Just now downloaded Google Earth Version 4.3 (beta) off the Google servers!
[UPDATE: You should be able to go to the official download page to get 4.3 now. You won’t need to use the trick below.]
In order to get it, I had to go to the old way of downloading Google Earth. Please note: the following method will bypass the Google Updater method, but will enable you to get an early look if you can’t wait to see the new version. Further note: Not all the servers will have the new version. You may not get 4.3 when you try this! So, if you’re in a hurry, click here to download old method. If you’re more patient, the better way is to visit the official Google Earth download page after waiting a few hours for the servers to completely deploy.
Real quick, here is a couple of screenshots to whet your appetite. I will begin writing a mini-review of the main new features next and developing some videos. So…here is what Google Earth 4.3 looks like:
Notice new day/night lighting, new nav gadgets in upper right
Street View in Google Earth
Notice in the second shot this is a close-up view of Street Views (normally you see gold camera icons). You click on a sphere and you enter inside and can look around (or double-click a camera icon). You can then double-click on camera icons to be flown to other views (from within the sphere). This is done through the GE Photo Viewer interface, and works pretty well. Turn on the Street View layer to see the icons, and then fly to a city with the icons to see them up close.
[UPDATE – First mini review with more screenshots here]
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Thanks for the info, very nice. I just tried it looking at the Atlanta area, and it was dirt slow. Perhaps they are updating the data or something, but it’s taking a really long time to get buildings.
I left it sitting there for about 5 minutes, and the building textures just haven’t filled in with high res textures. Neither have the grey buildings come in. Considerring Virtual Earth actually had a speed improvement with their better textures, I think this is a bad look for Google.
Aside from that, I love the new sun shading. It’s a direct rip from Sean Oneil’s atmosphere tutorials, but good nonetheless. Here is a link if you’re interested. http://sponeil.net/index.htm
I can confirm that the quick download works for Mac, as I now have v 4.3.7191.6508 (beta) on my new MacBook Pro.
Speed is unbelievable (maybe because not many have downloaded it and the servers are free). It is a beta and I noticed that the Places menu gets scrambled when I select a site (the selected site goes to the bottom of the Places window box). The controls are different, I don’t like that I cannot just double click to return to vertical view when in Terrain mode (I have to hold down the lower arrow until it rotates back up), but double clicking the North arrow swings GE around to north as before.
Also for the Mac I don’t get the nice bubbles for street views, rather they are half circle panoramas in rather low resolution (at least for NYC). But when you swing around from above they rotate with you showing the corresponding street view. Kewl!
I guess my taxes are going to be late this year….
Eric
im lost since when there jakson coverage in street view dont look tho be finish to wierd
I have two questions that I can not settle anywhere!
I have installed Google Earth v4.3.7191.6508 in my desktop and my laptop, but while in the latter everything is “ok”, the computer fixed the start image of the earth is the same as the old version (the one without sunlight and the atmosphere very clear) I have reinstalled the program several times but the result does not change. Another point: why you can not choose where “install the new version of Google Earth? I hope you can help me because otherwise I do not know to whom to address. Thank you
Vito: When you open Google Earth, what version does it report when you select the menu “Help->About Google Earth”?
If you have indeed installed 4.3.7191.6508 (beta), then check to make sure your Atmosphere is turned on under the menu “View->Atmosphere”. Then select the “View->Sun” option.
HOW CAN I UNINSTALL THE WINDOWS INSTALLED FEATURES THAT ARE CAUSING GOOGLE TO BE UNABLE TO CONTACT MY SERVER
I just installed the 4.3 version and this version is dead slow for everything. Can anyone could tell me other things besides “upgrade drivers”, “check connection”.
I have a DELL Vostro 1000 with 2 Gb – AMD Turion TL-58 and ATI 1150 with 256 Mb – 400 MHz.
The previous version of GE works so fine.
Regards from Brazil.
After installing GE v4.3.7204.0836 (beta) my logitec contolpad (rumblepad 2 USB) is’nt working proper anymore in the flight simulator-mode!
what’s wrong? Anybody realized the same?
New version of Google earth (4.3)is so slow it is virtually unusable. I am running windows 2000 on a dual Xeon computer. This certainly seems like a huge step backwards, unless it’s a ploy by the Google/Microsoft consortium to get us to go out and buy new computers.
Is there a way to download older versions of GE?
just forund this out if your google earth is running reeeeally slow then go to view untick atmosphere and everything speeds up again (found in another forum ) worked for me
I just downloaded the 4.3 upgrade. Now I have lost about two years of placemarks. When I run the new 4.3 I get a blank sidebar and NO EARTH on my screen. I am on dial up and I am reading in this blog that the 4.3 is really slow. Do I just wait? Also, how do I get back to my old 4.2 and recover all my lost placemarks?
I’ve just downloaded the new version of Google Earth and the earth is just lines of latitude and longitude. Where’s the scenery gone ? What do I have to do to get Google Earth displaying the earth properly ?
when I want to download the google4.3 the repeat that my country is not allowed to download this google
With atmosphere un clicked it does move faster ,but still seems slower than older version, does increasing the cache size speed up the software?
in my Google Earth (version 4.3.7284.3916 (beta)
the Street view does not seem to be working at the moment. I get tis message “Street view: to view, please install the latest version of Google Earth”.
the only thing I can think of is that I recently updated ‘qucktime’ and it asked me to also install itunes and quicktime player, but I already had those (or so I thought), so I decided not to install them.
I dont know if that would efect google earth, or how to get street view working again
Hi my problem is that every time i try to download google earth 4.3 it keeps telling me that its not possible in my country althoug the older version was working very well.
At the end of the (Linux) installation) of the google earth I got the message
error while loading shared libraries: ./libminizip.so: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied
what should I do?
Uh, I cant seem to be able to download GE 4.3 on my computer. Like I click the download it now button and i get to the screen with all of the legal jargon stuff but the two buttons that would say “I agree” and “I disagree” are small and blank.
Whenever i click on the page of google earth it comes up and dissapears to a new updater page so when i download that my google earth is still the old one
I have saved my places in a KMZ file. How do I restore these places to a new computer and newly downloaded GE.
Jerry
i downloaded google earth 4.3 then my computer crashed. On restart it says to send an error report to windows? can you advise?
hi i cant see anthing underwater i try to see the sunken ships and stuff but all i see is sand how do i see the ships underwater?
A hello and im karl call me karl in evreyyime i download the Google Earth 4.3 the result is the Google Earth 5.2 and that’s my problem.
Made by:KARL PATRICK C. PACHECO