IPACS - Any Plans to Finish USA HD Scenery Offering?

1st Official Post

    I am wondering if IPACS is even considering completings it's USA HD Scenery DLC. Right now it only covers parts of the western states, some northeastern seaboard areas, and the southeast tip of Florida. All of this was pretty much a carry over from AFS2 with the only difference being cultivation added for 2 western states (WA and OR) and transfer from paid dlc to free dlc. AFS4 offered up all of Western Europe as free DLC where before in AFS2 it was just Netherlands and France and Switzerland as paid DLC. I sorta understand that since IPACS, unlike Microsoft and Laminar Research is based in Germany and it makes sense to show some priority preference to its European customers. However the population of Western Europe is estimated to be 197 million (https://www.worldometers.info/world-populati…urope-subregion ) vs 336 million in the USA (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population ). So even discounting the idea that there are a higher percentage aviation enthusiasts in USA than Western Europe, just looking at potential game purchasers as a fixed and equal percentage of population it seems to me that there would be a lot of good for IPACS (game sales) that would come out of prioritizing finishing the whole USA scenery coverage. While it would be nice if this could be done as an update to the existing free USA DLC, even a separate payware USA Part 2 & 3 (to maintain the 80GB storage requirement per DLC) DLCs would be acceptable as long as it completed the USA scenery coverage in total.

    If anyone else agrees with me do a thumbs up to let IPACS know where you stand (or a thumbs down if you hate the idea)

  • Go to Best Answer

    there are no "thumbs down" here :)

    btw : a little outline and "sentence structure" makes it easier to read texts

    btt: I believe that there will also be other reasons for the decision,

    such as the copyrights of source material (high-resolution maps, etc.) to use from a commercial selling things ...

    and things that we users might not be thinking about ... at the moment ?!

    mfg, Jens ... Flight-Sim.org

    Mein Home-Cockpit ... My Simulator Hardware

    MSI PRO Z690-P DDR4 --- SI INTEL Core i7-13700F 2.1GHz LGA1700 Tray --- Palit RTX4070 JetStream 12GB DDR6 --- 16GB DDR4 PC4400 --- SSD Patriot 1TB M.2 Viper VP4300 --- Pimax Crystal

    Alles fliegt irgendwie,
    fragt sich nur wielange

    Yeah, I am pretty bad at proper grammar and syntax even though English (USA) is my native language. I am writing as if I were speaking contemporaneously which is also why I am not much of a conversationalist either :). I gather that nobody really cares much about USA scenery one way or the other.

  • jayeye2011 April 26, 2023 at 6:51 PM

    Selected a post as the best answer.
    Quote from jayeye2011

    Yeah, I am pretty bad at proper grammar and syntax even though English (USA) is my native language. I am writing as if I were speaking contemporaneously which is also why I am not much of a conversationalist either :). I gather that nobody really cares much about USA scenery one way or the other.

    Mate, I assure you that others, including myself in Australia, are very interested in getting more HD USA coverage. I'm still relying on Aerofly FS2 (stock and dlc) coverage in order to fly there. Expansion of FS4 world scenery has been pretty disappointing so far imho.

    i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro w/Air Link, Vive Pro

    Quote from TomC RLG

    Mate, I assure you that others, including myself in Australia, are very interested in getting more HD USA coverage. I'm still relying on Aerofly FS2 (stock and dlc) coverage in order to fly there. Expansion of FS4 world scenery has been pretty disappointing so far imho.

    I said this before awhile back, we're on our own and its left to user content and IPACS in house scenery, aircraft development, to add to the SIM. I highly doubt (if ever) we'll see any 3rd party content. Everybody is developing for that software 2020 SIM nightmare (which I've abandoned) for Aerofly FS4 fulltime. FS4 stands out in its own unique niche that nobody can compare or touch. The only cultivation scenery missing for me is Canada. Particularly Ontario (where I live). Other than that I'm satisfied with what scenery we have. Again, less is more sometimes. But thats just me. ;)

    Quote from IZ0JUB

    As the USA is a gigantic area for any one to make in photo scenery would you be so kind to indicate on a map which areas you are interested in developing, thank you in advance.

    Eh, I think you are misunderstanding my comment. It's not that I want to claim some region that I want to develop scenery for, just wanted to know if IPACS is considering finishing the USA which I gather they are not. I admire the work of volunteers like you who are putting together better orthophoto scenery tiles. However, I remember AFS2 where there was HD scenery tiles for USA Washington and Oregon states but no cultivation. In AFS4 the rest of the world outside of the HD DLC areas, besides having extremely low res tiles have no cultivation, so even if someone like you makes good orthophoto textures from Bing or Google maps, there are no buildings or airports. I think that even if IPACS cannot get licensed access to satellite/aerial photos, it would have been nice to at least have the cultivation available for non DLC regions so that volunteers like you could combine it with your orthophoto work.

    Quote from jayeye2011

    Eh, I think you are misunderstanding my comment. It's not that I want to claim some region that I want to develop scenery for, just wanted to know if IPACS is considering finishing the USA which I gather they are not. I admire the work of volunteers like you who are putting together better orthophoto scenery tiles. However, I remember AFS2 where there was HD scenery tiles for USA Washington and Oregon states but no cultivation. In AFS4 the rest of the world outside of the HD DLC areas, besides having extremely low res tiles have no cultivation, so even if someone like you makes good orthophoto textures from Bing or Google maps, there are no buildings or airports. I think that even if IPACS cannot get licensed access to satellite/aerial photos, it would have been nice to at least have the cultivation available for non DLC regions so that volunteers like you could combine it with your orthophoto work.

    I can assure you there was no misunderstanding on my part, if amateur volunteers make scenery for the areas you are interested in then maybe those at IPACS would consider building airfields and full cultivation, just my take on it, kindest regards.

    Best wishes, Michael :)

    What I miss in this flightsim is the feeling of "being there". Speaking for myself more scenery and aircraft come second place. I am thinking of rumbling sounds and vibrating panel during takeoff and landing rollout. V-speed callouts and cabin announcements. An update of the weather engine that creates more cloud layers and a "weather change in time"option. And of course we need a pushback urgently. IPACS gave us beautifull airliners, but we cannot start a flight at the gate. That doesn't make sense, does it. I hope IPACS will give priority to bringing more life in FS4 and then of course more US scenery would be nice. Now sometimes I get bored during flight, because nothing is happening. That does not mean I gave up with Aerofly, I removed the other sim from my system a while ago and Aerofly is the only sim I will use.

    (English is not my native language, but I am sure you understand what I mean.)

    Quote from IZ0JUB

    if amateur volunteers make scenery for the areas you are interested in then maybe those at IPACS would consider building airfields and full cultivation, just my take on it, kindest regards.

    Totally agree!!

    That would be magnificent. A continuation of the great cultivation and airports in Norway is high on the wish list. It would also inspire to create more complementary scenery for Norway. :thumbup: