Virtual Earth checkmates Google Maps

Now I'm getting impressed. Microsoft's Virtual Earth after releasing its web-based 3D version quite a while ago now, which was excellent just having the landscape modelled in 3D, but now in addition to major landmarks, it's got towns and city centres modelled in 3D.

Unlike Google Maps, they're not ignoring Europe either, we've got several extra features already like 'bird's eye view' modes which Google haven't made available for us yet.

Eastbourne, UK rendered in Virtual Earth

This is Eastbourne in the UK, the first town to get the treatment here. They've got a number of US cities and a few other spots around Europe too in this first update.

Best of all you can use all this with an Xbox 360 controller. :)

Categories: Technology Tags: google maps, virtual earth
Permalink16th July 2007 23:46:30, 116 words, 450 views1 comment »

1 comment

Comment from: Rob [Visitor]
Nice post Paul. MS just uploaded an additional 26 terabytes of imagery and 3D models last week, and they've been doing that nearly every month. The 3D was only released in November '06, and there are already over 100 cities comprising more than 100,000 fully rendered buildings! They will more than quadruple that capacity this year. Here are some collections in Virtual Earth that show all of the polygons in areas where you can find 3D buildings - provided your blog formats them correctly! They should open Virtual Earth with a collection of items down the left hand columns. I'm constantly updating the polygons with building counts and such, so you can also subscribed to the collection via RSS to be notified when they change.

Europe: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=94A64037B5C0FB5C!604&encType=1

Canada: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=94A64037B5C0FB5C!676&encType=1

US: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=94A64037B5C0FB5C!450&encType=1
17th July 2007 @ 01:39

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