What is your suggestion?
Instead of just having the usual 2D image of the aircraft and the manufacturer name in the small box that appears in the bottom right of the screen when clicking on an aircraft in-game or on the radar menu, an actual in-game picture would be shown, much like how Flightradar24 uses images from Jet Photos for their aircraft.
How would it work in the game?
Similarly to Flightradar24, a separate website could be set up where images of aircraft taken from the various plane spotting cameras in game can be uploaded by an individual. This could be done separately, where the pictures taken by the player are stored into their photos app, and then they can choose whether to upload them or not, along with the type of aircraft, airline and livery (if special or not). The game would then take images from this website and display it in-game for all players (if option is turned on). As an example, if I took a picture of a British Airways A320 at LHR using one of the plane spotting cameras, it would then be saved to my photo app (if i gave permission for WOA to access photos). I could then, if I wanted to, go to this website and upload this image to it. I would have to list the details such as Airline (BA), Aircraft (A320-200) and livery (not applicable here as it was a standard contract) and then it would be uploaded along with a selection of other photos taken by others. Next time I would be in game at ANY airport and click on a BA A320-200, the game would take either the photo I uploaded or one of many uploaded by other players from this website, and display it. The photo selected would have to change if there were multiple of the same aircraft types at an airport (e.g., at LHR where BA A320s are common).
Instead of a separate website, there would be a gallery in game where people could directly upload it there. It would work on the same principal, but just everything is in game so WOA doesn’t have to have permission to use my photo app. Obviously an Internet connection would be required for all of these methods, but there would be less hassle that by having a separate website where people have to upload stuff.
The Devs would actually take the photos themselves and the game picks from a selection of the photos. However, this would be a lot of work for the Devs as multiple pictures would have to be taken of around 2000 separate liveries.
If there is no image available for a specific type of aircraft, it would revert to the normal 2D image. You could also turn this feature on and off if wanted.
Why is this a good idea?
It would look a lot nicer than just the standard 2D image currently, and it would actually make the aircraft within your airport feel like they are more real and have operated elsewhere within the world. You also don’t have to upload your own photo if you want to use this feature, as many will have taken pictures and uploaded them instead.
Optional: Image or reference
Images taken from different airports could also be used, as shown with the SkyAlps Q400 shown below (Image is from PRG) - Sorry for the crude images, not that good with photoshop!Another way is to actually block the manufacturer name out, shown below
