Excellent 3D terrain visualization with FSX - Flickr link

[Guest BOPrey]

What about the different seasons? I understand that Hawaii only has one season, but I don't want to fly in just in Hawaii.

[JonRD463 146]

WOW! I'd love to see that in motion. Is there any way you could shoot a Fraps video of that? -Jon

[Guest camtech]

Plese guys just humor me for a moment , treat me like im a ten year old and im wanting to know how you did this and what im doing wrong.are you flying just default planes , add-ons , what and how are you you doing that . im just wanting to fly more than tweak more.3800+ 64,7800gsos , 2 gig ram, 74 sata drive 10.000, gigabyte motherboard...........Robert

[DadJokeCinema 145]

Well, I could theorize, and I have, but I won't on here.Not if there is still some question about the legality of it.

[Guest]

hey, how'd u do that?

[blave 0]

I must be missing something. What is the difference between your effort and this commercial product: http://fsearth.fsutil.com/In other words, why isn't that company as concerned with usage of Google data as you are?I am just curious - like I said maybe I don't understand the differences between your work and theirs.Dave Blevins

[Guest robains]

This makes no sense?? Have you looked at the images? When was the last time you looked at anything 40+ miles away and it was clear? Also, there is NO blending at all with the horizon?And you say 1600 x 1200 then say it's being displayed on a dell at 1920 x 1200? Huh?Sorry but these screenshot just are NOT stunning, they're very unrealistic.Rob.

[JonRD463 146]

I, like others I'm sure, eagerly await your version. If you haven't been reading up on the progress of this project, then it's been said over and over that it's a work in progress. This isn't an ad for a commercial product, rather a demonstration on a cool mix of Google Earth imagery and Flight sim. Yeah, it's not perfect, but damned if your post isn't one of the more negative ones I've seen around here.

[Guest jboweruk]

Who knows, maybe one day we'll see the same real time terrain as we have weather now... Just imagine a simulator that's right up to date terrain wise.

[Guest cbuchner1]

The flickr uploader was suggesting a resize to 1600x1200 for uploading. I did that. Too bad that I would need a paid-for flickr account to allow anyone access to the version I uploaded. That is $20 a year.

[Guest cbuchner1]

I am not sure if Flight Simulator X supports haze as a weather setting. It is definitely missing here and makes thinks look too crisp.

[Guest cbuchner1]

fsearth uses the published Google API and runs in the official Google Earth application. fsearth does not display the terrain inside Flight Simulator X. It runs in a separate window and/or on a separate computer.

[Guest cbuchner1]

I will be looking into that. But don't expect a 1920x1200 pixels version - such a video would therefore have VGA or DV video resolution at best. My graphics card is an AGP bus model, therefore readout speed from the graphics cards RAM will be extremely slow. And it has to be read out first to be encoded. ;)

[Guest cbuchner1]

Well you could have such "moments" for different seasons, for different times of day...And besides there is also the possibility to use up to date (hours-old or even days-old satellite data). An ESA's website is a breakthrough step into this direction, as it allows public access to REALLY FRESH data.http://miravi.eo.esa.int/en/You can review high resolution JPG and BMP images from hours- old satellite passes. The problem with this data is that it contains clouds, and it typically only covers stripes of the world. And it is not in a particularly high resolution either. But with some automated tools, fairly up to date images of the entire cloud-free globe could be createdI am convinced that in two or three future generations of flight simulators, an online access to the world will be provided. Not just covering weather (as it is now), traffic (multiplayer) but also scenery and buildings.

[Guest cbuchner1]

Thanks for pointing out MSN Virtual Earth.I will see if I can get developer's license to access their images legally. I really would like to get some cooperation going there. After some review, I think their images of the USA are superior of those provided by Google Earth. The contrast + colors of different satellite passes are better matched.I doubt that 3D models and elevation data could be downloaded dynamically into FSX. There is no API for that. For providing "online" terrain tiles there is also no API, but I am messing with the underlying filesystem and it works. ;)