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Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

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Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#91

Post by modeless »

eob wrote: post #88
modeless wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should Google be doing with it?

As a complete non-gamer, the ability to walk around the earth with a VR headset would justify buying one to me. There are so many cities I've always wanted to walk down the streets of!

As the parent comments mentioned, Google Earth VR already exists and it's awesome (disclaimer: I had a hand in creating it). It's as close as you can get to "walking down the streets" with current data. All the available 3D and Street View data is there.

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#93

Post by seabass-labrax »

SamBam wrote: post #73
blinding-streak wrote: post #19

YouTube video from the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cziz3qYT4Q

It's super cool. Does the 3D tile mao extend down to the street level? I would have loved to see flying along the streets between the buildings.

Might it be the extreme chromatic aberration? I once read an article saying how to achieve 'photorealism' in computer graphics, one should add chromatic aberration, as that's what camera lenses naturally produce. I think some people take it too far though!

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#94

Post by waltbosz »

darkwraithcov wrote: post #80
crazygringo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. The problem seems to be mainly that the models are still awfully approximate and the textures are horribly blurry. They're fantastic for a bird's-eye view or flight simulators, but not what you want for driving. I'm hoping that at some point in the next 10 years, Google/Microsoft come up with a high-res version produced mainly by Street View-type data or similar drone-supplied data. I suspect that basic photo…

AI upscaling with diffusion models will probably solve that problem.

That's what I was thinking. The satellite photos are detailed enough to see lane lines, and combine that with the street level photos will get you the road configuration.

But I think whatever data GPS software uses is already detailed enough to know lane config, it tells you exactly what lane to be in when making turns.

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#97

Post by TheRealPomax »

modeless wrote: post #84
TheRealPomax wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Team up with microsoft and asobo.

They seem to be doing fine on their own. I prefer to have some competition.

What's wrong with companies teaming up for specific individual products? In this case, Flight Simulator. You license the technology with friendly fees and collab for the life of a single product. Just like all licenses.

(Also, no, MS/Asobo are not doing fine, their photogrammetry is renowned for looking like a molten hellscape, and the bing maps look pretty terrible compared to even plain gmaps, but it's MS so "it has to use Bing" =D)

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#98

Post by sbierwagen »

crazygringo wrote: post #77
waltbosz wrote: post #74

For years I've been dreaming of a driving/pedestrian sandbox game that used Google Maps data to let me drive recklessly around my home town with accurate models of the buildings and roads. This demo reminds me of that dream.

Me too. The problem seems to be mainly that the models are still awfully approximate and the textures are horribly blurry. They're fantastic for a bird's-eye view or flight simulators, but not what you want for driving. I'm hoping that at some point in the next 10 years, Google/Microsoft come up with a high-res version produced mainly by Street View-type data or similar drone-supplied data. I suspect that basic photo…

Fun fact: Google street view cars record video-- the widely spaced street view nodes are a small fraction of the imagery they have stored. It should be pretty easy to do higher res photogrammetry with the raw data.

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#99

Post by TheRealPomax »

hackernewds wrote: post #81
TheRealPomax wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Team up with microsoft and asobo.

but what about capitalism?

What about it? Google charges MS/ASobo a "friendly" license fee, and MS/Asobo get a feature they can use to attract more players. All parties stand to gain concrete dollar amounts, the very backbone of capitalism.

Re: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine

#100

Post by jamesfmilne »

waltbosz wrote: post #74

For years I've been dreaming of a driving/pedestrian sandbox game that used Google Maps data to let me drive recklessly around my home town with accurate models of the buildings and roads. This demo reminds me of that dream.

This was my first job, 22 years ago. Ended up as something called My World, which then became eegeo, and now WRLD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MyWorld https://www.wrld3d.com

Didn't really end up going anywhere.

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