Molokini

[middle]

Hi all....I was just flying around Hawaii where I happen to be living and to my astonishment I noticed that Molokini isn't included with the rest of the islands. makes me wonder. if the geniuses at Microsoft ever look at a map or study geography or even look at earlier versions of the sim. They get a lot of stuff right but when they get it wrong they really get it wrong.
After being away from simming for a couple of years due to a variety of circumstances, I have to say I'm really enjoying FSX Steam edition on this great laptop a buddy of mine sent me. The absence of a little island off of Maui won't kill me but I just don't see how something like that can slip by. It's in every version of flight sim That they've released including, I think, FS98....after all Molokini is a big tourist magnet, for diving and snorkeling, etc
and is a great float plane destination.
Oh well, I guess anomalies are to be expected.....happy trails!!

[johannesl]

I haven't looked recently but I suspect it is included in one of the payware Maui photo scenery packages. I have the same problem with the Coronado Islands just off shore southwest of San Diego but they are included in Orbx Socal package.

[Bjoern]

Due to the sheer size, terrains in simulator environments (usually planetoids) aren't designed by hand, but from digital source data that somebody, some day, has created by really clever or complicated and expensive means (Space Shuttle radar, volunteers with GPS devices, geomapping services). That data needs to be simplified during processing to make it fit on consumer-level computers, losing detail. So if some irrelvant island or village is missing somehwere, it's simply because got lost in the processing or because it isn't/wasn't in the source data in the first place.


P.S:
Fairly accurate elevation (90 m resolution) and landclass (based on CORINE and Open Street Map) data for Europe and North America clocks in at 75 GB (for X-Plane though). Not too consumer friendly back in 2006, when hard drives were generally less than 500 GB in size.

[DennyA]

Dissing the developers here isn't really fair. I think given that they had to literally replicate an entire planet in a $50 piece of consumer software, using 2006 technology, they did a pretty decent job.

As far as flying around Molokini goes, run, do not walk, to this site and download this superb scenery:
https://hawaii-photoreal.com/

It's really nicely done and it's free! (There's an enhanced paid version that's cheap, but the freeware scenery is great and dramatically more detailed than the stock Hawaii scenery.)

[IanP]

There are loads of inaccuracies and errors in the data that we got with FSX, but as others have said, it's not really fair to be rude to MS/ACES about them. All they did was import and convert data from Jeppesen, if I remember the supplier correctly.

Two of my regular landmarks, Lower Lough Erne and the River Severn, were particularly hard done by (Lough Erne is missing entirely in FSX and the really-quite-large River Severn is depicted as a stream) - so I built the former and just smirk every time I see the latter.

Ian P.

[vonstroheim]

... I noticed that Molokini isn't included with the rest of the islands ...

As I wrote before here, Javier Trinidad's Hawaii Photoreal scenery and George Keogh's Hawaiian Airport Packs are really astonishing. And Molokini (near Maui) is faithfully depicted:

[middle]

Thaanks for rhe comments...i'm not dissing anyone, just remarking...if my perception is limited so be it...for the most part i find it to be a fantastic sim...it's come a long way from fs98....

[llanning08]

I've checked my install of FSX-SE and it depicts Molokini. My FSX-SE has no terrain mods nor any Hawaiian scenery installed. Just plain stock. I also checked my FS2004 install and it too, shows Molokini.

[middle]

hmmmm....i'll double check..i have thhe steam edition...

[blanston12]

I checked my system the other day. P3Dv4 + ORBX + Toposim. No Molokini, although interestingly, there was a cluster of boats about where it should be.

I downloaded and installed Hawaii Photo real and I am very impressed, I did have to run the orbx vector airport elevation took to fix some of the airports, especially the giant hill in the middle of PHOG. And now Molokini is there!

[heywooood]

I checked my system the other day. P3Dv4 + ORBX + Toposim. No Molokini, although interestingly, there was a cluster of boats about where it should be.

I downloaded and installed Hawaii Photo real and I am very impressed, I did have to run the orbx vector airport elevation took to fix some of the airports, especially the giant hill in the middle of PHOG. And now Molokini is there!

It might be that some of the confusion stems from the fact that MS Flight had Molokini -

[Lonewolfee1]

Dissing the developers here isn't really fair. I think given that they had to literally replicate an entire planet in a $50 piece of consumer software, using 2006 technology, they did a pretty decent job.

As far as flying around Molokini goes, run, do not walk, to this site and download this superb scenery:
https://hawaii-photoreal.com/

It's really nicely done and it's free! (There's an enhanced paid version that's cheap, but the freeware scenery is great and dramatically more detailed than the stock Hawaii scenery.)

I just got this - with the enhanced. They are having a sale if you buy Polynesia (Tahiti) 25% off - they throw in the enhanced Hawaii version of Hawaii.

Hawaii is amazing!!!

[vonstroheim]

Hawaii is amazing!!!

And also frightening... Flying over Kīlauea Volcano on Big Island in the sim gives you an idea of what it's like to live in such a dangeous area today... Obviously the 2018 eruption is not depicted here, but you can see the former lava flows from 1840, 1955 and 2014...





After Molokini and Kīlauea, go to French Polynesia, it's quite relaxing... Get it while it's on sale! Same author as Hawaii Photoreal... You get Hawaii+ if you buy Polynesia...

[middle]

Ive been offline for a while...anyway, I found Molokini....reason I didn't see it a first is because in the sim it's almost flat which in reality it is not....so my foot is in my mouth,LOL!!!