4 ms·

As a complete non-gamer, the ability to walk around the earth with a VR headset would justify buying one to me. There are so many cities I've always wanted to

by eob 3y ago

As a complete non-gamer, the ability to walk around the earth with a VR headset would justify buying one to me. There are so many cities I've always wanted to walk down the streets of!

modeless 3y ago
As the parent comments mentioned, Google Earth VR already exists and it's awesome (disclaimer: I had a hand in creating it). It's as close as you can get to "walking down the streets" with current data. All the available 3D and Street View data is there.
- trafficante 3y ago
  First off, THANK YOU to you and the rest of the Earth VR team. You’ve brought literal joy to many people through your work. I brought my Quest Pro and a gaming laptop with me to visit a nursing home a few months back and took some of the residents on guided Earth VR tours of their hometowns/places that they remember fondly. I’ll never forget all the tearful smiles I witnessed that day, and it’s all thanks to you and your team. Quick question: are these new 3D Tiles the same as what’s in Earth VR, or are they higher resolution/newer imagery? The video demo linked upthread looks incredibly crisp, but I’m wondering if that’s just an artifact of seeing it in 2D (the upclose castle textures on flyby looked a lot more like what I’m used to from Earth VR).
  - tonightstoast 3y ago
    This is a great idea. It would be interesting if Google had historical view of towns so in 50+ years I could see what it looked like when I was a kid.
    - modeless 3y ago
      There is a time slider in Street View today https://blog.google/products/maps/go-back-in-time-with-street-view/ https://blog.google/products/maps/go-back-in-time-with-stree... I think in Google Earth desktop there is (was?) a time slider for aerial imagery as well.
  - modeless 3y ago
    Always great to hear that people enjoy it :) I believe that this API uses the same up-to-date tiles as Google Earth VR and the 3D view in Google Maps. I saw some complaints on Twitter saying that maybe the last and highest level of detail is not available in the API but I haven't verified that myself. I don't currently work at Google and have no insider information.

by eob 3y ago

As a complete non-gamer, the ability to walk around the earth with a VR headset would justify buying one to me. There are so many cities I've always wanted to walk down the streets of!

modeless 3y ago

As the parent comments mentioned, Google Earth VR already exists and it's awesome (disclaimer: I had a hand in creating it). It's as close as you can get to "walking down the streets" with current data. All the available 3D and Street View data is there.

trafficante 3y ago
First off, THANK YOU to you and the rest of the Earth VR team. You’ve brought literal joy to many people through your work. I brought my Quest Pro and a gaming laptop with me to visit a nursing home a few months back and took some of the residents on guided Earth VR tours of their hometowns/places that they remember fondly. I’ll never forget all the tearful smiles I witnessed that day, and it’s all thanks to you and your team. Quick question: are these new 3D Tiles the same as what’s in Earth VR, or are they higher resolution/newer imagery? The video demo linked upthread looks incredibly crisp, but I’m wondering if that’s just an artifact of seeing it in 2D (the upclose castle textures on flyby looked a lot more like what I’m used to from Earth VR).
- tonightstoast 3y ago
  This is a great idea. It would be interesting if Google had historical view of towns so in 50+ years I could see what it looked like when I was a kid.
  - modeless 3y ago
    There is a time slider in Street View today https://blog.google/products/maps/go-back-in-time-with-street-view/ https://blog.google/products/maps/go-back-in-time-with-stree... I think in Google Earth desktop there is (was?) a time slider for aerial imagery as well.
- modeless 3y ago
  Always great to hear that people enjoy it :) I believe that this API uses the same up-to-date tiles as Google Earth VR and the 3D view in Google Maps. I saw some complaints on Twitter saying that maybe the last and highest level of detail is not available in the API but I haven't verified that myself. I don't currently work at Google and have no insider information.