Very interesting, but those transitions don't appear to have a realistic sense of scale... not necessarily a bad thing (and maybe I'm misjudging the speeds and distances)

That was awesome, thanks! No, I hadn't seen it. And yes, the seamless transitions I was talking about are there!

And there is of course Elite: Dangerous:

http://elite.frontier.co.uk/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-danger...

And while I'm dropping links, I found this older interview with Bell (hosted on Bell's homepage, apparently):

http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/archive/b5081501.htm