Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Formula 1 Google Maps Mashups

Formula 1 Circuit Satellite Images

Even though we are still a couple of months away from the start of the 2009 Formula 1 season there seems to have been a recent spate of Google Maps mashups created around the sport.

This mashup is a Google Map showing all the racing circuits on the 2009 tour. All the season's Grand Prix circuits are listed in the map sidebar in chronological order. Clicking on any of the circuits zooms in the map to show the satellite image of the circuit.

Silverstone Simulation
Silverstone Simulation is a real-time tour of the Silverstone racetrack (home of the British Grand Prix). The simulation uses the Google Earth browser plug-in and a 3D model of the Ferrari Formula 1 car. Here's some grainy footage of the simulation:


Formula 1 in Google Earth from Keir Clarke on Vimeo.

As you can see from the video the simulation allows you to view the Silverstone circuit from the perspective of a Formula 1 driver. The user can adjust the speed of the car as it drives around the circuit and can also change the camera angle.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, i love this one a lot. Did you get this zoomed out and posted. Nice work mate.

Anonymous said...

Red-and-white Ferrari? LOL!!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

As author of the Silverstone Tour can I just add a comment or two.

First off I'm glad you liked it Keir :)

Also it is just a beta and was put together as a test to see whether I could get a Tour to run in real time. In the example the speed is taken from the Altitude setting for each of the points along the line-string - although that can be overriden and a constant speed used.

I posted it on the GE Plugin forums at

http://groups.google.com/group/google-earth-browser-plugin/browse_thread/thread/c45effdc72e33ace/54a5ee208ec3e5f6#54a5ee208ec3e5f6

and that post decribes how it works and some of the bugs I need to iron out. It's very much a beta/work-in-progress.

Once I've got it running nicely I'm going to do the same for all circuits of the 2009 season and post that on the Google Earth Community. (I did a 2008 season KMZ that can be found in the Sports-moderated section of the GEC and while some of the imagery has since been updated and therefore some of the Overlays don't quite line up, they will for the 2009 one, it gives an idea of what's in it)

As for the red and white Ferrari that obviously shouldn't do that, and doesn't for me, but I have seen it when I switched between OpenGL and DirectX so it's a graphics issue which needs to be solved.

Anyway thanks again for the comments :)

Regards
Nymor