Posted on 10/06/2019 12:56:19 PM PDT by dayglored
There’s no way I can write about the return of Flight Simulator without sharing just a little bit of my own story for context,...
...
Like many of its predecessors, the new simulator models the entire planet, including something like 40,000 airports worldwide. I used to brag in presentations about FSX that we started with 2 terabytes of scenery data, and then compressed that to fit onto a couple of DVDs in a box. The world in the new version consists of 2 petabytes of data — yes, that’s one thousand times bigger. The scenery is built on Bing satellite and aerial imagery, augmented with cool buzzwordy stuff like photogrammetric 3D modeling and multiple other data sources, all of which is streamed via Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Yes, the word streaming means you’ll need an internet connection, but you can download and pre-cache scenery areas for offline use, or even fly in a fully offline mode.
All of this data results in an environment that is often breathtakingly lifelike, and it means that the entire planet is effectively what we used to call a “high detail area,” only more realistic. For the tech-savvy, many of the scenery areas boast a resolution of 3 centimeters per pixel, while the default in FSX was about 1 meter per pixel. Throw in 1.5 trillion trees, individual blades of grass modeled in 3D, and a complete overhaul of lighting and shadows, and the result is an unprecedented level of detail for a flight simulator of any kind. True VFR flight, day or night, with real-world landmarks is now possible everywhere on the planet.
... [Lots more at the link]
(Excerpt) Read more at inspire.eaa.org ...
LOL, I remember that as the start location when I fired up Microsoft Flight Simulator on my Macintosh 512k back in 1985.
Looking forward to this. I just bought a wide screen monitor. I wish someone would produce a program to learn how to fly drones.
Does it include the MCAS hardware option?
-PJ
you might cut down flight school learning at least- people that race online in iracing and other racing apps when they get to a real track, with the real cars, they do a lot better- knowing the tracks inside and out, as well as how the caRS will handle-
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