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February 8, 2008
F-16 Cockpit Add-on For Google Earth Flight Sim
Here is a quick and easy add-on to make the flight simulator in Google Earth a lot more fun! My friend Gerardo Paz of Buenos Aires, came up with the idea to add an F-16 cockpit image overlay to Google Earth so you can get a more realistic feel to flying the simulator. If you haven't used the Google Earth flight simulator yet, make sure to read these handy GE Flight Simulator tips.
Want to try this out? Simply load this F-16 Cockpit Add-on 
. Make sure you make the Google Earth window as large as possible for the best effect (if your screen is low-res, you'll have to wait for Gerardo to make a smaller one). Follow the tips above, or if you are already a GE flight sim expert, move to a location where you want to fly and just hit "CTRL-A" or "Tools->Enter Flight Simulator" (if you don't see this option, read the tips). Make sure you are using the F-16 and not the SR-22 aircraft. I just love the way this feels...I'm a pilot and flight simulator fan, but it's still amazing to me to see it in Google Earth. :-)
Gerardo added some transparency to the HUD and the computer display screen below. This helps add more realism and also helps when you try to land with the overlay turned on. Great ideas! If I have time later today, I'll make a video of this. Gerardo and I have already talked about some other things that could be done with this. See the post thread to make comments directly to Gerardo.
By the way, part of the inspiration for this came from the astronaut mode I wrote about in December. Check it out too.
Posted by FrankTaylor at February 8, 2008 10:41 AM
Comments
Posted by: mat at February 10, 2008 11:07 AM
hello,
sorry for my poor english.
on HUD of simulator google earth i ave not cap indicator
is it an addon & where found it because flight with sun on F16 it's not top
Tk's
A+
RREDTOX
Posted by: quilici at April 26, 2008 3:23 AM
I can't seem to make the flight sim on google earth happen. I tried the ctrl-alt-A but to no avail. Any suggestions anyone?
Posted by: d sharp at May 18, 2008 9:32 PM
You may need to upgrade google earth (i cant remember what version)
Posted by: Alex at June 22, 2008 10:54 AM
it is version 4.3 beta
Posted by: adam at July 20, 2008 12:16 PM
The image is not working.. Got 404 error... Please upload a new one!
Posted by: Xafke at August 5, 2008 12:55 PM
my scroll up and down keys only control the gears and not the throttle (I'm on a laptop)
Posted by: jeremy at September 7, 2008 10:03 AM
How do you take screen shots while in the flight simulator? I see other do it like the one above. How?
Posted by: toma at September 22, 2008 5:30 AM
I can only see HUD, want to see the actual plane. What sould I do?
Posted by: tomtom at October 30, 2008 10:15 AM
The response I made to Tomtom last month seems to have been lost in the transfer to the new server. Here is an updated version in light of what I have learned since that time.
It's not possible to see the actual aircraft as the only viewpoint is from the cockpit. It is possible however to show an aircraft in the field of view to the front(and possibly the side) so I set about finding out how to do that.
Once I found a suitable image of an aircraft flying toward the vanishing point ahead it was fairly easy to create a kml file to display the image, in this case the observer becomes wingman to the F16 to the left.
Ideally the image would be edited to retract the wheels and make the background around the aircraft transparent. I guess that would be done with an alpha mask so that would be the next phase of the project.
After that the image would need to be uploaded to a suitable server where it could be accessed. Phase three as I've never got around to that before(Picassa ?).
The following example calls on an existing file on the afterburner.nl website and can be pasted into a KML file to demonstrate the basics. I use it in conjunction with Gerardo's F16 Cockpit or a HUD version of the same that I discussed in the Tips - HUD thread you can access from Franks article at the top of this thread.
F-16 Wingman.kml
http://www.afterburner.nl
98
http://www.afterburner.nl/orange/J055_f16am[3].jpg
Posted by: Andy at March 3, 2009 3:34 AM
Sorry, the text of the kml file seems to get mashed on upload.
I'll see what I can do about that.
Posted by: Andy at March 4, 2009 12:36 AM
Let's see if I can get it to work this time.
Posted by: Andy at March 6, 2009 8:12 PM
how do i get rid of it???
Posted by: ray emstale at April 17, 2009 7:27 AM
Open the sidebar and either uncheck it or right click and delete it.
Posted by: Andy at April 17, 2009 11:31 PM
omg i was just wondering if it was possible to make a space schuttle download or make a space mode to just fly around in space?
Posted by: boone276 at April 24, 2009 11:08 PM
If you get an image if the shuttle(try NASA)you can do it yourself in about 10 minutes.
First you need to give the image a transparent background. This is how using freeware The Gimp. Other graphic editors should be fine too but I don't know their commands.
Menu Command/Action
Tools Scissor Select. Click points around the outside of the object joining back to the first point. You can add additional points along the outline or drag into position. Click anywhere in the object to select.
Edit Copy Visible.
Edit Paste As - New Image.
File Save. Enter filename with .png extension. De-select Save Background when the dialogue appears and save.
Next use KML ScreenOverlay Maker to create a KML file that will display your image in GE. Just select the image file, give the overlay a name as it will appear in the GE sidebar menu, the image size, where you want it positioned, it's size or fraction of the original, and save.
That's it.
http://freegeographytools.com/2007/the-kml-screen-overlay-maker-utility
Posted by: Andy at April 28, 2009 1:28 AM
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![http://www.afterburner.nl/orange/J055_f16am[3].jpg](http://www.afterburner.nl/orange/J055_f16am[3].jpg){kind=link}
Thanks for this tip, and be careful, the Matterhorn is just in front of you!