good point 
What I have to say is that I can play Prepar3D with much better photogrametry provided by community (taken from Google maps). I uusally remove everything but the photos, and from some distance you can see the REAL WORLD, not just something more or less credible.
The problem is that I have to isntaal on my computer those data, instead of downloading from a server (like MSFS does with Bing).
In my opinion MSFS would focus on pushing Bing to be much better. Besides photogrammetry, there are many people and companies improving different parts of the world with hand made buildings, meshes, etc, and that work could be implemented in the general Bing data if they receive any reward. I am just thinking on how wikipedia works.
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I wonāt be satisfied with BING MAPS until I can count the weeds on my front lawn. Or see how many fish are in the pond!
Cheers,
PACO572
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I do hope at some point they update world graphics with updated Bing data. There are a lot of areas Iāve flown where I cross-checked Bing and Google data. Obviously, most of the time Google was better, which is to be expected.
But a lot of areas have had Bing updates in the last year since MSFS was updated. Unfortunately, MSFS uses Bing data that can be up to 10 years old and seriously out of date. I donāt expect real time updates (as in Bing updates and MSFS updates automatically), but at least a yearly import of updated Bing satellite / aerial imagery would be nice.
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Why?
Seriously, is anyone using bing for search or maps?
I didnāt even knew about bing maps prior to FS2020 and I barely knew bing as search. Some competition for google is certainly good to have. But if Iād ask around my friends, I bet pretty much nobody would know anything about bing.
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The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube.
Iāve seen some houses near me that in Bing still show as being built, but have been up for well over a year now. Most complaints seem to stem from a user having intimate knowledge of the area they are referring to. This is to be expected, and has been mentioned many times before. I think any of the photogrammetry cities look great as I have never visited most of them, except London, but that seems to be a special case.
Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say.
Letās not lose sight that what this sim has done with streaming the world around you to your system is still very new. It will evolve and improve over the coming years.
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my dream is that super satellites will not do the job as their 2D predecessors but they will soon rather render a living 3D model of our planet, like photogrammetry of the entire world, perhaps not real time but being updated at given prescribed intervalsā¦
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Some posts proposing a certain mod that replaced Bing Maps was removed as it pushes the limits of legality, and definitely is not endorsed for use with MS Flight Simulator. Weāre reopening the thread, but please do not raise such products for discussion here. Thanks.
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How spoiled we have become.
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We need to step back from the trees for a moment and look at the forest.
Take a couple of hours and do a little research on the AI and technology that has brought us our flight sim world. To begin with, the sim is not streaming Bing Maps. The sim is streaming a database of squares that have been generated using Bing Mapās data and various other sources. An outside company was contracted to run those data sets through a ground breaking proprietary algorithm that is capable of creating a 3d representation of the data fed in. This information is then blended with another system that tries to recognize specific images as usable airports that are overlaid. All this is blended with elevation data from, God only knows, how many data sets. When all this is brought together, we have a computer/AI generated representation of a given square.
I am sure that when MS/Asobo had those scenery squares generated they were using the best data at their disposable, at that time. I would not want to guess what the cost was to create those tiles, but I am sure that this is NOT something that will be done every time the data is updated on one of the sources. If the image of your house was ten years old when the data was processed. Sending fresh drone footage to Bing Maps today will be a long time updating in MSFS.
I, for one, am pretty stoked when I decide to do a VFR bush trip and can actually follow a forest access road into the mountains to fly over my favorite fishing holes. Even if the weed lines have changed a bit in the last few seasons.
Maybe when MS has sold 250,000,000 copies a new arrangement can be negotiated with the various parties involved to get real time satellite imagery updated in the sim, in real time.
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Do you think the forum moderators are working on the sim?
In effect that is what community mods are.
Just saw this post. I 100% FULLY AGREE. Google Maps and Google Earth and leaps and bounds better than Bing for 99% of global coverage. This is BY FAR needed before having a select handcrafted area that helps one specific region.
Many areas of the globe, particularly that are in remote places that would be interesting to fly, are lacking ANY satellite coverage and we get generic textures WORSE than FS2000 (clearly limited effort was made in those areas). I have taken several long haul 787 flights over remote areas lacking Bing coverage and itās a joke - worse than FS2000. After the flight, Iād revisit these areas in Good Earth Flight Simulator (yes it has a very basic one), the ground texture satellite details are orders of magnitude better and more realistic in Google Earth āflight simā than MSFS2020 in these remote areas.
Google Earth is a much better āscenery simulatorā than MSFS outside the handcrafted and PG areas. In fact Google Earth is arguably better than MSFS PG for some of the newer areas. Iām able to smoothly āflyā around New York and London in 3D PG in Google Earth on an old 6th gen i5 mobile laptop with integrated graphics.
There are two approaches to this:
-
Push MSFS to make Bing better. And for the areas where there is not yet Bing satellite coverage, make the generic textures much better - use regional satellite data to create region specific textures for both rural and city areas. What they use now is a TOTAL JOKE. Tundra Russia looks the same as parts of Afghanistan and the same as part of central Africa. It looks cartoonish and far worse than FS2000!.
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Opportunity for X-Plane and/or Prepar3D to up their scenery game to next gen by partnering with Google Earth and/or having Google partner with X-Plane and/or Prepar3D to have a competitor next gen sim.
I donāt have contacts in Google, X-plane, or Prepar3D, but that is an opportunity.
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Having updated sattelite images is one thing. I think Bing will be updated progressively and I donāt expect to have a yearly update for instance.
However, a lot of lands are not yet avalaible from Bing and look like old FSX tiles, except if youāre at 30 000 feets. I would very much like that they cover to whole earth with satelite image that we can benefit at 3000 feets, which is not the case right now.
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I understand your argument.
However, donāt take your case as the only reality: you think that the ground accuracy seen at 12000 feet is sufficient, but many people like to fly at 2000 or 3000 feet or even lower.
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@GlobalFlyer2020 @Guillaume3511
Folks, we are way off getting even yearly tile updates. I would not want to even guess how long the AI process for ?? PETABytes (I forget how many) of data would take. I am sure that Black Shark and the rest of the contractors would love to have an annual update contract, but this is an entertainment title and the cost would be astronomical. You want to pay a subscription? This would be a sure way to get there.
What an awkward discussionā¦
Catching my grandfather shoplifting in a womenās lingerie store would be an awkward conversation.
This is pretty straight forwardā¦
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Hmmm, Seems some folk are happy to settle for the āitāll doā. And thatās fair enough!
But in my opinion, graphical fidelity is a core feature, and Bing is integral to that.
One more reason then to stop [a temporary measure] funding all the none core, peripheral,
gamification projects and spend those pennies on, amongst other core functions, making
Bing fit for the third millennium, and in thereby doing, MSFS 2020 too.
And thatās a fair enough opinion too!
Addendum:
FTAO the OP:
It was your [very pertinent to your argument] recourse to the word Sputnik that
attracted me to this, your thread.
Every time I see the word it reminds me of the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank
[Cheshire, England]. Back in 1957 [when Sputnik 1 āflewā] this telescope was the only facility
in the world capable of tracking Sputnikās launcher with radar.
I first saw āJoddyā as a kid, from a train, as we raced through the Cheshire countryside.
I have over the years visited there many times. On my own and with my own kids.
It it forty miles from where I now live.
Thanks for the memories. Apologies for the side line.