Anyone tried GE 4.3 beta yet?

[Munden]

I didn't see a thread on it. I tend to only use the 'check online for updates', but that doesn't cover the beta releases. After earthgoogler mentioned it to me, I figured I'd give it a try.

The updates are intersting. The 3D buildings are certainly better, though they need to continue working on putting more of them into place. The all-day/day-night switch is nifty.

Well, to get to the bit most folks might find interesting is that in many places you'll now see an image date. It's not visible everywhere (yet? It is a beta after all) but it's generally accurate. I know that their date for Anne Arundel county was pretty much right where my guess was. The date for Portsmouth in the UK was right on thanks to knowing when S-803 had a port visit. Other similar spots where I had a good idea of the date do seem to be accurate generally.

It was pointed out that in the German imagery, there is a claim it's from 2000 and yet there are visible ships of a class that weren't commissioned until 2004. Maybe that will get updated and fixed as time goes, though.

As for other updates, the UI got another small makeover. The biggest change there was the compass controls. I don't think I like that change, myself. I liked the current non-beta version. oh well. It's a work in progress, so maybe it'll improve.

[Appletom]

Thank you Munden - I didn't even know there was a new beta to play with.:giverose:

You're right, the new compass is a bit weird, it's like they tried to combine the tilt/zoom with the compass. The day/night eye candy is way cool. (Be sure you are zoomed out so the whole earth is visible for the full effect.)

My favorite feature? Under Options --> Navigation there is a tick box to "Invert Mouse Wheel Zoom Direction". Finally, the earth comes towards me again when I pull my scroll wheel towards me and when I "push" the scroll wheel away from me, the earth goes farther away. That was the way it was in the version before and that is the way it is supposed to be!

[Munden]

Well, the wheel option was under older versions. I inverted mine recently because it finally drove me nuts, but it was before tonight. :)

hrm, I did just hit a bug. It simply stopped doing updates when I zoomed in. Doing a quick server logout/login fixed it for now though.

So far that's most of the changes I'm seeing. I think the 3D textured buildings is probably the main reason they're doing the update, given Virtual Earth's recent upgrade in that regard.

[SpiderX22]

My favorite feature? Under Options --> Navigation there is a tick box to "Invert Mouse Wheel Zoom Direction". Finally, the earth comes towards me again when I pull my scroll wheel towards me and when I "push" the scroll wheel away from me, the earth goes farther away. That was the way it was in the version before and that is the way it is supposed to be!

How do I check what version I have? I know I have 4 point something, but I'm quite sure I'm not using the beta. However, my scroll works like that too as is right now...

[Mickey]

I'm liking it very well. The buildings load (and run) much better -- very similar to Virtual Earth. Mac users can play GEMMO because they now have flash support. The sunlight thing is neat. StreetView is kind of weak -- it works much better in the browser version.

[Munden]

How do I check what version I have? I know I have 4 point something, but I'm quite sure I'm not using the beta. However, my scroll works like that too as is right now...

You probably have 4.2-something yeah.

To see the version, go to these Menus: Help->About Google Earth

It'll give you the version at the top along with a lot of extra information such as the build date and the like.

[barakuda]

Aff. When i zoom with right click it tilt the picture. I hate that :( I used that button all the time, now its useless.

Is there a button that tilt picture back, something like when you press 'N' on keyboard it align picture on north.

[Mickey]

Here is a big list of navigation shortcuts:

http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_keyboard.html#3dviewer

[barakuda]

Here is a big list of navigation shortcuts:

http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_keyboard.html#3dviewer

Yup. Thats it. Tnx Mickey. You da man :)

[huwyngr]

Aff. When i zoom with right click it tilt the picture. I hate that :( I used that button all the time, now its useless.

Is there a button that tilt picture back, something like when you press 'N' on keyboard it align picture on north.

There's a setting tucked way that says Tilt on zoom or something like that -- uncheck it.

And I think the keyboard R restores the tilt back to flat.

Sorry not to be dogmatic but I'm not at present in VISTA where my updated GE is located.

[Munden]

There's a setting tucked way that says Tilt on zoom or something like that -- uncheck it.

And I think the keyboard R restores the tilt back to flat.

Sorry not to be dogmatic but I'm not at present in VISTA where my updated GE is located.

d'oh, I missed that one in the options. I even went looking. :) Thanks, that did stop it.

Also, thanks Mickey. I'd never looked through their help before and that shortcut list is very handy!

[barakuda]

There's a setting tucked way that says Tilt on zoom or something like that -- uncheck it.

And I think the keyboard R restores the tilt back to flat.

Sorry not to be dogmatic but I'm not at present in VISTA where my updated GE is located.

I found and unchecked the tilt. Right click zoom on mouse is back on line. Thank you so mutch. Everything is perfect again :)

[huwyngr]

d'oh, I missed that one in the options. I even went looking. :) Thanks, that did stop it.

Not easy to find and the quality of the tilted zoom is lousy, I hate to say this, compared with Virtual Earth's Birds Eye View.

Although in a sense I'm glad when I locate my house that we don't have the quality of picture that's in the Photo view, which stops short just nearby <g>

[Munden]

Not easy to find and the quality of the tilted zoom is lousy, I hate to say this, compared with Virtual Earth's Birds Eye View.

Although in a sense I'm glad when I locate my house that we don't have the quality of picture that's in the Photo view, which stops short just nearby <g>

heh, well trying to compare Google Earth's imagery to Bird's Eye View is not really valid. :) In American slang we'd call it 'comparing apples to oranges'. Bird's Eye View also easily beats the top-down imagery in Virtual Earth. When you tilt Google Earth you're really still just looking at the same top-down imagery as though you'd not tilted, so of course tilting doesn't gain any image quality.

I like the 3D Virtual Earth a lot more now than I previously did, because it's so much easier to navigate those Bird's Eye View images. They're pretty awesome, yeah. :) I was disappointed to see the Spanish submarine base in Cartagena was censored in BEV. :(

As for quality of one's house, mine is in BEV but each view varies greatly in time. In two of the four views my neighbors have their new driveway, but in the others they don't. I'd not mind at all if they updated it because I just had new shingles and siding put on the house last year. :) There's a tree that generally blocks the top-down views though.

[huwyngr]

When you tilt Google Earth you're really still just looking at the same top-down imagery as though you'd not tilted, so of course tilting doesn't gain any image quality.

I like the 3D Virtual Earth a lot more now than I previously did, because it's so much easier to navigate those Bird's Eye View images. They're pretty awesome, yeah. :) I was disappointed to see the Spanish submarine base in Cartagena was censored in BEV. :(

I think it was because the Tilt on Zoom was ON that it was so strikingly bad!

Virtual Earth, at least as I encounter it, loses out on the image being such a small part of the screen. In some cases where I wanted a permanent record I've saved the screen in Irfanview, then cut out the image and saved it again as a jpg.

[Munden]

I think it was because the Tilt on Zoom was ON that it was so strikingly bad!

Virtual Earth, at least as I encounter it, loses out on the image being such a small part of the screen. In some cases where I wanted a permanent record I've saved the screen in Irfanview, then cut out the image and saved it again as a jpg.

Very true about the image quality. It's like ripping a song from a CD to MP3 and then burning it to a CD again. :)

[ATTILA]

Hi,

Just a small words to say that i've been trying the new V4 beta release...and that's nearly impossible to use for me... (not to say some kind of a hell).:spin:

- loading files is more than 5 times slower than in previous version (and most of my bigger ones can't be loaded to the end):hair:
- no more OpenGL available properly (ie obliged to use DirectX..that giant memory eater)
- memory cache is now limited to 500 Mb ? (overlays are cutted off when memory cache is full and huge packs of errors appear on display before GE automatically shuts down). this is not understandable as far as i've 4Gb and previous V4.2.0205 (and other olders) was perfectly running 1GB of cache.:brick:

This means for me, as far as i've been placing files with numerous maps, overlays and photos, to revert to older version which works perfectly fine. It is impossible to go on with that one.. too slow and too unsteadily "explosive".

My machine is fitted with 3.2Ghz Intel 4 Proc, 4Gb RAM, W2k3 server and video is 512Mb. All previous version of GE were OK but they were more and more unsteady to use with each upgrade and now, this one seems to be the final step.

May be this is a jolly good product to play with 3D but useless in the end for most of the files i've been placing and i don't know if these reports on test will be useful but if the product still remains as it is now ...well, .... that'll be an end for me in upgrading GE!

ATTILA (the old grouser):mad:

[jerpat]

I have some KML that I use that has an href in CDATA in the description. The href is to just a jpg on the local machine (href="file:///c:/photo.jpg"). In previous versions of GE, I could click on the link, and the image would come up just fine in my web browser....Now, it does nothing. Any ideas how to work around that, or what's going on????