jmke

The concept of Google Earth VR is simple; you get a globe and you pretty much get to go anywhere you want to. At time of writing this, GEVR has been released for about 10 hours, so the application is very much in its infancy, but there is still a whole hell of a lot to see and do. You got the whole world right? I actually live fairly far out in the country, and I did find limitations of where the 3D ground effects are extended to. I am not sure if this was a bug or a limitation. I am sure its abilities and places will expand.


You can zoom into the world to where it turns into a "map on the wall" type of image. Even then you have enough granularity that I can make out the eves on my roof being rendered in 3D. You drag the map around with your right controller, and also zoom in and out with it as well. With your left controller, once you get close to ground level, you can shift into "Superman" mode, which is probably the most fun. I doubt I have to explain what that mode is about.

Considering that most of the objects on the ground are 3D objects rendered from a flat picture, I got the feeling of being in some whacked-out Tim Burton film. It is however very cool though.

There are "tours" you can take into parts of the map that have had an incredible amount of detail added as well. If you have a Vive, you owe it to yourself to take a trip on Google Earth VR.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/..._google_earth/

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