Microsoft Flight Simulator gamers visit the legendary Windows XP wallpaper shooting location

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Microsoft Flight Simulator allows the player to fly to any location on Earth, including many world famous landmarks – including the hill that appears in default wallpaper of the Windows XP. Many people do not know that such a green hill is real and this place has been recreated with relative accuracy in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Players will find the iconic hill above by entering the coordinates 38°15′00.5″N 122°24′38.9″W into the game’s search bar. Players can quickly get to the above coordinates from Sonoma Skypark – or save travel time by appearing directly at the location of the hill.
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The original photograph, called Bliss, was taken by Charles O’Rear in 1996 in a California wine region. O’Rear insists his work has not undergone any editing, but the hill in Flight Simulator is not as green as in the photo. Microsoft purchased the rights to the photo in 2020.

The impressive thing about the hill in the game lies in how the terrain is reproduced extremely accurately – the hill has a curvature and slope that does not deviate from the real life version. Microsoft Flight Simulator uses satellite data to create a map as close to the real world as possible, however, the game still has some minor flaws such as replacing Buckingham Palace with an old office building.
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