Somebody has to have thought of this already.

You know when you zoom in or out on Google Earth from space and get that "roller coaster" feeling in your stomach if you do it fast enough? They did this on a large screen at the NASA museum movie theater and everybody was "oooo!"ing and "weeee!"ing like we were on a roller coaster.

It would be cool to cut these zooming in and out satellite shots together with aerial tours of the great cities of the world for an IMAX theater show. So you fly around New York, then zoom out into space (Weeee!) then zoom back down to Washington D.C. and fly around there seeing the sights before jumping across the Atlantic in a few seconds where you resume with an air tour of London. It would be like you're on a ship that can travel 500 miles a second over the boring parts of the earth (like the Atlantic ocean or Bakersfield) then slowing down when you get to the good parts. This would:

1- Allow you to retain a sense of the relative locations of the cities as you tour and...

2- Let you see the whole world in one continuous shot in a reasonable amount of time and...

2- Give you a virtual roller coaster ride in between cities.

Like I said, I'm sure somebody has to have though of this. It would be a travel documentary that makes you blow chunks.
-- doctorremulac3, Nov 12 2007

GPS Visualizer for Google Earth http://www.gpsvisua...ap?form=googleearth
[Klaatu, Nov 12 2007]

Hidden Flight Sim in Google Earth http://marco-za.blo...ight-simulator.html
[Klaatu, Nov 12 2007]

Controls for the Google Earth FS http://earth.google...lightsim/index.html
You can just blast away at full thrust by hitting [PgUp] [Klaatu, Nov 12 2007]

Blue Planet http://www.answers....ic/blue-planet-film
[quantum_flux, Nov 12 2007]

Gets my (+) even if it exists.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 12 2007


If you can fly the route in a plane, you can use the GPS Visualizer <link>

Or, even more fun is the FREE flight simulator hidden in Google Earth <link>
-- Klaatu, Nov 12 2007


Woa, thanks for that Klaatu! Arthur C Clark said something like: "technology, when advanced enough, is indistinguishable from magic" and this stuff really is. At least to my little brain.
-- doctorremulac3, Nov 12 2007


Yeah! Thanks. Whee-ee! You can choose it to start at present view--which can be over your house.
-- baconbrain, Nov 12 2007


I thought it might appeal to the folks here.

Note to self: Do not offer things like this on a Sunday night. [watches productivity in the U.S., and abroad, drop to terrifyingly low rates on Monday morning]

My only caveat is that there is no AP with a slaved GPS. At least a 3-axis AP would be nice. The phugoid in the F-16 at 58,000 ft was annoying. Anyone ever get it to dampen out? It seemed to increase in amplitude over time.
-- Klaatu, Nov 12 2007


There's a "Placemarks Tour" function in Google Earth. You can set each placemark for location and orientation, then do a tour--but that's all I've bothered to find out about it. It probably could be used just like a VR video rendering chain.
-- baconbrain, Nov 12 2007


They have, "Blue Planet" is an Imax film that you can get at your local library. I saw it in the Imax when I was little and thought I was going to puke because of the sensation of flying really fast through canyons and above rivers. It's a very good message too.
-- quantum_flux, Nov 12 2007


Makes me want to go buy a big screen just to watch Google Earth on it.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 13 2007



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