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1mikel151

Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D Launched

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Guest SkyDrift

Microsoft is well aware that their current maps are inadequate in some areas...From: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070109/sftu068.html?.v=77REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today announced that it will begin to update the Virtual Earth online mapping platform with new, more detailed U.S. imagery under an agreement with GlobeXplorer LLC, a leading global provider of aerial and satellite images....more than 400,000 square miles of U.S. aerial imagery will be enhanced with high-resolution coverage...They have signed contacts for mapping/imaging other parts of the world too, so you can expect significant improvements to Virtual Earth (http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth).It would be interesting to know the resolution of these new images.- skydrift

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Guest cbuchner1

Hey, would you know on whose BLOG that was and approximately when? I'd love to read the original posting there. Not having signed an NDA with them yet, they won't tell me much ;)Christian

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Guest cbuchner1

I must correct you there. From initial idea to first working prototype it took me 4 weeks and the thing had horrid performance problems. But the screenshots of Oahu were beautiful. Even now I am struggling with loading performance and I wouldn't consider the thing "done" yet ;)

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Guest cbuchner1

I have seen someone come up with an image processing algoritm in a Swiss forum. He was turning a commercial single season photoscenery package for Switzerland into one that had all four seasons plus hard winter.I wish I had the URL handy to post right now.I'd love to look under the hood of that algoritm... or come up with an independent one that is similar in quality.Christian

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Here's one from Jason Waskey ("Pixelpoke") from December 2005 -http://blogs.technet.com/pixelpoke/archive.../30/416494.aspxI'm pretty sure there are a couple more, and maybe even some posts here at avsim from ACES.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180


Tom Perry

 

Signature.jpg

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Guest wyoming

it's there and it won't go away.

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Guest cbuchner1

wooha! this guy has some cohones, building an entire flight simulator all on his own. A true universal talent, I'd say. And the graphics look awesome. Unfortunately I don't have that much time on my hands.Here's the algorithm that turns summer scenery into spring, autumn, winter and hard winter. I found the bookmark again. The language on this forum is Germanhttp://www.designforum.stumbles.ch/cgi-bin...?num=1163401582Christian

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Guest cbuchner1

Looks like we will be getting 4 SEASONS for photoscenery texture from Google or Virtual Earth or any commerical photoscenery package soon.I plan to share/mashup my technology with that mentioned in the forum posting above. Have a look at the screenshots in above link and you know why this is going to be amazing.

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Guest alex333

Great things are going on :)Having had a quick read througgh many of the web articles linked in this thread including the one from pixelpoke, I don't see FS11 without generic textures. But the idea of streaming data into FS seems too promising not to have a possibilty for it built in. A connection between MS Virtual Earth and FS seems doable and reasonable.Could a hybrid streaming/generic version of FS make it?PS: Christian, amazing pictures!

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Guest cbuchner1

So far I found flying over MSN virtual earth generally not quite as stunning as Google Earth, but yesterday I was trying Salt Lake City in MSN Virtual Earth and the image quality was extremely good. MSN has high res color photos for a huge areas east and south of the Salt Lake. I could even discern individual cars that stopped in front of red lights at intersections. Also the marshlands near the lake look amazing. Good thing one can't smell the foul odour of the lake over the Internet. ;)I also think generic textures still will remain important in the future, but selectively for certain areas with known good satellite coverage the streamed imagery could take over. And step by step the covered areas might be extended until eventually default textures are only needed for people with dialup or no internet connection at all.

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Guest wyoming

a "p2p approach" could be a good idea, particularly if a flight is scheduled and prepared (like it should be) ahead of time and according to a flight plan. Swarming, sharing and d/l of first needed parts could perhaps be adjusted accordingly, allowing nearly everyone to enjoy the experience. IFR flight would probably be easier, with some realism problems on approach (but an accurate modeling of the aircraft, nav and ATC would very largely make up for it). Indeed, seeing satellite images through layers of coulds would be something really immersive..!

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Guest cbuchner1

"Indeed, seeing satellite images through layers of coulds would be something really immersive..!"Well, the intended target audience is people enjoying VFR flights, not hardcore IFR fetishists. ;-) But even the IFR folks don't always do night flights and flights at zero visibility due to fog and clouds. Sometimes *gasp* there's clear sky - and let me tell you MSN virtual earth looks fabulous from 34000 ft. *must post more screenshots*Even in bad weather it can be an amazing sight just to have quality photo terrain in the final moments before touchdown, when the aircraft finally descends below the cloud layer. Even if it only lasts for a few seconds. If only the Microsoft default airport textures wouldn't overlay/clobber the satellite terrain so badly. Sometimes the satellite runway and Microsoft's runways don't even align properly. Same with some landmark buildings.

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Guest Ozzie

Oh! - how terribly surprising?I cannot for the life of me figure out why one of the largest monopolies in the World would actually get upset because someone had more brains than them

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>Oh! - how terribly surprising?>>I cannot for the life of me figure out why one of the largest>monopolies in the World would actually get upset because>someone had more brains than themSo now Google is the evil multi-national monopoly? I thought that title was reserved for Microsoft, cigarette and oil companies.Matt

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