SAS Planet
Very high resolution tiles can be downloaded to cover a small area. The application SAS Planet is one way to obtain such images.
In SAS Planet, select the area you are interested in by coordinates. It is recommended to not exceed an area of 1 degree by 1 degree for zoom 15 for example.
Keep in mind that Tacview supports grid-based texture tiles of 1 degree by 1 degree or custom texture maps of any size (subject to system limitations).
Notice that SAS Planet asks you to select your coordinates by entering the upper-left corner to lower-right corner of the area you are interested in. If using grid-based texture tiles, Tacview requires tiles named like N06E099 where (6,99) is the latitude, longitude coordinates of the lower-left corner.
Choose a Map/Overlay layer such as Satellite (Google maps) and a zoom level such as 15, and click Start to launch the download. It is best to overwrite old tiles unless you are sure that all the tiles in your cache are good.
If you wish to have extra details such as labels, you may next proceed to download a second layer such as Hybrid (Google) in this example:
When the download is complete, go to the Stitch tab (if the window closed, re-open it by pressing CTRL+B)
Save to
%ProgramData%\Tacview\Data\Terrain\Textures\Map:
Satellite (Google maps)Overlay layer:
Hybrid (Google)orNoProjection:
Geographic (Latitude/Longitude) / WGS84 / EPSG:4326Zoom:
15Quality:
95%
Click Start.
If the layers are in Russian, the native language of the program, go to Settings -> Layer Settings -> Hybrid (Google) and remove any language indication in the URL.
Your high-resolution satellite image has been downloaded to %ProgramData%\Tacview\Data\Terrain\Textures\.
If the image is a 1 degree by 1 degree tile following Tacview's naming convention, Tacview will display it automatically.
If your image is a custom size, integrate it into Tacview as a custom texture map.
Even Higher Resolution
To have even high resolution over a very small area, perhaps for taking screenshots, you may wish to download, say, a 1 degree by 1 degree area of Zoom 15 satellite resolution and within that area display a much smaller area of Zoom 18 satellite resolution.
A 1 degree by 1 degree tile can always be displayed by tacview by following the procedure for grid-based elevation tiles. But when multiple custom texture maps are used, make sure the smaller, higher-resolution tile is listed in your custom texture XML file after the larger, lower-resolution one - the textures are loaded in the order they appear in the file.
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