Ability to use Google Earth as flying area.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

Ability to use Google Earth as flying area.

[razo+r]

Used to be possible in google earth itself. 

[Mike_Romeo]

To expensiv for a little company like ED. Mircosoft had to use their own expensiv sattelite images for their sim.

[Mars Exulte]

Google Earth would be a pretty awful backdrop on its own (have more or less done that in Google Earth VR). I mean ''global satellite imagery'' sure, but lets at least ask for DECENT satellite imagery.

[SharpeXB]

It would be rather pointless to have the entire earth as a theater. I’d rather have smaller and more detailed, higher quality maps. 

[cfrag]

On 9/24/2021 at 1:18 PM, DmitriKozlowsky said:

Ability to use Google Earth as flying area.

If you have used Google Earth VR for a little time, you'll have come back with a couple of impressions:

• it's one hell of an impressive technological feat - in areas that are modelled
• it's quite dull everywhere else
• It's nowhere near sufficient quality for helicopters pilots nor ground views. Get close to anything in GEVR, and it still falls apart. Compare that with hand-crafted maps in DCS, and the difference is stunning. ED did one heck of a job - even if it's not that realistic.

 

It's also one thing to view the earth based on google earth; it is quite another to edit that data base to add your own mission data. While the idea is tantalizing, I'm guessing it will be a while, and hand-crafted/curated high-resolution maps will be our way to go until then.

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by cfrag

[Tank50us]

Hell, I don't even think Ace Combat uses Google Earth data in the making of their terrain. I believe the program they use is GeoEye, which I think other map makers also use as it provides very accurate terrain details, but these still require a heavy amount of work in the map editor to polish out. Let's say I take the data for.... erm... hmm... the Cuban islands. The data comes back... and... I have terrain. That's it. And it's a 3D Mesh that isn't exact because buildings and trees mess with the scanning tech. So now, I would have to go in, and smooth out those bits until the terrain looks right. And then, once that's done, I'd have to go in and place every single house, building, tree, road, street light, and shrub that exists in that region. And if things weren't fun enough, I'd also have to go in and texture it all.

 

This process can take months of work to accomplish, and that's if I have all the resources ready to go. If I don't, and I have to 'build' them, then that will mean it will take years.