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March 01, 2007
Swiss Alps "Fighter" Tour in Google Earth
On Wednesday, Google released high resolution terrain for the Swiss Alps, and new high resolution imagery for Google Earth. The Swiss Alps are really beautiful to view in GE yourself, but I occasionally like to show YouTube video demos for 3D content like this. As I was considering my approach, my friend Scott Madry (the Armchair Archaeologist) sent me a link to a cool video showing a real-life jet pilot taking off and flying through famous places in the Swiss Alps. At this point, I had to do the geeky thing and see if I could make the same flight sequences in Google Earth! So, I spent all day trying to coerce the "G-Force" mode in Google Earth to fly in a rough approximation to this military pilot (not easy at all!). The main point here is that the GE terrain looks VERY close to the real thing.
Anyway, you can watch the real video on the top, and my video below using Google Earth. If you play both at the same time you can see I managed to get them to play close to in sequence (you might want to turn off the audio on mine since it's just a crude mono-copy of the sound from the original).
Original
Google Earth
Some notes: Google's imagery of the alps is summertime, but the jet video was in the winter. It took me like 50 tries to get the upside down turn over Mont Blanc with the mouse-based G-Force interface and no throttle control. The meticulous among you will notice other little flaws in my flying, but hey - it was only 8 hours worth of trial and error! Hope you guys like it. Digg it!
[UPDATE: Some have asked me - I just used the mouse with G-Force to control, and MS MovieMaker to splice the clips together and create the video. It took me a few minutes to figure out where each flight sequence was located and the flight path, and a bit longer to practice the right speed and approach.]
Posted by FrankTaylor at March 1, 2007 10:05 PM
Comments
Posted by: Lauren at March 1, 2007 10:43 PM
This blog post made my day. Great work...thanks.
Posted by: Scot at March 1, 2007 10:57 PM
Hello Frank,
this one is awesome and really out of world..........
i liked it very much......
Just out of curiosity, did you used Space navigator from 3dconnexion for recording this video.......... and what tools did you use to create the video file.........
once gain great job......... congrats
Gopi P
Sarnoff
Posted by: Gopi P at March 1, 2007 11:10 PM
"At this point, I had to do the geeky thing and see if I could make the same flight sequences in Google Earth!"
Priceless! I love it!
Posted by: gulfstreme at March 2, 2007 12:16 AM
Great job, I was amazed to see you could match them so closely.
Posted by: Todd at March 2, 2007 12:26 AM
PERFECT.VIEWTEC PEOPLE DONE IT SOME YEARS A GO BUT...YOU STREAM THE SAME SIMULATION EXPERIENCE OVER THE SAME SYNTHETIC TERRAIN TO 200.000.000 PEOPLE. CONTINUE GOOGLE EARTH.
Posted by: GEORGE P STOUBIS at March 2, 2007 01:48 AM
Great! Awesome!
Thanks
Posted by: Renalid at March 2, 2007 03:35 AM
frank mate ... that was stunning .. a fantastic piece of work!!
Posted by: ZNO at March 2, 2007 04:13 AM
Wonderful!
I've just linked you (http://google-mapping.blogspot.com/2007/03/wow-in-volo-sulle-alpi-svizzere-con.html) in my blog about google mapping and... google earthing ;-)
Thank you, Frank, and keep up the good job :-)
Posted by: Google Mapping Blog at March 2, 2007 05:41 AM
Absolutely amazing, true dedication!
Posted by: Barry Hunter at March 2, 2007 10:41 AM
Very nicely done!
BTW, lauren made a comment about SpaceNavigator not being able to roll. My SpaceNavigator (the least expensive one) DOES support that axis of movement. The key to enabling this is to check the box called Tilt/Spin/Roll from the 3Dconnexion Control Panel. You can get to this screen by pressing the right button on the SpaceNavigator.
Again, well done on the video.
Posted by: JavaChip at March 2, 2007 08:21 PM
You are truly a SUPER GEEK!
That is an amazing piece of work, I can't believe the level of synchronisation you reached. I salute you and I wish I had nothing better to do but fly around in GE with my spacenavigator...
Again, well done!
Posted by: martin cheeseboy at March 2, 2007 11:41 PM
Thank you and keep up the good Job :-)
Great!
Posted by: Andre seekXL at March 4, 2007 08:17 AM
Nice video Frank. How do you get such a long video with that amount of clarity to upload on YouTube. I've tried doing a few using the original CamStudio (not CamTasia) but the quality just isn't there after I shrink the video down to under 10Mb. Do you run GE at full screen while recording and reduce the video size later or run GE in a smaller window while recording? Also what software and codec do you use?
Here's a little scenary for your next flight ;) http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=4da7dde3005b71b59a2179681175d7e7
Posted by: Josh Wilson at March 4, 2007 05:22 PM
awsum!
Posted by: dude at March 4, 2007 11:18 PM
After doing a model of the Grande Dixence Dam, I saw your video and had to go back and do a model of the Mauvoisin Dam which you flew over. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b19f5f577b5eb764ec615c5cc5618f46
Posted by: Josh Wilson at March 5, 2007 01:58 AM
Only one word: RESPECT.
These videos are absolutely breathtaking. Great work !!
Posted by: Jacek at March 9, 2007 02:40 PM
Hi Frank,
Just blogged about your video: http://richrach.com/rich/?p=254
Some friends and I are going hiking in the Alps this summer and I've been using Google to 'visualise' the routes. When the upped the resolution of the photos of the Alps it was like the mist had cleared! The videos are inspirational, and it's a relief to see how accurate Google's terrain mapping is.
Posted by: m8eyboy at March 11, 2007 11:49 AM
WOW!
realy great work...thx a lot.
Posted by: kaboltzky at March 15, 2007 04:28 PM
Very impressive...I thought I was alone in my attempts to duplicate flight paths. I like to do it real time during sporting events that use blimps and helicopters for aerial shots. I have even split screened a car chase in California. It adds that third dimension to the experience. Keep up the fantastic work!
Posted by: Kenneth Dockery at March 17, 2007 02:40 PM
just Perfect!
What is the music that you chose ??
Posted by: Martin at March 31, 2007 05:52 AM
Brilliant piece of work - truly inspirational.
But please tell - what is the music? Truly another masterpiece.
Posted by: elmo at March 31, 2007 11:22 AM
LOL very very cool. I can't get that close to the runway on Google Earth though -- is this a special version?
Posted by: sylvia at April 1, 2007 08:28 PM
Very nice work!
@Kenneth Dockery: The music I believe is "Ameno" from the album "Era" by Eric Lévi (ITMS -> http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=14917260&s=143456&i=14917281)
Posted by: Marcus Sundgren at May 3, 2007 02:46 AM
Wow you have done an amazing job on this!!
Quite stunning and very impressive.
I'm going to send this URL on to a few people I know will be well impressed by this.
I have one question - where did you find out that this new imagery was available from on Google?
(I'd like to create a "fly past" of the great wall of china - something like this - for kids at a school we are doing charity work for and Google images of the wall are too low res (I think Microsofts are better - but that doesn't help me with Google Earth. Do you know if Google have an advance list of where they will improve the quality of images?)
Posted by: Ken at May 13, 2007 08:01 AM
Hi Frank, this is amazing, Thank you!
Posted by: Andi at May 29, 2007 04:39 PM
Frank,
I have never been interested in flight simulation, until you showed this. So I finally decided to try the G-Force myself and the first place I went was the Tetons. They as stunning as the Alps.
Although I could just as well have used the normal mouse mode to view the scenery, flying around yourself makes it absolutely breathtaking.
Thanks for showing us the way.
Posted by: Roger at June 10, 2007 09:18 PM
Whow, this is the coolest video I have seen since a long time, also the music is great !!
Can't you add a post where you explain step by step how you did this ?
Posted by: Frank at July 21, 2007 08:03 AM
Very cool. These videos are absolutely impressive.
Posted by: Marc at August 6, 2007 03:05 PM
excellent, very cool the video
Posted by: Hotel Bayern at October 5, 2007 04:49 PM
This is a really cool video. Anyone can tell me the music used in the videos? I really like it!!!
Posted by: BoundBoy at October 15, 2007 02:21 PM
Extrem cool video
Posted by: Hotel Bayern at January 12, 2008 04:34 PM
simple want to say, that is really cool video. Add same video to your blog again.
Posted by: Dobr at January 15, 2008 01:32 PM
fantastiv movie, great !!
Posted by: Last Minute Urlaub at January 19, 2008 03:16 PM
Frank, you make me want to fly the alps! And I hate flying LOL. This was a work of genius and I was happy to have seen it. Please never stop. ;-)
Posted by: Leonard Powell Jr at January 24, 2008 09:17 PM
This blog post made my day. Great work...thanks.
Posted by: Wellnesshotel Bayerischer Wald at March 5, 2008 07:03 AM
great video... is there anywhere where a person can get a step by step instruction guide on how to create a fly by video in GE pro?
Posted by: Markus Aurilius at April 24, 2008 09:22 AM
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Very nicely done; that obviously took a lot of work but it shows off the new terrain quite well! I wish I had a fast enough connection to try something like that.
Not having a joystick, I've never played with the g-force mode much, but I didn't realize it was possible to roll in GE. That's the one axis of rotation that the space navigator doesn't support -- not that I miss it, really, but it would be kind of cool for making 'flight sim' type movies.