Reddit user u/Ansenton on the r/flightsim group has, together with the community, compiled a list of most of the screenshots that currently exist for Microsoft Flight Simulator and put together a map of where all of those locations are in real life. It’s a fun project and worth a look!
100+ locations found and counting
One of the things that I’m really excited about with Microsoft Flight Simulator is the ability to explore real world locations in the simulator engine at levels of detail never possible before. Although titles like X-Plane and P3D with scenery packages such as those from Orbx have gone a long way towards replicating that experience, the new technologies on show with Flight Simulator take everything up another notch or two.
When you look at an image from the new Flight Simulator, its more than just a screenshot in the sense that it also contains a real world location. Finding out where those locations are and comparing them to the virtual version is no doubt going to be a fun part of the new sim – even if they don’t match perfectly.
Enter this map by u/Ansenton which shows the real world locations for most of the screenshots we’ve seen released so far.
Check out the map right here if you want to browse all of the locations. If you want to help with the search, a full conversation is ongoing on r/flightsim. Enjoy!
Being honest, I’ve always found military aviation more interesting than civilian. Since I got into DCS I considered trying X-Plane 11 several times, but always reached the conclusion I just won’t play it much compared to DCS. I am definitely planning to bite on this one, though. Microsoft has used some really big guns here, and we see that all the other active simulators are now being desperately pushed to get even somewhat close to the bar this new simulator is about to set. Luckily for DCS, this is a civilian sim, so they can’t really be compared back to back. Can’t say the same for the other civ sims though, they are probably about to get blown out of the water.
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The return of Flight Simulator is going to have some very interesting ripple effects across the whole industry. I don’t know if anyone can guess exactly what will happen but I can see benefits for DCS and IL-2 from those who play Flight Sim and then want to expand their experience.
What happens to X-Plane is going to be interesting too. I think we may see the developers there attempt a much more solid package release. I also suspect it won’t go away… it’s lived through thick and thin. But they will see Flight Simulator eat into their share of the market – my best guess.
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Everyone’s jaw hit the floor when Microsoft revealed their new sim, and the other civilian sims were just not prepared for this. Even if they develop a response, it will take time. Microsoft has developed their new tech silently in order to easily get to the front. Assuming everything will go as planned and there won’t be some major issues with the new sim, it’s probably going to be the reigning king in the market for a while.
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