>>>>How do you figure? Google maps is strictly 2D top-down>view.>>>>In google you can click and hold down on the plus or minus>buttons to tilt your view from the 2D top down to a 3D side>view, which gives you a 3D view of mountains & hills. You can>also rotate the view by dragging on the circle. You can also>then place your mouse hand on the scenery and give it a small>tug, and you will glide over the mountains at a constant>speed.>>I updated my Google Earth in July with the beta, and it has a>nice tool in the top right corner for doing this.>>regards>>DavidGoogle Earth and Google Maps are two completely separate applications. Goole Maps works in a web browser and is not 3D.The new MS Virtual Earth is 3D like Google Earth, but works inside a web browser.Matt

>Go figure MS makes you use IE for itSurprise - surprise!

Well I hope this will look like this in FS11. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

This is a fantastic development.If anyone here has actually had a good look at Google Earth or MS Virtual Earth (rather than just saying "who was first"), then you will have realised the power of the 'layers' system that both programs use.There is already a wealth of editor programs for Google, and I am sure it won't be long that the same apps can be used with MSVE. Common high-end apps like 3DS, Autocad, Revit and Archicad can all output files to Google Earth. There are also some excellent free apps - perhaps the best being 'Sketchup' - which is now owned by Google but is still developed by @Last as a seperate app.The 'layer' concept is that a scenery developer creates a data layer that overlaps or replaces the default scenery. Recognise this? It's the same layering paradigm FS has been using for 10 years or more, though in reality it derives from high-end GIS software. A developer can package all their scenery in a layer, and then allow access to the data online!What this means is that in maybe 2 years or so, developers, both pay and free-ware, will be able to upload scenery data to central servers, and users simply pick the layers they want to see from an online list. Have a good look at Google Earth's layer system - you can simply click on a url-based link and have entire data layers show up! Data can range from static data like scenery, to active data like real-world flights (!), active volcanoes, live earthquake data for rescue scenerios; the possibilities are enormous, and I for one can't wait!

>>What this means is that in maybe 2 years or so, developers,>both pay and free-ware, will be able to upload scenery data to>central servers, and users simply pick the layers they want to>see from an online list. This could be done pretty easily right now with MSFS. All it would require is some kind of standard file distribution format and a willing website programmer.Matt

hehe, powered by Google of course ;)

I just wish someone had looked at the map program before doing the textures for FS X!

Forget about Virtual Earth 3D ;-) Their data looks so much more impressive when used inside Microsoft's Flight Simulator X.This uses some software I wrote. 3D Buildings can't be loaded though - just the ground texture. And did I mention that everything streams from the Internet while you fly? This software is still under heavy development.Some screenshots here.http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbuchner1/set...57594513158518/The location is northwest of Friday Harbour (default flight) towards the mountains. I am sorry the pictures turned out to be a bit dark because I was flying at dusk. Make sure to click on the "all sizes" button to get the 1024x768 or 1920x1200 resolution!Also have a look at the other photo sets which show the same thing done with Google Earth. I'd love to demo this to Microsoft staff, actually ;)The main challenge with MSN Virtual Earth was that they apply black&white photographs from a USGS aerial survey at the higher zoom levels (just try zooming in all the way on local.live.com far from any major city). So I have to colorize this data using color information from lower resolution data. Flying over a gray landscape would be unacceptable. However the artificially colored landscape may sometimes appear a bit cartoonish, oversaturated. I am still working on that algorithm...Christian

OK Christian...Ive seen your work before.very impressive.....so where do we stand on this....Jareth form Muskego Wisconsin

I hope to get an invitation to Redmond for a demo... Overall I am still developing heavily on this. The loading performance is not quite satisfactory yet - blurries can occur quite often.This new photoset was just posted to demonstrate that it's not all about Google anymore.Things that I may consider to add in the near future is* faster loading speeds (preloading along the anticipated flightpath)* precise coastline detection* automatic placement of autogen houses and trees based on image analysisWould be cool to do this kind of work for ACES.Christian

is also that we could have lived another year or so with FS9, possibly improved in a few areas (e.g. flight modeling) and switched to an actual qualitative progress, with DX 10 and the dust settled around the Vista pachyderm, instead of a half-baked compromise. But that would have skipped half of a revenue cycle.

Hey Christian...I read on a different forum that Google threw a seise and disesst order at you..is that so..can you say...anyway..I think your approach is what the future is all about and have written about it on this forum several times...I would like to help...although I know absultuly nothing about this...but let me know if I can give a boost...email me if you like at [email protected]

A Cease and Desist... not at me but at the original author of Gaia - an open source Google Earth viewer. In fact it was more of a kindly worded E-mail explaining that legal action would be likely to follow if the programmer didn't withdraw his G.E. access library - and so he did.My Google Earth development is actually on hold for this particular reason. I might still look into Google Maps in the future (the web browser based interface to map data... this data is not encrypted)Christian

Good to see common sense prevail...also it was nice to touch "greatness" if only for a moment...(ahhh If only I was a younger man)...well lets just say I think you got something here...Make sure you get that technology patented...(thats the lawyer in me)...best of luck to you...jareth....

>>How original they are in their creativity. lol>>Well, Google didn't exactly think of it first either. They>bought Google Earth from Key Hole.>>For MS to put it into a browser instead of stand alone>application is a first.>>MattNot a big deal- From a programming point of view, it's just as easy to build an ActiveX control to run in IE as a stand alone app.Either way, it's still pretty cool.