The virtual city project created by GeoSim was mentioned briefly in this post from yesterday. Here’s a deeper look into the project.
GeoSimPHILLY is the first real world city to be created by GeoSim Systems, an Isreali-based company. Their objective - to create virtual cities looking as realistic as possible. And, as they put it:
Virtual Philadelphia conveys to a captivated audience of local residents, national and international tourists and visitors the true experience of being there, combined with a variety of location-related content and useful applications, such as: Local Search, Virtual Tours, City Planning, E-Shopping and Human Interaction.
As a user you have the option to walk, hover, jump to and simply roam through true-to-life Virtual Philadelphia, or to meet other users, to click on any building, bus stop or shop to find out more information about it or even to go inside.
So clearly an application worth including in the tourism and travel category of virtual worlds, even though it’s still in beta and only recently launched.
Initial thoughts - it looks and feels as though it could be a hybrid product mashed together from Google Earth, Maps and Street View. This is mainly because of the four view options available. You can see a typical ‘top down’ map with street names, a fly-by mode a-la from a aeroplane window looking down onto the virtual city, a hover mode (similar to flying in SL) and finally a walking mode that puts you on da streets. It’s a nice mix and works well together.
Here’s those views…
Walk mode
Hover mode
Flight mode (more…)
