Could third parties add photogrammetry from Google ?

[cepact 517]

We know Google Earth photogrammetry is much better than Bing Map. We also know that Microsoft will never use Google Earth because they want to promote Bing. But what if third parties managed to extract photogrammetry from Google Earth and add it to MSFS ? I have found this video tutorial which demonstrates that it is possible:

 

[chapstick 2,757]

nope

[EzRyder 35]

it may be possible to add the photogrametry after the fact but it would not get the azure processing so it would be just flat ground with colored textures (like orbyx) - no point when azure creates 3d models from the lesser satalite images
so why would you want better looking flat ground textures over 3d trees and buildings? even if they are not perfect the 3d terrain is gonna look better close up

Edited August 4, 2020 by AirWayMan

[cepact 517]

I have found this picture over another forum. Apparently this an import into Blender of Google Maps data

It seems like it wouldn't be impossible to do this. But since it's Google imagery it has to be freeware since selling it would be illegal. 

Edited August 4, 2020 by cepact

[abrams_tank 7,392]

7 minutes ago, AirWayMan said:

it may be possible to add the photogrametry after the fact but it would not get the azure processing so it would be just flat ground with colored textures (like orbyx) - no point when azure creates 3d models from the lesser satalite images
so why would you want better looking flat ground textures over 3d trees and buildings? even if they are not perfect the 3d terrain is gonna look better close up

 

Why can't 3rd parties add 3D objects for their add ons? If Asobo forgets a famous land mark to a specific location, but a 3rd party would be willing to include that land mark in their scenery add on, then it would be weird if the MSFS SDK disallowed the 3rd party from adding that famous land mark as a 3D object.

[EzRyder 35]

ohh they can and will, that will be how 3rd parties make scenery addons, i just meant it will not be "autogenerated" 3d from azure like the large part of the globe is now
sure 3rd parties can add custom cities and airports with manually placed 3d objects

[abrams_tank 7,392]

8 minutes ago, AirWayMan said:

ohh they can and will, that will be how 3rd parties make scenery addons, i just meant it will not be "autogenerated" 3d from azure like the large part of the globe is now
sure 3rd parties can add custom cities and airports with manually placed 3d objects

Ok, I agree with this.  It may be possible technology wise for 3rd parties to use Google Earth to help generate the correct 3D models for their scenery add ons (not sure of this, would need to a technical expert to verify if this is possible).

Even if this were possible from a technology standpoint, I don't know if Microsoft would allow such sceneries in the MSFS market anyways because Google is a competitor to them.  And of course, even if Microsoft did allow such sceneries, there is the legal issue of whether Google would require the 3rd party to get a license from Google.

[EzRyder 35]

yea no idea about the liscencing, but if for say they could auto generate the correct the 3d model textures and format (or manually place them) i am gussing it would load them similarly to fsx, by using a layer load so the one with the highest load order would display and replace default scenery, but really im going into pure speculation there
i do not think the market store will be the only way to add these addons, some may require settings changes in either a menu or config file so i can only hope we can also do a manual install for freeware and some advanced addons

Edited August 4, 2020 by AirWayMan

[RobF2 150]

No.  Christian B from Tileproxy was politely told in no uncertain terms Google maps data could not be used, many years ago.  Unlikely that stance has changed.  Even for (at the time) freeware.

[EzRyder 35]

as i said i was not speaking directly for google maps there, i was talking about addons in general not liscened use of specific maps
for example say i use openstreet (or any other free source) maps to get some data i could make a new airport scenery and (hopefully) add it manually even without the marketplace for testing and distribution
we have already seen a pmdg aircraft in pics within the game, afaik the marketplace is not enabled yet so i am assuming they manually added it

Edited August 4, 2020 by AirWayMan

[Krakin 5,736]

All I'll say is Bing better step their game up lol

[Chock 17,769]

Although it is tempting to think that Google is 'VHS' and Bing is 'Betamax' in this battle, the advent of the new MS sim and other ways in which Microsoft will want to leverage that development effort in other applications means that the battle is far from over. Every such system has to start somewhere, but it's what you can do to make people want to use it which will drive its success. Sure Google is a big company to take on in this regard, but MS is no small fish and if anyone could do it, it would be them. Who knows, they might even tire of the fight and pool their efforts, there have been less likely collaborations; even the Russians and the Americans managed to make a space station together during the Cold War.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Chock

[Farlis 2,277]

While it may be technically possible, I doubt it is feasible. In a cloud you can have the amount of data, but I really don't want to know how many gigs per sqkm you are looking at.

[EzRyder 35]

lets be clear, its not just "lets use this map" they use the map as a starting point, then they add missing data and then azure does its magic with the 3d modeling - after that the game is 'baked' and locked in - meaning the 3d conversion is not done 'on the fly' if they did that custom scenery would be impossible as it would just get overwritten, what they stream to the game has already been processed to 3d
sure ms could use google but they will not for many reasons, money and liscensing being the most obvious
and Yes a 3rd party might could do the same with google maps but ... it would be a Huge amount of data (2+petabytes for bing) to distribute that no one would even have the hard drive for
they would have to run it from a server and figure out how to stream it into the game at the very least so its probably not gonna happen

Edited August 4, 2020 by AirWayMan

[dobee51 346]

I'm curious about Bing Maps. Aren't they constantly adding more cities to the list of 3D locations? It seems like it's just going to keep getting better and better after MSFS 2020 is released.