7 hours ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I’ll be disappointed if Dallas/Ft Worth aren’t included, especially since Houston was shown in the video. I’m hoping they cover all then high rises that stretch from Ft Lauderdale down to Miami. I always feel let down when I fly into KFLL and all the high rise, sea side buildings are missing.

Gotta remember that it's not about what cities deserve to be on the list. It's about where they've actually had contractors take pictures. Some cities may not have allowed it, which is why you aren't going to see Beijing on the list anytime soon.

So some places we want simply aren't going to be there in full photogrammetry. Now, the shot of Dubai shows they do have other ways of realistically filling out skylines though.

I'm sure Dallas will be there.  they do everything they can to advertise themselves.  If you say 'Big D', people generally know what you mean.  I mean there was a TV show called 'Dallas'.  there was walker Texas ranger filmed there. you've got Billy Bobs  Texas...Ft Worth - I know...but its all basically one giant 80 mile wide city.

Edited August 7, 20196 yr by sightseer

On 7/17/2019 at 12:43 AM, cmpbellsjc said:

I’ll be disappointed if Dallas/Ft Worth aren’t included, especially since Houston was shown in the video. I’m hoping they cover all then high rises that stretch from Ft Lauderdale down to Miami. I always feel let down when I fly into KFLL and all the high rise, sea side buildings are missing.

 

I really really really hope they do good with the beaches. No version of flightsim has ever looked good along the coasts.  Where there are cities, there are usually high rises and theres always a good amount of marshy areas with wildlife in most other places.

On 6/18/2019 at 7:50 PM, mazex said:

Getting the "full 3D" cities in Google relies on special planes taking 45 degree angle aerial photos mixed with satelite photos to be able to produce the "sides" of the buildings etc. No AI can get this from a satelite photo... Look at some Google or Bing 3D imagery and you realize that you see signs on walls beneath overhanging building parts that a satelite would never get.

So getting the full earth the same way as Huston is unfortunately not going to happen - even if you put a massive AI cluster on the task... So for the majority of the world we will get imagery generated in a much "cruder" way I suppose.

It might be possible to take 45 degree angle photos from satelites, but not yet to my understanding. Need to check with my Google contacts 😉

I can imagine, that they could implement a procedure like this one:

• Use 3D Building models from the normal map as shown e.g. for Dubai in one of the posts above.
• Processing normal vertically aerial imagery by AI, they could try to determine things like the color or the structure of walls.
• The result of this AI operation would be a classification for each building, which allows to pick the best fit from maybe 400 generic building walls, which then simply will be applied as textures.
• That way, the building might not be 100% accurate, but if you don't know a building well, you won't notice it....

On 6/18/2019 at 6:50 PM, mazex said:

Getting the "full 3D" cities in Google relies on special planes taking 45 degree angle aerial photos mixed with satelite photos to be able to produce the "sides" of the buildings etc.

"Never ever call it a plane. A plane is something with a sharp cutting edge that you skim across wood to shave material off and make saw dust.

It's an Aeroplane. Or, for our much-loved American Cousins; an Airplane. But what it ain't is a Plane" Okay? Clear? Good.

Never forget that.

Edited August 20, 20196 yr by Guest

Nice plane. ☺

Plainly a plane.  Not a pain, nor payne, or pane

A helicopter pilot wouldn't call that a plane, they'd call it a "stuck wing." 

I've had a look at the Google Earth and Microsoft "Bing" Maps applications and it's quite clear that the Google boys and girls have far superior tech when it comes to the photogrammetry.

Trees are much more detailed in Google Earth and Maps seems to have a limitation that it can't capture overhanging scenery which you would see in a stadium. Other major differences I've seen Maps does have 400 cities but most are towns in the US, there are some massive ommisions around the world which is cover much better by Google, like Southampton is the only UK area, forget Paris as well.

Finally a lot of areas in Googe Earth just seem to be more recent than in Maps which only updates (or adds?) it's cities every 3-5 years.

A small crumb of comfort would be that the resolution and clarity and even colours of the Map cities despite the technology not being as good does look better in Maps.

On the whole I'm ok with Map 3D cities in MSFS so long as the continued updates to the 3D Maps technology and city coverage gets reflected in the sim which I certainly hope so.

Microsoft Bing Maps St. Mary's Staduim Southampton UK

Google Earth St. Mary's Staduim Southampton UK

Edited August 21, 20196 yr by dtrjones
Added images!

10 minutes ago, dtrjones said:

I've had a look at the Google Earth and Microsoft "Bing" Maps applications and it's quite clear that the Google boys and girls have far superior tech when it comes to the photogrammetry.

 

I think updates on bing would be converted to the sim. But the question is if the Bing guys are willing to push those updates.

 

In Spain! ♫

In Spain! ♫

Edited August 21, 20196 yr by Fielder

58 minutes ago, Fielder said:

 

In Spain! ♫

In Spain! ♫

What?

2 hours ago, aleex said:

What?

The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.

I don't think they're using Bing maps.  I think they're using Unity but I dont really know.

see the first video that Arwen linked to 

and... "I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane"

Edited August 22, 20196 yr by sightseer

2 hours ago, sightseer said:

 

I don't think they're using Bing maps.  I think they're using Unity but I dont really know

 

From what we‘ve seen so far we can assume  that they use the same source material for their ortho as Bing maps, at least in some areas. Just compare the cars in the screenshots with those in Bing maps and you‘ll see it.