Virtual Earth WITH 3D Buildings in FS?

[Deaf Pilot 1]

Is it technologically possible to have not just satellite imagery imported into FS, the way TileProxy does it, but also import all the 3D buildings from Virtual Earth? I recently discovered Virtual Earth and it's vast 3D cities (mainly Denver, since that is where I live - I am so fascinated with how much there is to explore in Denver alone). I would absolutely love to have a city like Denver from Virtual Earth in FS, but would it even be possible?

[Geofa 108]

For sure it has to be the future. I'd like it now! Thanks for the shots..

[Guest]

Thanks for this promising preview of FS11! :( Just imagine...!!! Well, Virtual Earth IS Microsoft, and it looks great... Maybe FS11 will move from local installed textures to online textures!

[tasmanet 0]

Never going to happen as ACES has been shut down

[slip-stream 5]

Too bad, that looks awesome.

[virtualstuff 750]

Never going to happen as ACES has been shut down

You will be surprised :(

[Guest frankinla]

For sure it has to be the future. I'd like it now! Thanks for the shots..

How would you adjust for lighting for different times of day and variation in seasons? What about night textures?

[meshman 109]

How would you adjust for lighting for different times of day and variation in seasons? What about night textures?

Not to mention bandwidth constraints! Aren't some ISPs going to a tiered pricing setup? How would you explain to the wife a $900 internet bill for 37tbs of flight sim? :(

[Geofa 108]

Not to mention bandwidth constraints! Aren't some ISPs going to a tiered pricing setup? How would you explain to the wife a $900 internet bill for 37tbs of flight sim? :(

A lot will change in two to three years. There also was an article about a year ago from Microsoft (I don't have the link anymore but I posted it in a link here-good luck finding it though) about how they will be able to enable seasonal changes on this type of scenery.

[gman! 1]

I smell something fishy.Remember that job listing that came out a few days ago for a new position at Microsoft to develop a flight simulator.

Our technology makes available entire continents - potentially the entire planet - for a detailed and dynamic 3D experience

Something about that phrase reminds me about Virtual Earth... :(

[mgh 89]

Not to mention bandwidth constraints! Aren't some ISPs going to a tiered pricing setup? How would you explain to the wife a $900 internet bill for 37tbs of flight sim? :(

What would be the delays in downloading these images and displaying them in real time?

[gman! 1]

What would be the delays in downloading these images and displaying them in real time?

Guys, I HIGHLY doubt Microsoft will stream scenery to users. They will probably do the best they can to get FS scenery as real as it can get and put it on the physical copy of FSXI (If a new FS comes out). Streaming scenery to over 400,000 flight sim users = MS employees going to work in the morning, finding that the building has burned down. :(. The cost of putting up the servers to stream scenery will also be too great, and will end up using massive amounts of energy, instead of doing good for users. The thing about this idea are there are two many variables and money involved, such as:

• Price of Server
• Price of High Speed 100+ Mbps Connection
• Maintenance of servers
• Power outages (on the user side or the company side)
• Overheating from load
• Sufficient Internet Speeds on the user side
• Efficiency Compared to being installed on user's hard drive
• Power Usage
• Amount of money a month it costs the company to perform the operation
• Reliability
• Price to Profit Ratio
• and many many more things...

I know ppl will say Google Earth and so and so already stream scenery to millions of users all over the world each day, but the thing is its expensive, its SLOW, and for something that can just be put on a DVD its not worth it!

[dmaher 0]

Tileproxy has bandwidth issues too i suppose....so ya don't stream it. Dowload or DVD.But more to the point, there is nothing special about this sort of data that makes it incompatible with FSX. It

[gman! 1]

Tileproxy has bandwidth issues too i suppose....so ya don't stream it. Dowload or DVD.But more to the point, there is nothing special about this sort of data that makes it incompatible with FSX. It

[dmaher 0]

I don