MS Modeling the world for Mixed-Reality

[Arwen 289]

I found this Microsoft session/presentation very interesting, as it could explain where all that high resolution scenery might be coming from.

It also shows how cities are mapped in 3D.

Modeling the world for Mixed-Reality - BDL2042

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Fascinating. Unity as an engine for FS20 😊 ! That’s really an interesting angle, Arwen. 

[jcomm 5,882]

Thx Arwen!

Very very interesting!

As many, I am really on hold for FS20 or whatever. It's finally the LIGHT at the end of a long tunel of nothingness, after MS FLIGHT, but, I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by each and every detail we are getting from here & there... If it could at least bring me back the pleasure of simming MS FLIGHT brought in 2011/12, but without the unfamous fate, that would be just Great!

Edited July 4, 2019 by jcomm

[Noooch 1,084]

He says IR devices like TrackIR are not supported 😞

And also he says at least 50cm/pixel in ortho-imagery worldwide, does anyone know what does it mean in ZoomLevel(15,16)?

Edited July 4, 2019 by Noooch

[yanfeng12342000 132]

Duncan Lawler says in the video that they high resolution 3D city models up to 5cm for over 400 cities. That's quite enough for the new MSFS for a start. And now we know Microsoft has a team of 200 people that are creating 3D city data.

I am just wondering what he means by "5cm". Is that the resolution of the 2D ground satellite or aerial imagery? But he is talking about 3D, and it sounds like the resolution of the 3D textures, so I am confused.

Edited July 4, 2019 by yanfeng12342000

[F737MAX 5,492]

2 hours ago, Noooch said:

He says IR devices like TrackIR are not supported 😞

And also he says at least 50cm/pixel in ortho-imagery worldwide, does anyone know what does it mean in ZoomLevel(15,16)?

50 cm = approximately LOD / ZL 16.

Mesh of 30-60m minimum, up to 1m maximum.

"Up to 5cm" city models sounds like the texture detail of the 3D models. The ortho imagery is described as "at least 50cm", so you would expect the 400 cities referred to in the video that have "up to 5cm" samples would have similar resolution ortho - that point wasn't clearly defined.

Interesting to hear the detail of the source material data.

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by F737NG

[yanfeng12342000 132]

17 minutes ago, F737NG said:

50 cm = approximately LOD / ZL 16.

Mesh of 30-60m minimum, up to 1m maximum.

"Up to 5cm" city models sounds like the texture detail of the 3D models. The ortho imagery is described as "at least 50cm", so you would expect the 400 cities referred to in the video that have "up to 5cm" samples would have similar resolution ortho - that point wasn't clearly defined.

 

At 12:29 he stated that the 5cm imagery comes from the aerial photos took by their aircraft, so it still sounds like ortho imagery.

Anyway the more I look at it, the more I feel these are the data to be used in the new MSFS.

Link of the Garage Project (its official name): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/blog/2019/04/garage-projects-team-up-to-illustrate-the-power-of-mixed-reality-in-a-new-sdk-and-sample-app/

Edited July 4, 2019 by yanfeng12342000

[Noooch 1,084]

22 minutes ago, Flamingpie said:

Where does he say that? This may have to do with mixed reality only...? Can't imagine a flight sim not supporting TrackIR. 

He says "IR devices are not supported, but we are looking into it"  at least this is what I understand...

Edited July 4, 2019 by Noooch

[yanfeng12342000 132]

I installed "Outing", the demo of this project, and the result is, well, just ordinary photogrammetry 3d cities, no better than that of Google. Nowhere can I see the 5cm high resolution models or textures. If that is what the new MSFS will look like, we'd better fly 2000 feet above the city.

[F737MAX 5,492]

38 minutes ago, yanfeng12342000 said:

I installed "Outing", the demo of this project, and the result is, well, just ordinary photogrammetry 3d cities, no better than that of Google. Nowhere can I see the 5cm high resolution models or textures. If that is what the new MSFS will look like, we'd better fly 2000 feet above the city.

Did you compare the models against what you can see in the trailer, namely Minute Maid Park, Houston and the Space Needle, Seattle?

The trailer shows better resolution of the Space Needle than Google Maps can manage. The stadium looks to be of the same high resolution in both Google Maps and the trailer.

I'm not worried. The trailer shows what is in-game and it looks high def to me at 500ft.
 

[MikeT707 1,181]

6 hours ago, Noooch said:

He says "IR devices are not supported, but we are looking into it"  at least this is what I understand...

What he actually said was, "we don't support the ARkit and ARCore on Android 9 OS yet, but it's something we're considering." AR is augmented reality. This has nothing in the least to do with Track IR.  ARKit is Apple's augmented reality (AR) development platform for iOS mobile devices. ARCore is Google's platform for building augmented reality experiences. From a statement where a software engineering manager whose team has created a map control for the Unity development environment, someone derives that Track IR won't be supported in MS Flight Simulator. Cannot wait until MS starts communicating to the user community rather than having wild comments create a separate reality.

[Noooch 1,084]

@MikeT707 I am sorry if I misunderstood, as you can see, english is not my native language.

Anyway i am happy I was wrong.

[Heli 66]

They have 400 cities modeled.  That means the rest of the world will use Azure AI to model things like small villages along the Nile river, and unpopular cities like Baghdad. 

I'm really hoping the Ai is intelligent enough to recreate accurate 3D representations from aerial satellite images, meaning that all the AI buildings for the tiny villages along the Nile river should have that tan sand color with flat roofing, and buildings in Greece or Italy should have a Mediterranean look to them.  I hate how current flight sims' random house textures always looked the same, whether you were in America or Africa.

Microsoft is currently the largest company on the planet with a trillion dollar market cap.  The odds are in our favor that they have the resources and infrastructure to not let us down.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Heli

[bonchie 2,305]

Anything dealing with satellite imagery is going to have downsides. We saw some of those pointed out in that video by the former ACES team member. The question is whether it's better than what we have and everything I've seen so far says the new approach is vastly superior.

 

[aleex 551]

Looks like the video it's made about MFS (dude, even the golden gate appears lol) 😅 They even talked about de PB of data haha.

From what I heard, most of the 3D cities are in North America, Western Europe and Australia. Just curious about how much cities will be available from places like Asia (Hong Kong for example 🤤), if any, on the sim.

Too much hype 😞