Google/Virtual Earth Wish List

I've been happily watching the march of features and data encouraged by the competition to win users of 3D Earth systems. Here is a short list of next generation features that I'd love to see:

1. Day/Night simulation. With the increasing availability of building models and the greater detail in evaluation data, the ability to accurately demonstrate to the user the environmental differences that lighting can bring to a scene will the users ability to understand and explore new environments. In addition, the ability to set and animate the changes between night and day, and to simulate urban lighting (and even the inclusion of celestial data) would bring further value. Adding a user controlled temporal element would also broaden the types of data and their exploration (imagine browsing historical weather data on the globe).
2. Atmospheric simulation. The views in Google Earth and Virtual Earth are impressive, but they lack many qualities of the real world. One key element of reality that has a great effect on rendering scenic views is that of atmospheric perspective. This is the fading out of things as they recede into the distance.
3. Meteorological simulation. What does Pittsburgh look like on a cloudy muggy summer afternoon? How about an April shower in Edinburgh? Imagine looking up to the sky in one of these systems and seeing realistic clouds (even clouds that are driven by real time weather data).
4. Ambient sound. The larks in the sky, the sea, Niagra, ...
5. Vehicle and Pedestrian extraction and simulation. Most of the better photographic data available on earth simulators has recognizable vehicles and sometimes people. By recognizing where vehicles are, the systems could certainly place token models. In addition, the density of traffic and pedestrians could be calculated and simulated.
6. Vegetation simulation. Trees and other land use features have been studied in GIS systems for quite a while. Imagine if we could identify these features and place realistic trees and other vegetation.

Comments

[rob]

All 6 of your points are currently available in MS Flight Simulator X and look terrific! Flight Simulator pulls the weather data from 15,000 worldwide weather stations and models it in full 3D (i.e. fly through the clouds, view a city through the haze, etc.) There is also the passage of time, seasons, and a variety of other 3D objects like airport ramp vehicles, traffic, boats, waterlife, vegetation and much more. What would happen if MS figured out they had both peanut butter and chocolate at their disposal??? :)