#Virtual earth 3d models how to#
#Virtual earth 3d models install#
#Virtual earth 3d models update#
#Virtual earth 3d models archive#

Mark Brown, Senior Product Manager for Virtual Earth, describes the device by saying: Although the 3D models created for Virtual Earth come from more than just one source, the majority of the data comes from the large format digital aerial UltraCamX (UCX). It turns out that Microsoft manufacturers its own UltraCam to get the job done. I will stick to the original method discussed above for now, since it will produce alot more high quality models than any auto extraction method can.How does Microsoft get those 3D models for Virtual Earth that make its Live Maps service so darn good? The answer is simple: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Seems good in principle, but there are alot of factors that mess this up (such as imagery being taken at different viewing angles).įor the most part, most buildings footprints are almost orthogonal (except in city areas), so I won't get good texture quality by shifting the building unless I use the birds eye. Since this forms a hybrid 3D model, I would be able to extract out a fake building height, and building textures for at least 2 sides. The idea here was to let the user digitize the roof, then give them a method to shift the model over to it's proper base.

In the case of highrises in the standard 2D view, you'll notice that often times you can get a little bit of side textures due to the building perspective.

#Virtual earth 3d models how to#

I did have one more idea concerning how to do some sort of automatic texturing though.

#Virtual earth 3d models install#

Ĭoncerning the birds eye, I couldn't find an easy way around using it without having the user install an app. I would like to keep it hush hush for now though. It will allow users to create more detailed buildings as well as customize it to their liking.

#Virtual earth 3d models update#

However, rather than uploading basic textured buildings, the next big update will showcase a very unique process I have implemented for texturing building facades.

#Virtual earth 3d models archive#

The most obvious is letting users upload or reference their own textures, but most basic users won't have any textures, thats why I provide a huge texture archive to choose from. There are a couple of plans for the building textures. The GIS stuff is a little deeper, so I won't go into that here. Kind of like a new building layer created by the community. The idea is that I will eventually collect all the buildings people digitize and stream them up as one source. No complicated software to download, install, or learn. This will allow regular folk to go in and model it themselves. While MSFT and Google are doing a great job with their 3D modelling, they will probably never hit the surburban areas. The intended target for the modelling stuff is mainly to make it easier for the average Joe to see their area modelled in 3D. Those are resizeable, but I am guessing the default size is not big enough for you. I don't quite understand what you mean by some of the dialogs are cut off. That's pretty much any popular GIS format.įor the export capability, I was thinking the same as GDAL (any of the raster and vector formats supported).

On the server side, I import anything that GDAL/OGR imports.

Thanks, and hopefully this doesn't offend anyone. It's very beta currently, but if you find any bugs, please report them to me ( or if they are VE related, post them in this forum. Thanks to ViaVirtualEarth for all their great tutorials and help btw. All the work is done in the browser, and any OS that supports Virtual Earth.Ĭheck out the quick flash tutorials I made to show what to do :įor a better idea of what Vizure Studio is, here is another movie. In short, it allows you to create 3D models without relying on 3rd party software like sketchup. I am beta testing a new method to create 3D content thats integrated around Virtual Earth and you guys get a first peek so to speak.