Microsoft Flight Simulator and the quest to replace Earth
How high-fidelity does a flight sim need to be? Early on in Terry Pratchett’s novel The Light Fantastic, a spell is cast to map the world. Real-life software developers, including video game developers, have been casting spells like this for decades. At what point will this phantasmagorical planet be Earth-like enough? It sounds like there’s not much further to be gained from bumping the resolution of the environment. Do we really need more resolution than a few millimetres?...