Interesting question regarding scenery

[Masterius]

So . . . I've been rather stoked over flying the B-17 this last week, and have been talking a lot about it at work. One of my coworkers asked me, since the graphics and realism of the sim was so high, was there a way of using Google Maps/Earth for the terrain features of the airports in particular, and the world in general.

I have no answer for that.

[Pistonpilot]

There once was a neat add-on for one of Microsoft's sims (FSX I think) that loaded Google Earth data in real time as you flew. It was pretty slick and looked great minus the loss of autogen scenery. Also, this was before Google Earth had three-dimensional buildings and such, so it was very flat. However, Google noticed that the utility put quite a lot of stress on their servers and sent the person who came up with it a cease-and-desist notice to stop production of the software. They also sent a note saying it was a great idea but not one they were willing to let him pursue. I think they also sent along a tee-shirt as a gesture of good will.

Regardless, I think Google is against any such product so long as they aren't running said project and deriving revenue. There is a very basic flight sim in the download version of Google Earth, though. I think you hit control+shift+A or something to start it.


-Ian C

[Masterius]

Thank you for the reply. Can't say I blame Google for their rationale. I wonder if, instead of constantly updating scenes/flight paths, if, instead, "snapshots" could be downloaded and stored? For instance, if all I fly is Eastern Seaboard USA, just downloading once the scenery for that location and using that as you flew along.

[gibo]

So . . . I've been rather stoked over flying the B-17 this last week, and have been talking a lot about it at work. One of my coworkers asked me, since the graphics and realism of the sim was so high, was there a way of using Google Maps/Earth for the terrain features of the airports in particular, and the world in general.

I have no answer for that.

Did you know that there are 'photo real" sceneries available. The whole of the USA is available to purchase per state at Megascenery Earth. There are several Freeware downloads also available if you do a Google search.

Flying the B-17 over real scenery certainly adds to the experience.

Cheers,

gibo