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Google Flight Simulator
- simondanerd 5mo agoFun fact: you can fly through the entirety of the Great Wall of China! Spent a long time as a kid doing so. I still use Google Earth "Pro" today, so much better than the webapp.
- wwizo 5mo agoAnother nail to Xbox (MS game studios) coffin :)
- gacgacgac 5mo agoWhile this doesn't do anything to threaten MS flight simulator, it's still charming. Google Earth is a delight to experience in VR if you ever get the chance, and the flight sim mode is likewise.
- sco1 5mo agoI'm pretty surprised they brought something fun and charming forward instead of sending it to the graveyard.
- opengrass 5mo ago[flagged]
- circuit10 5mo agoThis is new for the web version
- maxlin 5mo agoTook them long enough to add it to the web app too. Bit disappointing how lazy the implementation is though, you never fall out of the sky even with throttle at 0%. Making the most basic flight physics even ignoring aerodynamics really isn't that hard
- ozaiworld 5mo agoFun fact: you can also generate 3D buildings in Google Earth: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/earth/generate-designs https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/earth/gener... I worked on this but left a year ago. It was a product formerly by Sidewalk Labs and ported to work within Google Earth for over 2 years. Pretty sure it's abandoned now.
- mrhottakes 5mo agoGoogle abandoned a product? That's strange.
- vanc_cefepime 5mo agohttps://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- aljgz 5mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
- smashah 5mo agoAm I tripping or was this in Google Earth ages ago? I distinctly remember flying SU-27 on Google Earth map like a decade or more ago.
- reaperducer 5mo agoI think it was also a feature of the commercial version of Keyhole, which IIRC, Google bought and turned into Google Earth. The place where I worked had a Keyhole machine for pulling up satellite maps and doing animations back when this was considered borderline science fiction.
- danbruc 5mo agoIt was, tutorial video from 2015 [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnX8DLmjkCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnX8DLmjkCA
- zymhan 5mo agoYes it was. And probably still is.
- circuit10 5mo agoIt’s only new for the web version (but this seems way worse than the one in the desktop version, sadly)
- modeless 5mo agoUnfortunately, whoever did the controls for this doesn't understand how airplanes work.
- 6stringmerc 5mo agoSo much for hiring “smart creatives” and supporting their work I guess…source: Introduction section of 2014’s “How Google Works” (I returned it to the library after that, I’m not going to hate-read stuff even if it would give me some insight into Eric Schmidt’s career)
- Rekindle8090 5mo ago[dead]
- petee 5mo agoControls work normally for me on a desktop
- hinata08 5mo agoThe first part of OP's page indicates > Simplified flight physics: The flight simulator is designed for casual exploration rather than high-fidelity aerodynamic training. Google made flying possible with 6 controls only, and it's a feature! It works normally, but they indeed have no busines helping you prepare for ATP license exam with beautiful maps in the browser It'a an arcade game and it's fun
- petee 5mo agoIndeed nobody should have an assumption this would prepare you for an ATP, that alone should be disqualifying. The post i replied to was talking about the controls being wrong, which I guess might be a bug. For what it is the controls are correct tho
- thimabi 5mo agoI wonder why Google doesn’t bother competing with Microsoft in the flight simulation niche. All that Google Maps data would be pretty cool to use for that purpose, but instead we’ve got only this toy feature inside Google Earth.
- mschuster91 5mo ago> I wonder why Google doesn’t bother competing with Microsoft in the flight simulation niche. Because the competition is already fierce. There's MS Flight Simulator and X-Plane on the commercial side, Flightgear on the open source side and geo-fs.com on the free-to-play side. There is not much Google can actually gain from making their own flight simulator.
- butlike 5mo ago"If you land correctly at Kai Tak you get emailed a job offer from a major airline" could work.
- kamil55555 5mo agoHigh development and/or maintenance cost, low profit.
- tantalor 5mo agoWhat would be the point?
- rvnx 5mo agoTraining drone operators ? It's literally one of the hottest segment now in the flying sector. Google Maps has one of the best urban map and now a flight engine. Grand Theft Auto is now doing it, but Google Earth would make more sense because it can bring a more realistic environment. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1szcl5i/google_signs_classified_pentagon_ai_deal_but/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1szcl5i/google_...
- 5mo ago
- neilv 5mo agoThis is fun, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Google did something like this a couple decades ago, as a 20% Project. Outside of Google, around that time, I used Google Earth for a 3D visualization tool for real flight data recorders, integrated into a larger browser-based system. (Stack: Google Earth Plugin did the heaviest lifting, especially before there were better ways to render 3D in a browser window. The frontend used JS, HTML for instruments, and some kludges to work around some limitations of off-label use of Plugin. The backend was in Scheme, and retrieving and serving up cached data for this was one of the simplest of the things that the Scheme did in that large system. Aircraft 3D models were off-the-shelf, which I tweaked lightly in (IIRC) Google SketchUp.)
- cactusplant7374 5mo agoA lot of vibe coders and software engineers have created similar projects using the Google Maps 3D tiles API.
- boshalfoshal 5mo agoThis _was_ done a couple of decades ago, it was available on the downloadable version of google earth (when it existed). I remember playing around with it in 2012.
- burnt_toast 5mo agoCan confirm, we used to play it in the high school I went to around 2012 because it was one of the few games that the network filters didn't block.
- ssteeper 5mo agoGoogle Earth pro is still available for download with the flight simulator, which is much better than the new web version. I played around with it last night after being disappointed with the web version.
- rivetfasten 5mo agoCool, I'll have to try it in the next 18 months before they turn it down.
- MrCoffee7 5mo agoIt doesn't seem to work very well - my plane is spinning around like crazy and I can't stop the spinning.
- recursive 5mo agoSounds realistic
- chombier 5mo agoGimbal lock?
- blinky88 5mo agoIf only they took this seriously as a competitor to Microsoft Flight Simulator... Or licensed the photogrammetry to X-Plane. But I guess that’s asking too much of Google.
- lysace 5mo agoI tried to get into MSFS 2020/2024 but couldn't stand the constant jank/missed frames. It's rated 55% on Steam, so I guess it still has issues :/
- fragmede 5mo agoNext up: Google driving simulator.
- willguest 5mo agolovely, but needs sound and an altimeter. i went flying over NZ, the controls got really laggy, hence the chaotic experience... https://filebin.net/jltba21fn87ea5pm https://filebin.net/jltba21fn87ea5pm
- satvikpendem 5mo agoDo people in the comments not realize this is a very old feature from desktop Google Earth that's just now being brought to the web version? I see so many joke comments or those simply out of the loop thinking this is something new, it's not.
- exadeci 5mo agoSome people weren't born when it was released and now are 20 years old it was released in 2007 We old haha
- butlike 5mo agoThis is wonderful. It would be cool if I could take off from an airport. Maybe I search an airport, and with that one "selected in search results", choose "Tools > Flight Simulator" and it starts me from the ground.
- simplesocieties 5mo agoIt's a fun toy program but calling this a flight simulator is doing a disservice to the communities and efforts putting in an immense amount of work to make actual flight simulators.