This is mere speculation, but I just happened to stumble onto http://virtualearth.msn.com.This is something that I am wondering if the new FS team hasn't been waiting for to integrate into the next version. The ability to download virtual earth geo textures while online and flying. I know there has been a lot of talk about this in the past.It is still in beta and I doubt it would be for FS10, but the technology is getting closer.It is a pretty cool tool.I don't know about the textures, but I am sure eventually they would be colorized.

I checked out virtualearth and it has a ways to go to match the features and visuals of Google Earth. As for integrating the imagery into FS, I don't know many people that would elect to fly in a black and white world. (-: Bruce

Large chunks of Google Earth's coverage are excellent and in colour, and it's a work in progress, of course, so will get progressively better over time. I ran some comparisons the other night between GE and FS, tilting GE with terrain contours enabled and FS won hands down in my view (with FSGenesis mesh, though, I should point out) although the views were very similar. Given that such quality from FS is global at this point, I think it'll be a while before we'll see an online database for textures ... but it may well come.Mark

Cool stuff, but the maps might be old, at least Las Vegas is, I looked where my Mom's new house is and there was only desert and some mapped out streets. I was able to see my old house on the East side though.Jeff

Don't know what you mean by large "chunks" but the fact remains that at the present time there are very limited areas of the Earth (most in the US) where data is both in color and of sufficient resolution to be usable in FS. I also have to add qualifier "practically free". If you use tool like NASA's World Wind it shows how little of it is in color even in the US. Sure you can pay a fortune and get the data commercially. It is going to be long time before we see its use in FS.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

An FS developer discusses this subject on his blog. His answer was a definite no given the state of the art at the moment.http://blogs.msdn.com/tdragger/archive/2005/07.aspxThomas