# Google Earth question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 9, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781 "2005-09-09T04:10:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781/1 "2005-09-09T04:10:18Z")

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I’ve recently fallen in love with Google Earth. To make a long story short, I’ve imported numerous overlays of individual cities to increase the coolness quotient of my new toy. My problem is that having them all turned on significantly and unacceptably slows the system down (duh). I would like to know if it is possible to configure the program to only load the city overlays when the image reaches a certain eye altitude (say, 20 miles?) above the planet’s surface.

For example, if I can see all of North America, It does me no good to have the hi-res images of downtown Chicago loaded. If, however, I am flying over a state at only a few miles altitude, It would be nice, as it would if I were zooming in on that city from space.

Is this possible? I shudder at the thought of zooming in on a highly pixelated Old Jerusalem, only to have to go through “My Places” and find and enable the hi-res shot of the city.

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**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781/2 "2005-09-09T16:26:43Z")

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C’mon, I know I’m not the only one that uses Google Earth. Plenty of Dopers must be cool enough for it… 🆒

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**Author:** ![JimMacMillan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7bcc69/32.png) [@JimMacMillan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimMacMillan)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781/3 "2005-09-09T19:48:41Z")

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I think I understand the question. Are you running the free version or plus? I have the free one. I don’t see a way to acclomplish this. Maybe the plus has this ability?

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**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-earth-question/320781/4 "2005-09-10T00:07:05Z")

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Pro. If it has it, I can’t figure out how to use it.