Google Earth

[EHM-1001 Robert]

It is fantastic !

I was looking for Nürnberg airport and found an amazing photo resolution ! Even the ground crew is recognizable, and the adverts on top of vehicles ! I have not seen such a resolution in Europe yet, only in USA.

I think a new era is coming for airport scenery builders

[EHM-1703 Philip]

My Favourite is the Microsoft Live Maps.... With the Birdseye view, just try exploring Heathrow, its fantastic!!!

MSN Live Maps Heathrow

Just click the link for "Birds Eye View" at the top of the map!

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Amazing !

I did not know there is another product for such views. The birds eye is really cool. Although I prefer the pan+zoom system and speed of Google Earth. Although I use the "offline" version not the one from web browser.

[EHM-1671 Ben]

Robert, are you using the free version? I never found anything like that on mine...

[EHM-2097 Andrei]

I'm not sure whether this answers Ben's questions, but i use the free version and from time to time I run into spots where the image resolution is fabulous (just to be sure, I checked EDDN too right now).

I made a brief comparison with MS Live Maps for a few reference locations and IMHO GoogleEarth gets a higher "score". My first concern is having an acceptable resolution everywhere on earth, as I need for the world tour.

However, I am not sure whether scenery builders will greatly benefit because, as image spatial resolution is continually enhancing, the TIME resolution diminishes. Or, to say it more plainly, some images are really old.

In the romanian FS forum, someone "discovered" one day that a province airport was rendered on GoogleEarth in high detail. In fact, so high was the detail that some military jets were visible... but local posters wrote that those aircraft were removed from there more than 5 years earlier.

So I suggest GoogleEarth (and probably MS Live Maps too) are of better use for geographical features than city buildings, which change faster than their images

Andrei

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Well, I would agree for the most part Andrei, these Sat Maps are old, The link above shows Terminal 5 at Heathrow in Live Maps during its early construction (Probably 2003/2004) and it is far more advanced than that now in fact for the most part it is finished! Funnily enough, the initial Satellite image shows Terminal 5 in it's early stages but if you click on the birds eye view, it miraculously gets almost completed and the image is probably less than a year old!

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Yes I use the Free Google Earth. That just satisfies my needs

What I hate though is the system they merge the images. I remember many places that I checked once, and a little later a 2-3 year older image was placed there...

The most funny place I found was EDDF Frankfurt, where a taking-off B747 was visible in 4-5 more copies on the following images next too