More on EarthProxy/Google Earth View

[jschall]

Here's another update on Robbie McElrath's excellent work-in-progress, EarthProxy/Google Earth View. This video was made with version 1, so it is locked to the forward direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6yvUUVKfJQ

I am working with Robbie to test version 1.1, which adds the ability to look around 360 degrees using the hat switch.

More info here:
http://fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads....432575/page-3

I think this is a great addition to FSX and P3D. Who needs Orbx scenery anymore? :-)

[griphos]

Got some work to do, but I'd buy that.

[Javis]

Totally A M A Z I N G!!

How big would be the chance of seeing the near future of scenery display in FSX/P3D here ??...... (normal VC, external model and other view modes incorporated of course)

I have a big hunge it will instantly boost my slightly fading interest in virtual flight as it is today... ( sure i have lots of Orbx stuff, France VFR, REX, etc and so on.. ;-)

Thanks a lot of the HU, jschall !

[Bone]

good stuff!

[ejoiner]

This is very interesting. it might be my only shot at getting a semi-accurate representation of the city of Atlanta and surrounding areas. The default in FSX and P3D are both complete crap. In XP11, the city is even more of a joke. Just place holder buildings. (allowance for that sim being in beta.)

As this my home area, I would like to be able to identify key landmarks etc for VFR flying. Its too bad none of the commercial scenery folks have touched ATL beyond the airport. to be able to connect FSX or P3D to Google earth would be fantastic.

[blanston12]

Things to node, if you compare the weather in the large google earth screen with the small FSX window in the corner you see they don't match. Google earth has had a flight sim mode for some time and it looks like what they have done is to link the position of the aircraft in FSX with the position of the AC in google earth, the google earth scenery is not in FSX and the FSX aircraft is not in google earth.

But having said that, I think its pretty cool and will probably try it out.

[jschall]

the google earth scenery is not in FSX and the FSX aircraft is not in google earth.

Yes.

There is no weather in Google Earth, but lots of scenery with 3D buildings.

In my FSX, there is just Fair Weather, and Orbx Global scenery.

The FSX window doesn't even have to be visible, as long as there is a virtual set of instruments and a moving map, both provided in this case by Plan-G.

For low-and-slow VFR sim flying, it doesn't get better than this. And it will only get better as more developers get involved.

[BendyFlyer]

Well I think this is a very impressive concept. I liked it a lot and I think you are now looking at the embryonic replacement of FSX and Prepare 3D.

I actually don't think it would be too difficult a coding job to merge this google earth as the external world with a flight simulator or visa versa but you can bet it will not be a MS product, X-Plane is probably a better software fit, besides MS and Google are hardly going to cooperate in anything as Google keeps stealing MS dinner bit by bit.

I only have two reservations which are the hard bits - first, there is no Google Earth by NIGHT, so it is a day scenery at the moment.

Second, no weather but I am sure with enough incentives you could code a dynamic weather texture engine into this, maybe because that texture rendering would have to be compliant with and do the same process as Google earth does, but I would be pretty optimistic that if Google could be persuaded there was value in this then it would be done, same as integrating a flight simulator engine such as X-Plane.

[Ganter]

Some very interesting work being done on this. I would forecast that this is the future of flight sims. In a few years time we'll have this background with overlays for weather/ traffic/ ai, perhaps people flow, etc.
The scenery could be cached according to the parameters of the flight plan filed. Then, the core graphics coding sets to work to overlay and interpolate allowing for the superimposing of the above (needed) elements to provide near 100% immersion.

Great stuff and watching with interest to see how this unfolds.

[roger-wilco-66]

Due to the missing vital elements like weather, night and AFCAD it probably would be better to feed selected GE vector / map data and the GE objects into the sim!



Cheers,
Mark

[jschall]

Sightseeing in the Robinson, using version 1.1 of Robbie's EarthProxy:

[jschall]

The father-son team of Robert and Robbie McElrath have released their latest creation:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/thr...xy-1-2.439969/

Now, you fly over the Google Earth desktop application rather than the web application.

The joystick hat switch lets you pan Google Earth around.

And now, you can fly over Google Earth running on a separate networked PC, rather than on the FSX PC.