I really hope that Microsoft either has actually mapped out the world, or at least a wider variety of repeating scenery. Southern Canada @ 30,000 feet doesn't look that good in fs2004.

that would take a huge amount of space tens of gigabites its not cost. There is freeware out there for mesh and sattalight pics of the planet its just that they canot fit that much stuff in one game unless fsx has like 20 disks just for scenerey. but yes i would like to see a larger variety of ground textures the ones in 2004 are repetitive and the same if you know what i mean

but i still think their right it would cost extra for the disks and putting a pakage of that sise together i would probobly cost more than the original game its self buy the way tou could prbobly get sat images and terraine mesh for any place you like in the world ofline for free if your ambitious you might get it all but still i wouldent hold my breath ... at all for somthing like that to come out on store shelfs but hope for somthing better than what weve seen 2004 in x

When the new "Blade " technology from IBM is released, we will be able to download current satellite images realtime and have them renedered to the computer.  It  is a year or two away, but look out when that happens.  Todd

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I don't mean to offend any Canadians here, but does southern Canada from 30,000 feet look good in real life?  Correct me if I am terribly wrong, but isn't Southern Canada (with the exception of British Columbia) terribly boring?  I believe there is plenty of wheat there, kinda like Kansas.

Sorry if it turns out that I don't know what I am talking about- Just an observation

I think what the problem is with Fs9 is that it uses a lot of repetitive tiles to create the ground scenery. There are payware add ons that fix this and make a much more realistic looking ground. Not all of them are satellite images either. I think Flight 1 has a product like that.

Since it's already available from a third party vender I don't think Microsoft is going to spend a lot of time on it but you might see a tad better than the previous version. If you really want realistic scenery they'll figure you will be willing to put out a little on a payware package. Remember that MS often aims at the middle consumer not the hard core sim fanatic.

Edit: Yeah, it was Flight 1. Ground Environment is the name.

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=ge2006

I live in southern canada, and i must admit, there is not much besides the Toronto area and the CN tower.  Where the real scenery in Canada is the rockie mountains and some bush flying in northern ontario.  However, i do think they could make rural areas look better