Photogrammetry rez @ low level - good or bad?

[ThrottleUp 638]

Hi simmers 😎

My worry for this amazing looking new sim is that the landscape looks stunning  - from high up. But for simmers like me who fly low and slow in the weeds through valleys & doing STOLs onto gravel banks how will the resolution of this "photogrammetry" hold up from 500ft doing 80kts?

I confess I have never been a fan of "photo scenery" in FSX, X-Plane 11 etc. because (to me) it just looks unnatural. Again - very nice from FL390 in a 777 but once down low it looked rubbish. Like a poster printed on a 1980s printer and glued onto the landscape.

Am I mistaken to worry about how FS2020 will look when it comes to low and slow? Would be interested to hear from you all - specially fellow virtual back-country pilots.

[LHookins 3,118]

We've seen official screen shots and short videos of aircraft flying low.  They don't look bad at all.  

As one virtual back-country pilot to another, I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised.

Hook

[Will Fly For Cheese 1,710]

I have to say I agree - I'm a bush-flying fan and sometimes never happier than when skipping tundra tyres over water to then make a gravel bar landing.

I really hope it's going to look good. I hope my home airfield and surroundings is going to look great at 1500'. I can't remember the last time I flew above FL100. (Transition level in EASA countries is 6000')

Edited June 24, 2020 by Will Fly For Cheese

[tonywob 4,825]

If you have a VR headset, give the Google Earth app a try. It will give you a pretty good idea of how it looks

[yanfeng12342000 132]

31 minutes ago, tonywob said:

If you have a VR headset, give the Google Earth app a try. It will give you a pretty good idea of how it looks

That does not sound good.😅

[MaVe64 414]

 

I don't know what flight sim you're talking about, doesn't look bad at all to me....

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by MaVe64

[tonywob 4,825]

1 hour ago, yanfeng12342000 said:

That does not sound good.😅

On the contrary, it's pretty amazing. But you get up close, it falls apart. For a flight sim, it's certainly good enough

[Heavy Metal 83]

Judging from the screenshots in the thread comparing satellite photos vs the sim representation, I would assume that it will indeed look superior than Google Earth for most parts, due to the way the AI is placing 3d Autogen and vegetation, including grass, the weather and lightning etc.

In regards to the resolution, however, there also was an official video which showed some not that convincing looking photo scenery images to be honest, so regarding the overall quality outside ot the show casing material, we will have to wait and see. For sure there will be great areas and very certain there will be less convincing areas...

I guess you could always switch to the offline scenery which in my current understanding is more of a landclass based approach. How much information and graphical quality is lost (or gained) that way, I do not know. Also not aware, if / how the AI will react or if there might be an option that the AI can be online without using satellite images (or if it is not possible as it might rely on these images to determine the autogen positions to "build" in the sim).  

But I would hope/assume that Asobo will ensure that the next gen scenery will also look convincing on low altitudes or when landing on terrain (again, the grass coverage moving in the wind just looks fantastic no matter what might be underneath it). Of course this will also depend on the power of the PC you are running the sim on, I guess.

Well, too much to speculate at the moment... we will find out sooner or later this year.

 

[KenG 492]

All of those photos are hand selected to show off the best aspects by Microsoft's marketing.

You should not expect every location in the entire world to look that good. Pick an out of the way back country airfield with low quality aerial photography and you can expect something less. However, that should not distract as what they are doing is absolutely amazing. But, AI can only go so far and at some point a human hand will need to make the minor fixes. Hopefully, they will give us all an easy to use tool.

Edited June 24, 2020 by KenG
Clairity

[Dominique_K 10,156]

26 minutes ago, KenG said:

 . But, AI can only go so far and at some point a human hand will need to make the minor fixes. H 

I really wish that MS would release an EP on Blackshark.ai because I think that the use of AI is misunderstood and underestimated including in its learning process.

 

[Dominique_K 10,156]

2 hours ago, tonywob said:

If you have a VR headset, give the Google Earth app a try. It will give you a pretty good idea of how it looks

You mean, no need to buy Orbx TE sceneries ? Flying GE would be enough ?

[LHookins 3,118]

1 hour ago, KenG said:

Pick an out of the way back country airfield with low quality aerial photography

Actually, that's what I've been doing. 😄

 

[tonywob 4,825]

53 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

You mean, no need to buy Orbx TE sceneries ? Flying GE would be enough ?

Not sure how you came to that conclusion... but Google Earth in VR has 3D photogrammetry cities and you can fly around and see the detail up close or fly over it.

https://arvr.google.com/earth/

It gives a pretty good idea of the limitations of photogrammetry

[snglecoil 1,829]

Just now, tonywob said:

It gives a pretty good idea of the limitations of photogrammetry

Like you said, while in flight, photogrammetry offers a pretty remarkable experience. Go into the Microsoft Maps app or Google Earth and you can see that the experience is really good above what I estimate would be about 400-500 ft AGL. The I speculate that the street-level experience in photogrammetry areas may not meet a few lofty expectations I've read.Surely AI can help in mask some things, but certainly not all. For example, find a parking lot full of cars and zoom in using one of those map apps. Looks fine at altitude, but really falls apart at street level. Maybe AI could help clean those areas...but that's a pretty big task.  But who knows, if they can place trees based on AI analysis, then maybe those areas are or could be handled in the future too. 

[tpete61 262]

5 hours ago, ThrottleUp said:

Hi simmers 😎

My worry for this amazing looking new sim is that the landscape looks stunning  - from high up. But for simmers like me who fly low and slow in the weeds through valleys & doing STOLs onto gravel banks how will the resolution of this "photogrammetry" hold up from 500ft doing 80kts?

I confess I have never been a fan of "photo scenery" in FSX, X-Plane 11 etc. because (to me) it just looks unnatural. Again - very nice from FL390 in a 777 but once down low it looked rubbish. Like a poster printed on a 1980s printer and glued onto the landscape.

Am I mistaken to worry about how FS2020 will look when it comes to low and slow? Would be interested to hear from you all - specially fellow virtual back-country pilots.

Yes you are definitely mistaken to be worried.

The Sim is an unfinished product until we see the final release I wouldn't be worrying about something like this. It appears from what they have shown to be better than anything else currently on the market. So not sure what the "worry" is all about.