7 minutes ago, TacomaSailor said:

I must be blind, hard headed, or word not allowed!

They market addon products that REPLACE their offerings but somehow Bing tiles are different than LVFR KSAN that replaces and IMPROVES the images in San Diego?

How can one be so proud of tiles but not so proud of images?

They provide and SDK and  COMMUNITY folder structure to support modifications and replacements - but now don't want one of those mods to be used?

I guess it is beyond my understanding?

 

Please provide a link to the SDK section for injection of live terrain tiles streaming.

Supporting mods or add-ons does not mean you are allowed to change / replace whatever you want or whatever is technically possible. 

Edited November 14, 20214 yr by urthgental

2 hours ago, TacomaSailor said:

How does me using Google Maps create a negative impression anymore than me using ORBX KTIW airport,, LVFR Arex, GAIST shipping, or any other addon that IMPOVES the quality of my flight sim experience? ... SO I am baffled as to the difference when I use Google Maps replacement.

Honestly, I'm absolutely baffled you don't see the difference. Bing is a commercial enterprise used to generate money for Microsoft. Google satellite data is a commercial enterprise used to generate money for Google, a major rival to Microsoft. Microsoft permit and encourage 3rd party developers to provide add-ons for the base sim because yes, that can enhance the overall appeal of MSFS without a negative effect to Microsoft's financials. In fact, it increases their income if users are buying those add-ons through the in-sim store as they take a not insubstantial cut. Users putting Google data in the sim adds nothing to Microsoft's bank account and only improves the profile of Google (MS's rival, remember).

If it were some freeware developer (with bottomless pockets) who was sending satellites up and providing better imagery than Bing (and preferably if it could be utilised in the same way as Bing's to provide moving waves on the shores and non-baked in clouds) I doubt MS would have as much an issue with it in comparison to their rival Google's data being used, though I'm sure it would still be a bit embarrassing that their own imagery was inferior.

Hopefully I used the word 'rival' enough.🤞

5 hours ago, TacomaSailor said:

- HOW is this mod any kind of threat to Google?  The load I place on their server(s) is minuscule compared to when I am using Google Earth to map a mountain bike ride or check on real estate in Location X.

The issue for Google would be that they are interested in selling access to their mapping data, and allowing a precedent to be set whereby people can circumvent their APIs or paying for it wouldn't help with that. As an example, Google did ask the Tileproxy developer to stop using their APIs many yeas ago. At the end of the day it is up to them as to what they do about it.

Right, so as I said: marketing and/or licensing ramifications.  Not the feelings of the developers who get their revenue either way. 

TacomaSailor's point is valid: the devs allow and acknowledge that scenery replacement can improve the look of the sim.  And heck, any freeware scenery dev that uses satellite imagery in their homebrewed scenery is likely using Google anyway... I always did.  But the large scale replacement of the entire world probably bumps some licensing issues. 

Either way, it's odd that some folks seem to have an emotional reaction to this, as if people modifying the operation of software on their personal computer for personal use is somehow unethical.  

Way I see it, if you don't like it, don't use it. If you do like it, enjoy it while it lasts.  No harm no foul either way...

6 hours ago, bean_sprout said:

Bing textures are not MSFS Bing textures which have been tweaked for the sim is my understanding.

Cheers

bs

You're correct, they're not directly from Bing.

There's also places on bing maps right now that have newer imagery than MSFS. For example if you go to VHHH on Bing maps you can see all the construction being done, and that's missing from MSFS.

Jorg said in a recent Q&A that they also need to license any imagery they get from third parties to use in the sim as well.

He mentioned there's imagery/photogrammetry in the Sim that will never be on Bing maps because the providers don't want it on Bing maps, only in the Sim. The reverse is also true, there's imagery allowed on Bing maps but not in MSFS.

Edited November 15, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

What we really need is access to the LAPD traffic control cameras so we can live real time traffic on the roads

3 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

Right, so as I said: marketing and/or licensing ramifications.  Not the feelings of the developers who get their revenue either way. 

TacomaSailor's point is valid: the devs allow and acknowledge that scenery replacement can improve the look of the sim.  And heck, any freeware scenery dev that uses satellite imagery in their homebrewed scenery is likely using Google anyway... I always did.  But the large scale replacement of the entire world probably bumps some licensing issues. 

Either way, it's odd that some folks seem to have an emotional reaction to this, as if people modifying the operation of software on their personal computer for personal use is somehow unethical.  

Way I see it, if you don't like it, don't use it. If you do like it, enjoy it while it lasts.  No harm no foul either way...

You're missing the big picture here that Asobo/MS have already warned and are already closing threads from  people talking about it in their official forums, they don't stop conversations on other mods in this way.

It's been made very clear in previous pages why this is an issue for MS/Asobo.

Edited November 15, 20214 yr by MarcG

4 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

But the large scale replacement of the entire world probably bumps some licensing issues. 

 

It has not much to do with licensing issue. Microsoft and Google are fierce competitors in the market of sat imagery for commercial use. I do not see MS accepting that a Google product be integrated in one of their products as a better alternative than their own. As simple as that.

One has just to remember their ill will  to accept an easy access to 3rd party search engine in their browser, specially the Google one which is (was) better than Bing. They had to be forced to do it.

 

Edited November 15, 20214 yr by Dominique_K

14 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

I do not see MS accepting that a Google product be integrated in one of their products as a better alternative than their own. 

Well agreed, that would be the "marketing" issue I mentioned earlier.  Believe me, I don't expect it to last, no argument there. All the more reason to enjoy it while it does! 

And you ever want to use your own sat imagery here is how to do it  😁

https://up42.com/blog/tech/a-definitive-guide-to-buying-and-using-satellite-imagery

Seriously, just to understand that Google or MS buytheir imagery to providers, they don’t have any asset to collect them. They don’t sell imagery but what they add to the images. 

15 hours ago, sarp_79 said:

The problem with Bing textures is that if Bing lacks the tiles for any area or is infested with clouds, you face one single treatment, that is good old weird FSX textures being surfaced to cover the area and they all look lame.

And if Google is infested with clouds or artefacts, you will get them (and, as you miss the image processing MS is applying to the Bing tiles, you will get them often).

And, at places where the sim blends in FSX textures to cover clouds, the sim will also blend them in over the google tiles (not tested, but with a high probability).

Didn't TileProxy get in trouble for not using the official P3D API's to access data? 

Same thing here most likely.  It may not be whether it can or can't be done it is a question of is it being done in a manner that meets the legal requirements with the mapping company ie (Bing) and date stream providers (Azure) and my guess is neither of those two legal requirements are being met and are most likely being circumvented to stream this data into the sim.   

Several years of law school (dropped out in my final year as decided I did not want to actually be a lawyer) taught me that the law has a very minimal relationship with common-sense, logic and reason. 

There is a reason real world lawyers talk in circles and say things like "given the circumstances it is likely that a court might possibly rule xxx, depending of course on who is sitting on the bench on the day it is heard" .  

 

Hi!, I started the thread about the Google Map Mod just to find out how people are commenting about this MOD and how it can be installed and used. So far a lot of responses come to the FORUM

including some legal arguments. I installed this Mod a few days ago and it worked and I (like every one else) find it's ground textures are nice to look at when mostly when you fly over other than the MSFS photogrammetry areas. When I flew over the photogrammetry cities I don't see much differences, you only see the changed ground textures when you very low and watch carefully. I think simmers should worry about if any harm arrives from using the MOD than the Legal matters. I flew about five times or less then I got problem like the sim would not load -stuck halfway to start screen then I removed the two lines from windows system 32 and delete the folder from my PC. Regards