>And I think back a few years when people said we'd never be able to fly seamlessly from orbit down to the surface of a procedurally generated planet.

Starflight[1] could do that back in 1986[2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starflight

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFMxNlK8L4g&feature=youtu.be...