...2011 standards for realistic sceneries

[pupaxx]

[QUOTE=Dutch_851;291812]As it's based on aerial photography, different sections have different colours according to the light conditions at the time the photo was taken. Just like Google Earth.
There are sharp, straight line divisions between the sections, again as in Google Earth.
There are no 3D trees, and very few 3D buildings. There are no dynamic shadows, so the shadows rarely match where the sun is according to the time of day.
QUOTE]

...some thougts:
1- I'm ok with google earth textures aren't the best solution on which to base the landscape engine design. But they should be a substantial guideline. The patterns can be tuned up according to historical needs, the colour palette idem, but I would start from here

2- Are you sure we need billion of 3d trees casting billion of shadows in a Flight/Combat Fligh sim? I'm sceptic on this. I'm not an informatic programmer but modestly I think this is the bottleneck in terms of resources requirements.
Ok, an external view focused on a parked plane near the hangar and the surrounding landscape spiced with dynamic shadows is simply amazing! But at what price? Are those problems solvable in terms of programming language? If not I'll prefere a more balanced solution (i.e. dynamic shadows limited to cockpits, self shadowing of planes in external views)
Cheers