Bing Maps vs Google Earth imagery

[Kpeters 42]

Ever since I got into VR I've been a Google Maps junkie going all around the world checking things out. I always wanted a flightsim that could stream those images as we fly so MSFS2020 is heaven sent in that aspect.

 

What I do wonder is the following, are Asobo using the same imagery as regular Bing Maps? I've seen that there are very grainy textures on some of the alpha screenshots and I see it's all because of Bing. 

 

Check out these images of google earth vs bing at Downtown L.A. Google is so so much better and the program in VR works flawlessly on olderhardware.

 

Seriously hoping we have something better than Bing regular. Thoughts?

 

[Heli 66]

MSFS has extra graphics processung going on, such as lighting and additional terrain textures, that will add to the realism effect.  I think the low res building textures will not be noticed as much when you have much better lighting going on in MSFS vs Google Maps.  Especially at nighttime, Google Maps just cast all buildings and terrain a greyish colors, whereas MSFS actually looks like dark sky nighttime. 

[Kpeters 42]

True the lightning and extra textures do add to the realism. I do hope Microsoft updates the textures for their Bing Maps though. Performance shouldn't be much of a problem. If you try Google Earth VR you will see how smooth it is.

[Shack95 2,698]

10 hours ago, Kpeters said:

What I do wonder is the following, are Asobo using the same imagery as regular Bing Maps?

I thought this was the case until just a minute ago when I noticed some discrepancies between Bing Maps and MSFS in one of the latest screenshots which I think is a clear indication that they have other imagery at their disposal. Compare the parked cars, the football field markings on the right or the field on the left.

[GlideBy 324]

5 minutes ago, Shack95 said:

Compare the parked cars,

For the golf club house on the left, it looks like in MSFS cars are parked on the grass, but not in the Bing image.  Maybe that is a placement error by AI/sim.  Yes, the Bing image is missing the football markings.  (For those looking, it is on the right side middle area, zoom in.)  The ground textures seem very different as well.  So maybe they are using more updated images, or maybe they use images taken at different times of the year to help simulate seasons.

Also, the sim does seem to use different building textures than Bing maps.  So I am not worried about the bad looking building in the Bing shot in the first post.

[Shack95 2,698]

11 minutes ago, GlideBy said:

Maybe that is a placement error by AI/sim. 

That was my first idea as well but then I noticed the strange way the cars are parked in the parking area on the right (the ones not parked "properly"). I can't imagine the AI doing this, rather it looks like the way real people park their cars when there's not enough space or when there's no parking markings.

[Kopteeni 819]

1 hour ago, GlideBy said:

For the golf club house on the left, it looks like in MSFS cars are parked on the grass, but not in the Bing image.  Maybe that is a placement error by AI/sim.  Yes, the Bing image is missing the football markings.  (For those looking, it is on the right side middle area, zoom in.)  The ground textures seem very different as well.  So maybe they are using more updated images, or maybe they use images taken at different times of the year to help simulate seasons.

Also, the sim does seem to use different building textures than Bing maps.  So I am not worried about the bad looking building in the Bing shot in the first post.

My guess is that the autogen vegetation (grass) on top of the satellite image is hiding the football field markings. Autogen vegetation might be a good way to hide discrepancies in satellite imagery. 

Edit: nevermind. I looked again and realized the image with football field markings is the flight sim screenshot, not the other way around

Edited March 6, 2020 by Kopteeni

[Claviateur 789]

Yes as mentioned above, among other things, what we call "decals" in the other simulator are transparent and crisp sand, rock etc textures are used to create a crisper effect over the low res aerial imagery.

I suppose a similar automated/procedural technique is used in MSFS...

Edited March 6, 2020 by Claviateur

[Kpeters 42]

7 hours ago, Shack95 said:

I thought this was the case until just a minute ago when I noticed some discrepancies between Bing Maps and MSFS in one of the latest screenshots which I think is a clear indication that they have other imagery at their disposal. Compare the parked cars, the football field markings on the right or the field on the left.

 

 

 

The links to the pictures show as broken to me, but that's interesting.

1 hour ago, Claviateur said:

Yes as mentioned above, among other things, what we call "decals" in the other simulator are transparent and crisp sand, rock etc textures are used to create a crisper effect over the low res aerial imagery.

I suppose a similar automated/procedural technique is used in MSFS...

That should be a relief though sounds like more work for asobo, wouldn't it be easier just to load better textures and keep super detailed ones for airports? Just a thought.

[Claviateur 789]

Just now, Kpeters said:

The links to the pictures show as broken to me, but that's interesting.

That should be a relief though sounds like more work for asobo, wouldn't it be easier just to load better textures and keep super detailed ones for airports? Just a thought.

It's not more work at all, it's automated. In fact we do this for the other simulator with a 3rd part app that generates photoreal/orthophoto scenery for any region of the world (as long as you have space on your disks). This tool has many options for many things concerining the photoreal scenery, including the automatic addition of a "decal" layer (sand, rocks, grass etc.). 

It's not possible to load better textures because the Aerial imagery is not consistent. Some areas have Zoom levels that go up to 19 other remote areas have much less... Yet even if the entire planet enjoys the maximum zoom level (possible resolution) of imagery, streaming and storing it would be an issue...

I uploaded the screenshot again. It shows the automated "Decal" texture application on aerial imagery in the other simulator:

 

 

[FlyIce 354]

You must be talking about Ortho4XP for X-Plane. Man, I have two 8TB drives almost full of the ortho tiles covering the whole US at ZL17 and 90% of Canada! It's fun and easy but still so much extra efforts and imperfect results. So happy seeing MSFS doing all the job for us at 100x better quality and 10000x scale covering the whole earth.

This is dream coming true, still can't believe it's happening! 

[Claviateur 789]

45 minutes ago, FlyIce said:

You must be talking about Ortho4XP for X-Plane. Man, I have two 8TB drives almost full of the ortho tiles covering the whole US at ZL17 and 90% of Canada! It's fun and easy but still so much extra efforts and imperfect results. So happy seeing MSFS doing all the job for us at 100x better quality and 10000x scale covering the whole earth.

This is dream coming true, still can't believe it's happening! 

Yes this is the app I was mentioning and I agree 100% with you... 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Claviateur

[ual763 361]

10 hours ago, Shack95 said:

I thought this was the case until just a minute ago when I noticed some discrepancies between Bing Maps and MSFS in one of the latest screenshots which I think is a clear indication that they have other imagery at their disposal. Compare the parked cars, the football field markings on the right or the field on the left.

 

 

 

Not to mention the fields of mustard blooming!  Most likely different imagery sets!  Also, could be a seasonal addition.  Either way, I like what I see!  Thanks for pointing it out 

[Shack95 2,698]

11 minutes ago, ual763 said:

Also, could be a seasonal addition.

Now that would indeed be „big things coming on the horizon!“ Fingers crossed. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Shack95

[GlideBy 324]

2 hours ago, ual763 said:

Also, could be a seasonal addition.

This was one thought I had above, "or maybe they used images taken at different times of the year to help simulate seasons."

So maybe they have four shots of this area taken at different times of the year.  Even better if they have monthly shots.

But that seems like too much to hope for.  So I wonder if they will support seasons on different levels for different areas.  For example if they only have a summer shot, they may just dump snow on it, or tint it white.  And other areas they have four seasons of satellite photos, so snow goes on the winter photo.  (This is more complex than it sounds.)