Google/Virtual Earth Idea?

[BrianG]

Has anyone used Google and/or Virtual Earth lately? I was playing around the other day and was amazed at the progress. Google Earth has the street view for a lot of places, and Virtual Earth has rendered models of some buildings with elevation changes (more noticeable when you set a lower view angle).

So, I think it would be neat to have one of these partner up with a game developer to create a driving game. It would be fun to be able to race at any location in the world.

It could go something like this: Like Virtual Earth, you click on a global area and it zooms until you find a region to race in. Then, the game downloads (and saves for future use) the map for that area. Then you pick the vehicle and race mode (cruise, race against like cars, etc) and play. Then, as you near the border of the playing area, the game automatically downloads the new map behind the scenes to create a seamless driving experience.

I don't know if Virtual Earth's 3D buildings are pre-defined or dynamically built based on shadows, size, etc, but with today's technology, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to programmatically do the same and then maybe clean them up a little. Sure, the buildings still wouldn't be perfect, but close enough IMO. And also clean up the scenery (roads, trees, etc using pre-defined 3D models) for more realism. Then, the program would have to dynamically strip out any pre-existing stationary traffic and add in some AI vehicles.

I love to driving games (solely), so this would be my version of porn.