1. Develop a scenery engine that uses Google Maps terrain instead of landclass and texture tiles.

2. Develop a technique to generate appropriate 3D objects and place them based on imagery analysis

3. Don't waste time and resources trying to dazzle users with super-duper photogrammetry, just focus on accurate terrain and 3D objects.

Now, I know what you're thinking: this is what MSFS does.  Yes, and it's exactly what LM should do, only better.

The core P3D platform is already pretty darn good.  It's a tried and true platform that has been around a long time.  If they can use photo-real Google Maps terrain and render the buildings, vegetation, etc. we'd have a winner.

Just an idea.

Dave

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by dave2013

22 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

1. Develop a scenery engine that uses Google Maps terrain instead of landclass and texture tiles.

2. Develop a technique to generate appropriate 3D objects and place them based on imagery analysis

3. Don't waste time and resources trying to dazzle users with super-duper photogrammetry, just focus on accurate terrain and 3D objects.

Now, I know what you're thinking: this is what MSFS does.  Yes, and it's exactly what LM should do, only better.

The core P3D platform is already pretty darn good.  It's a tried and true platform that has been around a long time.  If they can use photo-real Google Maps terrain and render the buildings, vegetation, etc. we'd have a winner.

Just an idea.

Dave

Yep I get what you are saying but I see a lot of copyright problems but maybe a better idea would be to have LM or the Google nerds develop automated process for that and have users pay some sort of fee either in the base cost of Prepar3d or a monthly fee maybe. The commercial or military user would pay of course pay a much higher fee to use the data. I just don't think Google is going to give it away for nothing.

I'm sure Lockheed Martin will be up for this as an integral part of their military mission training simulator the moment those little Google cars with the cameras on can drive around the streets of PyongYang gathering target data for those cruise missile terrain recognising navigation systems. What could possibly go wrong? 🤣

Meh, the P3D scene will be dead when its time for the next paid upgrade to roll around in 3 years.

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by Chapstick

2 hours ago, shivers9 said:

Yep I get what you are saying but I see a lot of copyright problems but maybe a better idea would be to have LM or the Google nerds develop automated process for that and have users pay some sort of fee either in the base cost of Prepar3d or a monthly fee maybe. The commercial or military user would pay of course pay a much higher fee to use the data. I just don't think Google is going to give it away for nothing.

Yeah, I agree that unlike the MS/Asobo partnership where MS owns Bing Maps, LM would probably have to pay for a license to the Google data.  I'd happily pay a reasonable fee to have this type of scenery in P3D.

Chock referred to the military mission training aspect which made me realize that this type of ground scenery would be of great benefit to the military in planning and simulations.

I continue to believe that MSFS is the future, but it doesn't actually have to be *MS*FS.  P3D would work just fine, and even better in some aspects, if it had the type of scenery that MSFS offers.

Dave

 

1 hour ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

LM have their own data, far higher resolution and clouds are not "part of the image" ... LM help build and launch the satellites:

https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2019-03-20-Lockheed-Martins-First-Smart-Satellites-are-Tiny-with-Big-Missions

and

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/satellite.html#:~:text=Lockheed Martin is committed to,nanosats equipped with SmartSat capabilities.

Scroll down to SmartSat ... take note: "SmartSat plugs into any of Lockheed Martin’s satellite buses – from the LM 50 nanosat to the LM 2100 GEO flagship – as well as ground systems, and provide applications for customers in every sector, whether commercial, government, or military. " ... I can hear the objections already ... but it doesn't say "entertainment" ... it's a simulator for commercial, it's a game for entertainment ... but it has to be a simulator or else some feel insecure ... it's a Gamulator for all!  🙂

Cheers, Rob.

Do you know why they bought commercial data from Maxar and Planet for their own A.I satellite imagery analysis models?

Quote

Lockheed Martin insists that it has an advantage over other players offering imagery analysis because its system uses commercial imagery from vendors like Maxar and Planet to ensure global coverage.

Wouldnt it be better to use in house data?

https://www.geoawesomeness.com/lockheed-martin-artificial-intelligence-model-satellite-imagery-analysis/

Just hope too much Google Data is not imported into the sims as the sim Developer will be at fault for allowing it, and Google may take and different take now they are competing in the game streaming platform. 

https://www.gameinformer.com/opinion/2019/03/21/is-cloud-based-streaming-video-games-future

Streaming is not the future... it has too many problems.. lots of companies have been running experiments with it and have faced the same problems explained in the article above.. technology will evolve into something better.. I don't see P3D V6 being developed using Streaming given the fact most large video game companies are now struggling with the concept and behind the scenes are reverting to something else.. aka unreal engine and the likes. 

https://petapixel.com/2019/03/22/this-is-how-photorealistic-video-game-engines-are-now/

S.

8 hours ago, dave2013 said:

1. Develop a scenery engine that uses Google Maps terrain instead of landclass and texture tiles.

2. Develop a technique to generate appropriate 3D objects and place them based on imagery analysis

3. Don't waste time and resources trying to dazzle users with super-duper photogrammetry, just focus on accurate terrain and 3D objects.

Now, I know what you're thinking: this is what MSFS does.  Yes, and it's exactly what LM should do, only better.

The core P3D platform is already pretty darn good.  It's a tried and true platform that has been around a long time.  If they can use photo-real Google Maps terrain and render the buildings, vegetation, etc. we'd have a winner.

Just an idea.

Dave

I admit, on first sight MSFS looks extremely good with this Bing Maps terrain. But I really hope, Prepar3D does not go this way. I rather have a synthetic scenery based on landclasses and vectores like today. These could be more accurate of course.

The satellite images used for the ground are not perfect. It is of course on the first view a dramatic improve, but when looked at a bit realisticly, it is not better than what we have today with a good landclass product. It has pros and cons on both sides which we all know. 

The automatic process to generate 3D objects in MSFS is a fail. I don't want this cardboard box houses on the whole world. I think, the autogen buildings with ORBX textures look better than what MSFS brings. 

I'd rather had a v6 which can just replace the v5 and take over all aircraft and sceneries without a problem.

A switchable debug mode, which tells me, what made the sim crash or showing missing files, bad configs. Because of the addons, it will always be necessary to maintain the whole system. So most time I loose with searching the cause of a problem. 

Improvements for ATC (want this rather for 5.2).

Dan

 

I think it is as well to be aware that Google Earth's images are in large part based on tweaked images which were gathered by the space vehicle Landsat 7. Guess who made Landsat 7? Yup, it was built by Lockheed Martin.

So Lockheed Martin asking Google if they could have some of their pictures or Earth would be a bit like Ford asking you if they could borrow your Mustang. 🤣

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by Chock

I think Prepar3D just needs updated default textures (including landclass textures), updated default assets (like buildings and SpeedTrees) and lastly, a better lighting engine. Simul trueSKY already made Prepar3D look really really good (in my opinion, even better than X-Plane), and I believe an improved night lighting, volumetric lighting, AO and PBR implementation would just make it even better.

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by BiologicalNanobot

10 hours ago, Chock said:

I'm sure Lockheed Martin will be up for this as an integral part of their military mission training simulator the moment those little Google cars with the cameras on can drive around the streets of PyongYang gathering target data for those cruise missile terrain recognising navigation systems. What could possibly go wrong? 🤣

And they do not even have to put a driver at risk 😃😃😃😃😃

 

 

38 minutes ago, BiologicalNanobot said:

SpeedTrees

I'd rather ask to remove them. Since they were introduced, I have to disable them after every install or reset.

10 minutes ago, blaunarwal said:

I'd rather ask to remove them. Since they were introduced, I have to disable them after every install or reset.

This is because default assets Prepar3D uses for SpeedTrees are really bad, so we just need to replace default SpeedTree assets with better ones. SpeedTree itself is used on many games and it looks really really beautiful:

Prepar3D has this capability, and it's sadly being wasted because of subpar assets.

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by BiologicalNanobot

1 minute ago, BiologicalNanobot said:

This is because default assets Prepar3D uses for SpeedTrees are really bad, so we just need to replace default SpeedTree assets with better ones. SpeedTree itself is used on many games and it looks really really beautiful:

Prepar3D has this capability, and it's being wasted.

Ok, did not know that. LM did never improve them since they were introduced.