What about a real time update of sim maps with Bing Maps?

Putting aside the World Updates, lately I have been pretty surprised to see that current in-sim aerial textures don’t match with the latest Bing Maps in most parts of the world.

The satellite images obviously aren’t updated real time in the sim.

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Bing doesn’t even update their own maps… Google updates every 4-6 months, Bing hasn’t updated in almost 3 years in my area

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Over 7 years in the Boston area.

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I guess MSFS doesn’t use the exactly same maps. If you look closely on Bing Maps you can often see where textures connect because they suddenly have different colours or are even from a different time of year.
So I guess the MSFS team has to manually alter and select aerial textures so they fit together smoothly. Doesn’t work everywhere but in essence works pretty well.

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It depends, I was surprised to find out that for my area (Geneva, Switzerland), Bing has more recent aerials than Google (but only Google has photogrammetry).

Maybe live satellite pictures will be with us in 5 or 10 years time but I don’t think that Microsoft or asobo quite have the technology yet. If that ever happens that will probably complete my 30 year old dream for flight simulators.

Actually, I would prefer OpenStreetMap for updated scenery in cities. It has a runners community with GPS devices supporting the process. You run the track, which is registered in OpenStreetmaps. When it sees a difference, it’s going to report that, or it even allows you to adjust it yourself ! This way, scenery is always much more recent.

I found a place in Luxemburg city (Adolphe bridge) that has 2017 scenery… or even earlier… in Bing as well as Google Earth, this 2016-2017 scenery is still shown. And it was very badly copied into MSFS… I’ve put a Zendesk ticket about it, no response since May 1 :cat:

I shudder to think of the privacy issues that will come out of there.

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Oddly, Bing data in my area is more recent than Google’s. It’s about a year old. The old data prior (and what I see in the sim) is anywhere from 5-10 years old. Google’s data is 3-4 years old.

You can’t get real time update, everything goes to AZURE first to generate trees, building, missing building, and improve Bing to match in the sim, then with update it get in MSFS.

i mention it before, before this bing bug, i was sure israel places without bing textures was security thing, but after this bug i go to bing map and found that’s place have textures, in the game - absent

Hello. Where or how can i take a look in Bing Maps? When i search for Bing Maps in Google, i get only a Microsoft Browser Website, but no Maps… Thanks?

The most glaring example to me is seeing the pointed blob that is Salem Power Station being poorly rendered every time I take off at my favorite local airport KVBY. Granted it was once one of the most notable items in our skyline with four large smokestacks the first of which was torn down in 2013. While Bing on the left has far better colors than Google’s cartoonish brightness the data being so far behind makes it a bit useless.

On the left, Bing showing about 2013/ Google on the right somewhere 2018ish?

Thanks! But when i open your link to Bing Maps with my Smartphone, i get always the Microsoft Browser :see_no_evil:

Oh, on my Laptop i get the Maps…

Guess it doesn’t work on smartphones.

So, it takes quite a bit of work to bring Bing Maps into the sim. They have to do color matching, and deal with misalignments and bad data and do general cleanup. Then, as someone else pointed out, they they have to process it through BlackShark AI and Azure to populate the vegetation and roads and buildings. So it’s not as simple as just bringing the textures in.

But, they did talk about this subject in one of the recent Q&A’s. Essentially, they said they haven’t really updated a whole lot, except for some areas during World Updates, since release. They said now that the Xbox version is released, several people will be released and Jorg said he does want to start bringing some updated Bing textures into the sim going forward.

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But there are no “updated Bing maps” to draw from, all of Bing’s data is comparatively ancient.

guys, just so as to mind you, Bing Maps don’t even have any mobile app, unlike Google Maps and Google Earth.

I think it’s just a matter of investment, seems like MS no longer care a fig about it.

However, unless the approach changes and they start to invest in and improve their maps, no body will give a whoop about it, barring us, the avid flight sim fans.

the weird thing, tho, is that the web version of the Bing Maps prompt year 2021 at the bottom, which ever part you pan onto around the world.