around Vancouver, fix glaring issues like bridges and port cranes Asobo may miss (But please don’t miss any major ones Asobo!!!).
I think both CYVR Vancouver Airport paid add ons have advantages, one is less expensive and a lot lighter for those who don’t want a big FPS/VRAM hit, but it’s still a very nice visual improvement over default airport. The other is much more detailed and has great perks like the seaplane ports at the airport and downtown, but it can hit FPS pretty hard on modest systems and it costs more (still pretty reasonable for an amazing airport!). Point being, perhaps the market can bear two Vancouver City add ons, and maybe each could offer advantages.
I just want Vancouver looking amazing for everyone and truly exceptional for those willing to spend a bit of extra cash on it! It is really just a world class gem to fly around! Vancouver deserves to be one of the best done cities in the sim!!! I’m still so disappointed in Vancouver right now, really a drag on my motivation to Sim these days. All that waiting for SU Canada and it just felt like gut punch instead of a long awaited prize. Finally got an amazing Beaver (Thanks Asobo/Milviz/Blackbird, it’s truly gorgeous!) and my most favorite place to fly seaplanes is such a mess!
I’ll leave Toronto issues to those who know that city/area better. But seems like it’s much the same story!