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September 08, 2006
French Yellowpages 3D Application
This application really has nothing to do with Google Earth - except as a comparison. A Google Earth Blog reader forwarded me the URL of a beta for an interface to the French yellowpages which is due out next week sometime. The application uses Flash (requires a small plugin add-on to be installed), and presents a pretty nice looking 3D portrayal of Paris and Rennes complete with 3D buildings and even 3D trees. Try it out here. The mouse is used to sort of fly you around (move forward with mouse to fly forward). It takes some getting used to if you use GE a lot. The buildings have photo textures and unique shapes. I am impressed with the building details. The trees are a nice touch to the sense of realism. The Eiffel tower model slows it down a bit, but most of the moving is pretty fast. This is a good demonstration of why it would be nice to see more photo textured 3D buildings in GE now that GE 4 supports them. My hat is off to the guys who created this huge model collection of these two cities. I wonder if they could port them over to Google Earth?
[Update 0830: DigitalUrban, seers of urban 3D technology, reviews this application as well.]
Posted by FrankTaylor at September 8, 2006 06:24 AM
Comments
Posted by: mrd_in_nyc at September 10, 2006 04:56 PM
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The app is very cool. And the flash aspect (ie, platform indy) is appreciated. I especially like the way the mouse navigation works, which is mode I would love to see in GE. It's more like steering a car. When you pull the mouse to the right, you turn right. Sort of like the flying mode in GE, but without the slow banks and the option to easily stay at a fixed altitude while looking down. Although I do wish the 3D app would zoom in further so you could navigate at near street level.