New from Ipacs regarding more high resolution scenery areas:
ipacs aerofly [developer] Jun 15 @ 3:36pm
As a rough summary to all the replies here: (on the Steam Forum) People really have different tastes. As it looks now, we will leave the base package almost as it is and offer the DLC with more high resolution images. As a separate DLC we will consider offering higher resolution images world wide. They won't be as high as the images around the airports, but you will still see more details.
I saw that. I can understand how as it would be a monstrous download, but at least we can add the high resolution. I am addicted to this. I flew an hour last night over Northern area's of San Diego, flying through a canyon north of Ramona that I never knew existed. I wish it was better resolution in the ultra low resolution area's, but Im thankful for what I do have. I just fly higher and it looks better.
What bongles my mind is that when we tried this with FSX+Google Earth, frame rates were like 7 FPS. If we tried this with one state of photo real scenery, it was like 90 Gigs of data for scenery alone. But in this sim, you have photo real scenery 'and' its only 30 Gigs of total App footprint. Well, 30 Gigs to download, rather. (I'm thinking download sizes, like 90, 30, etc). When they unpack, I am sure the package is much more huge on the drive.
Isnt XP something like 60 Gigs for the maximum package? And that isnt even photo real.
I hope they do Colorado. That has some spectacular scenery in it. Durango, Pagossa Springs, Canyon City, the plains, the Rockies, Denver... East Coast around Boston, Martha's Vineyard, etc, would also be nice. As well as Germany, England, Italy, France, etc... (EDIT: Washington / Oregon would be nice also).
Some airports I hope they put in are Deer Valley, Scottsdale, and Glendale in Phoenix. Maybe Gateway as well. Then Ramona and that airport just East of Montgomery (I forget its name) in San Diego.
Last night I flew around in the Short. What a wild plane. The model is so flawless, it makes me sick. These guy shave pushed the envelope so far on model quality, its scary... I love to go nuts on Polygons, but I didnt know you could get THIS DANG NICE!!!!! Some parts look molded, no notchiness present. My mind starts getting lite headed thinking of the mesmerizing amounts of polygons involved. And still, they can have this many polys in planes, photo scenery, and have smooth frame rates, which is what I was talking about earlier in this post. We couldnt run photo scenery well on FSX. It was hard on it. But this sime is like its built to run all these things and run it smoothly... Incredible....
Oh, I was talking about flying the Short on a semi long journey. No autopilot. Breath and you are climbing or diving. Look left and you turn that way.. As you breath, you are climbing and diving. Just think of moving and it does it. Ultra sensitive. I couldnt imagine flying the real one for 5 hours or more. I would be exhausted by the time I landed. Great for aerobatics, but man, what a input-monster. Beautiful model.