Hi, If this is not the correct place to report scenery issues, please let me know where the correct place is.
I live in Santa Clarita, CA, north of Los Angeles, It is a city listed as having photo real scenery. Overall it is beautiful and I have been waiting for something this great. One issue is that FS2020 shows all these beautiful rivers running through our town. I wish that were true, but they are DRY river beds with no water. I guess until it is corrected, I will enjoy the flowing rivers I wish we had.
Same problem here in the Antelope Valley, All the Dry wash beds are filled with water. Its just how the Sim perceives the dry beds. Yeah when to fly from my Home Base Airport KWJF east heading 070 past Palmdale . Ca. Hey! I can see my house lol, there all water which should not be the case. Cheers Dion Youtube: #dionm01
I think you’ll get more love on this post if you remove the specfic city, this is a problem with seasonal rivers all over the world in FS right now.
Thanka. Do I just repost, or is there a way to edit my original post. The other part of the question is whether or not MSFT wants users to report issues like this or do you believe they are reading the forums to find out about these issues. It is good to know this river issue is worldwide, I was just being specific to my area in case they wanted that information.
Hey @FLYINGkeys65 I made a mod that fixes these issues.
You can download it here: Los Angeles water fix & California dry lakes • Flight Simulator 2020
Hi there,
I know that this is an older post, but I have moved it to Bugs & Issues. Wishlist is a place for requesting new features.
I have also altered your title to be specific to the issue at hand.
OMG. You are so awesome. Just downloaded and installed and now my valley looks like the real thing. Makes it so much more immersive. Thank you thank you.
On another note, I ran to my wife and told her how excited I was by your mod and she was incredulous.
“Why would you want to see brown dirt, instead of pretty rivers” and I said “but we don’t have pretty rivers here, we have dry river beds and I want it to look real!” and she just laughed and said “but we should change the river beds in real life, not make them uglier in your Flight Sim”. LOL
Thanks so much
Hey @N316TS, looking at the new title I believe you might have misinterpreted the issue. The rivers and dry lakes have water on them in MSFS but in real life they’re dry for most of the year.
Great to hear you liked the work I did with this! I will see what I can do about making the rivers green and lush in real life but I can’t promise anything… 
Thank you! Fixed.
Lol. perfect. When they turn green in real life, I’ll give all due credit to you. 
Hi,
Just checking if you have tried out your mod since the last update… 1.14.5.0 …I have noticed that I am suddenly seen a difference in screen redraws and loading in the distance more often than before the update. I have tried it with the mod both in and out of the community folder. Because it is a matter of perception, I am not sure if it is in my head, but it does seem different after the update.
How about for you?
thanks,
Steve
Hi there!
Where exactly are you seeing these lakes? According to OSM (Open-Street-Map) there is a river that runs through the center of the city.
Thanks!
Not lakes, rivers… And you’re about two years late to the party
Yes, I meant rivers.
Cheers!
This issue plagues many “arroyos” in California. It is not exclusive to Santa Clarita.
There is a large arroyo along the northern border of Santa Maria that is a lovely flowing river in the sim.
The Salinas River, which is usually very dry, looks like a lush flowing river as it flows through Atascadero and Paso Robles in the sim.
It seems the AI sees these “bodies of water” and assumes they are at maximum capacity by default.
That is really not the case in much of Southern California.
EDIT:
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Bing shows this on the road map. Note the body of water:
Bing shows this on satellite. Note the lack of any visible water:
This is a shot of the Santa Maria River as the Highway 101 causeway passes over the dry arroyo. Note there is no water:
This is the dry arroyo in the sim:
I can assure you, I’ve never seen the Santa Maria River look anything like that, ever.
For this “bug” to ever be fixed, the AI is going to need to rely on data other than just what Open Street Map (or the equivalent) is providing for bodies of water. This seems like as complex an issue as the snow coverage and frozen lakes/rivers issue.
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I’m from AG /SLO, now live in L.A… typically fly from Van Nuys to SLO or Oceano, always VFR and this annoys me too.
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I think the difficulty here would be to find a world-wide data source (or set of sources) that:
A) Has an accurate record of seasonal water depth (not only for rivers, but lakes too, as lakes can dry up), as this situation occurs in other states in the USA & other continents, and
B) Is in a format that can be readily processed for use by MSFS, and
C) Is available for commercial use (i.e. Microsoft) at a price that a company is willing to pay.
It would also require the addition of Season functionality in the sim. Based on the Wishlist Lifetime item #17 in the Feb 1st Development Update, Seasons are planned for 2024, so I read that to mean one should not expect seasonal rivers or lakes in 2020. Whether 2024 will have seasonal rivers and/or lakes in addition to season terrain has not been discussed by the devs at this point, AFAIK.
Seasonal rivers…??? I just want the doors to open