Posted on August 27, 2010

3D Sound in Google Earth

Normally Google Earth won't do much more than playing a basic mp3 file as part of a tour. Yet, Google Earth is all about Geo-locating data so why not sounds? We decided to take our experience with Google Earth a step further to see if a true 3D sound engine could be developed for Google Earth. And what do you know, we can!

There is not much point talking about this, you need to see and hear it for yourself. Click on the "Explore" button to let us take you to the picturesque port in San Sebastian, Spain where you can explore the sound landscape. It is an auditory and visual extravaganza.

If you don't have the Google Earth plugin installed, you can at least check-out this video. After that you will want to install Google Earth.

Posted on August 24, 2010

Ship tour generator

Clean Cruising is worlds most innovative cruise retailer in Australia. We already build a tour generator for them that produces HD cruise videos utilising Google Earth. Hundreds of cruises have been rendered and uploaded to Youtube already.

Now we are up to new tricks. This time Clean Cruising wanted tours that would show of the immaculate detail of their 3D ship models (Models build by us of course). So we extended the cruise tour generator and enabled it to generate Ship tours. With this program the client can record amazing camera sequences in Google Earth and import them into the program. From there, these camera sequences are translated to the intended ship location and rendered into a ship tour.

This video is one of their first auto generated ship tours. Camera motion synchonisation, ship wake and shadow are all managed by the application.

Posted on June 16, 2010

Work has started on Ships 2

It is hard to keep up with Google. The brand new 5.2 release of Google Earth has camera clipping fixed. This means that we can now move the camera closer to the ships and planes without them disappearing. Flying the Hindenburg in "Ships" is now much more fun because you can actually see the airship.

This combined with the large number of new 3D buildings in Rotterdam makes "Ships" worth a revisit as it is now. But we are not about to sit back and do nothing. Work has started on "Ships 2". Many users have asked for more ships, collision detection and allowing the ships to continue on course while their PC is switched off. Hang in there, you will get that and much more in "Ships 2". There is no release date yet.

Posted on May 18, 2010

"Helicopters released."

Helicopters is released. Following on the success of "Ships" we decided to step up the game a little and push Google Earth a harder. Where "Ships" was a mere exercise / tech demo, "Helicopters" is the real deal. A complete helicopter simulation game right inside your web browser. The aim is simple...get rich

In "Helicopters" you take control of a small charter helicopter and after your initial training at Oakland airport you will be send downtown San Francisco to provide transport services. As you progress through the game your reputation will increase and with that your pay. Your game state is saved every time you complete a mission.

At this stage "Helicopters only contains 2 mission types. One is your flight training and the other is Taxi services. But stay tuned. We have a long list of very cool missions lined up for you that we will release every month. You will be chasing cars into town, locating lost boats in the bay. Night-time, rain, fog. You get it all. You may even be send down-under where you help to drive cattle on a ranch or shoot deer in the mountains of New Zealand. How about ski helitours or testing low level radar detection systems. The list of planned missions is long.

Helicopters implements a unique form of navigation in Google Earth that is easy to learn and a great wau to explore the rich Google Earth content. Make sure you listen to Brian the instructor in your flying lesson. He knows what he's doing

Expect "Helicopters" to be dynamic and changing all the time. New helicopters, new missions and once you are good enough, who knows, we might let you lose and fly with others.

Posted on May 15, 2010

Drive the A-Team van

Out of the blue just while were flat out working on "Helicopters" a call. Can you do us a cool promotion game for our new A-Team 2010 movie. When a large company like Google and Fox call you, you sit up and listen. Despite Murdock style deadlines, we pulled it off thanks to the amazing help we received from Google engineers. "Drive the Van" is a Google Earth based game made by PlanetInAction.com as part of a YouTube brand channel created to promote the A-Team 2010 movie of course where you get to drive the A-Team van anywhere on earth. We selected the most fun places of course and made them available in a nice list. Technically the most impressive feat on this game are the improved car physics borrowed from a Google Engineer and the unique way the sound effects are mixed in real-time. Not much point talking about it. Click here and play the game.

Oh, before I forget. You just have to select Mount Everest at the bottom of the location list. You start right at the peak of this giant. As you slide down the slopes you will realise how big this mountain really is.

Posted on April 3, 2010

"Helicopters" a quick peek

For quite a while we have been working hard on a new PlanetInAction game called "Helicopters". In "Helicopters" you will be assigned a fun range of missions as a charter pilot while flying in day-time and night-time conditions. In "Helicopters" we pulled all the stops. Below a video if the alpha version of the game. Notice the incredible level of detail and all that in Google Earth. "Helicopters will be released during the Google I/O 2010 conference in San Francisco. So it is fitting that the below patrol takes place in San Francisco.

For the eagle eyed. Indeed, no instruments are working....Yet

Posted on March 19th, 2010

Things you should know about "Ships"

Over the past year various updates to browsers and the Google Earth plugin have resulted in problems with the keyboard when using any of the PlanetInAction.com games. We are pleased to report that these problems have all been fixed across most common browsers. Ships is version 1.03 now.

Today I heard about the release of this awesome port model at San Sebastian in Spain. Rather than just look at it I decided to place my small Canal barge at San Sebastian and try to make my way into the tiny harbour. It dawned on me that there are features in "Ships" that you have never seen before so here it goes:

Position your ship
Ships always starts in the port of Rotterdam but you can teleport your ship to any location in the world. Select the ship you want and type the name of the location like "San Sebastian Spain" into the edit box above the map and click "Go there". Your view changes to the new location. Adjust your view and double click anywhere (On water might be wise) to place your ship. The ship is always placed in the same direction as you are looking.

Look around
You may be familiar with the number 1-4 buttons that change your view. New are the keyboard keys 1-4 to do the same. Did you know by the way that while you are in "Head" view (Click on the head icon at top left of the screen) you can look around? The head view syncronises your viewing location with the location of the ship but while on-board you may want to look around a little as you pass interesting features. You can hold down the SHIFT key and move your mouse to change your viewing direction. Try to press "2" for a nice stern view, click on the head icon and start looking around as your ship is moving with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key

Place names
If you are keen to find a location but you are not sure where it is, why not turn on the place names. Just press "L" on the keyboard and allow Google to load and display the placenames. Press"L" again to turn them off

Posted on January 20th, 2010

San Francisco here we come

How can we possibly turndown an invite from Google! On 19 and 20 May 2010 we will be present on the Google IO developers conference where we will be showing off our new stuff in the Developer Sandbox. Over the next few months we will be releasing little bits of information about our new projects. Of course on the conference all details will be revealed.

One of the projects we work on is called GEVision. In the past various attempts had been made to use Google Earth scenery instead of the one included in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Yet due to limitations in the interface technology this has never been fully achieved. GEVision will enable the use of Google Earth as a full blown 3D scenery engine.

See the attached screenshots that show the difference. The Microsoft Flight simulator screen is captured at the highest possible settings under DirectX 9c.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X versus Google Earth

We are now working to see if we can implement aspects of the Virtual Window ideas as shown in this video Eventually GEVision will be a server / client solution that can connect to a wide range of applications rendering Google Earth views to multiple monitors. GEVision is already working smoothly with Microsoft Flight Simulator X and we hope to be demonstrate it in all it's glory on the Google IO conference.

Posted on December 16th, 2009

Announcing the release of Virtual Cruise tours

Clean Cruising commisioned us to build a cruise tour generator and associated imagery and 3D ship models. These tours have been turned into HD videos and made available on youtube. Read and view more about this amazing project and how the Google Earth tours have been incoperated in the Clean Cruising web-site.

Posted on july 27th, 2009

"Moon lander"

To celebrate the 40 year aniversary of the first moon landing Google released Google Moon. And what would that be without a moon lander game. Climb aboard and take control of the "Eagle" and see if you can match Neil Armstrongs flying skills.

Posted on june 21th, 2009

"Places"

"Places" is your next generation postcard. Explore Google Earth as free as a bird with the new user friendly GExplorer navigation tool. Record your own epic fly throughs with GExplorer. Now everyone can be a cinematic genius. PlanetInAction.com brings you "Places" were you explore the wonders of the world. Once you've found your place, you can use it as a postcard and share it with your friends.

Posted on May 11th, 2009

"Ships"

In this ship simulation program you get to be the helmsman of your own fleet of ships. Although it is a case study, you will find "Ships" entertaining as it will take you past the worlds incredible scenery at a leisurely pace. All you need to play ships is a small Google Earth plugin. Read more...