Street View is now live in the UK

[durhamlass]

If you're researching a prototypical route, this will definitely be of interest to you, as many of the little details we had to guess at before are potentially visible without the need for a research trip.

For example, let's say you want to know what a particular bridge looks like:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...=rCyU3wr0WPJVg4lg-27vGg&cbp=12,90.23,,0,-2.58

Cool stuff, or what.

(A shame it doesn't help with 1960s-era imagery, but you can't have everything!)

 

[Boobless_ed]

Hasn't it been live for a while in most/many UK cities?

 

[durhamlass]

Some of he major ones (e.g. Birmingham, London and Newcastle) but certainly not smaller places like Shildon and Bishop Auckland.

They appear to have done a pilot in the larger cities then rolled out all of the rest of the country in one go.

 

[Boobless_ed]

Oh, excellent news!

 

[mcguirel]

Ok, that feature will really help with authetic reproduction, but add to the time it takes to do a route.

 

[chefbyte]

Yup and what a fuss it caused me at work, as you can see me at the back of our office, having a crafty ciggie LOL

 

[davesnow]

That's great resolution! Here in the USA, we mostly have low-resolution street views.

The best resolution comes from Singapore, Malaysia. Take a look at this:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...c5QntmVY4cJp68OqvnwCzQ&cbp=12,328.86,,0,12.32

 

[durhamlass]

Ok, that feature will really help with authetic reproduction, but add to the time it takes to do a route.

That's the downside, of course.

 

[wreeder]

Wow, you're not kidding. The resolution is much better than the US. How much do you think the place on the corner of Elm Terrace rents for? You better be closing your shades.

William

 

[Boobless_ed]

I must admit, after having a look through many smaller towns and villages, I'm incredibly impressed. They've even taken the time to do some ridiculously small villages with populations no greater than 200...

I had a great explore along the A7 borders route, and along that road one can see a huge amount of the old Waverly line. It'd be simply amazing to have that done in Trainz using DEM data. One would even be able to link it up to Carlisle, so one would be able to have sessions between Settle and Edinburgh!

Perhaps if I have the time I might release a 'barebones' route, with just the graded track and DEM terrain done for someone to finish off. There probably wouldn't be a huge amount of custom assets needed until you start getting near and to Edinburgh...

 

[davesnow]

From Wikipedia--- FYI:

Google Street View Competition projects

Other companies or institutions have already begun taking their own 360 degree pictures of cities. Such is the case of Kartmania, in Russia (for the moment, only in Moscow). A romanian company, NORC is also taking pictures of Romania and other countres in Eastern and Central Europe. Two Argentine versions also exist, one is called Mapplo which is the first street view in Latin America. Fotocalle, another Argentine project is the first street view in the world that provides HD pictures.
There are also street views of some cities in the United States and the south of Thailand provided by MapJack.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View

 

[Snowhill]

Last summer a car with the Google logo on it was spotted driving up our High Street.... Now I can see our flat in Street View.... I even recognise some of the people... It seems that most of Cornwall is now covered in Street View... Brilliant!
Dennis

 

[greywolfretired]

Now you can see where your relatives live,especially if you have not been to visit. If you are researching your family history as I'm its a bonus to be able to use street view.