Googler Earth as a photoreal source

[JohnC]

Hi all...I have had no success getting sequential screen captures from Google Earth Plus to overlay properly. Has anyone tried to stitch together a large mosaic of screen images? I would like to see a 1 meter/pixel custom photoreal scroll by flying low and slow in FSX , but I suspect Google Earth has put a barrier in the way . Has anyone any success here?

[Jessy]

Hi,

be advised that google earth may not be used for this kind of purpose since google earth gets it's pictures from company's who ask a lot of money for it. I remember someone making a scenery with photoreal ground and they had a very good photo, for EBBR I believe it was €25 per person in the design group.

[JohnC]

I read the EULA to mean you couldn't distribute the photoreal images. Maybe I'm wrong here..but ...there is a guy at www.stitchmaps.com who sells a Euro35 pkg that assembles the images. Maybe a lawyer here could clarify(fat chance ).

[saabpilot]

Stitchmaps only provide the means of stitching the maps together.
You are still required to obtain a licence from Google or any other source which is almost impossible.

Google prohibits the spreading of their imagery to a third party in whatever form, this legally means that you are risking a legal process for infringement of their rights as soon as you "publish" anything, freeware or payware.

Be aware this can be a very costly thing that will ruin your day (and days)

If you use stitchmap/Google to produce a scenery within your own computer they will probably not notice this but stay away from publishing or hand it out by other means.

Bjorn

[JohnC]

Thanks for the cautionary notes...no Google image will ever leave my PC.

[neinnunb]

Ive been using the FSX terrain SDK to make photo terrain with Google Earth mosaic. The tedious part is stitching the google screenshots and then adding autogen to the BGL. My largest project so far has been about a 300 screenshot mosaic. Its a shame I cant share with everyone because of copyrights. So far its very accurate in a 10x10 mile area which is the largest Ive done. Roads and rivers in the photo line up perfectly with default roads and rivers on the edges of the scenery.

Heres a small screenshot of Mt Saint Helens which I did one afternoon. It was a small mosaic of about 30 Google screenshots and covered the volcano itself and a little bit around it:



Its a ton of work in large projects but at the end very gratifying.

If theres any particular step you are having trouble with let me know and I'll try to help.

[JohnC]

Thank you for the offer to help. You can't get much better than your Mt St Helen's...however, I have not been able to get perfect overlays of city streets by stitching images together taken from 1000 feet up. I have Google Earth Plus and when you overlay two images with the same two placemarks, and they don't overlay BETWEEN the placemarks, something is fishy here.

[neinnunb]

Hmm, so you are having problems with the actual stitching of the adjacent screenshots?

The first thing I would check is to see if you have the "Terrain" layer OFF in Google Earth. If the area you are trying to get is hilly then every time you pan you'll get some distortion or parallax because of the camera angle. When you turn off terrain layer you'll then get a perfectly flat image. Also make sure you are always oriented north before you start taking screenshots. Hope that helps.

[MaRiO FDZ]

Originally Posted by neinnunb

Hmm, so you are having problems with the actual stitching of the adjacent screenshots?

The first thing I would check is to see if you have the "Terrain" layer OFF in Google Earth. If the area you are trying to get is hilly then every time you pan you'll get some distortion or parallax because of the camera angle. When you turn off terrain layer you'll then get a perfectly flat image. Also make sure you are always oriented north before you start taking screenshots. Hope that helps.

Hi, I love your Mt. St. Helen's pic... WOW. I'm trying to do something similar, buuut.... I'm not sure. I just want to increase the size FS2004 displays my town. I.E. Bigger rural area. At first I thought Ah, it should be easy with Google earth... apparently, I guess it is not XD haha....

So how could I do that (the urban spot increase)?? Would you recommend the stitching part?? Thanks

Take Care

Mario Fdz

[fsxjunkie]

Guys, here is something that can really help you....an all in one.

Its called FSET, or FS earth tiles, and it downloads the imagery off wherever, stiches it, adds lighting, night lighting, and season effects, and turns it into a bgl (FS Scenery) all with one click of a button.

Info here: (better than I can explain it): http://fspassengers.com/forum/read.p...&t=6835&page=0

As said before, DONT use this to make any distributable sceneries, that is against many EULAs and stuff like that


Anyway, hope this helps.
-M

www.flightsimdesigns.com

[BrBlazer]

Originally Posted by fsxjunkie

Guys, here is something that can really help you....an all in one.

Its called FSET, or FS earth tiles, and it downloads the imagery off wherever, stiches it, adds lighting, night lighting, and season effects, and turns it into a bgl (FS Scenery) all with one click of a button.

Info here: (better than I can explain it): http://fspassengers.com/forum/read.p...&t=6835&page=0

As said before, DONT use this to make any distributable sceneries, that is against many EULAs and stuff like that


Anyway, hope this helps.
-M

www.flightsimdesigns.com

Hello friend,

I managed to make it work with VE and Yahoo, but cannot get Google Earth tiles to work, and the area I'm on right now only has good images in google.

Please see my post here regarding this and if you can help, many thanks:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...91&postcount=4

Kindly,

Blazer