Alaska is now available...

[dtmicro]

I have been playing all three the past few days (FSX, FS9, and MS Flight).

I flew to the top of Mt. McKinley in Denali Park and would say that some of the best graphics in the MS Flight Alaska add-on are here, but I haven't seen the whole area yet (Alaska is BIG!). It appears to me they did some custom work to make McKinley look more realistic, as the lower glacier looked almost exactly like the real photos of McKinley (photos at bottom). Where they failed (and always fail) is the grass texture, the REAL grass outside McKinley in summer is some of the lushest green grass you'll see unlike the brown/green spotty mix in the game. Seems grass textures are very difficult for texture designers to make, so few have done good grass.

As far as the OrbX textures in FSX, some of it looks great, but they still have bad looking mountains for the most part (in PNW anyhow). The mountains in MS Flight are better. That said, the airports in OrbX are better (the ones I've seen so far). I have not been impressed with OrbX mountains, although the Tasmania one seemed to have a little better textures in mountains (oddly enough since I think it is older than PNW). I do not have any of their payware stuff yet because I am disappointed with their mountains, so I'm still on the hunt for better mountains in FSX.

I would say that ONLY with add-ons can FSX have equal or in some cases superior textures to most of MS Flight's textures, but on the other hand, MS Flight has good blending between texture changes (especially the new snow texture on the mountains). MS Flight has better performance given the same resolution of a texture for sure. So MS Flight does have some decent textures considering you don't have to buy add-ons to make them better. Also, some of the mountains in Hawaii also look very nice if you catch a view at the correct angle in the correct lighting (sometimes the lighting fixes the rough look).

The main thing in MS Flight (and really all 3 share the same issue somewhat) is that the auto-gen textures that have no hand-crafted correction in some of the farther out wilderness areas do not look very good (Very Bland and lacking color).

Hawaii, for instance, looked more like the grasslands of Africa than Hawaii (yes I know some parts of Hawaii do look like that), but not 90%.

One mistake these texture designers keep making is they are trying to look at satellite photos to make the textures, and that is fine, but please realize satellite photos have bad contrast (often green blends too much and appears too lime green in sat photos). So please texture designers, stop making washed out colors.

I don't mind a slightly more cartoony look if it looks more colorful at times, also we need a better variety of textures in these games.


Denali (MS Flight w/ Alaska Add-on) - Real In-Game Screenshots

--Click image to see at full size--
Attachment 129362

Attachment 129363

(Yes, even this next image was taken from MS Flight screenshot, simply in topdown mode)
Attachment 129361

Finally, I'll leave you with (1) Real picture of the Denali Lower Glacier, which looked virtually identical to the MS Flight rendition

[mith]

Flight... hell no!

I'm TIRED of walking on egg shells when it comes to flight. It sucks... end of story... Jim, now you can lock this thread!

[petermcleland]

Flight... hell no!

I'm TIRED of walking on egg shells when it comes to flight. It sucks... end of story... Jim, now you can lock this thread!

Well before you lock it Jim, I would like to put it on record that I like FLIGHT very much and I'm getting huge enjoyment out of it. Just my opinion for what it is worth as an experienced pilot with a third of a Century in real flying experience and a user of MS flight simulators since FS98. As a parting shot I would like to say that using FLIGHT has provided me with the best flight simulation FLYING pleasure of all the simulators I have used and I eagerly look forward to the future improvements and additions that the very hard working team at Microsoft are putting into this excellent product.

[Paxx]

Well before you lock it Jim, I would like to put it on record that I like FLIGHT very much and I'm getting huge enjoyment out of it. Just my opinion for what it is worth as an experienced pilot with a third of a Century in real flying experience and a user of MS flight simulators since FS98. As a parting shot I would like to say that using FLIGHT has provided me with the best flight simulation FLYING pleasure of all the simulators I have used and I eagerly look forward to the future improvements and additions that the very hard working team at Microsoft are putting into this excellent product.

We are aware of your lavish affection for Flight. Cloning twenty million of ya is Microsoft's goal for Flight. IMO Flight is years away from being some sort of flying nirvana.

If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.~ Ernest Hemingway

[Roger Wensley]

Les, yes I would agree with all you say there and I keep FS9 for the same reasons...In some things Holger is more accurate and in others less...Two things I prefer in FLIGHT are the water and the terrain textures, but I agree that a modified FS9 has many huge advantages over FLIGHT at the moment with highly detailed airports, traffic and ATC being the main ones. My highly modified setup also has all of Holgers work and also Alaska Cinematic, which is very beautiful and extremely highly detailed but for one Season only. I have not yet examined the Seasonal changes in FLIGHT but have high hopes for them. Like you though I also enjoy flying in FLIGHT and low down it beats anything else for me. I love my FS9 and would never part with it but I dumped FSX some years ago. I look forwards to continuing upgrades in FLIGHT

I haven't looked at Flight at all as I read that there are no 3rd party additions, which to me meant that the airfields would all be boringly the same. For the same reason that I made Merrill Field and Lake Hood for FS9, I also didn't move to bare FSX from already-airfield-populated FS9. So, my question to you is, was I right? Or am I now wasting my time making Dutch Harbor, Akutan, and St Paul? I would really like to hear that I don't anymore have to finish what Microsoft have started, but I remain sceptical! rogwen@rogers.com

[petermcleland]

I haven't looked at Flight at all as I read that there are no 3rd party additions, which to me meant that the airfields would all be boringly the same. For the same reason that I made Merrill Field and Lake Hood for FS9, I also didn't move to bare FSX from already-airfield-populated FS9. So, my question to you is, was I right? Or am I now wasting my time making Dutch Harbor, Akutan, and St Paul? I would really like to hear that I don't anymore have to finish what Microsoft have started, but I remain sceptical! rogwen@rogers.com

Roger,

I still buy scenery for FS9 and I still work on McLeland Field and have no intention of stopping...A lot of people run both FS9 and FSX...I run FS9 and FLIGHT. I enjoy Flight but I miss a lot things like real weather and traffic, but I expect these things to arrive eventually and look forward to them. However, I do NOT expect to have to spend the huge amounts of money that I spent with third party developers to get my FS9 where it is today. So my answer is yes you were right and you are not wasting your time. I still think you should get the basic free FLIGHT and just fly the Icon...Fly low round the coast over the water and land on that water at nice looking places that you fancy. You will find that experience very different from FS9 and you might just like it enough to keep it

[n4gix]

I haven't looked at Flight at all as I read that there are no 3rd party additions, which to me meant that the airfields would all be boringly the same.

Since the base Flight is completely FREE, you have absolutely nothing to lose but a couple of hours time. Why not simply look and try for yourself, rather than ill-informed, often baseless speculations?

You won't find two airfields on the Big Island (which is all the base Flight includes) that look anything alike!