Real Earth terrain?

[MRC_Hans]

I suppose it is time to resurface an ancient idea. Do you know Google Earth? Otherwise do find out, it is great. Now, what I would like in a future flight sim is terrain based on sattelite photos. Of course, some terrain features, buildings, traffic, and clouds would still have to be synthesized, but it would be fantastic to fly over the real world. At present, very few people have the kind of hard disks needed to store this, so it would need to be a, possibly optional, on-line feature, like Google Earth (in fact, it could be based on that), but with a great many people having high-bandwidth, flat rate connections, that would be no problem.

Hans

[Panther_99FS]

I suppose this is possible, but if you start throwing in realistic mesh, you're looking at about a 100+GB installation easy....

[Ken Stallings]

This is only two generations of PC away from realistic!

For folks who currently own the high end systems, it is feasible right now.

And with quality mesh and excellent autogen, it would be an amazing flight sim experience! Further, the ability to carry this much data is one of the prime advantages of the PC over the game system platforms.

Ken

[Panther_99FS]

This is only two generations of PC away from realistic!

For folks who currently own the high end systems, it is feasible right now.



It's feasible as long as you have a 400GB hard drive......:kilroy:

[Ickie]

MS makes and sells Microsoft streets and tips, lol
the entire US and has a usb gps to go along with it, it is possible to do this in the USA easily, about 1 gb, I have it on my laptop.

They also own tera?? the entire planet you can look up where you live.

[MCDesigns]

Check this thread for the MS answers about using this kind of tech for FSX

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=248&topic_id=2083&mesg_id=2083&listing_type=search

[stiz]

as long as its not "Americanised" i'll be happy :)

[Ken Stallings]

Ughh, how can scenery of the United States avoid being "Americanized!" :costumes:

Ken

[MRC_Hans]

As for installation requirements, it is nothing we don't have at present. I imagine it like an advanced Google Earth. That is, whatever landscape is under you is downloaded dynamically from a central database (which will certainly be in the terabyte league). Whether aaaautogen of buildings is to be in that databese or local is a matter of development work, likewise autogen traffic, but I would really think it could be great if you were at the same time online with other simmers.

Of course, it would all cost something, but....

Hans

[CybrSlydr]

Eh... My problem is that no matter how great your satellite photos look.... It's still a 2-D photo.

All it takes is one missed building in the photo to destroy the illusion.

[MRC_Hans]

Have you looked at Google Earth? I'm not sure how they insert the elevation data, probably mesh based on cartographic data, like present FS scenery, and the resolution is not that impressive, also some of the pictures are several years old, so there is plenty of room for improvement, but I think it could be developed into something good.

One missed building will reduce the illusion, but it will still be way better than the present scenery, where all but the most prominent buildings are missing.

Hans

[CybrSlydr]

Oh yeah - I use Google Earth all the time. :D

Another problem is when you go from photo-real terrain to... non-photo-real aircraft and non-photo-real bulidings.

Have you noticed that the colors are never the same? It's... difficult to explain, but man... It just stands out so much to me.

[MRC_Hans]

Yes, lots of work to do, I didn't say it could be used right away. The different colors are because it is all a big patchwork of different shots. So move 100 yards, and suddenly the season changes. Of course for FS, you would also need dot be able to simulate seasons, and weather, so.....

I'm sure it's a big challenge, but hey, why should that keep them from trying?

Hans

[CybrSlydr]

I'm not talking about the difference in colors from satellite photos - I'm talking the difference in color/texture between photos and items/textures created on a computer.

[MRC_Hans]

OK, well that would be under our own control, wouldn't it? Of course, textures must be adated to the real world.

Well, I guess it's still a dream, but I think it would be a good future goal for flight sims that we could be flying a virtual world that was built on the real world, not just copied from it. Once we were online, other simmers might also be part of the traffic in that virtual world (that would require an ignore function ;) ).

Hans

[CybrSlydr]

I love the idea too, Hans. But we've not come far enough yet. I'd prefer a purely synthetic design so everything blends well than have 2D photoreal terrain on a 3D surface with artificial aircraft. :D

[ananda]

Look here: http://www.vfraddons.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=508 :applause: