blue marble project Blue Marble

[+Chris Bell 834]

The Blue Marble Project

(Blue Marble Project has now been released and is now available in our shop)
Meet The Blue Marble, yes we have another marble in our collection

Blue Marble is not a new name for Black Marble, It's a Project on its own merits!

Not to be confused with Night Environment, Black Marble, or vEarth (Virtual Earth) projects,

Blue Marble aims to replace outdated data deeply embedded in Sim’s core and apparent wherever no external scenery is present,

This is a direct and seamless replacement to Sim outdated native high altitude Photoreal imagery worldwide!

 

Blue Marble New Textures

 

Sim Native Textures

 

 

The video below showcase the projects from a worldwide prospective (best viewed in full screen at 1080HD!),

Freeze frame the first second and you will see the old data visible for one second (including FPS etc.);

Right after (in video editing) we blend from the same position only this time from within Blue Marble,

Watch closely the following 20 seconds as we time lap through 12 month worldwide seasonal cycle,

Before we start spinning the globe to show you Blue Marble in all its glory all around the world,

and then right before when you think it’s over… wait for it!

 

Enjoy
 

 

 

The Blue Marble
 

 

Blue Marble is made out of real worldwide seasonal coordinated high res Photoreal imagery!!!
(Blue Marble Seamlessly integrates and is Compatible with all 3rd party add on's like FTX Global and all other regions, UTX etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Marble Home Page can be reached directly here http://bluemarble.chrisbelldesigns.com 

or from the top navigation bar

 

Before I forget…
shout out to D’Andre from AirDailyX for sparking the idea in the first place
be sure to register as a member of our forums by Christmas to be eligible for our special Christmas gift!
with opening our new online shop we will invite all our registered forums members by Christmas to get their Christmas gift!
A copy of Blue Marble free of charge  

Edited January 2 by Chris Bell

[Alex Diaz 1]

Neat! Can't wait!

[Zebie 3]

OMGoodness I just died and went to FSX saved by the "Bell" heaven...........

You guys are amazing...................................

[Er!k 1]

Really curious about this project! Signed up

[Kermit_70 5]

So what does it exactly mean that "Blue Marble Seamlessly integrates and is Compatible with all 3rd party add on's like FTX Global and all other regions"?

What is Blue Marble adding to FTX Global?

Could you show shots with "default FSX", "FTX Global only" and "FTX Global + Blue Marble"? An what about compared with the FTX regions?

Competition from ORBX with their super-detailed FTX regions is very high, so you will have to proof the value of this product.

 

Keep it up!

[twharrell 16]

Interesting stuff, Chris. I'm having some difficulty wrapping my head around how this translates to what we will see in sim. That being said, thanks for the generous gift offer to the sim community.

 

Todd

[+Chris Bell 834]

Thank you Todd,

Blue Marble is visible at high alt in Sim!

you currently see the default blended (pause video first frame to compare);

which is far from you to notice in your immediate vicinity at low altitude,

 

[+Chris Bell 834]

23 minutes ago, Kermit_70 said:

What is Blue Marble adding to FTX Global?

 

we don't run FTX here, we also don't add anything to FTX Global!

Blue Marble replaces outdated high alt imagery used natively by Sim, (See post above)

[Kermit_70 5]

8 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

Blue Marble replaces outdated high alt imagery used natively by Sim, (See post above)

 

I see, so could you please specify at what altitude this will be relevant? 

Thanks!

[+Chris Bell 834]

it is relevant in every stage and is always active at any altitude! you just cant  always see it at lower alt since its far from you

(based on your Sim LOD radius settings; the higher it is the farther away from you this will be visible; this is true for the current default as well)

Blue Marble is high alt replacement, not low alt high res textures... yet!

 

you probably cant spot it in this image or the one next to it, can you? (we are around FL350 there, and its there trust me it is )

 

 

how about now?

 

(the rectangle there is our vEarth Florida test area on top Blue Marble to give a better prospective)

 

[brunnerdzn 1]

Looks interesting, allthough I haven't completly grasped what it does.

[+Chris Bell 834]

reread the post above

[Zebie 3]

Mr. Bell,

Is it safe to say that if I just want nice basic setup without all the extra eye candy (add on airports ,vectors and meshes(Orbx)), I could just purchase Black Marble and Blue Marble and have just as good looking sim than with Orbx products...(Its getting to be a little to expensive). I would like to narrow down my enhancements to lessen the impact on the sim.....

And...your products do just that for me...........So in short should I dump Orbx (I want to) and replace with Black and Blue although they work with Orbx...... I've just recently re-installed FSX successfully on win10 so I'm fresh.....and don't want to clutter again...I've got a list of the best that works for me and your at the top of that list  .......I want to keep it clean..

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by Zebie

[twharrell 16]

And to piggy back onto the post above, to use a simplistic analogy, is blue marble kind of like FTX global/openLC or GEX, while vEarth is kind like an FTX region minus the mesh?

[+Chris Bell 834]

Hi Zebie,

ORBX produce quality scenery, we try to avoid developing any existing professional grade scenery,

Black Marble will overlap several ORBX features, but not yet replacing everything you gain with ORBX product line,

we will make it easy to switch each other features on and off, so one can select which function he wishes to have active from whichever add on he selects,

ORBX have solid developers, we do not complete or try to get in the way of their work, i personally don't find this practice ethical above all!!!

we do our own thing trying to be considerate, sometimes features will overlap,

 

i saw your post as i was writing this Todd,

we don't want to sound like we are replacing ORBX line, we offer another alternative based on a different approach, technology, and general mantra,

our group is focused on photo realistic based scenery with vEarth and Blue Marble, these are Photoreal! both! not bitmap textures!

[twharrell 16]

9 minutes ago, twharrell said:

And to piggy back onto the post above, to use a simplistic analogy, is blue marble kind of like FTX global/openLC or GEX, while vEarth is kind like an FTX region minus the mesh?

Oh my...  I'm all for being awesome and yet simple. Way to push the boundaries, Chris.

Edited December 1, 2016 by twharrell

[+Chris Bell 834]

there is another top secret project thats not been announced yet, i cannot say anything at the moment other than its pretty significant!

whats important to highlight is that all our product lines integrate seamlessly with each other,

they are designed based on and in consideration of all our product lines combined,

[twharrell 16]

2 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

there is another top secret project thats not been announced yet, i cannot say anything at the moment other than its pretty significant!

whats important to highlight is that all our product lines integrate seamlessly with each other,

they are designed based on and in consideration of all our product lines combined,

Don't tease us. You are a bad man.

[Zebie 3]

okay with that being said.I really don't dislike Orbx.....It seems you guys are heading more in the direction of enhancement without to much fiddling around with this and that for FSX...and I like where this is heading for you guys.......but that answers my question though.....Looking forward to vEarth, Black and Blue........I'll surely give all three a go without Orbx installed to see if I'm right about what I think should be the just right eye candy for FSX....(still Orbx anit bad just a little quirky for me)

 

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by Zebie

[+Chris Bell 834]

2 minutes ago, twharrell said:

Don't tease us. You are a bad man.

 

[Tom9909 1]

looking good. Can wait for realease

[+Michael_B767_ATP 366]

Hey Chris,

 

Looking good my friend!.

[gr.eg 1]

Nice project indeed!

[Kermit_70 5]

2 hours ago, Chris Bell said:

 

you probably cant spot it in this image or the one next to it, can you? (we are around FL350 there, and its there trust me it is )

 

OK, so I guess it means I have to be above FL350 before I notice a difference with default FSX (the straight lines at the horizon, indicating transition to default Blue Marble??) Again, it would be useful to see these same regions with Orbx Global installed.

Whether you like it or not (ethical or not ethical ...) you are competing with Orbx on this one.

Just trying to truly understand your work, that's all.

Thanks!

[+Chris Bell 834]

you don't have to be ATFL350 to notice it, it very much dependent on your LOD radius as i mentioned before,

below you will always have (at default schema) bitmap textures radius; thats what ORBX does, we don't enter that region of textures with Blue Marble,

 

and yes up ahead you are noticing the transition from our vEarth test area to Blue Marble,

that imagery is always blended in your horizon, you see more of it as farther up you go,

(the video was shoot while in F12 view to show Blue's scope and coverage)

the greatest benefit is  night time view's up ahead