it might be my wishful thinking, but I really like the sound of this approach, and it would solve one of my lingering concerns about MSFS - that is just won't be here forever, and they can turn it off, or at best, turn off the satellite imagery and make it offline only as a permanent solution when they want out

if XPlane can build something that sort of simulates satellite imagery by being so detailed and based on real data, then it should remove any need for expensive tie in deals with satellite imagery providers to get on a par with MSFS, and be completely future proof against streaming infrastructure complications

also would potentially be open to 3rd parties to edit that data/imagery to make global improvements in quality

Edited September 11, 2025Sep 11 by EGLD

2 hours ago, Gilandred said:

I don’t think they’ll be using the satellite images themselves as part of the scenery, so no need to do any color masking.  It might be more along the lines of “there’s supposed to be a field at this exact location with these dimensions and properties, so let’s draw that.”

The default scenery looks good ,if it can be improved then great but I don't want photoscenery

Would the new scenery not be very similar to Orbx’s land class based enhancement packages?  
 

Like Global Open LC NA is/was - I had that for P3D and it looked good along with  “Vector” etc.  It was more detailed land class scenery with forests in the right spots and more field variety that made sense for the area and it least in Wisconsin the end result was a believable Wisconsin.

Even the current default XP12 scenery looks more or less like Wisconsin to me, and if say a few more signature structures  are added in the right spots (like @tonywob ‘s wonderful TE models I had the pleasure of helping beta test then it all just “feels” right and performs great without all the weird colors and clouds on mountains and sickly hued or winter textures etc - it’s consistent and believable without being photorealistic.

Sort of like well done model train scenery - just enough to set a nice, plausible stage for the real actors, the planes we fly.

Not to mention adaptable to seasons - X-Plane does a really good job of thing like putting ice on top of cars, windsock poles etc if you look closely when it's snowing 🙂 Or that may have been the x-snow plugin - but either way, it's possible and more plausible when the objects and textures aren't fixed to a specific season.

On 9/7/2025 at 4:20 AM, FPVSteve said:

How long before the "influencer" real world pilots who rave about MSFS being the greatest ever simulator start showing some XP content now that audience sentiment is shifting a little bit... 🙄

Lots of real world pilots who have MSFS and XP tell me in DMs that XP is way better for flight realism and software smoothness and execution. There is no reason why you can't own and use both platforms. 

25 minutes ago, alanw2005 said:

Lots of real world pilots who have MSFS and XP tell me in DMs that XP is way better for flight realism and software smoothness and execution. There is no reason why you can't own and use both platforms. 

Well, there's one major reason for me.  All the keys are assigned differently.  I bought 2020, but after the problems I had with key assignments, I just couldn't be bothered going through it all again.  If others can do it, more power.

On 9/14/2025 at 4:54 PM, GoranM said:

Well, there's one major reason for me.  All the keys are assigned differently.  I bought 2020, but after the problems I had with key assignments, I just couldn't be bothered going through it all again.

There really needs to be an ISO standard for fight simulation control assignments. Or a mandatory "convert controls layout from simulator xy" function. I mean e-mail programs and web browsers can import settings from one another, why not flight sims...

On 9/14/2025 at 9:54 AM, GoranM said:

Well, there's one major reason for me.  All the keys are assigned differently.  I bought 2020, but after the problems I had with key assignments, I just couldn't be bothered going through it all again.  If others can do it, more power.

If you thought MSFS 2020 key assignments were bad, stay far, far away from 2024.  The person who designed that UI mess is the same type of person who tells you how to build a watch when you ask for the time.  They should’ve just copied XP, full stop.