Developer selling Google Earth assets on Simmarket?

[F737MAX 5,738]

A new developer called 'EuropeM' has some landmarks products of 3 European cities listed for sale on Simmarket.

To me it looks like a cash grab from unsuspecting buyers of the same Google Earth assets that have been repackaged as freeware and hosted on other sites.

In 9 days, they have created what takes better-known developers like Drzewiecki Design, Prealsoft and SamScene months or even years to achieve.
I could be very mistaken, but the lack of colour matching (a blue tinge to assets) and the level of detail that surpasses even these three more established developers, has raised my suspicions.

If I'm wrong, I apologise and request this thread be deleted.
If I'm correct, please take this as a Public Service Announcement for you to not part with your cash.
 

Edited September 27, 2020 by F737NG

[ryanbatc 13,029]

Well all I know is it takes quite a bit of time to color correct and place this kind of stuff.  There was a guy who did Toronto and surrounding areas and has worked a ton of hours on it.

[Chock 17,769]

8 minutes ago, F737NG said:

To me it looks like a cash grab from unsuspecting buyers of the same Google Earth assets that have been repackaged as freeware and hosted on other sites

If it isn't a rip from Google Earth, then they must be the world's fastest and most prolific 3D modelers ever. 🤣

 Their only listed contact being a gmail address makes me a bit suspicious too. 

[F737MAX 5,738]

Simmarket also not convinced and products are no longer available to purchase.

Don't spend your money on random add-ons.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

[DPSimulation 235]

I did see some of these being submitted and removed last week and then they re-appeared before being removed again. It was pretty clear to me how similar they were to what is being offered as freeware elsewhere, hence I didn't add them to my product directory.

[BerndB 349]

Well, there has to be a healthy awareness, that out there are also people who just want to make quick money. On example concerns me a lot. There is a product at simmarket called "INFORMATICA AZ - EDDH HAMBURG-FUHLSBÜTTEL - 4K ULTRA HD MSFS" 

Nothing wrong in it by far, but if you look at the sceenshots, this has absolutly nothing to do with EDDH. Everything is wrong accept the Layout. My concern is that it is sold there for 16 EUR!! Sound not much but if you compare it to EDDH by Justsim for p3D this offer for MSFS must be a bad joke. I´am also concerned about the reviews related to it. It seems that those reviews must be faked compared to what this product is giving to the user. 

For me this is really highly questionable what Simmarket is doing there especially because it seems out of a sudden hundreds of those "add-ons" for MSFS are spreading out off the ground🤔

Edited September 28, 2020 by BerndB
typo

[bobcat999 8,503]

One thing we can all do as fellow simmers, especially on this forum, is to stand together against substandard payware offerings.

The best way to do that is to continue to give our honest feedback about the products (without slandering people or being offensive). 

I know people can have differing views, but the numbers count in the end - we all get the general gist of things when enough reviews are in.
I think we have been doing pretty well recently from what I have seen, and we are not accepting simple port-overs or substandard offerings that cost a lot of money.

There have been some interesting threads on here just recently over payware and add-ons, and we need to let developers know that just because MSFS may appear to be a 'flight sim for the masses', that there are also a lot of 'well seasoned' (🙂) simmers on here that will not accept any nonsense or poor standards. 

Be respectful, but don't let them get away with it!  👍

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by bobcat999

[styckx 1,872]

15 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Well all I know is it takes quite a bit of time to color correct

Color correcting is NOT hard.

After this dev released this, I went and color corrected his textures for him and sent them to him without even asking for credit... Took less than an hour and now the community has a color corrected Atlantic City for free..

https://flightsim.to/file/109/atlantic-city-skyline

[Farlis 2,317]

I saw that and immidiately recognized it for what it was.

I wish these fools would stop doing stuff like this. The main reason I'm against this kind of behaviour is because once Google gets wind of it, that their property is used to create scenery that is then SOLD they will shut down all avenues to grab their data. Which leaves us people who do this on their own, to enhance our sims for our own personal use and not trying to make money off it in the cold.

[FlyBaby 659]

35 minutes ago, styckx said:

Color correcting is NOT hard.

After this dev released this, I went and color corrected his textures for him and sent them to him without even asking for credit... Took less than an hour and now the community has a color corrected Atlantic City for free..

https://flightsim.to/file/109/atlantic-city-skyline

I was shocked to see that the default AC was no where close to reality...

So thanks to you and the original Dev for this addon...my favorite dlc thus far in MSFS!

[styckx 1,872]

5 minutes ago, Farlis said:

I saw that and immidiately recognized it for what it was.

I wish these fools would stop doing stuff like this. The main reason I'm against this kind of behaviour is because once Google gets wind of it, that their property is used to create scenery that is then SOLD they will shut down all avenues to grab their data. Which leaves us people who do this on their own, to enhance our sims for our own personal use and not trying to make money off it in the cold.

It's unfortunately to be expected.. Flight Simulator whether from FSX to P3D and even X-Plane has ALWAYS had their pockets of carneys, grifters and snake oil salesman developers looking to cash in on impulse buying by providing trash products with no real effort put in but the maximum amount of over selling their color by numbers products.

Now that Flight Simulator is in the super mainstream "gamers" circle, it's to be expected to be even worse.. Hence the reason there are OVER 9000 new Flight Simulator addon websites..  A few of the new ones have shown themselves to be team players and playing by the `rules' though.. I'll give them that.

[styckx 1,872]

3 minutes ago, FlyBaby said:

I was shocked to see that the default AC was no where close to reality...

So thanks to you and the original Dev for this addon...my favorite dlc thus far in MSFS!

Appreciate it, although again.. Not big on credit. I'm a fellow South Jersey resident and saw the authors original couple releases and could not get over the obvious "blue tinge" of Google imported models.. So I did my due duty as a community contributor and colored corrected his textures.. I straight up told him in my message to him "I don't care about credit.. Do as you please with these edits"..

[GearUp180 55]

1 hour ago, styckx said:

Flight Simulator whether from FSX to P3D and even X-Plane has ALWAYS had their pockets of carneys, grifters and snake oil salesman developers looking to cash in on impulse buying by providing trash products with no real effort put in but the maximum amount of over selling their color by numbers products.

As far as I am concerned, it is the side effect of MS policy to deliver half baked product and "let third party developers finish the job".

That's also not surprising in an industry where poor Quality Control is widely spread. MS could require ad-dons to be distributed through their market place after proper QA review (including copyright, conformity of the product with what is advertised...) and for a reasonable fee: that would deter some of the scammers.

Edited September 28, 2020 by GearUp180

[Chock 17,769]

Whilst you're all here, just letting you know I've got this bridge for sale if anyone wants to make me an offer. It is quite old, but in fairly good condition 🤣

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

12 minutes ago, Chock said:

Whilst you're all here, just letting you know I've got this bridge for sale if anyone wants to make me an offer. It is quite old, but in fairly good condition 🤣

Great! The last one of the few missing in my bridgecollection. Are you shipping to germany and if so, what would be the shipping cost approx?

Best regards