Well, till they get powerfull tools to "clear" those shadowy parts, they will have massive problems with this - specially when trying to blend two areas photographed at different times. I assume, there would be possible to make an automatic digital processing way, doe, they need to photograph for it in a much greater resolution, to capture the needed detail in the shadowy regions for it to work with comparable enough visual detail effect. So id say they have a few years to master that out.
What intrigues me is that "Google Earth
flight simulator" announcment. I cant imagine it working on that "engine" theyre using for visualizing the Earth. Will be quite some pain and probably even performance issues trying to embed it into it in a much more complex way beyond this little thing:
There are also some pop-ups (0:34-0:36) - i think it didnt really muster to change the detail level ewerywhere (or at least it looks for me as the one rock in the center popped out, but all the left side plato, didnt change the detail at all - i ihink its that basic GoogleEarth "feature" of being focused only on small tiles right at the center of the view).
Also, the photo-look is amazing, yet i cant shake the feeling it couldnt handle somehow any nearer approach to the surface. As if theyre showing the approx. min height in the vid to look great, but actually landing, or near-passes or flights on helis - i think the IR-Photo way of capturing stuff may lead to weird stuff as vegetation cant be anything else than bulky things all around, especially in cityes. (and somehow, the FOV seems off for nearer approach).
... dont take me wrong, its a half century from anything the last MFS was, but ill still hold my money back for OT.
