As teased in the developer live stream on Wednesday, the next World Update will include Prague. I did a quick search and found that two other Czech cities now have photogrammetry in Bing Maps as well (or TIN as they now call it). These are Brno and Plzeň. As Jörg Neumann said in the live stream, the quality of these additions will be very good. Judging from Bing Maps, he is absolutely right. It looks fantastic, at least in Bing Maps.

Also Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Maribor, and Budapest (3/4 of it) now have photogrammetry in Bing Maps, so WU14 might cover more than "just" the Czech Republic. Or these will come in later updates, who knows.

London is also fully covered now (newer and, it seems, better photogrammetry than we currently have in the sim), so this could be part of a future cities update.

The 5 cities announced for City Update 2 (Nimes, Nantes, Amiens, Angers, and Reims) are now in Bing Maps as well. Also St. Tropez and Archachon are now covered, which makes me wonder if they will be part of CU2 as well.

All these new 3D cities clearly show that they're busy getting new TIN data in, which can only be good news for us.

If you should stumble across more 3D cities in Bing Maps that aren‘t in the sim, it would be great if you could post them here, as that would give us a hint about possible future World or City Updates. 

Edited May 5, 20233 yr by Shack95

According to Jörg Neumann, the reason for the delay of WU 14 is that they've only managed to get 73% of the capture of "one of the really important cities" - a city that Jörg considers "wonderful". I'm more and more convinced that he was referring to Budapest. In Bing Maps, only about three quarters of the city is currently covered by photogrammetry. Also, Budapest is widely considered a beautiful city (which I can confirm). This would suggest that WU14 will cover more than the Czech Republic (Prague, another important and beautiful city, is already fully covered). I could be wrong, of course, but Budapest just fits Neumann's description all too well.

 

Hope they improve the real sighting of the overall cities night lightings too, they are very similar than "ancient" Simulators, no too much progress there.

I just discovered that they have also updated Ajaccio and Calvi in Bing Maps. Not only are the cities now in 3D, but also the surrounding mountains. This is going to be a lot of fun because both airports have spectacular circling approaches where you have to fly pretty close to the mountains.

Edited May 7, 20233 yr by Shack95

5 hours ago, Shack95 said:

I just discovered that they have also updated Ajaccio and Calvi in Bing Maps. Not only are the cities now in 3D, but also the surrounding mountains. This is going to be a lot of fun because both airports have spectacular circling approaches where you have to fly pretty close to the mountains.

Strange they didn't mention those 2 cities in the interview... are they already in the sim?!

On 5/5/2023 at 5:31 PM, Shack95 said:

As teased in the developer live stream on Wednesday, the next World Update will include Prague. I did a quick search and found that two other Czech cities now have photogrammetry in Bing Maps as well (or TIN as they now call it). These are Brno and Plzeň. As Jörg Neumann said in the live stream, the quality of these additions will be very good. Judging from Bing Maps, he is absolutely right. It looks fantastic, at least in Bing Maps.

Also Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Maribor, and Budapest (3/4 of it) now have photogrammetry in Bing Maps, so WU14 might cover more than "just" the Czech Republic. Or these will come in later updates, who knows.

London is also fully covered now (newer and, it seems, better photogrammetry than we currently have in the sim), so this could be part of a future cities update.

The 5 cities announced for City Update 2 (Nimes, Nantes, Amiens, Angers, and Reims) are now in Bing Maps as well. Also St. Tropez and Archachon are now covered, which makes me wonder if they will be part of CU2 as well.

All these new 3D cities clearly show that they're busy getting new TIN data in, which can only be good news for us.

If you should stumble across more 3D cities in Bing Maps that aren‘t in the sim, it would be great if you could post them here, as that would give us a hint about possible future World or City Updates. 

As far as I know, some TIN cities get to the sim without getting to Bing Maps (Paris, Japanese cities etc). But all TIN cities present on Bing Maps eventually make their way to the sim (Christchurch was 3d in Bing Maps for months and only got to the sim with the New Zealand update).

I really like the TIN cities, so I’m excited to see those implemented in the sim.

I'd love to see "Tin" landscape updates as well. All the focus on cities is fine, but have you ever flown in the mountains south of Christchurch? Or the mountains around Boulder, Colorado? Or basically the entire coastline of California. Photogrammetry landscape is equally as stunning. Super high DEM, photorealistic rocks and other environmental elements. Makes landing in those areas very exciting and satisfying.

2 hours ago, Noooch said:

Strange they didn't mention those 2 cities in the interview... are they already in the sim?!

Last time I checked they weren't in the sim. The same goes for St. Tropez and Archachon, both of which have been 3D in Bing Maps for several months. Neither of them were mentioned in the Q&A Update.

Edited May 7, 20233 yr by Shack95

1 hour ago, ca_metal said:

As far as I know, some TIN cities get to the sim without getting to Bing Maps (Paris, Japanese cities etc). But all TIN cities present on Bing Maps eventually make their way to the sim (Christchurch was 3d in Bing Maps for months and only got to the sim with the New Zealand update).

Yeah, Jorg said in a Q&A a while back that some companies don't want their Bing photogrammetry in MSFS and the reverse is true as well, the deal is only for MSFS.

Probably why Asobo/Microsoft is capturing/comissioning their own imagery now.

Edited May 7, 20233 yr by Tuskin38

1 hour ago, ca_metal said:

As far as I know, some TIN cities get to the sim without getting to Bing Maps (Paris, Japanese cities etc). But all TIN cities present on Bing Maps eventually make their way to the sim (Christchurch was 3d in Bing Maps for months and only got to the sim with the New Zealand update).

According to the last Q&A, most TIN areas are done by a company called Vexcel, which is owned by, or otherwise associated with, Microsoft. As I understand it, they are responsible for all the Bing Maps 3D cities, and these places eventually make their way into the sim. And as was revealed in the Q&A, MS seems to have an active role in deciding what places Vexcel take care of. There are some exceptions though, for instance London, Paris (both made by a company called Bluesky; and both subpar in terms of quality if you ask me), the Japanese 3D cities, and Basel (I’m not 100% sure in this case, but it was in the sim before it was in Bing Maps, so I guess they acquired it from some external source specially for the respective World Update). So yes, the rule seems to be that once 3D cities are in Bing Maps, they will eventually be in the sim.

23 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Probably why Asobo/Microsoft is capturing/comissioning their own imagery now.

Whatever the reason, it is evident that Bing Maps have been getting more active in obtaining new photogrammetry data recently. I‘ve been browsing Bing Maps quite regularly since the release of MSFS, and during the first 2 years nothing or not much had been updated. But in the last 6 month I‘ve seen various new 3D cities and updated imagery. So there‘s definitely something going on, and I wouldn‘t be surprised if it was because of MSFS. 

deleted

Edited May 7, 20233 yr by Noooch

Go vote!

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/add-calvi-and-ajaccio-in-the-next-city-update-france-they-are-available-on-bing/591647

 

Bing Maps have added some photogrammetry cities on the Australian east coast. The ones I've found are Harvey Bay, Coffs Harbour, Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg. None of these are in the sim (yet). I‘m pretty sure they haven‘t been there for too long (not 100% sure though).

Edited May 18, 20233 yr by Shack95