• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FSX Using Google Satellite Images Illegal?

Messages
154
Country
england
Hi,

Sorry for my late response to this topic, I just wondered if you had considered using ground polygons
at all, for the creation of your airport / airfield project ??. I belong to a forum group called the Airfield
Construction Group, we create Modern and Retro Military Scenery packages of RAF base's in the UK
and Overseas. We experienced the same issue as you are describing, regarding Satellite imagery and
the fact that you cannot include and then distribute it within your Scenery Project. ( Without a License )

I have been developing techniques over the last few years, to get the best possible and realistic look
from using just ground polygon design as an alternative.

Here are a some screenshots taken in FSX to demonstrate what can be achieved.



Capture_ETUO_FSX_Orbx_FTX_%20GLOBAL_zpsewctcahz.jpg


Capture_Rain_Effect_7_zps235e943d.jpg


Capture_301_zpszaxa6gpi.jpg


Regards,

Pete Beeby. ( Airfield Construction Group )
 
Messages
34
Country
morocco
hi peet,
this is AMAZING!
so u do the whole thing with gmax 3dsmax or sketchup and convert it via mdx in the flightsim - right?

and thanks for ur reply :)
 
Messages
154
Country
england
Hi Jonas R ,

Yes, the Ground Polygon design can be done with basically any of those tools you have mentioned.
You can then use Arno's MCX tool to compile the Ground Polygons into FSX scenery BGL's.
Its also worth mentioning, that for more basic airfield design, you could use the Ground Polygon
tool integrated into later versions of ADE.

Screenshots from our latest Scenery Project, demonstrate how we have been able to ' Colour match '
the Ground Polygon to best match Orbx Surrounding Terrain.


Capture_1x3_zpsy9n4xrdv.jpg


Capture_1x2_zps51okltip.jpg


....and this shot shows you the Ground Polygon Grass at ground level.
( You don't get grass like that from a Satellite Image LOL !! )

Capture_PB_TREE_LIB_WIP_3_zps9pzi0cif.jpg


Regards,

Pete Beeby.
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
Personally I prefer non photo scenery solutions. ORBX FTX is a great example of enhancing the scenery without photo real. As already mentioned it is flat and does not look that realistic to me. For sure the solution described above will not necessarily provide you with an exact replication of the real thing but it sure looks and feels better to me anyway ;)
 
Messages
34
Country
morocco
But not everybody has FTX so if i release it maybe some of the users will have bad ground textures :/
 

GHD

Messages
12,243
Country
england
As already mentioned it is flat and does not look that realistic to me. For sure the solution described above will not necessarily provide you with an exact replication of the real thing but it sure looks and feels better to me anyway ;)
Not to me ;)
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
But not everybody has FTX so if i release it maybe some of the users will have bad ground textures :/

Well I don't know but I am sure someone else will but I wasn't suggesting that users have FTX - just referring to how they do things
 
Messages
154
Country
england
Hi Jonas R,

...just to add, we have taken the decision to design for what most ( ACG Forum members ) of us have or
are using within FSX. It would be pretty much impossible to do a set of Ground Polygon Textures that
would blend with the Default FSX terrain as well as , ORBX , GEX and UTX terrain etc.

To give you an idea of the ' Blending ' capability possible, here are a few more shots.
( Former RAF Wattisham is shown below, with Orbx England as the surrounding terrain )

Capture_21_zpszyzgu1wz.jpg


Capture_23_zpszif41boo.jpg


Capture_22_zpsjp18qgrn.jpg


You will never see the level of detail seen in a Satellite image, but if lets say you were designing
a very small airfield, the Ground Polygon design could be much more complex. Ground Polygons
if designed correctly, have very little impact on frame rates, but remember you must be efficient
with the number of ' Texture ' draw calls ie, the number of Texture sheets used.

Regards,

Pete Beeby.
 
Messages
8
Country
unitedstates
Hello Pete

I came across this thread initiated by you by fortunate accident, and this is precisely a topic (i.e., the legality of downloading google images) which I have been agonizing upon myself. In particular, I was interested in creating large scale scenery for fsx (e.g., the entire Alps region). With this goal I spent lots of time and effort to automate the process with a script, only to come to the late realization that any direct download of google tiles (in particular in bulk format) may be non-compliant with googles rather restrictive terms (even if for strictly personal use)... What a bummer ! So I am also looking for alternate, e.g., govt., providers of satellite data without such restrictions, and start developing a new tool which can handle those. Will appreciate any information that you may have gathered relative to this, in your quest. For example, in the US, would USGS be the right source for unrestricted satellite imagery ?

Thanks.

Gopal
 
Last edited:
Messages
1,956
Country
unitedkingdom
So how does one use this method and make it look good? A noise layer over the top? I presume all of the grass is a tiled image?
 
Top