Bing Maps Street Addresses and directions are very accurate in my experience- even more so than google maps.

Judging from the sat image of Lake Las Vegas from a one of the video previews, Bing image data for that area is 2-3 years old

 

(In Morpheus voice...)

What if I told you that whole purpose of FS2020 is to crowd-source error-reports for Bing Maps from the incredibly anal-retentive and vocal flight sim community?

34 minutes ago, RoboRay said:

What if I told you that whole purpose of FS2020 is to crowd-source error-reports for Bing Maps from the incredibly anal-retentive and vocal flight sim community?

I would respond that when X-Plane 10 was first announced, I dedicated hours and hours and HOURS of time working on OpenStreetMap improvements - your theory is not that far fetched.

Back in the day I added tons and tons of water features which were missing, corrected coastlines, added buildings, and fixed lots of local roads.... generally improving the map as a whole. Although I don't think Laminar Research ever re-cut their scenery distribution, thanks to AlPilotX and his HD Mesh these improvements eventually became usable in the sim. Took a while though.

Pretty impressive technology to turn this...

...into this...

... just from aerial imagery and AI.

Look how close they got, I'll take that!

At least it gives an excellent base terrain if you then want to add your own scenery on top of it.

i recall they are not just using Bing Maps data that you can see on the public website but also other commercial satellite data that is also available to them but not yet on Bing. This explains how some areas in the videos we have seen look very good and well mapped but if you go visit them in Bing they don't look very good.

 

I.e below FS2020 vs 2D bing map data.

 

 

So this gives me hope that we should have good scenery in most places!

Edited December 11, 20196 yr by highflyer2020

I don’t think that in the above screenshot other source data than Bing imagery was used, at least all the details seem to be identical (just count the sheep, this cannot be mere coincidence). I assume it‘s Azure AI or their engine that makes the imagery look that much better in the sim.

Azure AI is very impressive, but in some area the work is perhaps to big, but i have hope.

a very long time ago (and with a 3 1/2 year old child 😄 but he survived) I went trekking in Svalbard, and this is the main town. (longyearbyen)

obviously this is the first place I'd go with the simulator.

but google map:

and Bing map

 

if we zoom with bing map, road very accurate (same google or better), but we cannot see building. so no information about building in this place.

Edited December 11, 20196 yr by azulkb

17 minutes ago, azulkb said:

Azure AI is very impressive, but in some area the work is perhaps to big, but i have hope.

a very long time ago (and with a 3 1/2 year old child 😄 but he survived) I went trekking in Svalbard, and this is the main town. (longyearbyen)

obviously this is the first place I'd go with the simulator.

but google map:

and Bing map

if we zoom with bing map, road very accurate (same google or better), but we cannot see building. so no information about building in this place.

They already covered issues like this on their interviews. Where data + imagery is really bad, the A.I. will "guess" how things are supposed to be and fill-in the gaps.

In the case of Svalbard, if there's no data available nor imagery, the Azure A.I. will build the scenery based on how it is supposed to be. How accurate will it be? We will see. But based on things we've saw so far, I have high hopes.

That said, if you really know an area. I mean, really now each detail of it. Don't expect too much of that area, if it's not covered by photogrammetry. The houses won't match the real colors or architecture, nor the exact height, 100% of the time. Just expect accurate shapes and roofs.

There's bound to be areas that look like absolute poo upon release (apologies for that image). But it's a 10 year ongoing project, so will become updated as time goes on. Bing Maps was launched as a beta in 2005 and so is 14 years old. But the pace of improvements have escalated year on year. So it's well within the bounds of reason that it can be transformed in its accuracy within a matter of a few years. MSFS can only be of help in this process.

I know Bing (microsoft) and Google are competitors, but it would be nice if they could use data from Google Earth as it's much more detailed and more up to date, in most areas of the world.

Or if MS could make some kind of licencing date with Google, It most likely won't happen, but we can all make it our christmas wish to Santa 🙂

@ual763 Bing and Google do not take the photos generally, they buy or commission them from third parties; the more quality they want, the more they must pay. @Bottle Also whilst lower resolution imagery (base coverage if you like) is satellite derived, the higher quality stuff is captured from aircraft flying patterns, which is a laborious and expensive process so they only tend to photograph areas they think they can sell, which tend to have a denser population.

Edited December 11, 20196 yr by ckyliu

2 hours ago, ca_metal said:

That said, if you really know an area. I mean, really now each detail of it. Don't expect too much of that area, if it's not covered by photogrammetry. The houses won't match the real colors or architecture, nor the exact height, 100% of the time. Just expect accurate shapes and roofs.

if we have some bulding in accurate location, its enought. But like you i have many hope, and it's very hard to wait flying in some place i visited long time ago....

9 hours ago, highflyer2020 said:

i recall they are not just using Bing Maps data that you can see on the public website but also other commercial satellite data that is also available to them but not yet on Bing. This explains how some areas in the videos we have seen look very good and well mapped but if you go visit them in Bing they don't look very good.

 

I.e below FS2020 vs 2D bing map data.

 

 

So this gives me hope that we should have good scenery in most places!

It turned a pile of wood into a building.

Nothing is perfect I know, I just thought it was funny.

In X-Plane 11, using Ortho4XP, I did a quick personal test using Bing Level 16, for the Middle East coast, where imagery can vary in terms of tones and hues and without retouching anything.

I just wanted to see how these areas with coverage that is not equal to Europe or North America, could look like in MSFS. As you can see in the tests screenshots below, with the engine of X-Plane 11, I got very satisfying results...

Ortho4XP tests Middle East Coast

So I presume with the great Asobo/MSFS engine and the MS AI corrections of the aerial material, along with higher zoom levels, I suppose, even the parts in the world where the coverage can vary in terms of hues and definition, it will be breathtaking.