(OT) Strange Google Maps 3D trees and other features...

Hi all,

It seems like Google Maps has gotten less and less realistic lately. Maybe there's some new setting I need to turn off.

The latest thing is that trees look weird. See this section grabbed from the edge of the field where I fly, though I see it all over.



How to turn it off so I can just see a relatively plain flat view without strange 3D processing?

Marc

I've heard there are sites and collections of odd features that are and are not what they seem on the google Earth maps.
Things like abandoned US air force jets in the Lybian desert, Swastica in apartment building layouts, stands of fall trees that turn into a swastika only when the leaves change, and various rude words spelled out in the desert.
I don't know where to find them all though.

Google Maps now includes the 3D features like Google Earth. These are 3D models that overlay the maps. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to turn off the 3D feature. But, you can switch to the "Classic" version of Google Maps:

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3045828?hl=en

-- Roger

Thanks Roger.

Meanwhile, I'll file a note with Google expressing concern about the 3D stuff. It should be a selectable option, much like the 45 degree view (which also annoys me when it defaults to on instead of off...)

Marc

Marc_G said:

Meanwhile, I'll file a note with Google expressing concern about the 3D stuff. It should be a selectable option, much like the 45 degree view (which also annoys me when it defaults to on instead of off...)

Click to expand...

I think there's a few things they need to fix.

I was using "Street View" in the new Google Maps today to check on the area around the GRITS launch location when I discovered that the image will sometimes tilt and even turn completely upside-down. I'm not sure how that's a useful feature.

-- Roger

Musta had a van roll over

Marc_G said:

Thanks Roger.

Meanwhile, I'll file a note with Google expressing concern about the 3D stuff. It should be a selectable option, much like the 45 degree view (which also annoys me when it defaults to on instead of off...)

Marc

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've noticed this too... look a highway bridge and you'll see what I mean... however the computer is rendering the 3D by following the shadow as if the shadow was falling on flat, level ground... hence when you look a bridge overpass, it will look as if the highway dips down at an angle to the ground and then comes back up again... very stupid-looking... another one of those "features" that in reality is more of a "bug" but some eager-beaver nitwit somewhere thinks "it's cool" and thus sets it up to work that way... Obviously they've never heard of the KISS principle...

At any rate, the best "fix" for it is to continuously make sure that the view is actually STRAIGHT DOWN. As you zoom in and out on various things, the view gradually changes to more of an oblique view, as if you were looking out the window of an airplane at about a 45 degree angle, to something off in the distance instead of looking at something directly below the airplane... make sense?? To make sure that the view is straight down, you have to click on the little "ring" up in the corner near the bottom of the ring, and you'll see the viewing angle gradually changing, looking more and more straight downward at the ground, rather than at some weird angle which accentuates the 3D effect. Of course as soon as you zoom in or out, it slowly starts slewing back to their preferred oblique angle, so you have to periodically re-do this to keep the view more or less straight down.

You'll know when the view is exactly straight down, because the picture will start to rotate as if you were wanting to turn the "north" compass point to either the "east" or "west" position... another rather stupid "feature" IMHO... the picture should always have north at the top IMHO... like EVERY OTHER FREAKIN' MAP... anyway, slide the cursor around the ring a bit and click it and hold a second and you can realign "north" with the top of the window...

At least, that's how I do it... I use Google Earth quite a bit with farm-related stuff and planning trips and looking at inaccessible (from public roads) agricultural areas, and this seems to work well for me...

Later and good luck! OL JR