amazed at Google Earth feature

[gwgardner]

When I made my first route 2+ years ago I would have liked to use decals, but back in those olden times all such tasks (importing DEM and so on) was a long-drawn-out learning process (at least for me), so I didn't use them.

Yesterday as I was toying with a new route I decided to bite the bullet and start up the learning curve to use the new Google Earth overlay feature in TS2014. But there is NO learning curve! You simply get into the editor for the route and click ctrl-g. Bang. The decal-like overlay appears, and one can easily choose different varieties, different opacities, and so on.

RSC gets a lot of criticism at times, but dang they deserve some bigtime praise for this feature. They just keep making this simulator/editor better and better.

[NorthernWarrior]

It is good but there is a psychological disadvantage, that when you switch off the overlay or exit through the orange arrow your bare terrain returns with a vengeance, which kind of emphasises even more the amount of work needed to turn virgin terrain into something resembling what's seen in GE! ;)

[artimrj]

I have a second monitor and put Google Earth up on it as it is a better picture of the area. The ingame overlay is hard to see details at times. Have GE on another monitor while works lets you pin point things better, like 2 tracks together instead of only the one it looks like on the ingame overlay. I also noticed the ingame overlay and actual google earth have 2 different dates on the images.

[Bananarama]

I also noticed the ingame overlay and actual google earth have 2 different dates on the images.

This is because the images in RW aren't from Google Earth, but instead from Google Maps. Earth imagery doesn't make it to the map version until it passes QC for accuracy, which can take a year or more at times.

[JohnTrainHead]

Now I wish Dovetail could put build in DEM data into the game, or get that from google as well. I usually lay the track over the DEM and overlay, then I correct the height of the track using the more accurate topography of google earth.

[slick204]

It's a great feature. I was amazed that I could zoom in and still see ties left from a line that was torn out 70+ years ago!
Two monitors would also be helpful....