Feel like the captain of a passenger or cargo ships, cruise liners, battleships or aircraft carriers. But, today, my hat is off to Paul van Dinther for his Ships simulator/game.Ship handling, maneuvering and mooring with tugboats simulator. See the Paragliding Simulator and Satellite Debris plugin applications. There were a couple of other GE plugins before Ships which gave a glimpse at what was possible. This game really shows what is possible if you take advantage of what the Google Earth platform can do. I’m hoping other developers will take a look at Ships and realize the GE platform has a lot to offer. No limit what can be achieved in the hands of an experienced graphics Transparency to create a sense of depth and shadows. (compass rose, rudder dial, rudder position needle, rudder target Proof of that can be seen in theĬompass/rudder instrument which consists of 5 layers of bitmaps. “Google Earth proves extremely capable to handle many overlays withĪlpha transparencies which enables developers to create intricate and Paul had this to say about working with the Google Earth graphics engine: Paul wasn’t able to implement collision detection (for this release), so the ship doesn’t go “aground” when you hit the shore – maybe it will in the “Pro” version. Not everything is physically modeled (the anchor doesn’t stop the boat). He also used Soundmanager 2 for sound effects, and SketchUp for the 3D models. Ships uses the Google Earth API, Flash 8.0, and Javascript. Everything else is pretty straightforward, although watching the video above may help you learn some tricks – especially with the cameras.

You can try Ships right now – make sure you read the keyboard shortcuts. But, watch this video review to see what I’m excited about: There are some technical notes on the application below the fold. Once you see the application, you’ll understand why I was thrilled to get involved.

I was fortunate enough to work with Paul over the past few weeks providing some beta testing before he released Ships. This is the best example of the Google Earth API I’ve seen to date. Not only that, but the author – Paul van Dinther – has created some great camera tools to make it easier for people to follow the action and see the sights.

Everything is in 3D, you can drive the ships anywhere in the world, there are sound effects, physical modeling, and realistic visual effects that makes this a wonder to behold. The game is called “Ships” and lets you take the helm on ships – barges, cargo ships, container ships, and even a cruise ship (the QM 2). has released the first version of a fantastic free simulation game which leverages the browser-based Google Earth plugin as the primary graphics engine.

Google ship simulator free