My company is looking to build 3D flight simulation software to run on Linux. Ideally, we want to make use of real terrain data from Mapbox, Cesium, or similar. We’re not looking to create a photorealistic simulation, but rather a stylized experience that shows a camera rear view of a plane looking out over an abstracted 3D world view.
At this point, we’ve ruled out other 3D game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine because their performance is said to be poor (or at least “lesser”) on Linux.
Is it realistic for us to pursue this project in Godot?
You mention Cesium, which implies a serious flight navigation software, not a game. My immediate thought was that you should probably build something custom yourself.
However, you then mention Mapbox and and a camera rear view over a what sounds like a game world. Yes, you can do this in Godot. However, and in fairness, you could probably do it in the other engines you mentioned too.
So I would say it depends on the scale, the ambition, the size, the intended end usage and the finances you have to invest in the project. But yes, this is realistic to pursue in Godot IMHO.
It should probably be okay. Worst case scenario you guys have the full source code available to adapt to your needs. There are other teams implementing large scale terrain visualizations like in this talk:
Also FlightGear has the whole Earth mapped in a flightsim format. I believe you don’t have to GPL your code to use the data but check with them, very nice bunch of passionate folks who’ve been developing FG for nearly 30 years.
As to your original question, no reason why you couldn’t
