issue: Using the mouse for navigation... it looks terrible.
issue: On Nexus 7/Chrome I get a blank screen were the tour should be running
EXAMPLE:
You have to scroll down the page for the tour:
http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/google-street-view-cruise-ship/

To add more detail to this issue. It appears as if the undocumented mode: webgl parameter is no longer supported - not even by older versions of the Maps API. When webgl is passed as a mode parameter, HTML4 mode is used instead. Although we can get a spherical projection by using HTML5 mode - it has many problems of it's own - jagged edges, seams in the rendering, the image goes blurry when a user clicks and drags. WebGL was the only mode with a very smooth spherical rendering - we want it back!

The HTML5 or HTML4 mode don't appear to provide the spherical project on mobile device browsers anymore either.  Now, after the recent Maps Embed API update mobile browsers just see a flat unprojected image in any mode.

This is extremely important for people who have used the Maps API for development with Street View, Maps Views and Business View.

Thanks for creating this issue.  We noticed this at http://walkinto.in a few days back when all of a sudden the tours started looking like crap.  Further investigation quickly revealed that webgl was the culprit.  We have downgraded the tours to HTML5.  While the experience is better (than a broken tour) it is no where as elegant as it was with webgl support.  It will be great if Google Engineering can give an update.

http://walkinto.in/demo

In email contact with the Google team it went from "the google maps API never supported WebGL" to "WebGL is not always implemented correctly so some browser/OS combinations don't get WebGL for a good reason" to "I'll check if this problem is reported by others, but I haven't heard of any widespread issues".

So added are some screenshots of different browsers on different OS's running on different hardware, showing the same simple streetview implementation (see added code.txt). All browsers are showing the example either in html4 mode (distorted, curved and simply ugly and unusable for developers) or html5 mode (looking better, but just slow and sluggish and only fairly okay on chrome). And jsut to be sure, yes all different setups used to show the streetview perfectly in version 3.16 in WebGl mode..

Please place your comments and possible screenshots of different setups to tell the developers that this is indeed a widespread issue and that something needs to be done about it because for developers using the API in their products (especially when paying a lot of money for the Google Work license), streetview is now unusable..

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So, it seems like it's still possible (for some) to use the webgl rendering: https://live.tourdash.com/embed/be10cae9fd824c00a769ecdb59f0fc59 - Can you please make it available for the rest of us again? Otherwise there is no need for a program like Google Maps Business View, as embedding the tour on the homepage is the major selling point.

Checking the javascript sources, it shows they are able to load the old v3.16 of the API (last version without having problems), but this is something recent because at first they where having the same issues and distortions in their tour as everyone.

@Google Team: can you make the 3.16 version of the API accessible to everyone again until the problem is hopefully fixed in newer versions?

Still no spherical projection on mobile browsers.

Their using a extra parameter in Gmaps Api url : &client=free-tour-dash
It's seems you can use that if your are an API reseller...

I checked their code a couple days ago and they where then getting back the 3.17 version with a request already containing the client id and a version request for 3.16, so it seems this is just recently made possible for them.

Looks like this update was made for TourDash to eliminate their competition...

So, we have now a reduce group of people that can use some of the API features. Really disgusting. Please, make all the API features accessible to everyone again.

Is there anyone with a business license who can verify if the option of using v3.16 is there for everyone with a license, or just specific cases?

This is an example from Tourmake:
https://www.tourmake.it/en/embed/933

Tourmake is using:
maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?client=gme-studiwebsrl&v=3.16&sensor=false 

tourdash is using:
maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.16&sensor=false&client=free-tour-dash

Yeah, it doesn't work by default, but maybe there is an option you can set when having a business license. Just trying to look at it from all angles.. 

That may be the client Oauth code they created in the API Console for their project.

You can create one here: https://console.developers.google.com/project

Cross posting from a related thread on the Maps Api G+ Page :  This is from Google Maps Team 

Ken Hoetmer11:44 AM+1
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Hi all, Ken from the Google Maps API team here. Apologies for the silence on this one.

Being completely open on what happened: unrelated to the embedded Street View launch (they're different code bases), the unsupported webgl mode in the JavaScript Maps API's Street View Service was removed from the frozen version during the version rollover on November 17. It had already been removed from the most heavily used versions of the API for months, so we didn't expect an outcry!

However, clearly people are very passionate about this feature, so we've decided to reintroduce webgl mode. It will again be available in the experimental release starting tomorrow. Note that this feature is still unsupported and we will very likely remove the parameter in favor of automated mode selection in the future (which will include webgl on supported browsers).

Hi all,

Ken from the Google Maps API team here. We are listening... just working out what to do.

The webgl parameter will be introduced back into the experimental version of the API starting tomorrow. And we've already gotten TourDash up and running quickly by giving them access to a crazy-old version of the API.

Note that the webgl parameter is still very much unsupported and we will very likely remove the parameter in favor of automated mode selection in the future (which will include webgl on supported browsers).

Well, next time you are planning to bring a "quick" solution, please think in the majority and not in the minority. This issue was reported more than a week ago without an official answer until now. TourDash didn't complain at all - at least not using the public channels, and they are already enjoying the solution to our problem.

Ken, that's good news. Just a question to make sure we don't end up in the precise same situation a couple months from now: 

- I don't at all mind the 'mode' option being removed, but will the automated selection for WebGL actually work when you do, because at the moment no combination of browser/OS shows the streetview with WebGL?

Finally it is re-enabled on the experimental version.  Don't know what happens when .exp cuts into a numbered version (3.18)

It's finally re-enabled. When that happen, we need to start complaining one more time.

Closing this now that we have a solution in place.

Yeah!  Nice respond and fix.  Really appreciate it.

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 Issue 7304  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 7380  has been merged into this issue.

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