MS Flight Simulator
Google Earth (Keyhole 3) hit it big this month in popularity and amazed millions. Yes the new features are impressive but the ability to travel the globe in a virtual world is not new. Keyhole has been around for a few years as well as World Wind, Google Maps (the online version of Google Earth) and all the online road maps. Then there is also stuff like A9 where you can view real photos of city buildings (Here is New York). This is something Google is also trying to do.
Traveling within a replica of Earth can be fun which brings me to Microsoft Flight Simulator. The newest version of this game was released back near the end of 2003 and includes impressive 3D models of cities similar to that of Google Earth but with one exception. They are textured accordingly (screenshot).
It's hard to complain when the game has 219 Countries, 15416 Cities and 23760 Airports available to travel and explore.
Although the entire globe is there, not every area contains high details like this bridge screenshot. Some generic areas could even be randomly generated. This is a small disadvantage to the rural areas but still not bad considering this game is pushing 2 years old. With an Internet connection, this game even feeds you live real time weather. Imagine if the best of MS Flight Sim, MSN Virtual Earth, MS Streets & Trips and Google Earth were all combined.
Cities skylines are not bad (Chicago screenshot) and a number of landmarks are also easily seen. Here are some of my own screeshots from the game.
- Photo 1: 3Com Stadium in San Francisco
- Photo 2: Above San Francisco. You can see the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Transamerica Pyramid and the Coit Tower.
- Photo 3: SFO. Airports are the most accurate in the game for obvious reasons. Air Traffic is commonly seen in air and on runways.
- Photo 4: Toronto. Everything from the CN Tower, Skydome, BMO and the gold building.
- Photo 5 & 6: Las Vegas. Not only is the city landscape accurate but it adjust based on time of day.
Comments
Kevin Millman - July 8, 2005 1:31 am
I may have to re-install that game (boo involves booting into windows) I tried it when it was first released, but would be interesting to re-visit given your screenshots. On the Toronto one I'm pretty sure I see my office building :)
mikul - July 13, 2005 7:08 pm
the difference is in how these buildings were created -- Microsoft has graphic artists who render 3d models of individual buildings, then just plop the models where it belongs in real life.
google earth is using what looks like feature-extraction from LiDAR data...which means that some cartographic tech is just drawing polygons over a satellite image. the program that then creates the 3d model for google earth has no idea what the sides of the building look like, only the top.
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