A little project i've been working on is now live!
googleDrive is a little google maps mash up that allows you to drive a little car around on the maps.
http://www.phatfusion.net/googledrive
I'm also planning a doing another version called googleRacer that will allow you to race on predefined circuits against the clock, for example the paris ringroad. I'm also thinking of doing this one with the sat view images instead.
comments and suggestions welcome.
141 comments:
Could you tell me what is the speed of car? It could be calculated, right?
Hello !
Congratulations for all your works about mootools !
About goggleDrive, I can't enter location on the field with FF 2.0.0.12 and IE7 7.0.5730.11, but it works with Opera 9.25 !
I'm running XP pro SP2
Jazzaj
Google drive's great, the idea, how it works, just everything! pure fun :). The field is working btw on FF 2.0 @ Ubuntu.
Maybe you guys could create a little game from it? :)
doesn't work in FF2 - tried on two PCs...
Hey, awesome work, Google Drive is much fun! I've just had my girlfriend trying to improve her orientation skills finding her way home :0)
May want to consider the name though - there's already been talk of a Google Drive mass storage facility.
This is fun. It reminds me of an old Commodore 64 game in which you had find major cities. It gave you a name and you had to fly there with a helicopter. You then got points according to the time used. It would be easy to add to this "game" (and probably would educate a handful of people).
This isn't working for me. The car won't drive.
Yes, I used the arrow keys as it said.
Doesn't work. Are there any browser req.'s?
ff2-xpsp2 no (arrows don't work)
ie7-xpsp2 yes
Amazing!! This could be such a good social networked game with road trips and scavenger hunts.
the car seems to be going around 600 kph ... or around 370 mph
this is fun :)
but please try to get hybrid maps (satelite and road overlay) they look boring like this.
also, try to tweak the speed, it's a bit hard to drive like this and it feels unrealistic. try to make the screen move backwards when the car is accelerating at a different rate than the car and then catch up as the speed increases. also, try to make the speed of the car a bit slower, but with the ability of going fast fast fast :) (for highways etc)
This is brilliant, huge kudos for your work!
Though I did find myself with an urge to drive home from the map's start point. There's 10 minutes I won't see again!
Will be keeping an eye out for any future releases, keep it up.
Need to make it so the car slides along the edge of the road so you don't get stuck so much.
very cool. Works great for me FF2 on Ubuntu. Only problem I had was that it would take me somewhere random when I entered a location.
Such a great idea !
Congrats !
One of the best things I've found on the internet in a very long time. One problem though, if you drive a great distance, a new map screen loads, not a problem in itself, but when this happens, the road boundaries disappear. If this happens, and you happen to be outside of the roads when the boundaries come back, you can't move anymore. Perhaps in the next version, you could add a feature that would automatically return you to the road if you ever get off of it for some reason.
That said, incredible job!! I brilliant idea, with great execution!!!
An odometor would be stupendious. And a way to raise/lower the speed to calculate how far/how long it will take.
Here's a similar game:
http://www.thomasscott.net/realworldracer/
I prefer your version, it just needs satalite overlays!
Remind anyone else of the first Grand Theft Auto (or the London: 1969 addon, for that matter?)
Now if only it had guns & bombs & that....
Oh, for some free hacking time...
This is Great!!!! :D
Just a few suggestions:
Hybrid View?
Zoom in a level or two
Love the experiment.
It would be awesome if you could set the speed of the car to pre-defined speeds (ie 80kph, 40kph, etc). This way you can calculate how long it will take to drive somewhere.
Great, and i was able to drive along the golf yard. just drive over the train rails and then go there.
great game!
would be nice if the car would not stuck but more slide if it crashes a wall
to set the different google layers would be another nice feature =)
Can't drive (FF 2.0.0.12)
brilliant. Can you add more cars, make it multi-player. Maybe police cars, guns, bombs?
didn't work with firefox
Great!
I was actually considering to do the same kind of game, more called like "grand theft Google".
Congratulations for great product.
HEY COOL!!!!!
Love that you go faster on the motorways. Nice touch.
haha, did you notice that you can also drive on railways? :-D bug or feature?
great job, love it!
Really cool, though I always ended up in the middle of nowhere no matter what I searched for. I couldn't even manage to find major cities like LA or San Francisco. On the plus side, I now know how to get home from Missouri.
Needs Multiplayer!
And damage to your car for crashes :)
A note: you can leave the road in parks. I just spent two minutes doing donuts in Regents Park. With a great big grin on my face, too.
Way cool!! And yea, sat view would be awesome.
Awesome.
-sat view
-more zoom
-multiplayer
Not good to post as a demonstration of your Javascript etc skills when it doesn't work so often.
Doesn't work on the version of IE I tried, Doesn't work on FireFox 3b4, Doesn't work on Opera 9.5a. Doesn't work on Windows Safari... might be more impressed if I could find an installed browser it did work on
Hey you anonymous... why don`t you leave your name, and some examples of your incredible skills?, i'd like to see them work in every browser... but of course... i am not a genius like you, so i haven't installed all those browser to test. it's easier to bark.
S.O.A.B.
There is a SERIOUS problem with this app and with Flash under Mozilla in general. In many cases the arrow keys have NO apparent effect. The car doesn't move.
We've seen this in countless Flash games -- I have to switch to IE to run them!
It's apparently related to a very long standing wmode bug described at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312920
and elsewhere. Please try the various workarounds that are documented, and see if it improves access to your app! Thanks.
(not the same Anonymous as above) :)
Great Work Mann!!
I saw that the code is open source and licensed under MIT . Do you have the link to source code ?
Very nice! can you also make it embeedable? It would work just fine if we could choose the city and the initial location of the car.
congratulations for this idea!
feel like I'm playing GTA 2 in my neighbourhood. Very cool
I could drive in most of Europe, the major areas, but for example interior parts of Norway and places it get white areas, is it like that for many people? And the west-Coast of Canada where i currently live I couldn't drive at all. Tried to check Vancouver for example, but it won't work.
same for me... some bigger cities work, but outside of them there's only white...
Hi
You did a very nice job with this project im looking forward to the racing mode!!!
bye
Hey, love it! It'll be a fun way to give someone directions.
Its working on my Firefox (ver 2.0.0.13). Only problem is that it sometimes it doesn't load one of the map squares, but it seems to be working most of the time.
Have you thought about a way to use this in google streetview? You could have it buffer the next several images out of streetview, depending on where your car is facing on a street you turned into.
if not there is also the option of livemaps bird's eye view, that is cool.
your biggest issue is that you have to right click the flash & zoom, to have any decent control and not hit the "curbs". and zooming this way makes all the lines too fuzzy, and zooms in a little too much. obivously, simple satellite view would be amazing.
If only we could race...
it also creates the region of Granada in Spain
I've noticed one really big problem. Whenever I load an area code in missouri eg. St.louis or my home town etc. I end up 100 or so miles east. The same happens when I type in the name of the town. So the conversion of city to area code is working fine. But then it's just loading up the wrong map to start on.
Thats great!! It's a lot of fun. Could it be possible to show how far one has been driving?
Wow, that's awesome ! Really good work.
But i have one BUG REPORT for you.
When not driving through cities, there is a big bug. You can drive through forests and gras !
For example: Just enter "Biberach" and you will know what i mean. Would be nice if this could be corrected too.
So, good job. Keep on working.
Chris
you should make the car leave skid marks when you turn sharply, then you really could do dohnut spins in regents park
That's awesome!!
However like some other people have said, it would be nice to have a little game out of it and possibly multiplayer too. Another thing, it would be helpful to have place names marked so you actually knew where you were in some places =P.
Had to leave a comment this is pure brillant.
could do with loads of improvements for sure but as it is its a great idea and dam fun.
Heres to hopin we can all play GTA online in google maps in 10 years xD
Excellent! Could you make it accept get, as well as post variables so that I link to it and it come it with a location directly?
owwwww, ok hand cramp, drove from starting place in london down to newquay...
great app!!! keep up the good work
Great work
Are you going to share the source code?
I have some ideas to improve this thing :)
You should make a MMO from it ;-).
Well I'm Running XP with FF2, and it works OK
I can get it to work fine in London, but when I type in "Los Angeles, CA" or "Los Angeles, USA", I get taken to a small town called Charleston, Mississippi which is abou 1,900 miles away. :(
Really cool!
You could add a "GTA" style effect of zooming out when you go faster - that gives it a more realistic feel. Good for driving on highways, etc.
Great job!!
Game play works fine for me in FF 2.0.13 on XP. I have to wonder if some of the complainers aren't forgetting to click on the flash object as directed.
The only hiccup I've experienced is that, when I enter Houston Texas, or my zip, it puts me in either Maine, Louisiana, or Mississippi.
Really Cool.
I tried Sunnyvale, CA but it puts me about 2 miles north of Marble Hill, MO.
OTOH, Madison, WI works perfectly.
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Impressive web app this. Thanks. It would be good to network this, so for example you could race a friend (both participants being able to see each other).
I have trouble getting maps for cities in the western United States. "Salt Lake City" gives me something I think is in Illinois, and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Los Vegas give me bogus maps, whether or not I specify the state and/or country. Other locations (Paris, Tokyo, New York, Miami, etc.) work fine. I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.13 on Windows Vista.
This is pretty cool. I had to resist the temptation to drive all the way to work - at work :-)
Works fine in FireFox for me. Good work!
This would be very cool if it used Google Street View.
Hey, whenever I try to get Austin, TX to come up, I land somewhere in Louisiana. This is not cool. There are alligators on the roads at night in Louisiana. I tried to get Austin by entering "Austin", "Austin, TX", and "78759" (zip code should land me in the Northwest part of town).
As others have said, it doesn't seem to work in Western Canada and US. If you choose Seattle or Bellingham WA, you end up in Mississippi somewhere and Vancouver, BC puts me in eastern Ontario.
I've tried driving home but even at ~400 mph it takes a looooong time from Mississippi and I keep getting stuck somewhere.
Otherwise it's a very cool app.
I know many others have complained about his, but why can't I get to anywhere in western North America? I've tried several cities along the coast and some in the Rockies, but nothing happened. I'm sure many people would be very glad to see this unavailable area.
Awesome. Totally Awesome!!
Really great. I appreciate your work.
Got no idea why but I like this alot.
To everybody commenting how it doesn't work, have you tried to click the map to activate it? Works for me, Vista, FF 2.0.0.14
Awesome fun! Great work, mate!
Now make an mmog out of it! ;)
Just some cool stuff:
Try entering "pellovägen, pello" as location, and you will find yourself close to the swedish-finnish border. As the car searches for a road to cling to, try steering over to the border and drive along it. The car will cling to the text, and you'll be able to drive on the border. Yay!
amazing!
keep up the good work!
How about instead of coming to a complete stop when parallel to a boundary, why not either:
*bounce off of it at the reflected angle if it's less than 30 degrees or so
*merely slow down and continue on the closest possible continuing path
I was ridin' the rails, but unable to get any real speed because the 'road' was so narrow.
Great start, though!
I'd be curious about options to lay down a path, remember the path, note one-way streets as no-gos, etc. Hah... I love little bugs like, in Zurich I just crossed from a street to a cul-de-sac because the boundary was too small for the boundary finder: Kreuzstrasse, just west of Lake Zurich by 1-2 blocks.
its pretty cool. would be great to see other cars driving about on the maps too :o)
I'm way too entertained by this...
Possible bug: It let me drive off the road at one point, and then my car got stuck :(
this is really nice :D :D Some suggestions for a next version: an option to switch between 'map' and 'satellite images', different cars mabye, a speedo or something :) mabye even make a game of it, drive to different places, win cars, go faster with every new car.
good luck!
Make this into a multiplayer realtime rally race. Have the start point be some random part of the selected city, tell them where they need to get to. first one to get there wins.
Great work!
Worked great for me in a crusty old 400 mghz Pentium 2 pc with IE 6.0.2800.1106IS
I put in Portland (as in Portland, OR... west coast... so no problem there) and I clicked on the map before driving.
All other additions requested in other posts are what I would like to see also.
Great work!
:D
Oh yeah, I'm running on Win 98 serivce pack 2 also.
*Stoney quietly sneaks out of museum*
;)
COOL!
PLS make it multi player! so that u can se everyone else driving, and se where they are... and stuff... also maybe chose kind of vechile?
like... buss/race car/truck/TANK(fire @ others? xD)
dude... pls... do it, u got a furtune right here
hey there.
thanks for this great application. there's so much possibilities to it. you are genius!
Good Job guys! I would only suggest variable speeds; Maybe tap the up arrow a few times (changing gears) and invert the left and right while traveling in reverse. (for realism)
great job, it would be cool to make this multiplayer
Hilarious!
Absolutely wonderful, bravo!
I really enjoyed the ride ;D
Definitely downright amazing. I know how to get home from New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Kalamazoo! Very updated, has a new suburb right by my home added just a few short years ago. Very smooth, and you can drive in railways! Countless hours spent using this game, going everywhere I possibly could then seeing if I could get back home. Usually, I couldn't.
Hi great work
Can you please send me that script or sold it to me :D
please reply zvjezdana73@yahoo.com
pretty simple... if the index color is 15592162 (land) or 10073036 (water) the car will stop... thats the reason why you could drive on railways and some other things... no paths or something like this were used ... nice try :))
GOOGLE MAPS PACMAN ???
Really funny game! But only for google maps, not for satelite! :-(
Is it necessary to give money to play googledrive?
The Ultimate, Best-of-All-Time Time Waster. With vast potential for overlays, joystick control, hazards, simulated weather conditions, cross country racing, rallyes, uav control,and so, so many more fabulous diversions.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
This is way cool. For a worldwide smash hit, do this:
* zoom in and change the ratio so that a car takes less space on the map.
*Multiplayer.
*Wepons.
*Track score.
and you have a 2D GTA but in the "real" world.
Thanks for your work with the tools.
/Linus
Its really amazing.Nice Idea!!!
Amazing!
Allow us to accelerate and slow down, allow zoom and satelite & hybrud views, and you have the basics for the best GTA ever!
Do you know that is possible to print the number of kilometer which car has accomplished ???
Totally wicked awesome! YOU HAVE TO DO THIS FOR GOOGLE EARTH!!!! (the 3d version)
Hello,
I'd like to study your source code for academic purposes, if you not mind, how would i get your source code? and in case you can't lend me the source code could you inform me about links with directions on studing about these issues.
Thanks!
contact: newarney@gmail.com
It steers backwards when I'm reversing... :-)
regards,
cybernoid
I think it's totally fun. GoogleMaps has reached a new dimention :-)
Btw... People should stop nagging. This is not Playstation or X-box, just simple fun. So don't complain about lack of wild graphic. I think it's a great idea.
Hi,
Firstly, a very sweet program!! Congratulations.
I was just wondering if your code could give out the GPS co-ordinates of the vehicle. I'm trying to simulate a scenario where in I'm driving the car and I'm getting the GPS co-ordinates.
Cheers
Ryan
This is the coolest thing ever!
Aspecially if you add the racing part.
Is there any way to enable linking add it on my own website, but edit the default city?
Please get back to me.
Hey, I wrote about it in my blog and connected it somehow to some game-design aspects. I think this would be interesting for you to read: http://digitaltools.node3000.com/blog/google_drive_steer_a_car_on_google_maps.php
Maybe one day you will make an API for it, for other people to distribute, enhance and use it? Keep me informed, if you turn that way!
Great work!
This could be a fun game.
Could you set start and finish coordinates & record travel times?
Brilliant. Such an original idea. I wonder if you could do something similar with the ground level view thing they have now...
i am making a similar game using google maps but i don't have the resources and i'm stuck at nowhere so it'll be great if u could tell me how the game can be made to work locally, and btw......googleDrive is an awesome game!!
Fun and very cool! Nice work.
it is a Need For Speed City of maps?
perhaps with a little 3d modelling between a bit we could play, and perhaps to race the most beautiful car in the most beautiful cities in the world, as in the titles of games of the years 70-80... We hope. :-) However, beautiful...
This is awesome, you should get moving on that sat image version ;)
coool vry nice .....
Samuel, I am very interested in how you are detecting the boundaries of the streets. Is there any way I could get the links that you used to get this working from you?
Thank you,
Igor
ipartola [at] gmail.com
It's been said already but:
Definitely needs multiplayer!!
Nothing special or feature creeepy, just so that the other cars near you appear on the map
Add navigator.
How about better collision detection?
Different cars.
Can I make commercial of this game to youtube.
mmm..great job, wish we can put them in blog:) hehehehe.
Great..it's awesome!
http://anggaran-budget-manipulation.blogspot.com/
http://e-serba-serbi.blogspot.com
I've found your application really cool!! :D
Congratulations!!
Keep it up :P
you can even drive on rails :D
cool thing
doesnt work anymore :/
Why it doesen't work?
Back with this please.
MAKE IT WOOORK!!!>?3
Doesn't work for me :C
Doesn't work anymore... :(
How it is with googleRacer? It'd be cool too if we could drive in sattellite pictures
I would like to play this, but isnt workeen' :/
Frigging amazing! 2 things it needs: multiplayer and missions (ie. drive from address A to address B as fast as possible).
hahaa! this project is great! fantastic idea :)
I just saw you googleDrive you were working on and the idea is pretty cool and I hope you can perfect this project, congratulations by the way!
This is a very helpful post, i hope this really helps me to complete my project.
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