u/boxsitter

Like many in the community, Google Earth VR has been a pivotal VR experience for me. I too have tried the alternatives, but they just don't compare to the beautiful simplicity of the original. It is really telling how the current Quest alternatives ignore aspects like the soundtrack, opting for some generic copyright free crap.

Yes, the original still works, but it doesn't support standalone, community content isn't working, and moving in street view mode has become slow and clunky.

We need a real alternative. No flashy, unnecessary features. No forced AI integration. And no price tag (with a bit of an asterisk. The app can be free and fully open-source, but the tradeoff is that the API use could incur costs. See the below section). I think the need for a robust earth viewer for VR needs to be an open-source community project, not a for-profit game.

I have enough software development experience that I am confident I can match the features of the original. I'm also a music producer, so it would be a fun challenge to at least take a crack at making a fitting OST. But no matter what, this would be a sizeable endeavor for a hobby project that I wouldn't profit from. So at this stage, I just wanted to gauge community interest and get some feedback/ideas.

I haven't wrote any code for this yet, but I have some rough ideas about the technical requirements. Given that users wouldn't pay for the app, I wouldn't be able to cover Google Earth API costs myself. It would need to be BYOK; users would need to generate and enter their own Google Earth API key. The app would support and walk users through this process as much as possible and provide clear answers about when free usage could turn into potential costs. I'm also sure I can implement some fail safes to prevent unintentional API costs. Luckily, right now, Google provides a very generous amount of free usage as long as every user has their own key. I would need to research further into the exact numbers, but it looks like the vast majority of users could use the app daily without ever paying. However, my first question for you guys is whether obtaining a key and having to enter credit card details (even with clear explanations and an FAQ) would be more trouble than users are willing to go through vs. paying $10 or so for one of the other options?

Also, should I go with Unity, or explore a web-based option? Both are on the table because Cesium, the framework that enables rendering the Google Earth data, supports both Unity and WebXR. The tradeoff is that the Unity route wouldn't be pure open-source because the Unity engine itself isn't open-source, but all of the app source code could still be public. Going with WebXR would be a little more open-source "pure", but standalone users would have to open the app in the Quest browser rather than downloading it from the store, which is a bit janky for non-technical users.

Anyway, this post is a bit of a mess, but so is this idea right now. Overall, I am just wondering if a genuine open-source, community driven alternative to Google Earth VR would be something you guys would be stoked about, or if the current offerings are enough to keep everyone satisfied and I shouldn't waste the effort. Or maybe somewhere in the middle, idk.

I honestly can't articulate how insanely frustrating and unprofessional this is. I won't say what class or professor right now, but this professor has very clearly been using AI for all assignment instructions and course materials. It's so obvious and so frustrating to know that I am paying extra for this course (it's remote) just to get a stream of AI slop content.

But then today I got an 8.5/10 grade back on my essay. Not bad, but the feedback comment is complete nonsense. It says that this draft was better than previous drafts, but I never submitted any previous drafts (it's likely talking about other students' essays that were in the same chat context). Then he dings me for spelling and grammar mistakes in sentences that WEREN'T EVEN IN MY ESSAY! And on top of that, he said a term I used was not academic and professional, but it's a direct quote from the source HE GAVE US.

I don't really know what to do. Obviously I will email him to point out the mistakes and ask for a more accurate grade, but I don't think it would be wise to just call him out in an email. Should I just leave an honest rate my professor review? That doesn't feel like enough for this crap, but I admit, I'm not in a very kind headspace right now tbh. I don't even know what recourse I could have here or if it would even be worth it.