Google Earth VR Is A Mind Blowing Experience
Google Earth VR is a fantastic and underrated free VR game that can be easy to forget about even for VR enthusiasts. Well, don’t forget about it. Google Earth VR is a Virtual Reality experience that is fascinating even for those who are very familiar with VR games and applications, so don’t miss out for yourself. It’s free, and it will let you go anywhere in the world that you want to go. So here’s what you can do in Google Earth VR, and why it’s so great.
Google Earth VR - Travel The World
In case you’re unfamiliar, Google Earth, and its Virtual Reality counterpart, Google Earth VR, allows you to travel the world from the comfort of a computer or VR headset. Of course, here we’re talking about the Virtual Reality version of Google Earth, so you’ll need a VR headset to access it. You’ll also need to connect that VR headset to a PC to run the Google Earth VR application, sorry standalone only users, but this game is PCVR only.
The View Over Tokyo, Japan In Google Earth VR
Still, Google Earth VR is very much worth the trouble of connecting to a PC. It’s not a game in the traditional sense that you are given a goal to accomplish and the tools to accomplish that goal. The goal is what you make of it, because in Google Earth VR the game is the world, and your tools all give you the ability to explore the world. It’s truly fantastic, and in Virtual Reality an experience that is head and shoulders more immersive and impressive that in it is on the flat screen.
Half Dome, California in Google Earth VR
You begin the game overlooking the earth like some space giant, and you can spin yourself around the earth any way you want, position yourself over any country, any place. From the most dense and cultured cities to the most remote mountains and tundra, the whole world is right there at your feet. It’s an amazing feeling, and truly the best way to experience the real world in a virtual way.
Google Earth VR - Go Anywhere
It’s so odd to look at what you see in Google Earth VR, and then realize that what you’re looking at is a real place in the real world. You can think of anywhere you’d like to visit, and just go there immediately. From up above you can view the landscape and vistas of the area. Though the view isn’t perfect. You’ll see the same strange shapes and artifacts surrounding buildings and terrain as you do with flatscreen Google Earth.
Agios Nikolaos, Greece in Google Earth VR
Sometimes some areas will also only be mapped by a flat picture with no 3D models overlayed at all, which can be kind of a letdown, and not nearly as magical as overlooking a city with buildings towering up underneath you. Still, that’s not the best part of Google Earth VR, what makes this a truly magical way to explore the world without ever leaving your living room is Street View.
Google Earth VR Street View in a park in Vancouver, Canada
Street View brings you to the ground level of whatever place you are hovering over. There you are, right there on the ground at a moment in time. You’re surrounded by the real world, unmoving. If you’re in a city there are people, buildings, and cars. In more remote areas you can see the fields and trees and mountains. It’s beautiful, and it’s so immediate. You feel there, transported to a place in the world.
What Google Earth VR adds is that you’re not just looking at a flat picture. You can look around with your real head in a full 360 degrees. It’s like you’re actually standing there, frozen with the other people around you. The ability to go anywhere and just… be there, is almost indescribable. It’s a giddy feeling when you get into it. The whole world opens up to you and you can go anywhere in a moment. The only better way to travel so quickly would be teleportation.
The Inside of a Cafe in Bagdad, Iraq viewed in Google Earth VR Street View
Google Earth VR - Conclusion
Unfortunately, Google Earth VR is not a perfect application. Not all places have the best or most high resolution images taken to represent them. Especially for street view. Fuzzy faces and blurred vistas aren’t the most immersive, especially when they’re so close that you could touch them. As mentioned before the buildings will also sometimes look a little crazy, but this is all a consequence of trying to map the entire world.
The view in Agios Nikolaos, Greece from a Parking Lot via Google Earth VR
Regardless of the levels of detail you might see and immersion you might have, there is still no easier way to see the world in immersive Virtual Reality than with Google Earth VR, and more than anything else it’s a great way for anybody to enjoy VR simply by using it to get a deeper understanding and experience of the real world. Oh, and Google Earth VR is completely free! So if you’ve got a PCVR capable headset it is more than worth at least poking your head in and gets our hearty recommendation. Enjoy!
