Photogrammetry is great from above, but when you fly low, it’s a bit of a disaster. Here for example is where photogrammetry meat default scenery in Hobart.
I don’t know if with AI we could procedurally make building look like there real life counter-part, but with clean texture? For example, based on color, it could see it’s a brick wall, where the windows are, what’s the shape of the roof, etc.
Here we can see the main shape of the building, where cars could be generated, there are some solar panel on the roof, etc. I don’t know if it’s something an AI can be trained for.
Without being like a perfect real life building, it could be much more pleasing for people flying low and want something the most realistic possible.
I know my example above isn’t what people are experiencing normally in the sim, but it’s representing how photogrammetry need a lot of improvements.
I think it’s a great idea. In fact, there was a thread in the forums where I said that this may happen in the future.
I’m no AI expert, but I wonder what’s stopping them from doing this today. It could require a massive amount of manpower to train the AI system to fix this, with all of the possible photogrammetry scenarios there are.
I did some tests around Ottawa area in the sim and I would like to add more details to my previous post.
First of all, my internet speed is bad (Canada’s price suck for a better speed) so I had to wait like 2 minutes to have a fully detailed photogrammetry.
I did some comparisons and sorry if screenshots are weirdly angled. I still don’t fully understand how to control the drone camera.
Photogrammetry seems good overall, however, textures are flat and my idea of mixing photogrammetry and AI texturing could be great to add reflections or more detailed building.
So overall here is my final result: Photogrammetry
+Better imagery
+Great from a distance to really feel like you visit the city
-Flat Texture and low resolution buildings (maybe dependent of my internet speed)
-Can’t fly under bridges
Procedural content:
+High resolution textures on buildings
+Faster to load if you have bad internet connection
+Fly under bridges
-Building texture don’t match what they are in real life
-Low resolution satellite imagery
Some questions:
Will photogrammetry ever support seasons? I mean, seasons are coming in 2024, so I wonder if you will have snow and magic! City is fully green!
Will AI finally fix bridges in the sim?
I’m glad they fixed flat trees with photogrammetry. Only remains to fix flat bushes.
AI integration for creating better scenery would be a vast improvement, and AI is way more powerful than it was when FS2020 released three years ago. As an example, I wish I had a screen-grab to share, IF you use GoogleMaps VR, the buildings are almost 100% accurate without the “bleeding nuclear meltdown” effect we see with FS photogrametery. Please correct me if I am wrong…
Either way, perhaps now that Bing is starting to integrate AI into its algorithms, we may see a for more realistic land/cityscape in the future… Maybe FS2024…?
