No, that's the problem, you can't just add ditches and bank like that.
It's not about man power but about performances = grid and cell size.
Basicly a map is made of x amount of cell and in order to get acceptable performances you have to find a balance between the size of the cell and the amount of cell
In a game like ArmA the cells are quite small, allowing some smooth terrain variations => nice round hills tops (~~~~~)
In DCS those cells are a lot bigger => "saw shaped" hills tops ( /\/\/\ ).
You can find some perfect example in ArmA 2.
-Proving Ground, the 1Km² map provided with the PMC DLC, has a really small cell size => a lot of tight but smooth variation in the terrain rendering.
- Normandy map (23.000Km²) made by the community, big cell size => no ditches nor banks, closer to what we have in DCS.
Well I just can't play any mission on Proving Ground, the hit on performances is just too big but I have no problem playing huge D-Day missions on the Normandy map, with 10k view distance.
Really it isn't about man power. Yes, it'd possible to create a 300.000Km² map as detailled as ArmA 2 maps but only 10 people on earth could afford to buy a computer to run such a game.
So it's all about finding the good balance for optimal performances. And that's where lies the main problem : this balance isn't the same for a FPS or for a flight sim.
An engine made to fit one type of game might be completely unable to fit another one.
Terrain rendering is one thing but what about AIs ? What about animations ? etc.
The amount of work to turn a flight sim into a FPS (& vice versa) is tremendous.
That's where this linking technology really shines. It allows you to connect 2 differents games using 2 differents engines made for 2 differents purposes without any dramatic concessions.
As I said earlier I have no doubts both studios are capable of improving their own universe on their own.
I just see it as a waste of ressources.
BIS and ED are the best at what their doing, they have no competitor, no ones even try to compete with them !
(Well Codemaster actually did and we all know how it ended)
You know, it's like a puzzle and each studio owns the pieces the other studio is missing. There are only 2 solutions :
A) Both studios create for scratch those pieces.
B) They cooperate.
I don't deny this technology would be hard to put up but once it'd be done you would "instantanetly" enjoy best of both series.