How do Google Maps do their panoramas?

Question

How do Google Maps do their panoramas in Street View?

Yeah, I know its Flash, but how do they skew bitmaps with Correct Texture Mapping?

Are they doing it on the pixel-level like most Flash 3D engines?, or just applying some tricky transformation to the Bitmaps in the Movieclips?

Answer 1

Flash Panorama Player can help achieve a similar result!

It uses 6 equirectangular images (cube faces) stitched together seamlessly with some 'magic' ActionScript.

Also see these parts of flashpanos.com for plugins, and tutorials with (possibly) documentation.

A quick guide to shooting panoramas so you can view them with FPP (Flash Panorama Player).

Cubic projection cube faces are actually 90x90 degrees rectilinear images like the ones you get from a normal camera lens. ~ What is VR Photography?