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Ripping 3D from google earth


Chris MacDonald
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Hey guys,

 

Working on a project at the moment where I could really do with having the LIDAR/3d scan data from Google earth in the background. I've tried using some (apparently) old software called 3D Ripper DX which just seems to crash google earth for me. I've browsed to forums a bit and many people have asked this, but the 3D ripper DX software appeared to be the choice in the past, but as I said; not working for me.

 

Does anyone know how you can get hold of this 3D information?

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Yeah, that's similar but nothing (free) seems to import the OSM data; I'm a bit reluctant to purchase a piece of software for what is likely a one-off job. Thank you for the help though.

 

Ideally I want the photogrammetry data that you can see on google maps - 3d buildings, trees, terrain etc to save me having to remodel it all.

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This blogpost from Xoio may be relevant, allthough Google Earth is not the subject but rather something called Open Street Map (osm).

 

http://xoio-air.de/2017/3d-cityscapes/

 

Without doing the hard work of actually reading the link, Open StreetMap, last I looked, was surface data. And the 'open' part means its not hard to get data. I think I did see some program to get the info, but would have to look for it again.

 

Ideally I want the photogrammetry data that you can see on google maps - 3d buildings, trees, terrain etc to save me having to remodel it all.

 

3DripperDX used to work well on the defunct Mocrosoft version of GoogleEarth, which was in some ways better. That is because it was DirectX-based, while GE is OpenGL-based. I have tried a few other programs that are supposed to work on OGL and no luck.

 

There was someone who made it all work and ripped a number of cities and was selling them online through a model site. I bought the NYC ones. They are out of date now, but still useful. They were land and buildings, seperated into zones or chinks, but not trees.

 

Funny you should mention photogrammetry. I have used a photogrammetry program to get the topo/buildings/tree data of an area by outputting a series of views from Google Earth (desktop--the old 'Pro' version, now free) and outputting a model. The problems are that it takes time to do all that, and the result is a massive spiderweb, and the UV map is for the whole model and therefore almost impossible to edit. So it's a bit of work, but for a background you could just use it as-is.

 

Some counties and states are publishing raw geo-referenced LIDAR, which also comes in as a mass of land, buildings and trees. Alternatively, there is always regular landform heightfield data (DEMs, now called something else but the same info) from the USGS (probably similar agencies in other countries for GIS data) which is good for hilly or mountainous. It can usually be found in 1meter and/or 10meter resolution.

 

What city/area do you need?

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I wanted to rip Grand Canyon last year which looks just amazing with their new tier of 3D models added in. But in vain, it was not doable at the time at all, all the older methods no longer applied.

 

You won't find similar quality anywhere, it's not actually just geometry from heightfields like previously (this tier still exists and might be rippable), it has overhangs and just amazing stuff...

Needless to say I was very unhappy and used heightfields from some Geo agency and mixed it in Worldmachine.

 

Subbing in, perhaps there's a solution to it now :- ) But given it's Google, I highly doubt. The photogrammetry workaround is actually super smart, I am almost sure I've seen it in some tutorial too.

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I tried 3DF Zephyr, a free photogrammetry program that looked promising and fed it 44 pictures taken from google earth in the browser, and got this result. The geometry seems to be even more deformed than what appears in google earth, but at least it works. Would perhaps not use it for anything except background geometry in a scene.

 

93imB

 

https://imgur.com/a/93imB

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I tried 3DF Zephyr, a free photogrammetry program...and got this result...

 

Yeah, that looks pretty good. I used RealityCapture, which is Euro 99 for three months. By using the old GoogleEarth desktop program, you can output images up to 4800 pixels wide, so lots of detail to work with--and no lens distortion since they are renders. And you output a LOT of images from GE.

 

Don't forget about Apple Maps 3D, either. You can screencapture on an ipad and also have pretty high resolution to feed photogrammetry apps.

 

It just feels wrong to build 3D from fake photos of 3D data that is ON your computer (has to be to use OGL). So close, but just out of reach...

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hi macker,

 

try this method..

 

 

pretty stratightforward. open google earth pro, find your site, has to have 3d buildings on obviously. Incrementally orbit/rotate around the site (shift + arrow key), save each screenshot, maybe about 30-40 rotates at most. Open recap, load the images, build the model, export it to 3dsmax, scale it up to your unit size and voila... simples :) good luck!

 

cheers, j

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

Have you tried OSM2World ? It creates 3d models from openstreetmap.

Not as accurate as google earth but may be good enough if you only need a block model...

I did have some success in the past with 3D Ripper DX - but you need to use an old version of google earth.

Newer versions of the google earth software seemed to block Ripper

 

hope that helps :-)

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