Attraction Source Forum

Taken from TT News

[quote=""TT News""]Hot on the heels on the addition of Disneyland Paris to Street View, it seems Alton is soon to become the latest attraction to be added to the service. Street View allows users to take "virtual walks" through areas, allowing them to gain a full 360 degree view.

Originally the service was launched to map streets and roads via the use of cameras mounted to specially adapted cars. However more recently the "Google Trike", a modified tricycle has enabled smaller areas to be accessed and mapped. One of these trikes has been seen on park today, presumably recording images for later use in the Street View application.

Alton Towers isn't the first Merlin attraction to be featured in the Street View service. LEGOLAND California was recently added in mid August, enabling users to take a virtual walk through the attraction. It's unknown at present whether further Merlin attractions will be or indeed have been mapped.

The Google Trike along with its recording equipment weighs almost 18 stone and has the same on board features as the Street View cars. At present, its not known how long the mapping will take or indeed when it will appear for public view on the Google Maps service. One recent addition, Disneyland Paris was mapped in October last year but did not go live on the service until June 2009.[/quote]

Interesting stuff! I would imagine at a push the photos may be live for the start of next season .

Extra marketing for the park, as well as another quirky little "gimmick" that will draw a few more people into StreetView (through e-mails amongst techy types: "Have you seen Alton Towers is now on StreetView?"). Though StreetView itself is a gimmick of course really.

I had a look at the Legoland one, and it's only really of interest for a time wasting 5 minutes, though I imagine it could help you get a feel for how a park is laid out when your at ground level, compared to looking at photos or aerial shots. Shame it won't include SW6 though. What would be awesome is if they could somehow tie it into Google-created (StreetView branded?) ride POV's, and let you take a "virtual visit" to the Towers!

[quote=""Sam.""]Though StreetView itself is a gimmick of course really.[/quote]
I disagree; I've found street view to be very useful at times. For example, it's brilliant if you want to use street parking, but don't know what the restrictions are - you can just look at the signs through street view. Also useful if you need to drive down a route you've never been to before - you can look at what the important junctions look like, and then recognise them easily in real life.

Of course, neither of these apply to the Towers, so in this case it pretty much is just a gimmick...

Well I said the very first time I used street view this would be interesting for looking around theme parks so I’m glad they’re doing it.

I already used it to see stealth through the trees at Thorpe park, but I have actually found the software quite useful in finding house numbers down roads so I’m sure I will find a similar use.

Just to confirm, I was on park today and this definatly happened. Even came with it's own sweaty man.



Didn't expect this to be on here as a news story though. Don't miss a trick!

[quote=""NickT04""]Just to confirm, I was on park today and this definatly happened. Even came with it's own sweaty man.



Didn't expect this to be on here as a news story though. Don't miss a trick![/quote]
He's gonna have fun if and when he comes to do Legoland!

[quote=""Islander""][quote=""NickT04""]Just to confirm, I was on park today and this definatly happened. Even came with it's own sweaty man.

Didn't expect this to be on here as a news story though. Don't miss a trick![/quote]
He's gonna have fun if and when he comes to do Legoland! [/quote]
California Legoland is already on there (i'm looking at it now )

Oh I expect to see NickT04 with his camera when it does come out

I was ten when I went to LEGOLAND. I still remember the hills. Think he might too!

[quote=""Islander""]He's gonna have fun if and when he comes to do Legoland! [/quote]

I presume you mean Legoland Windsor? There's naff all paving room there :mrgreen:

I would imagine if there's ever a time when Legoland Windsor was done it would be when the park was closed, much the same as what they did with Disneyland Paris.

An updated Google Street View has just gone online in the lst few minutes covering most of the UK, not just selected locations.

Alton Towers, Farley Lane Entrance

[url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 44.45,,0,5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 44.45,,0,5[/url]

Well I have been checking Google maps regularly (Alton actually appears as a very big grey square on the map) but it seems I didn't look close enough. Good find Rita 2005. I bet the next update will contain the in park footage.

Not directly linked to Alton Towers, but I have noticed that its still a bit buggy in certain areas and it will give you a street view and say this is the name of the street, but actually the street its showing is completely wrong. Not sure how they are going to give you the name of the street when doing Alton Towers :P

The power of Alton Towers magic was too much for Stret view cam:
Epicly long link

The Old Gatehouse on Farley Lane in Alton Village

[url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 12296&z=13" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 12296&z=13[/url]

Google Streetview inside Alton Towers is now live! There's already something fishy going on though...

Legoland, Chessington and Thorpe are also live - I really shouldn't be as excited as I am

[quote=""TT News""]
If you've been itching to see the park and take a virtual tour from the comfort of your own home, then there's great news for you - Google has released an update to Google Maps providing new StreetView images for most of the theme parks paved areas.

You can begin your tour of the park at the top of Towers Street, take in the sights of Nemesis, or maybe reminisce over UgLand and the construction of Th13teen, or even wonder through the gardens, it's all there to explore right now - although unfortunately with a lack of clear routes and roads, the navigation can be a bit tricky at times with so many paths and directions to take.

Much excitement was drummed up on our discussion forums when we reported that a highly modified Google StreetView camera rig on an adapted trike was spotted at the theme park capturing images for the Google Map service last year in the autumn. The Google Trike along with its recording equipment weighs almost 18 stone and has the same on board features as the Street View cars.

But Alton Towers isn't the first Merlin attraction to be featured in the Street View service. LEGOLAND California was added in mid August last year, enabling users to take a virtual walk through the attraction, and even Thorpe Park, LEGOLAND Windsor and Chessington World of Adventures have also been added in this latest bumper StreetView update.[/quote]

Woohoo! I'm famous... from behind. Actually, that reads very wrong.

You get my drift though. I'll screen shot it later.