Virtual Earth 3D

Virtual Earth 3D on CSI:New York

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:25:52 GMT

I realized this afternoon that I owed you all a blog entry and was thinking about what I could talk about this week pertaining to specifically the Virtual Earth 3D environment.

And then Roger Mall of the Redmond team dropped this in my lap. Bless you Roger.

For more than a year I have been blogging about the 3D models on the Virtual Earth for Government blog site and sharing the clever ways the government customers are applying it for business intelligence applications. During this time, I have also occasionally shared my thoughts about ways that the 3D models could be used for law enforcement and intelligence. As the saying goes, you are only limited by your imagination.

Well the writers of the popular television show CSI: New York are not lacking in imagination. Apparently they have included Virtual Earth in some recent episodes but none so much as last night's episode in which our hero's use Virtual Earth to track a killer.

Virtual Earth appears as early as as early as 26:32 but the best footage comes around 36:40 when Virtual Earth is used to locate a firehouse first through satellite imagery on a desktop machine, and then zooming in on the building in Virtual Earth 3D on a big screen (where Virtual Earth belongs!). I love the transition from the 3D model to the actual building because it illustrates the photo-realistic and accurate nature of the Virtual Earth 3D models that I have been preaching about all this time.

You can see the episode here. You can single-click the slider bar under the screen to jump ahead but note that you’ll watch a commercial each time you do.

It is SO worth it! Thanks to Roger Mall of the Virtual Earth team for arranging and sharing this.

Leaving messages on the Virtual Earth 3D blog

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:18:57 GMT

I am occasionally receiving messages from readers whose communications preferences are not set to allow me to reply. I receive the following error:

If you have left a message and have not heard back, please check your settings to ensure that you are allowing receipt of messages or post your question as a comment here on the blog and I will reply.

Wynn Casino in Virtual Earth

Tue, 06 May 2008 20:08:37 GMT

In his "Map Forums" blog for Virtual Earth and Mappoint developers and users, Eric Frost points out the following:

"I was a bit astonished at this... I was able to walk a few steps into the Wynn Casino entrance in Las Vegas using Virtual Earth and you can actually make out some details inside. Obviously it's a bit klunky but when you think about how fast Virtual Earth has come in such a short period of time, you can only imagine the possibilities for the future!"

To be sure, the interior modeling seen from the entrance of the casino does not match what the Virtual Earth 3D Integration team is doing on the outside of the buildings in Las Vegas and other locations but it is kind of exciting nonetheless to see this, especially when one considers the modeling tools and expertise in Microsoft's arsenal from its Vexcel and Caligari acquisitions.

It brings to mind the vision Bill Gates articulated from London on his 50th birthday:

"You’ll be walking around in downtown London and be able to see the shops, the stores, see what the traffic is like. Walk in a shop and navigate the merchandise — not in the flat, 2D interface that we have on the web today, but in a virtual reality walkthrough.”

And perhaps we'll be able to put $20 down at the roulette table!

Take a Video Tour of Virtual Earth 3D

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:51:46 GMT

Here's a new Virtual Earth video that highlights what we have been calling the "version 2" enhanced 3D cities. Among other enhancements, these newest cities are denser (more buildings), have better, more detailed photo-realistic texturing, and feature trees.

The video also features some pretty cool Virtual Earth bird's eye imagery (oblique, 45 degree aerial views).

Take a look:

Video: Microsoft Virtual Earth - Spring 2008 Release

Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D Data Labs Featured on Denver Channel 9 News

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:53:17 GMT

As follow-up to last week's entry on the unveiling of Microsoft Boulder's 100% wind-powered data labs for powering the Virtual Earth 3D environment, here is a nice story run on Denver Channel 9 with some footage of the event, including some statements from Microsoft execs Debra Chrapaty and Erik Jorgensen.

It also stars Microsoft Boulder's Jim Curlander who, unfortunately, is incorrectly identified as John Curlander--general manager for the site--but does an outstanding job speaking to the event and the Virtual Earth 3D environment

Microsoft Unveils Wind Powered Virtual Earth 3D Data Lab

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:39:24 GMT

With Earth Day just a week away, Microsoft unveiled its new wind-powered container-based data lab yesterday at its site in Boulder, Colorado. The containers house data processing servers used in the creation of the 3D city models featured in Virtual Earth online mapping platform.

Given the computationally intense nature of creating the 3D models, the storage requirements for the operation are staggering. The new lab servers each have 8 “cores”—CPUs essentially—totaling more than 5000 cores and supporting more than 10 petabytes of data. When factored in with lab servers located in the facility’s building--now also wind-powered--the total storage capacity supporting the Virtual Earth operation in Boulder is 15 petabytes. To put this into perspective, a typical consumer camera is around 5 megabytes. It would take three billion of these images to fill the 15 petabytes of storage: the equivalent of 10 photos for every person in the US.

As part of Microsoft’s commitment to environmental sustainability, the Boulder location is purchasing Wind generated power by Renewable Choice to power 100% of their operations. Microsoft currently uses many alternative forms of energy in their global operations including hydroelectricity and solar power, and and are pleased to add wind to our power mix.

Attending the unveiling along with the Boulder staff of roughly 88, were Debra Chrapaty, corporate vice-president of Microsoft Global Foundation Services;, Erik Jorgensen, general manager of Microsoft’s Live Search initiative; and Microsoft Virtual Earth executive leaders Stephen Lawler and John Curlander. Local media were also in attendance, covering this momentous occasion.

Below is a photo of the data labs. For photos and coverage of the event, see this story in today's Boulder Daily Camera.

Virtual Earth 3D on WISC TV 3

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:07:11 GMT

"Gadget Guy" Steve Van Dinter from WISC TV 3 is keen on Virtual Earth, especially the 3D city models. A clever lad, Steve immediately recognizes the benefit of mapping driving directions in 3D.

My favorite quote: "As we move forward into the future, this is technology that no doubt will see being incorporated into many things."

I like him.

Check out this clip of Steve showing off the recently enhanced Las Vegas 3D city model in Live Search Maps.

Tokyo in Microsoft Virtual Earth

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:36:16 GMT

In addition to the 4 enhanced Virtual Earth 3D cities launched today, the Virtual Earth 3D Integration team also published a 3D model for Tokyo. While this model does not include the new features found with the enhanced 3D cities--improved building textures, more detailed terrain features, and 3D trees--it is a significant launch nonetheless as it represents our first 3D city in Asia.

Also, it is HUGE. Just to give you an idea, the Virtual Earth city model for the New York metro area--which I believe has been our largest city model in terms of modeled structures--has 34,800 (11 cities). There are 12,791 buildings in Tokyo, but about 60,000 buildings in the Tokyo area including Saitama.

Here is your opportunity to tour Tokyo if you have never visited there.

If you have not already visited Virtual Earth in 3D (shame on you), you will be prompted to download the map control--a 5 MB "plug-in" essentially, that allows you to manage the 3D experience--the first time you venture out there.

If you have previously downloaded the map control, you may be prompted to reinstall to get the newer version. You want this! It allows much smoother transitions between tiles and smoother "loading" of text labels.

Microsoft Virtual Earth Now With New Enhanced 3D City Models

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:11:28 GMT

As cool as the Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D city models are, they just got even cooler!

The Virtual Earth 3D integration team has been hard at work enhancing the Virtual Earth 3D environment to improve accuracy, resolution and detail of 3D city models as well as overall realism for a more immersive search and simulation experience. As a milestone of these efforts, Microsoft today published 4 city models to the Live Search Maps site that feature more buildings, improved building textures, more detailed terrain features, and 3D trees. This enhanced 3D map detail will soon roll out to the more than 250 cities where 3D models are currently available, beginning with the 20 major metro areas in the USA and Europe. The city models launched today are Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

A new engineering process allows for 100% automated modeling of structures and trees. In the case of these first 4 enhanced cities, previously existing structures were reused and resurfaced with enhanced texturing. And where the former modeling technique was theoretically limited to buildings of at least 3-4 stories in height, the new process also allows for the detection and modeling of smaller buildings resulting in much denser city models: roughly 10x or 1000% more! To quantify this, the average city model in Virtual Earth was formerly made up of between 4K to 8K structures compared to a range now of between 60K to roughly 130K structures. Phoenix, specifically, has 130K buildings and Denver, with a previous count of 5000 models, will be equally as dense once reprocessed with different parameters. This doesn't even include trees. The new Denver city model has on the order of 300K trees!

Hold onto your pocket protectors all you byteheads ... despite this vegetation volume, the trees do not impact load time. The reason is that, as opposed to modeling each tree in a city location, the program uses a library and only has to load a given tree type once and then calculates size for each instance. So while the type of the tree planted in these newly enhanced cities is just characteristic for the region, the location, height and diameter for each tree is accurate.

To illustrate the enhancements to the new models, here are some "before and after" screenshots I captured over those locations. One additional improvement you will note is better color and contrast thanks to a new color balancing technique that takes better advantage of the full dynamic range of the UltraCamX large format digital aerial camera used to capture the aerial imagery from which the 3D models are derived. (See previous blog entry.)

BEFORE: Dallas, Texas

AFTER: Dallas, Texas. WOW! Look at the detail in the buildings and note the realism in the reflective surfaces. Overall color balance and contrast is greatly enhanced allowing for more clarity of details.

BEFORE: Denver, Colorado

AFTER: Denver, Colorado. In addition to looking more sculpted, the trees surrounding the State Capitol building lend a more realistic appearance to the location.

Another Denver "AFTER" shot just to share a view of trees from ground level.

BEFORE: Las Vegas, Nevada

AFTER: Las Vegas, Nevada. We're THERE! I feel myself losing my hard earned dollars just LOOKING at this image!

Here is another "AFTER" in Vegas ... the Riviera at (almost) garden level. Love the realism afforded by the trees with shadows casting on the pools, and the reflective glass building surfaces. If this doesn't make you want to vacation here, a brochure sure won't!

BEFORE: Phoenix, Arizona

AFTER: Phoenix, Arizona. I think I can even see the heat rising off the pavement ... in the reflection of the glass surface of the Chase building!

How exciting is this?! If the Virtual Earth 3D world gets anymore realistic, I may never make it out my front door again!

Remember that you can route in 3D just as well as in 2D for a virtual drive of point-to-point directions. Happy 3D travels!

Virtual Earth 3D Accuracy

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:14:27 GMT

In the last post I discussed the photorealism and geospecific nature of the Virtual Earth 3D models. I think it is important to note that the Virtual Earth 3D content is also highly accurate. And I have to point out that I'm not sure this same level of accuracy can be met through a web community collection process that is leveraged by at least one other mapping platform.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Vexcel Corporation, a 20-year old provider of remote sensing solutions, provided the Virtual Earth team with a broad background in photogrammetry, geospatial data production, and digital elevation model (DEM) generation and refinement. The models and their texturing are generated from aerial imagery generally captured at a 15 cm ground sample distance (GSD) by planes flying at roughly 5,500 feet over the target city and capturing a minimum of 5 views for each building (top and 4 sides). Since the Vexcel acquisition, this aerial imagery is increasingly being captured using the Vexcel UltraCAM series of high-resolution digital cameras, providing Virtual Earth's 3D display with sub-meter accuracy.

Virtual Earth cities, which are typically at least 200 sq. km in size and contain on average, thousands of buildings per city (San Francisco, for example, is made up of 4,200 buildings), are generated through a process that is based on a photogrammetrically rigorous solution using extensive sub-meter control networks, both airborne and ground based. In generating these highly detailed models, anywhere from 1500 to 4500, rigorously controlled, images per city are required.

The DEMs used for rendering the 3D foundation of VE are derived from multiple sources and merged together to form a best available global terrain model. New sources are constantly being validated and merged in to improve the Virtual Earth DEM. Terrain data is portrayed with great detail in the Virtual Earth 3D platform so that the precision of the DEM is apparent to the user, this level of detail is very noticeable when compared to smoothed over portrayals rendered in other 3D environments.

By employing rigorous production and quality control techniques with the leading geospatial data sources, 3D features in Virtual Earth not only look realistic, they are truly accurate models of natural terrain and urban features. Users can integrate their own vector or image data and be confident that it too will align with Virtual Earth's geospatial data components.

Knowing all this sheds further light on the Vexcel acquisition: the barriers to entry for another company to develop Vexcel-like 3D technology include a staff of Ph.Ds (at the time of acquisition, 65% of Vexcel's staff held advanced degrees, many of those being Ph.Ds), hundreds of millions of dollars (what Microsoft is investing in Virtual Earth), and a long lead time (Vexcel has been at work on this technology for the better part of a decade).

Despite the size, detail and accuracy of the Virtual Earth 3D cities, the time to load even a large city like San Francisco is negligible. With Microsoft’s extensive experience with entertainment systems and 3D graphics, we are able to optimize and balance the quality of the textures with common CPU/GPU and broadband configurations. Yes, it’s a demanding application, not unlike a high end 3D game, but the immersive results are worth it! We make this easy since Virtual Earth is a web service and the only download necessary is a 5 MB plug-in to navigate the 3D environment.

Since I have twice mentioned San Francisco, I will close with a screen shot of the City By the Bay. Be sure to virtually visit San Francisco on the Virtual Earth powered Live Search Maps site. Note how you can fly under the Golden Gate Bridge! Now THAT'S 3D! Very cool.

Welcome to the Virtual Earth 3D Blog - Exploring Microsoft Virtual Earth in 3D

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:38:30 GMT

Welcome to the Virtual Earth 3D blog, dedicated to the sharing of information about the Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D environment as seen on the Live Search Maps site. Here we will strive to keep you abreast of the latest product news and general items of interest related to the great work that is coming out of the Microsoft Boulder 3D Integration team. We encourage you to use this as a forum to voice your questions and share your views about Virtual Earth 3D.

Be sure to add this page to your Explorer Favorites and check back for the latest and greatest. Better yet, click the Subscribe to RSS Feed option at the top of this blog to automatically receive updates to your computer or mobile device for viewing in Internet Explorer.

If you have not yet experienced the Virtual Earth 3D experience, you are in for a treat. Microsoft is investing heavily to produce a complete and accurate digital representation of the earth on the web, which in addition to satellite and aerial views, includes 3D terrain and photorealistic, geospecific 3D city models. To date, there are roughly 300 cities published on the Live Search maps site and the Virtual Earth development team is adding more every month. The models provide you with an opportunity to explore locations from all vantage points and perspectives from the comfort of your home, hotel room, or anywhere that you can connect to the Internet. You provide the PC* with Internet browser ... Microsoft provides the tour! Fly over or "drive" through the streets of Las Vegas or New York city, or if you have never visited Europe, check out Vannes and Toulouse, France. There are also models of locations in Great Britain including Liverpool for you Beatles fans. Want to see the Vatican or the Coliseum in Rome? They're there ... check 'em out!

In a next entry, I will provide a comprehensive list of Virtual Earth city models. In the meantime, just go to our Live Search Maps site and explore. You are more apt to find 3D models of larger urban cities such as Los Angeles or New York than--say, a small town like Fayetteville, North Carolina. (Oh wait ... Fayetteville IS modeled!) While you are out there, you can use the site's search feature to look for businesses, people or addresses and you can get point to point driving directions and live traffic overlays. You can also create "Collections" ... listings of locations of personal interest ... and share these with your contacts.

Here's the best part: it's all FREE for you to use for your personal needs. [Businesses and public sector agencies should contact your Microsoft account rep for details on using Virtual Earth as a mapping platform for your application needs. You can also get information at the Virtual Earth platform web site.]

Plus, you do not need to download a "thick client" application onto your desktop. Virtual Earth is completely served up over the Internet. The only thing you need to install is what amounts to about a 5 MB plug-in to manage the 3D experience. To do this, from the Live Search Maps site you click on the Control panel 3D button as seen in this screen capture:

You are then prompted to install the 3D control software (or plug-in, as I like to refer to it). This typically takes less than 5 minutes, depending on your system* speed and Internet connection. Once complete, you will see the 3D loading:

Now your display should show the globe in 3D in the Road view:

Let's switch out of that to something that looks more like the real globe. In the same Control panel that we clicked on the 3D button, click on "Hybrid." This gives you aerial views with labels for locations and roads.

To navigate in Virtual Earth 3D, you can either use the navigation tools in the Control panel:

Or you can use the mouse wheel for zooming, and click and drag on the map. Or you can go directly to a location by entering it into the Search window. As an example, let's go to New York City where Virtual Earth has impressive building models. Enter New York, New York as I have done and click on "Search Maps."

You will then see this "zoomed out" view of the City with a location call-out indicator (red arrow in white box in screenshot below) pin-pointing the search location. Mouse over this and you will be provided the options shown in this screenshot:

Click on the "Zoom to: street" to get down to street level. It will take a few moments to load the building models--again, depending on the speed of your machine* and Internet connection. Models within the field of view of your browser window are fully loaded when globe load status indicator in the lower left corner of your window is completely filled:

At this point, you should be seeing the models from a top down view. To change your perspective and start exploring New York in 3D, click on the "Tilt" button in your Control panel until you come to a view angle that interests you. Then zoom in. Note that you can also accomplish tilt by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and clicking and dragging your mouse pointer on the screen.

So that's how to get around in Virtual Earth 3D!

But if you REALLY want to have fun, go out and pickup an Xbox controller from your local gaming or electronics shop, or department stores that have electronics departments. They typically run about $30.00 and come with a USB adapter that allows you to directly connect the device to your USB connector on your computer. Then you can enjoy all the maneuverability of gaming in your new favorite online mapping application!

* See http://help.live.com/Help.aspx?market=enUS&project=WL_Local&querytype=topic&query=WL_LOCAL_REF_3D_Requirements.htm

for PC system requirements.

Blog list: Blog list

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:14:31 GMT

Heptazane's Stump
Manipulating Virtual Earth 3D in C#
Virtual Earth 3D Team Blog
Exclusively about writing C# code for the Virtual Earth 3D control
Via Virtual Earth
The latest and greates VE for all audiences.
Virtual Earth - An Evangelist's Blog
Developer resource for news and information on developing applications powered by Virtual Earth.
Virtual Earth/Live Maps
This blog covers al things Virtual Earth especially as they pertain to the Live Search site and Collections.
Virtual Earth for Government
Blog discusses Virtual Earth topics and applications for Public Sector agencies.