Read on X-Plane 10 development blog, the latest topic explains how the global lighting and dynamic shadows should lead the scenery and aircraft makers to design more vertices than before, when they tended to use flat textures.
The simulator engine will be able to handle the latest technologies for further realism in objects display, such realistic that flat textures used instead of real 3D shapes will be easily spotted and considered as shortcomings. In the same time, level of details and distance of display will have to be managed efficiently.
