I noticed the other day the Bing maps had been updated for my home town, and was wondering
IF/ When does the map used in FS2020 get Updated to match the new data ?
thanks
Greg
9 Likes
I have a similar question, the maps in my area are very old and got updated in bing maps too. I assumed I was going to have to wait for a world update to my area, but seeing as the buildings etc are mostly autogen, I guess just using the updated map could work?
In the videos before release they made it seem like the world world be updated whenever new imagery was available. I’ve yet to see that.
I think the issue is they rely mostly in Open Street Maps and not Bing for most of the game and that isn’t updated at the same time.
2 Likes
Interesting… That’s definitely not what’s happening to my area. The maps are about 5 years old (Sri Lanka) and I doubt they haven’t been updated on Bing or Open Street Maps for that long…
Bing recently updated my city as well. The data used in the sim is all over 5 years old. Bing just updated with much higher resolution imagery that’s about 6 months old.
Hopefully we can see an update in sim in the not too distant future.
3 Likes
Interesting. So the game doesn’t pull down the maps data directly from Bing?
1 Like
Think you have to wait for the world update in your region.
But for which reason? The maps are based online. I dont understand why they dont be updated immediately. Its all microsoft, its all azure.
7 Likes
The answer to that is pretty obvious.
Bing data has lots of errors, some areas are covered by clouds, others are a stiched together mess of low res images. To make MSFS look the way it does and consistently, those parts of the data have been replaced by generic textures. That’s also the reason why in some areas MSFS looks no better than old sims. This is the case when the entire satellite imagery was unusable, for example in many unpopulated parts of Russia or Alaska. In those regions the textures are often nothing like a simple repeating bitmap, like in the old days.
Of course they could have used Bing directly but that would look horrible in many places and people would publish screenshots that make the sim look very very bad.
6 Likes
They also have to colour match, remove shadows and other artefacts, and a bunch of other stuff to key the maps for the AI. Here’s a good YouTube video about the process.
4 Likes
It seems “bing map retoucher” to be a safe job for years.
3 Likes
You cannot paste and copy it from bing into microsoft. Heavy conversions need to be made here… and nowadays not as many priests are available for that job. Curious if anyone gets that AOE reference? 
Several corrections have to be made, e.g. beaches, height maps (DEM)
I don’t think we are going to see such an update despite the promises before launch.
The game maps are like 5-6 years old, and despite Bing updating their maps regularly we have yet to see an update inside the sim. I believe it is more difficult to do thank they thought, since it probably affects all the world terrain, which could be a headache since most of the buildings, terrain issues etc… would come back once updated.
Any Bing-based imagery has to be processed by BlackSharkAI to be put into a form useable in the game. That is not a real-time process. Bing imagery is not used directly. Additionally, if an airport has been expanded in the newer Bing imagery (lengthened runways, new taxiways etc.) Then the entire airport would have to be recompiled by the same process that the default airports were originally created. It would not automatically be modified/updated just because newer Bing imagery is available.
1 Like
I think you have to wait for the world update in your area ?
Well put, @HalberQuacky. I think there is a serious misconception when it comes to satellite images and MSFS. This is not like the old FSX Google image mod. MSFS does not simply pull the sat images from Bing and paste them onto the virtual globe. Every tile in Bing/Street Maps has to be processed by an outside agency, BlackShark. They are not a partner, any more than the weather provider or live traffic provider. These are outside agencies contracted for their individual expertise.
BlackShark specializes in satellite image conversion and processing using a proprietary AI. MSFS is not the only contract they have. I am sure that there is a clause in the contract with Asobo/Microsoft that determines how many updates need to be generated annually. It would surprise me if it were more than once per year. This is a very expensive process.
If you are expecting the new mall construction down the street from your house to reflect its current state, you will be very disappointed. The current scenery reflects that imagery that was available during MSFS development. By this fall we may have updated to the current imagery.
Clear rolling cache and leave it switched off, see if you really need it. After updates (16.2.0 now) it’s always a good idea to clear cache… and certainly with Bing elevation updates !
Thankyou that has explained a lot to me about why some areas look like FSX.
1 Like
The other mall changes I expect is deconstruction. No new malls going up around where I live. I think we have like 5 or 6 stores left clinging to life in our mall. Oh yea and the pizza place is still in there somehow it has survived for over 30 years. Went there when I was a young child and take my kids there now. Usually only the only people sitting there eating though. Not sure how they survive, must be a tax write off for somebody I suppose.
Are you guys flying to the mall 
?
Dang … now I also have to do check flight and see if my local malls are in the right place 