VITUAL EARTH 3D UPDATE
You can share your Collections that contain models just like any other and later this year we’ll release an update to our javascript map control that will let you integrate your models into web mashups! Much more on this feature area here on the VE blog over the coming days. To try it out, switch into 3D in Firefox or IE on windows, right click and choose ‘Add a 3D Model. Through our partnership we’ve created a new consumer tool that seamlessly integrates with Live Search Maps Collections. We’re looking forward to community feedback from this release to help shape 3DVIA as it moves from technology preview to a first official release. This technology preview is the first 3D modeling offering between Dassault and Microsoft. 3DVIA Technology preview allows you to create textured buildings and save them directly into your map Collections. We partnered with Dassault to create a new application to allow anyone to create 3D imagebuildings and other objects in Virtual Earth. Their partnership was announced in June, and has now borne this.
VITUAL EARTH 3D PRO
You can even record video of your tour inside the browser! You need Google Earth Pro ($400) to do that natively.ģD modelling: Just like how Google Earth lets you import Collada-based models exported as KMZ files (usually made with SketchUp), Microsoft now lets you import 3D models using Dassault’s 3DVIA technology. Again, I can’t experience it myself, but here is a video teaser: Microsoft’s turned that into an opportunity to make tours a lot more usable. Google Earth’s touring abilities have always been somewhat rudimentary - you can’t customize the tour for individual items, nor can you really control it as a user. With hindsight, the obvious answer to the question “What do we do with PhotoSynth?” is “Use it on bird’s eye view images.” James Fee loves it too, and points to this video:ģD tours.
VITUAL EARTH 3D MAC
This looks amazing, but I’m travelling with a Mac so I must experience it vicariously, as 3D in Virtual Earth is Windows-only. Google said it would definitely support GeoRSS, but hasn’t yet done so, despite what I imagine is a relatively simple tweak.īird’s eye view in 3D. Microsoft was non-committal in its answer, but today delivered. One thing that is missing is the wider context that a KML file might have - for example, the folder structure of a KML file is not represented in the left-hand column when viewed in Virtual Earth.Īs an aside, in June at ISDE5 in a public forum I asked Microsoft if they would support KML in the future and Google if they would support GeoRSS in Google Earth in the future. Still, the presentation of placemarks is well done, both as popups and in the left-hand column. Network links don’t work in the current version of Virtual Earth. KML! KML placemarks and polygons (such as the KML file of my walks through Cairo) work wondefully for most (though not all) files I tried and can be viewed in Virtual Earth via a simple URL structure (see the link above). Virtual Earth/Live Maps blog has a much more informative blog post on the changes, the most relevant of which for this blog are: Microsoft Virtual Earth has just had a major overhaul, as per this press release.