If you use the flight simulation programs MSFS or XPlane, you can now link Google Earth to these programs. This is a development that will significantly improve the experience of flight simulation.
There have been several attempts in the past to link Google Earth to flight simulation programs, without much success. One of GEvision’s creators at Planet In Action commented: "In the past, various attempts had been made to use Google Earth scenery instead of the one included in Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX. Yet due to limitations in the interface technology this has never been fully achieved. GEvision is a new project that will enable the use of Google Earth as a full blown 3D scenery engine."
In anticipation of GEvision’s launch, users had this key question on their minds: will the images from Google Earth fully replace the graphics in flight simulator? This is in view of the fact that some details in flight simulator far exceeds what Google Earth offers, for instance, the detailed 3D models of various airports or the weather phenomena that make flights very realistic.
It is expected that in the near future GEvision will become a server solution where a user can have many computers which render a wide variety of views for a surround visual system. The developers of GEvision are currently carrying out some experiments to simulate weather, and this is expected to significantly improve the flight simulator’s experience. A combination of perfect scenery and weather scenario will help users to have a simulation experience that closely resembles reality.
At the time of this announcement, the creators of GEvision stated that they were planning to introduce GEvision to the public at Google IO Developers conference in May 2010 in San Francisco.
GEvision marks an important step in flight simulation – it means that Microsoft Flight Simulator X can get significantly improved graphics with satellite pictures from Google Earth.
The company has a series of videos and screen shots that describe GEvision, how it works, and how to install and use it.
