Bing Satellite Imagery

  • Wow, I never realized you could leave the project and return

    It already does. In the Actions area of the left sidebar, select "Choose Actions To Run" and check what you want to run.

    I thought it was possible, but I had an issue trying to get it 'restarted'. I would reload AeroScenery but 'Start' would be grayed out. I just realized that though the tiles were outlined in orange, I had to re-select them to bring them into focus which enabled 'Start' (face palm). Works great!
    Thanks Nick!
    -- Rich

  • nickhod,

    I vote for the "Save Project File" capability that you thought of that we could then provide to each other and get the exact same aerial imagery even though it would take overnight sometimes. Yes, the issue of "photoshopping" the images might be left to the user with some written down tips but still just getting the raw imagery correctly would be a great start.

    Thanks much

    Dave W.

  • This topic is all very interesting but all the comments I have seen in relation to Bing usage in various threads are just hearsay. No-one other than myself has actually produced any evidence that shows the details of what was asked and the full response from Bing, including who made the response. I'm not suggesting anyone is making anything up, but unless you know the actual details of the full request, the full response and the respondent's identity, how would you know if the response is relevant? You could say my email screen shots are not real evidence either, but I am too busy creating scenery and cultivation to have time to forge emails.

    I also think it matters who asks Bing the question. A hobbyist wanting to share with other hobbyists for free is different to a software developer wanting to share stuff for free with hobbyists who use the software they sell. The is no profit in the 1st but indirect profit in the 2nd. I think Bing recognises this difference which may explain the differences in responses to myself and IPACS.

    It also matters that your question gets to the right area. As anyone who has ever rung their bank for advice can attest, it who you talk to that matters. If your question only makes it to the customer support area or the junior in the licensing department who started last week, then they are more likely to say no to your request because they are not qualified to answer your question. However I think just by pure luck my request made it to someone who was qualified to answer the question, the Business Development Manager of Bing Licensing. Unless of course he only started last week. :)

    But the best advice is "If in doubt, don't", and do you really want to spend hours uploading your scenery anyway? I think the real solution to scenery sharing are programs like AeroScenery and scenProc, and tutorials and source files that let you get the best out of them easily. Once you have a handle on these you can pump out scenery very quickly, AND pick the level of detail that best suits YOU.

    Thanks, Chris

    Win 10 64-bit, 24GB RAM, i5-9400F @ 3.9, 6GB Nvidia RTX-2060

  • I contacted the same chap asking about downloading Bing satellite images to make photo real scenery for my aviation hobby and got the thumbs up.

    Reply from Bing Micro Soft below..........................

    Good evening Michael,

    As long as you are creating derivative content or data and providing proper attribution, you should dbe fine in this respect.

    If you wish to discuss further, I am happy to arrange a brief chat.

    Have a great evening!

    Adam Williams | Bing Maps Licensing | Business Development Manager

    For those in doubt just drop a line to Bing they seem more than happy to help.

    Best wishes, Michael :)

  • As a community it looks like we still need two things to move forward.

    The end goal is to share high quality scenery at low cost.

    1) Access to free/low cost file sharing, capable of sharing files in the tens of gigabytes.

    This is to share hand made, USGS and possibly Bing images, edited or raw, all legally sharable.

    2) Crowd funded purchase of aerial imagery from various vendors.

    There are many vendors supplying regions with different quality and different dated imagery.

    There are other alternatives to (2) for some regions. For example, some local governments may be willing to supply or sponsor imagery for publicity and cultural reasons.

  • What we need is for someone with the time and means to set up a site that does number one above. I am now reasonably convinced that Bing doesn't mind us sharing their scenery in our projects if it is for free. Now we need a sugar daddy!

    I did all of the US and Western Europe to my own satisfaction. It took me months of almost full time computer time and editing, and it can't be shared because of my source material. We can't expect everyone to do the same.

  • What we need is for someone with the time and means to set up a site that does number one above. I am now reasonably convinced that Bing doesn't mind us sharing their scenery in our projects if it is for free. Now we need a sugar daddy!

    I did all of the US and Western Europe to my own satisfaction. It took me months of almost full time computer time and editing, and it can't be shared because of my source material. We can't expect everyone to do the same.

    It may be time to try to bring Kenneth back into the fold. He has some super connections to folks with storage capacity for flight sims.

    Regards,

    Ray