Default terrain mesh complexity and what is the reason for the large install?

Hi all,

I've followed with great interest the arrival of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Based on early community feedback I have decided to hold off purchasing this but eagerly await the resolution of these teething issues. I think this hobby has a great future.

I'm curious about a couple of things:

1) What is the terrain mesh complexity/level of detail? Comparable to stock FSX (38m)? An order of magnitude greater?

2) What is the reason for the super large install? Lots of large texture files? Scenery files? Really large default aircraft file sizes?

Thanks all!

Trent

The level of detail is astonishing! It does not get some of the buildings the correct shape, but they are all there (it uses an apparent base from a year or two ago, so new construction isn't there) (an example of the building issue, there is a huge cathedral in a tiny burg a few miles from my hometown. The building is accurately placed, but is a simple one story building and not a massive cathedral.). But roads and even trails are correctly placed. You can see glacial features and bedding planes on rocks. The biggest thing I notice, is everything now has a realistic three dimensional look that was never there in FSX or even X-Plane.

The scenery is far to large to be maintained on your computer. It would take about 1000 2TB SSDs to hold it all. It is downloaded from the cloud as you fly. This is a very complex program. The weather generated systems are far, far more complicated than in FSX. Those features make it a big download.