NZTE - Te Kowhai

[mattyHamNZ]

Hi Guys,

It was great to meet a few of you (briefly mind you) at Tauranga the other day. Was flippen hot aye!!
I mentioned then, and have posted before on the subject... I have my first scenery design attempt pretty much finished and would like to release it as freeware for anyone who may be interested.

But.......I have some issues to sort out first

Firstly, the whole thing is sitting on a blend of my photography and imagery sorced from Google which creates a bit of a copywrite issue???

Secondly, the surrounding area that it sits on is all Google sourced imagery which is not blended.

Thirdly, the scenery as a whole, is only about 90% there as I haven't figured out a few minor issues and have been too busy with work to research it.



Any suggestion what I could do to get it out quickly??


Here's some screenshots...












And here is the real thing...

[NZ255]

wow that's nice. Had you had any previous experience or was this your first?

[mattyHamNZ]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Feb 13 2010, 12:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

wow that's nice. Had you had any previous experience or was this your first?

That was my first.

I downloaded Gmax mid/late last year and started reading up on scenery design. Robin Corns tutorials were a real help here!

[redkiwi]

You could try going on GoogleEarth and having a look at who owns the copyright to the photos. You may be able to get copies for cheap/free from the local council or whoever it is that holds the rights.

[Ian Warren]

Done an awesome Job there Matt , RedKiwi may have a point , maybe an idea to show exactly what your going to use it for to the people concern remember to mention it free for all users from every part off the world ... myself , have my fingers crossed ! .

[JohnM]

Fantastic effort mate should be proud,well done........

[Transit]

Well that's done it !
I will really have to get my stick back from my Mate
Fantastic work
Pete

[mattyHamNZ]

Thanks for the comments guys! I will try out the Waikato council but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[NZ255]

Just make sure they know it's for non-commercial use

[mattyHamNZ]

Has anyone else gone down the road of investigating the use of Google imagery as freeware and succeeded? I wonder if there would be a way to get a free pass for such a thing as a group for all NZ imagery? If we took them to task as a group who is not out to make a profit, then we could work together as a group to build a photoreal NZ?? Just thinking aloud?
Wouldn't that be a fantastic freeware package to have as a building platform for any future development in FSX? Payware or freeware as it would be independant.

Your thoughts??

[ZK-MAT]

I may be wrong, but I recall Robin Corn commenting on this aspect of Google images a while back. Google itself doesn't own the scenery, you simply use their software to view it. You'd have to obtain the rights to use the individual scenery tiles form the owners of the scenery - so in essence you'd have to approach quite a few organisations. Not that you couldn't do that!

[mattyHamNZ]

Here's a quote from google.... "We're flattered to hear that you're further incorporating Google Earth into your online world. You can personally use an image from the application (for example on your website, on a blog or in a word document) as long as you preserve the copyrights and attributions including the Google logo attribution. However, you cannot sell these to others, provide them as part of a service, or use them in a commercial product such as a book or TV show without first getting a rights clearance from Google.

If you require these commercial rights, please visit Google's permissions guidelines. You can then submit your application through our online request form.

Please note that we'll only be able to respond to permission requests submitted through the above form."


What does this mean??

I think it would allow the use of any of their imagery so long as it is not part of any commercial product/service?? Sounds like a freeware project to me??

[NZ255]

I would say so

[mattyHamNZ]

So I could in theory make my scenery available for free and acknolodge Google as the imagery source... Hmmmmm

What does everyone think of that? How about the whole country done in parts? Recolour all the imagery to create a good blend etc??

[ZK-MAT]

... as long as you have the Google Logo or credit to the picture supplier in the senery? Maybe design billboards around the secenery with credits on them lol.

[Kahu]

Go for it!!!! You Can Do It!!!

[mattyHamNZ]

To give you an idea of what I have so far.... its covering the greater waikato region from Raglan to Karapero(East to west) and Ngaruawahia to Te awamutu (North to South) at around 1m per pixel resolution and the Hamilton airport at around 30cm or better res? Not much in the way of autogen as I have been too lazy.

The file size is the problem at around 4-5gig? Who likes to use torrents?

Anyways, the whole area needs a touch up before I would let it go out. ??Thoughts??

[Ian Warren]

I wonder , currently AGNING the area wonder how both could mesh together , i check how close 'Mikes' could work with your effort .

[mattyHamNZ]

Oooooooo nice! That may work? I should give Mike a call.

I have started recolouring the airport and cambridge area this arvo and its looking 100% better all ready... I havn't been using the SDK directly for converting the BMP's to BGL's but I wonder if I should head in that direction to keep thing under more control???
Who has the experience here to guide me in the right direction?

I currently have BMP's at around 300MB a piece with coordinates like this..."S037510488_S037583014_E175141393_E175221740"
I have used up till now 3rdparty software to do this and the water masks which is done with Google Earth KML files (You basically draw the water ways in with deep and shallow lines on GoogleEarth)

What's the best direction here?

[NZ255]

Well OzX have been using Google images in their scenery's for a while now.