How to Turn Street View Photos Into Playable Virtual Worlds

Think about the last time you used a digital map to find a holiday spot, wishing you could actually step off the footpath and explore behind the buildings. A new type of AI is making this possible by turning standard, flat street photos into interactive, three-dimensional environments you can walk through.

Through Google's latest project, called Genie, everyday users are beginning to see how static pictures can become fully playable virtual worlds.

What is a generative world model?

Traditionally, if a video game developer wanted to create a digital version of a real street, they had to spend hundreds of hours manually coding the buildings, trees, and roads.

This new technology uses a generative world model (an AI system that turns flat photos into interactive, 3D digital spaces you can move through like a video game). Instead of relying on pre-written code, the AI looks at a single image and uses what it has learned from millions of other pictures to predict what the rest of the space should look like.

If you decide to turn a virtual corner, the AI instantly generates the next part of the street, the sky above, and the footpath beneath your feet in real time.

Moving from maps to interactive spaces

By combining this world-generation power with Street View (the massive collection of panoramic road-level images on digital maps), the AI can simulate real-world locations.

Here is how the experience works in practice:

• Select a starting image: You choose a location from a map, such as a historic cobblestone street or a quiet beachside road.
• Generate the environment: The AI analyses the photo, establishing where the ground is, where buildings stand, and how the light falls.
• Interact and explore: Using your mouse or keyboard, you can "walk" forward. The AI uses physics simulation (the way the AI mimics real-world movement, gravity, and lighting so that the virtual environment behaves realistically) to let you interact with the surroundings, making it feel like a simple, self-generating simulation.

Fun ways to use this technology

While this technology is still in its early stages of being rolled out to premium subscribers, there are plenty of practical and creative ways to think about using it:

• Preview travel destinations: Before booking flights to a historic city, you can simulate a walk around the neighbourhood to see if the local streets are easy to navigate on foot.
• Revisit old memories: You can take a virtual stroll down the street of your childhood home, even if you now live thousands of kilometres away, seeing it rendered as an interactive space.
• Boost your digital hobbies: If you enjoy writing, digital art, or world-building, you can use these simulated spaces as visual references to spark new ideas.

Wrap-up

AI is quickly moving from generating simple text and images to building entire virtual spaces we can explore. This technology makes our digital maps feel less like static photo albums and more like living, interactive environments. To take your first step today, find a dream travel destination on a map, zoom in on the street level, and imagine what it will be like when you can step off the footpath and explore every hidden corner.