NZFF

Asobo did let slip that one of the reasons why the upcoming Australia World Update won't include NZ is that we'll be getting our own update. Not known yet whether this will be NZ only, or a chunk of the Pacific. And no idea yet whether this will be sooner or later -- although WU8, which will be announced in March, is a reasonable bet.
I am very hopeful that we'll get a good mesh update, I can just image the Alps with all the proper pointy bits.
Up until this month there's been no photogrammetry available for NZ, but this month Bing did a small update, which includes Christchurch, so I would expect that this would be included in WU_NZ. Maybe other cities if they are done by then.
Here's a couple of screenshots from Bing Maps, showing the new Christchurch coverage.

First up is Ferrymead Heritage Park, an early 1900s township. This shows one of the strengths of photogrammetry, with some real detail as long as you don't get too close.


Cathedral Square shows the cathedral under repair, and it does show the newly-completed conference centre.


I'm a bit ambivalent about photogrammetry, in some respects it is an improvement over aerial imagery plus autogen, but it does have limitations in the sim. As I've said, you can't get too close to it without losing detail, so you can't expect to walk around the city. Well, you could try, and it might work to some extent. There's also the MSFS streaming, if you have low bandwidth (whether normal for you or occasional dropouts) you get the 'melted' look of low-res modelling. Recently MSFS has reported low bandwidth, and asked if I want to turn off photogrammetry, so this may be a problem for some.

I can remember having long discussions with Ian about photogrammetry (previously available only on Google Earth) and he was not a fan:) He always went on about 'blobby trees'.

I've recently done some serious complaining to Microsoft for my lack of access to the Marketplace, so my future with MSFS is by no means certain. But it will be great to have a better-detailed NZ.

Interesting post - thanks, Rob.

I've been messing with MSFS 2020 Google Map replacement (msfs-2020-google-map-replacement).

It allows you to toggle the basic tiles between Bing and Google. Quality depends very much on the area you fly in. NZ appears to be better with Bing (with a few exceptions) but most of Europe and the UK looks better with Google (I rarely fly in the USA).

You need to clear the scenery cache before/after switching for best results. As I do most of my flying in NZ, I tend to stick to the default (Bing).

Yes I did notice that hint being dropped in the dev updates
I’m holding off buying Auckland City as it might make sense for MS to licence it from Orbx and include it. Will be interesting to see what’s included.
Usually there’s upgraded airports, mesh, photogrammetry cities, sometimes new autogen buildings, maybe trees :fingers-crossed:

I've been avoiding NZ scenery upgrades for the same reason - the scenery packs they've released for other parts of the world so far have been pretty solid.