Latest Google Map Replacement Tool

[mikeklimek 159]

FWIW, I've used this mod for awhile without issue until version 5.1.0.  Then I started having all those AV false positives, some CTD's, etc.  The dev page says that if one is experiencing issues, they can roll back to 5.0.9 found on his github here:  https://github.com/derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement/releases

I did so and I no longer have any issues.

[Freq_flyer44 115]

The divide between the mod's injected map and defalut is more apparent in a place like Australia. Its kind of suttle so not a big deal but sometimes you see something and when it catches your eye, you can't unsee it!

 

[scotchegg 4,255]

After using the mod smoothly for a few weeks I can confidently say that in most areas of the world it beats default textures but not without drawbacks. These are some of my takeaways:

- Both Google and Bing Latest have higher resolutions, sometimes much more so.

- Google seems to have generally the highest in the US, Europe and South America, Bing Latest wins in Africa, and Asia / Australia seem to be a mixed-bag between them.

- All (default MSFS included) have colouration problems / poorly-matched tiles from different times / sources in places.

- Bing Latest has more clouds baked in in some areas (I've seen a lot in Mozambique / Zambia).

- Google has its watermark visible in some places. I only noticed this last night around Marseille and now I can't unsee it😢

- Water masks are a really mixed bag and this might be one area where default is best.

Overall, it's usually worth using either Google or Bing Latest over default, but it pays to spend a bit of time looking at which one is best for a particular area if you're going to be spending some VFR time there. Maybe in the future we can get a world map showing which source is best for which area.

[Keto Ketchup 240]

Does anyone know how to contact the author without having a Github account? He wouldn't happen to be a member of this forum by chance? I want to ask him his secret to removing the green tint, because it's not what we thought.

[Sethos 4,610]

2 minutes ago, Keto Ketchup said:

Does anyone know how to contact the author without having a Github account? He wouldn't happen to be a member of this forum by chance? I want to ask him his secret to removing the green tint, because it's not what we thought.

Ask him on flightsim.to 

Also, what do you mean his secret?

[Keto Ketchup 240]

39 minutes ago, Sethos said:

Ask him on flightsim.to

Also, what do you mean his secret?

Guess I'll have to create an account. As to his "secret", see my "Green" thread for details. Getting rid of the green tint isn't just a simple matter of replacing Asobo textures with Bing or Google textures.

UPDATE - Nevermind, I figured it out!

Edited July 14, 2022 by Keto Ketchup
UPDATE

[Tuskin38 6,695]

On 7/12/2022 at 5:56 PM, Bobsk8 said:

So I wonder why doesn't Asobo do us all a favor and switch to the new Bing Maps, so we don't have to screw around starting and stopping mods that might not work? 

Because it hasn't been optimized for sim use. They go in and try to find and hide clouds, colour correct areas and other stuff before officially bringing the imagery into MSFS.

It's not just ported into the sim 1:1.

Though what's interesting, back when 'Black Lives Matter' was first painted on that street in DC, it appeared in the sim and on bing maps at almost the same time.

They must have fast tracked it, and since it was only a very small section of imagery, just the city block around it it  Not much to touch up.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Tuskin38

[Keto Ketchup 240]

On 7/12/2022 at 8:21 PM, Freq_flyer44 said:

The divide between the mod's injected map and defalut is more apparent in a place like Australia. Its kind of suttle so not a big deal but sometimes you see something and when it catches your eye, you can't unsee it!

 

I was able to push that line back to the horizon quite a bit by jacking up terrain LOD both in the sim and the add-on. The exception is when the map itself has an obvious line due to different parts of the state being photographed at different times (you can see it in Bing Maps as well).

[Keto Ketchup 240]

13 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

Because it hasn't been optimized for sim use. They go in and try to find and hide clouds, colour correct areas and other stuff before officially bringing the imagery into MSFS.

Color correction is separate from editing the map imagery itself (hiding clouds, cars, etc). I recently discovered this in my crusade to get rid of green roads. In my area, Asobo's raw imagery perfectly match Bing's most recent map, with the noted exception of the corrections you speak of. The color correction is handled by a separate CGL file, which means the green tint is applied by the flight sim itself, and not on the aerial imagery servers. It's this separate color-correction metadata that Asobo needs to fix to greatly improve their default terrain quality (at least in my geographic area).

It's too bad that Asobo doesn't expose map imagery and color correction metadata to developers. I've been able to access is (thanks to studying the tool this thread is about), but it's not trivial. My plan is to make my own map server, where I can optimize the latest Bing imagery myself - removing clouds, color correcting areas on the actual images, even removing baked-in shadows around my local airport and home town. Wouldn't it be awesome if any developer could easily do this without creating their own map server? AFAIK MSFS doesn't provide an easy mechanism to drop in your own "ortho" like XP-11 has, which is a shame. Perhaps someday!

[scotchegg 4,255]

14 minutes ago, Keto Ketchup said:

Perhaps someday!

Sorry, totally off topic but I have to know; how does someone in ‘Rural America’ get Jon Pertwee as an avatar?

[Keto Ketchup 240]

1 hour ago, scotchegg said:

Sorry, totally off topic but I have to know; how does someone in ‘Rural America’ get Jon Pertwee as an avatar?

One of the three OTA channels we get is PBS, which has Doctor Who reruns, LOL.

[F737MAX 5,750]

5 hours ago, scotchegg said:

Sorry, totally off topic but I have to know; how does someone in ‘Rural America’ get Jon Pertwee as an avatar?

Something similar could be said for someone who has a David Niven avatar and mentions Yorkshire Tea while located in 'RJTT' (Tokyo) 😄
 

6 hours ago, Keto Ketchup said:

My plan is to make my own map server, where I can optimize the latest Bing imagery myself - removing clouds, color correcting areas on the actual images, even removing baked-in shadows around my local airport and home town. Wouldn't it be awesome if any developer could easily do this without creating their own map server? AFAIK MSFS doesn't provide an easy mechanism to drop in your own "ortho" like XP-11 has, which is a shame. Perhaps someday!

Sounds like a lot of hard work.
Can only hope Asobo take another look and give us some control over the green tint or improve the algorithm for recognising roads, etc.
 

Edited July 15, 2022 by F737MAX

[Keto Ketchup 240]

22 minutes ago, F737MAX said:

Sounds like a lot of hard work.

Can only hope Asobo take another look and give us some control over the green tint or improve the algorithm for recognising roads, etc.
 

Oh yes, my preference is for the company to fix their own game, but I've learned not to wait around for that (it's already been two years) if it's in my own power to fix things.

For now I'm using the map replacer this thread is about. It's absolutely amazing how good the terrain can look without artificial green tint! Unfortunately most of the autogen buildings in my town have puke-green roofs for some reason, and this mod doesn't fix that. Someday we (or better yet, Asobo) will get rid of ALL the puke green!

[Virtual-Chris 682]

If you use Google Maps or the Newer Bing Maps, and have a hand crafted airport mod, does this cause any issues? 
 

How do photogrammetry buildings render with different map data? Are they unaffected?

[abrams_tank 7,500]

1 minute ago, Virtual-Chris said:

If you use Google Maps or the Newer Bing Maps, and have a hand crafted airport mod, does this cause any issues? 
 

How do photogrammetry buildings render with different map data? Are they unaffected?

The Google mod that uses satellite data will modify your host files in Windows. Make sure you know what the host files in Windows is, and that you can undo the changes  if you need to. You should make a backup copy of your hosts files in Windows before you use this add-on. Here is an example of a user here in Avsim who had problems using it, because his host file was modified, and it caused all sorts of problems when he tried go back to the default Bing data that MSFS uses: