Which are your "Top favourite Cities/Places" with the best Photogrammetry to fly in? fspghangar.com

Discussion Hub World Discovery
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1102

This by far is the best WU so far, dare I say better than WU20 Japan! Sydney is straight up 15/15, Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Townsville all 15/15! Will do a couple of PG coverage comparison maps later.

Final goodbye for the “old man” tomorrow so going to be a little while before I update the website with WU21’s PG Cities. Will also need a bit of time to explore all these new places before I do!

Thank you Microsoft/Asboso for releasing this WU today! Amazing job! You have certainly raised the bar this time!

The future looks incredible!

1103

Big, yes.. but the quality is really low for me, half melted buildings everywhere.

1104

I just love your postive attitude, even in hard times…in the sim or IRL. Thank you!

1105

Looks amazing, Melbourne is huge now but one thing I noticed is there doesn’t seem to be photogrammetry all the way from the airport to the city like there was previously, is anyone else getting the same?

Still I’ll take the new area over the old one any day it much larger overall. Can’t wait to check out Sydney, that’s been close to number one on my wishlist.

1106

The Sydney photogrammetry looks comparable to other high quality areas in the game to my eye after about 20 minutes flying around. Server related maybe?

1107

Right guys, as luck would have it I flew around Melbourne, Townsville & Perth quite a bit just before the update landed so I have a pretty good idea of the improvements etc however silly me didn’t have time to get screenshots (I’ll learn one day!).

Melbourne - well what can I say. I have the ORBX City Pack and I was purely testing it at night as it’s going on the Best PG Cities After Dark list for looking absolutely stunning (at night), however during testing I did notice the poor quality of the roads. Load of tiny spikes in all the motorways etc.

Melbourne Int never had PG surrounding it, however there is a section that is autogen, and even with the new WU that section is still there. However the PG quality has considerably improved and it blends in pretty well. ORBX City Pack still works with WU21 esp at night! Need to check PG Coverage differences later, so long as I don’t get too drunk! I also noticed some differences in the PG quality… I may be wrong but I know Melbourne very well and there are sections that have poorer PG but Melbourne gets a 15/15 from me :+1:

Sydney! This has to now be one of the best PG Cities of the sim! The coverage is massive! PG is just crisp! For those not seeing the same results as myself and others… all I can say is Server Overload Guys! Always happens on Update Day lol, and me being in the U.K we are probably closer to Australia then you guys abroad so takes less time for the PG data to get here :laughing:

Townsville. Wow just wow! One of my first Photogrammetry favourites. The PG doesn’t seem to have been extended, however the quality has! Again Impulse Simulation’s Townsville Landmarks still works perfectly with the WU21 and SU5 and it’s another one that’s joining the “After Dark” list. 15/15 from me :+1:

Perth. It’s now up there with the “Best” IMO. PG extended covering the docks which was missing before. PG is crisp. Has to be a 15/15 I think.

There is so much more to check out with this WU, in due course I’ll update the website, but for now, it’s time to enjoy life, enjoy the sim and everything will take it’s course.

However I would like to ask Micro/Asobo if they could just slow down a bit… give us a bit of time to digest this WU. If they drop another CU or WU too soon, I’ll be snowed under with so much work and I’ll never be able to catch up :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

Enjoy the update folks and if it doesn’t look good on your PC then it’s your settings or Server issues etc. Sorry to you guys that are not seeing what I and others are seeing. No time for screenshots either as I have a very busy day today.

Fly high old man fly high :flight_departure: :broken_heart: :cry:

1108

My brain is fried this morning. Melbourne PG is confusing me. I’ll have to go back to my coverage maps as there was never PG from Melboune Int. It started from Essendon.

Melbourne
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Will do a comparison map later.

1109

No! don’t say that!

Hmm, I’m sure I’ve flown from melbourne international to the city with photogrammetry but maybe I’m mistaken. If so at least it’s not a regression. I just posted in the feedback thread about it so I’m sure more people will correct me

1110

I think you might be thinking of Perth. That always had PG from Perth Int. It was always a fav flight, you take off as soon as you do, you see the city skyline in the distance.

Melboune was exactly the same feeling kind of flight if you know what I mean. As soon as you take off you see the city skyline in the distance.

That’s why I was getting confused lol, thank God I did PG Coverage maps lol that are now burnt into my brain :rofl:

1111

Yea Melbourne unfortunately didnt get updated PG past YMML airport, it looks like it stops in the same place it did before the update about 3 miles away. Kind of annoying as I prefer PG to surround airports for many miles as an airline flyer, like Heathrow for example. However Melbourne was extended in the other directions much further.

1112

I’m so glad to have found this amazing, helpful and positive thread; I’ll never be short of ideas of where to fly! And the website is amazing Paul, I can only imagine the work that goes into it. :hot_beverage::hot_beverage::hot_beverage: bought!

1113

Thank you so much! My vision for the website doesn’t stop there… much much more to come in the future! Learning html coding and the things you can do with CSS and JavaScript are astounding with a little help from AI to teach me, watch this space for future updates.

Thank you again! I appreciate each and everyone of you!

Been a long day, but a good day. Going to get some flying done. Australia here I come :helicopter:

1114

Sorry, @AirRhodessa - From the April developer livestream:

Roadmap 2006 snippet
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I suggest that you plan your next vacation for October… :smiley:

1115

Haha I’ll keep that in mind, hence the route I’m taking with the website… should make future updates easier, however all those dates are booked in my calendar. No joke!

Looking forward to the June one as it’s my birthday and I’m kind of hoping it’ll be a U.K city update with new PG for Sheffield, Manchester, better coverage of Liverpool and need Belfast, Dublin needs updating, Cork is fine as is, could also do with a few National Parks thrown in for good measure :rofl:

One can only dream…

1116

2026 seems like a higher cadence of city/wu than what we got last year. Basically something every month

1117

Hi , I’ve just tried to join your Discord from the website but the link doesn’t work! Are you still running it ? Cheers.

1118

Hi, I have fixed the link, I think lol

Here it is anyway…

Thanks for reporting :+1:

1119

What is your benchmark city for a score of 15? Do some recent Australian cities exceed this standard and not deserve a 16?

In other words, should an additional level be created if you feel a further milestone has been reached?

1120

I would start by increasing the TLOD.

Increase the size of the MSFS cache. I doubt 16GB will be enough given the amount of data in the game. Aim for 64 or 128GB instead.

The quality of photogrammetry can also be affected by a slow internet connection. From what I understand, because the data isn’t arriving quickly enough, MSFS dynamically reduces the photogrammetry quality and therefore loads smaller but lower-quality files.

Beyond the potential issues with data streaming (possibly on the server side as well), the graphics processing unit (GPU/CPU) must also be able to handle the large amount of data in real time without becoming overloaded.

Also be aware if you have enabled Dynamic settings. If the GPU/CPU combination is saturated at any point, it will certainly improve the framerate because MSFS dynamically reduces the TLOD/OLOD, but it also impacts the quality of the photogrammetry. You can observe these phenomena in the panel that displays the FPS: both the streaming loading spikes, the framerate, and the changes in the TLOD/OLOD if you are using Dynamic settings.

1121

Well on the website is this…

Our 15-point scoring system provides a comprehensive look at how realistically a city is represented. We evaluate the visual fidelity of the photogrammetry, looking for crisp textures rather than ‘melted’ geometry.

A key focus is placed on infrastructure integrity, ensuring that roads, rivers, and bridges are clean and structural rather than blocky or distorted.

Beyond just looks, we judge the breadth of coverage and the ‘points of interest’ factor—we look for diverse environments including industrial estates, ports, and accurate airfields.

A high score (15/15) represents a flawless, high-interest urban environment, while a lower score (7/15) indicates significantly poorer PG quality and or limited exploration value.

As with any Photogrammetry within the Sim, it’s always best viewed from an altitude, anywhere from 500ft AGL, so don’t expect perfect buildings when you are 50ft above them.

So here’s the plan. Instead of creating a new 16/15 or moving everything down a level i.e 7/15 becomes 6/16 ( which may happen one day ) I’ll do this instead.

I’ll apply a GOLD STANDARD to such deserving Cities such as Sydney.

ChatGPT Image May 8, 2026, 01_01_24 PM
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Thanks for the brilliant idea though, this will now make it easier for people to see which Top Rated PG Cities are the “Ultimate/Ultra” Gold Standard… or something like that lol..

Might play around with a few ideas though, so this one isn’t set in stone yet.