$100 million GeoEye satellite used to map Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

by Xav de Matos on Feb 27th 2009 10:20PM

GeoEye's $100 million dollar commercial-use satellite imagery system will serve as the backdrop for Ubisoft's upcoming air-combat title, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. The Washington D.C.-based company -- that supplies data for Google Earth, among others -- allowed Ubisoft access to satellites 423 miles high to photograph real-world locations for the game's multiple missions. How powerful can a 423 mile high satellite be? The GeoEye-1 satellite that launched in September has the capacity to see objects on the ground that are just 16 inches long.

VP of communications at GeoEye, Mark Brender, told Venture Beat that using such a sophisticated technology to map H.A.W.X. will help in "immersing the player in the experience" rather than using "cartoon maps." So, a South Park, Colorado, mission cannot be confirmed at this time.

Source

Tags: geoeye, geoeye-1, hawx, satellite, tom-clancys-hawx

Reader Comments (60)

How are they planning on processing the image? aren't the images brought back hundreds of Megs each?

I guess they will use the same tech as google maps to trim details if you zoom out.

Um, welcome to the game industry, you must be new here.

Games have been doing that since Wolfenstein.

the demo was quite fun, took me a bit to get used to the assist mode, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty cool. I still prefer flying cockpit view..

So .... the buildings will be flat like maps.google.com ? =P

And ... i would love to see a plane game set in citys like south park, springfield and gotham city =D

Most of the larger buildings are 3D.

Too bad there are limits on the resolution you're allowed to have access to outside of government operations. I believe it was recently lowered to 1 pixel = 4 or 5 feet for commercial uses.