Google Earth VR was an early and enchanting app for the primary technology of contemporary PC VR headsets, however sadly it by no means made the leap to the standalone period. Now a brand new app, FLY, brings the magic of exploring Google Earth in VR to Quest and Imaginative and prescient Professional.
Now out there on Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3, and Vision Pro, Fly goals to convey the magic of exploring Google Earth in 3D in a completely immersive method. Past simply having the ability to discover the globe to your coronary heart’s content material, Fly goals for a extra immersive really feel than its non secular predecessor. Whereas the unique Google Earth VR primarily had you floating round as a disembodied digicam, Fly is thematically constructed round the concept gamers are piloting a drone that may take them wherever.
“Fly is our concept of a private flight simulator that permits you to journey on floor, above cities, and throughout nations to discover locations you’ve by no means seen. Our focus has been on a seamless expertise with intuitive comfy controls, clean loading, and detailed rendering of Google Earth Tiles,” says Eric Malafeew, CTO and Co-Founding father of VirZOOM, the studio behind the app.
The studio says that Fly makes use of Google Earth’s 3D Map Tiles, providing an enormous Earth-sized area for gamers to discover, together with full 3D geometry in lots of main cities. The challenge was purportedly began in collaboration with Google, however was placed on maintain for years.
“Initially created in collaboration with Google for a PC VR launch in 2018, we needed to shelve it after they paused Google Earth API growth,” says VirZOOM Co-Founder and CEO Eric Janszen. “So after we noticed them announce the Google Earth Tiles API this previous yr we had been excited to finish the product. This new model takes what we created in 2018 and advantages from our years of information in VR growth since then. This model of Fly is every little thing we had hoped for in PC VR, however out there on standalone headsets.”
Whereas the app is obtainable on Quest headsets—and will get a lift in high quality on Quest 3—the developer says the added headroom on Imaginative and prescient Professional means it will possibly ship the optimum expertise.
“The 3D Earth tiles, which Google gives, have the identical most high quality on each Quest 3 and Imaginative and prescient Professional. However the Imaginative and prescient Professional model is rendered at 2.5x the max decision of Quest 3, and we draw tile particulars out to 2.5x better distance, with not one of the efficiency hits you get from maxing out the High quality possibility on Quest 3,” says Robert Collins, COO of VirZOOM. “This implies the tiles, UI and total expertise within the recreation look considerably higher on Imaginative and prescient Professional and supply a smoother expertise because the consumer strikes by the world.”
