Comment Feed for Latest version of Virtual Earth is released! (Coffeehouse on Channel 9)

Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Ben Matthews — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:24:26 GMT

I'd settle for having a full 3D Halifax.

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

dentaku — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:17:20 GMT

Nice stuff.
Now if only there where high resolution images of Nova Scotia in other places than just Halifax. At the moment the Google maps have much more high res areas for this province.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:50:56 GMT

@magicalclick. Hey I don't think we "officially" support IE8 yet either so that's another thing to consider too.

Between that and High DPI you're living on the bleeding edge my friend :)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

magicalclick — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:18:43 GMT

Hello Mark,
I checked it more. Google Map failed too. It should be my IE8 Beta on Vista Ultimate x64 I think. I am using 144DPI setting. I assume 120DPI would do the same.

Burn in High DPI Hell.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Ion Todirel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:42:31 GMT

hmmm, that's sounds interesting, I'll take a look, if something watch out I'll come back with questions :)

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Sven Groot — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:30:24 GMT

And it still doesn't understand Japanese addresses at all. :(

Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:27:04 GMT

@Ion Todirel, in Live Maps? No. That's our consumer maps offering and most consumers don't care about what the lat/long is for a particular Point of Interest. But you can do it in VE for essentially any data or point on a map. Basically build a search using the Find() function to return POI data like bus stations and then code up the Reverse Find to return the address to the user when they click on a push pin to a bus station. Trouble here could be that the Find() function returns more than just bus stations. Using our VE Web Service (VEWS) however you can build a more granular search and filter results to get what you want and then iterate through the search results and plot using a VE Map Control in JS.

Hope that helps.

-mark

Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Ion Todirel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:17:19 GMT

I mean for example on GMaps bus stations are already on the map, you can interact with them and get some info about that, but you cannot get their lat/long coordinates, can you do that in Live Maps?

Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Wisecarver — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:04:09 GMT

Very cool Mark, keep it up.
(I blogged about the updates yesterday.)

Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Gio — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:58:16 GMT

Excellent. Personally I do prefer the english version (for personal reasons). Now to make it perfect, I would like to see a scale in mi AND km and driving directions in both units, though this is a request for the Live Maps team and not the Virtual Earth one.

Edit: never mind you can set your unit under options. I never saw that one before.

Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:35:17 GMT

@giovanni. Not only that but we also have base map tiles localized for Western Europe too so when you pull up a map in VE and pass in the mkt parameter like de-de you get the base map layer in German, etc. so that all the city names, rivers, geo political names are all in the local language now.

Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:33:10 GMT

When you say "hard coded" what do you mean? If you have a lat/long and pass it into the FindLocations() function you can get its address.

For the source code for how to do this go to our Interactive SDK and click "Find Information (basic)" and then "Reverse Find".

Thanks,
mark

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Gio — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:33:55 GMT

Finally International Geocoding!!! I have been waiting for this one for so long. I have been using Live Maps in the States for a while and I've been very happy with it. Now I can use it in Europe as well. Excellent job: so far I've been able to find all remoted and secluded locations I was looking for.

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Ion Todirel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:33:24 GMT

hey, regarding reverse geocoding can I convert say a list of bus stations ("hardcoded" in the map) to coordinates directly from the map? you can't do that with Google Maps...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Gio — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:29:08 GMT

Yes, I noticed that too. I have that problem on XP sp3, are you using Vista?

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Go Microsoft !!!!!!! — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:10:55 GMT

Thank's ;)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

magicalclick — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:17:01 GMT

Ok mark, I see the problem now. The same old same old MS sucks at DPI issue.
I turn back to 96DPI. Everything is fine now.

First IE8 HTML ignore DPI setting.
Second Live Messenger Online Status drop down list empty bug on DPI setting.
Now, Live Map can't work with high DPI setting. (Not sure it is the service or IE8)
MS sucks at DPI and yet all the childish talks about DPI.

Who would suffer? People like me don't want fussy low resolution and don't want buggy high DPI result.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

magicalclick — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:46:18 GMT

Deleted
NVM this, I found the cause. MS sucks at DPI.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:22:56 GMT

@magicalclick. Can you send me the two locations you are creating a route for? I want to repro what you are seeing.

Thanks.

EDIT: Just tested various driving directions and am not seeing the same behavior. My guess is that our base data may have incorrect coordinates for the route you are searching for. Send me the start and end locations so I can repro and I'll send along to the product team. --Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

magicalclick — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:16:58 GMT

Mark are you in the team? Super bad bug. Please put it on high priority.
When I use direction, the direction line is scaled down compare to the current level of map. Even when I zoom really close to street, the direction line still managed to move around like crazy. The direction line is screwed. But when I click print, the lines are ok.

I am using Vista Ultimate x64, 144DPI, IE8 Beta, Zoom 100%, Text = medium.
Zoom and Compatibility has no effect.

BTW, the add a stop sucks compare to Google interactive custom route. I know it is for different purpose, thus, we should add a stop and reorder it to achive the same custom route effect. But it is tidious and the refresh page is so weak compare to Google real time changes.

Sorry this is harsh, please fix the problem at least. For this MS fanboy trying to use Live Map instead of Google Map.

Re: Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Mark Brown — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:52:11 GMT

Thanks Dovella. I highly recommend my webcast coming up on October 3rd for those interested in getting deep on implementing the new features in the VE Map Control 6.2 and our new VE Web Service. I have a link above but here's the details. I am also going to be cranking out a ton of new white papers including how to write a VE Silverlight application. Stay tuned to my blog above for details on that.

Virtual Earth 6.2 Technical Webcast

Event Date: Friday, October 3, 2008
Event Time: 10:00 AM PT
Duration: 90 minutes

Join Mark Brown, Senior Product Manager for Virtual Earth to get a deep dive review of the next version of Virtual Earth 6.2 with demos throughout to show you how to leverage these in your applications. In addition we are releasing Virtual Earth Web Services v1.0. This SOAP-based web service was designed for developers looking to build and deploy mapping applications in a server-side environment and provides support for building desktop and mobile applications. Mark will also go through a number of the features in this v1 release with some demos and sample code as well.

Test your System (do this today)

Join the Event (10/3/08, 10am Pacific)

Telephone Dial in (if you don’t have computer mic/speakers)

US/Canada: (877) 220-6697
International: (503) 295-8000
PIN: 8074

Hope to see you all there :)

-Mark

Re: Latest version of Virtual Earth is released!

Go Microsoft !!!!!!! — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:08:08 GMT

Thank's Mr Mark!
Congrat.