For an unrelated product demo some years ago I modded Orbital Eunuchs Sniper¹ to play on the environment outside the site we were demoing in using a few images from Google Maps. The split on whether it was fun or utterly wrong was probably 90/10, but I'm sure it would've been a different story with a tabloid paper reporting on it.

Now imagine you're publishing a game where drifting on roundabouts outside real elementary schools is a mini-game. Probably good for publicity though, iff you're willing to take the heat :/

1. http://www.icculus.org/oes/ - Still an awesome game

There's a great track for Assetto Corsa called Rio which is a race around the streets and highways of Rio de Janeiro.

That would be awesome, but I’m not sure if the surface terrain detail is there yet. For flight from far away you might be able to get away with it, though.

I'm actually looking at how to import lidar data into a game called BeamNG (It's a super realistic driving simulator, with accurate body deformation, aerodynamics, etc). Long stretches of mountain road I'm familiar with are a great to drive down especially since you can fly around corners.

Right now the process to create these maps is a pain, you have to find the lidar data online, smooth it out and get rid of any weird artifacts. Then putting into the game requires more processing: drawing the roads, texturing hills and cliffs, etc. You have to place all buildings manually (which also means creating the meshes)

Overall, it's technically possible in this game, just a ton of work. There is definitely ways to automate and speed up the process. The terrain processing could probably be entirely automated, maybe building meshes could be taken off Google maps or something. Even with no buildings though, it's still a fun experience.

https://beamng.com/

Ever since I was a kid, I wished someone would do it for an FPS or an action RPG. They often feature locations representing real-world ones, but it would be cool to play a game in a real-world area, particularly one you've been to or live in.

The Getaway came close on PlayStation 2 back in 2002. Gameplay wasn't great, but it featured a very realistic (in its time) rendering of 10 sq miles of central London.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2017/12/12/how-pioneering-op...