Feedback for Berlin

[idenwen]

So i made a quick tour about Berlin as a city and it's POI and I must say I'm a bit disappointed.

Some of the larger POI are ok made but a lot of iconic stuff is either completely wrong or just missing. And in normal living areas there is just so much wrong stuff it's completely immersion breaking when you know the area.

Roads where no roads should be, water where no water should be, high rise buildings that never where and completely wrong architecture most of the other areas.

The iconic Luftbrückendenkmal from 1951 is missing.

Old Stations for the railway are missing too - Bahnhof Zoo for example but nearly all other stations too.

Zitadelle Spandau? Is an old fortification - in map it's a park with some houses.

Elevation data is also off - Kreuzberg? The hill next to the Grunewald Radar Station? Müggelberge? Havelberge? all flat terrain.

We will see what the next updates of the map will bring. 

For now it's ok when you want to spot some "I saw that on a postcard" thing from 15k upwards but if you want to fly low level it's just a generic randomized city with some sprinkles auf authenticity  in between.

 

[TheGhostOfDefi]

This is Not ment to be rude: Touch some Grass! 
 

Every map so far is an interpretation of the region for DCS. It never will be a 100% recreation and it never has to. 
 

Not even MSFS is 100%… And it’s their strength! 
 

We shall be provided with a German battleground. Because this is a combat flight sim game (yeah I said that)..

I’m sure after phase 3 is completed, Ugra media is open about certain improvements for accuracy.

But right now we received a Gorgeous map that is great as it is. And many hours of our precious life will be sunken into.. 

Edited April 18 by TheGhostOfDefi

[TheFreshPrince]

It's gonna be hard to model every city in Germany to detail. There are already sooo many details in the map, it's crazy how they managed to do that. I was born in Berlin, so yeah its not that accurate. But you do recognize many spots and that it's Berlin in general. There will also be a lot of errors due to the time they chose. Data from that area is not as detailed and accurate as data from today. I mean black and white photos were still the main thing in the early 80s. It will be impossible to create everything from such old photos, videos, etc. I'm a perfectionist but I don't see how you would ever finish this huge map if you wanted to get every detail right. 

[OneEyeRoss]

Having flown a bit around the old stomping ground, I can say that the towns and cities are "representative" of the style of buildings I saw in Germany, but, they are not 1:1 renditions of the towns.  Think about how labor intensive THAT would be. 

Flying over Ffm, I can say "Yep, that is Frankfurt" without seeing every thing I remember.  There is only one cathedral in the Romer Platz, some bridges are missing, the Friedberger Warte is missing....but it is still Ffm.  Of course, without Crazy Sexy or Dr. Mueller, I won't be going to Frankfurt on payday this month.

Now, if I go north to Friedberg or Bad Nauheim, it is just a filler town...which is ok.  I mean, I can follow the roads well enough to navigate and get to Schlitz or Lauterbach, so I am ok.  Sure, it would be great if I could drive a jeep down town and get a wurst from the Imbiss like I used to do, but it isn't what the map is made to do.  I can drop warheads on foreheads in the GDP, so I am a happy camper.

[hind75]

this is not Google Map

[Essah]

As others have said, its not google maps, its not MSFS and its not meant to be 100% accurate. 
Why is everyone, since Kola suddenly holding every new map to a standard that they never held Syria or PG to?

[Art-J]

^ Because almost noone here has ever lived in / was stationed in / visited on holidays Syria or Persian Gulf countries so majority has no idea how cities and town over there really look like anyway. Nor do they care.

With recent maps, especially European ones, there are more "native" players well familiar with depicted places, so there will inevitably be more "nitpickers" and "rivet counters", in geographic sense this time, to point out various inaccuracies.

However, as Normandy 2 showed already, Ugra aims more at providing a general feel of the region, with some impressive (albeit not accurate) details added here and there rather than trying to be super-authentic. All their maps need to be treated more as movie-style artistic impressions, but that's not a bad thing.

I suspect I represent majority of average players - visited Berlin only once in my life for 3 days, loved every minute of it, but apart from section between Brandenburger Tor and Alexanderplatz (plus Flakturm at Humboldthain ) I couldn't really tell how close or not DCS representation is. It's good enough for combat missions though and that's what really matters for most of us here.

[mazex]

As this is not a sight seeing simulator like MSFS is for many, I think that it is maybe problematic that they have spent time on doing some landmarks and parts of towns like Berlin "too good". This is a military flight simulator of modern conflicts and civilian high-rise apartment buildings, parks with civilians etc. are not supposed to be targets like they where in WWII. 

Like everyone else does, I naturally did a quick mission starting where I live (even though it will only be included in Phase 3). This is the town where I live now (Lund in southern Sweden).  I thought it would just be flat green land now so rather happy that they have done something with low res satellite images. The fact that there is a forest over the low res satellite image of Lund probably shows that they will spend time on "building" that town for Phase 3. They will never beat MSFS where I can see my trees, solar panels correctly placed on my roof etc. I would actually rather have my town as a correctly sized generic Swedish town, and time spent on getting F10 Ängelholm done OK-ish as that was the only AJS-37 base in southern Sweden. And that is just outside the limit for Phase 3. So for that example, less time on the large towns in southern Sweden that will be included in Phase 3 (Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg) and expand to get the only 2 air force bases in Skåne during the cold war included (F5 and F10). Last image is over F10 marked in green. So the only fighter base in Skåne is there with low res satellite at least. The orange line is the phase 3 limit.

[Tom Kazansky]

I just took a flight in an Apache along the entire Berlin Wall and I am overwhelmed with emotion. UGRA did a fantastic job so far. I leave it to others to find all those spots that are missing details (which is not a bad thing). I enjoyed every second of the ride.

 

[DD_fruitbat]

I Enjoyed sight seeing around Berlin!

 

[Rongor]

As a Berliner who lived here in during cold war times and as a sim pilot who totally understands that this is neither a sightseeing simulator nor an attempt to rebuild googleearth or MSFS, I have to confirm that some things feel so off that its creating mixed feelings.

I totally appreciate having my hometown in DCS, I mean I am clearly lucky, how many people around the globe can enjoy their place in DCS? Certainly not that many.

I will create several threads around things and while it will earn me the accusation of being nitpicky for some of the reports, I can only say its really hard to determine what is and what isn't.
I won't focus on sightseeing stuff. I only really aim for accuracy around things which make the Germany map a cold war map, an accurate depiction of cold war features.

Regarding Berlin, I am so far happy about the airfields and the attempt of depicting the wall in its entirety. Though there is obvious issues:

- all the famous border control facilities are missing

- there is only a single train station in the entire city right now, which didn't even have a border function

- railway operation areas are generally to green. Instead of lush meadows we should see industrial like stuff.

- while soviet monuments are brilliantly modelled, the Berlin Airlift monument at the northwestern corner of Tempelhof airfield is missing

- The East Berlin "Rotes Rathaus" city hall is in, the West Berlin "Rathaus Schöneberg" city hall isn't

- besides the Teufelsberg listening post, none of the western allied facilities are depicted, none of the French, British and American barracks, training grounds, equipment and vehicle storage sites are there.

Regarding Berlin, the general layout of roads is surprisingly accurate in most areas, while then for some reasons it isn't in few parts of the city.

- Modern buildings are composed of just too few archetypes and are too few

- Older pre-WW2 archetypes are much too widespread, almost the entire city center of the city had been destroyed to rubble in WW2

- older post-WW2 archetypes (think 1950s) are also too frequent

- many of the civilian vehicles in combination with the recent two points I mentioned rather give the impression of a 1950s Berlin, far from the 1980 theme the map is aiming for.

That's just my first impression and I will continue to provide further dedicated threads, not to condemn the great work Ugra has done already, but to support any improvements, in case they are willing to do them...

Edited April 20 by Rongor

[gulredrel]

Just my two cents. For me it's a great mix between authenticity and some artistic interpretation. 

Yes, there could be a ton more iconic building in Berlin or elsewhere Schloss Bellevue seems to be missing next to Siegessäule, but there is still a ton of different generic buildings.

With the amount of space that Phase 1 uses, I'm totally fine with the balance Ugra found. Maybe they will add some more iconic places. This will be even better, but from what I've seen, it's great for what it's meant to be.

Was following Berliner Ring motorway and than B1 into the town. No problem following the road like my uncle did in the 80s with his Trabant until arrival at / near Alexanderplatz.

This kind of building with the gravel mix with concrete facade is beautifully recreated:

 

Looking forward to phase 3. Looks like construction work has begun at Bautzen airport, there are some roads and fences already present in Saxony.

 

[Temetre]

Am 19.4.2025 um 09:16 schrieb Art-J:

^ Because almost noone here has ever lived in / was stationed in / visited on holidays Syria or Persian Gulf countries so majority has no idea how cities and town over there really look like anyway. Nor do they care.

Tbh I think thats a big one. Ive driven through Syria with a Land Rover 101 while waiting for Germany (can recommend, thing is a rocket in DCS) and while eg Damascus is impressive form above, it doesnt really look like a real city. Germany a huuuuuuuge improvement on making a City actually look city like. 

Im honestly quite impressed they even got most of the streets in my small 100k people home town right (its like the 100th biggest city in DCS). The small streets dont match and some areas defintely look more 40s than 80s, but even then I can clearly recognize the layout.

And mind, thats while even first phase Germany might already be as big or bigger than Syria, with much more densely populated, detailed land area.

I think we should have high expectations for a $60-80 map and good criticism is always worthwhile, but its also pretty damn cool for a DCS map.