GE lowres terrain problems and other questions

bjornkn

I have never shared any models for Google Earth, but right now I have a client that wants their building added to the 3D layer in GE, complete with links etc.
I originally made this project 5 years ago, and it is basically a VR 360-panorama tour consisting of 39 spherical panorama photos.
Currently it is accessed through a "local" kmz file that contains a 3D model with some surrounding terrain and lots of links to entrance points for the tour, in both Java and Flash.
It is here: http://www.agder.fhs.no/panorama/
Right now I'm working on an update, this time in pure Flash, with a lot of new photos (not shot yet) and higher resolution. Probably with some in-pano sound, video etc too.
And, as mentioned above, with the 3D model inside GE instead of loaded externally.

That's the background, which leads to some questions:
The terrain in GE is very lowres, and very wrong in many places. In this mountainous country there are few flat building sites, and these particular buildings are very widespread, and follows the (real) terrain closely. If I don't model some terrain some parts of the building will be buried in the ground, and some parts will be hovering 20m or more above the ground. Looks very bad!
Q1: Will GE allow/accept buildings to be uploaded with some local terrain included?
Q2: Will you be able to add one or more links to GE along with the model, which will be publicly available?

Gaieus

Hi Bjørn,,

Q1: Currently you can add a so called "terrain skirt" to the GE model. This means that it must be limited to the possible smallest surrounding on the building and its aim is to correct the very striking differences in GE. It can only be in the positive Z direction - i.e. you cannot "dig" under the current GE ground level but simply add some terrain on top (which will actually be part of the model this way).
If this terrain skirt is to extensive, your model may be rejected from the 3D Layer although you can still load it locally of course.

Q2: one link per model can be added. When you upload your model, at the bottom of the upload page, there is an "additional info" link which will reveal the input field for this.

bjornkn

Thanks a lot Csaba

My terrain skirts are passing through the ground in GE, to avoid any gaps.
Isn't that allowed?
I had to move the model a few meters up into the air though.
And the GE terrain as imported into SU from GE is not very precise. It differs many meters vertically from the one as seen in GE when previewing.
I suppose it is better to use the GE elevation then? My GE is set up to show terrain details at full detail and 1.0 scale. Wonder what happens if visitors are using exaggerated/scaled altitudes?

BTW, I just had to spend a few hours trying to get back my GE 6.0 installations, as after upgrading to 6.1. I just got a black screen with no access to menus etc.
Are you guys running 6.1. without problems?

Gaieus

I have recently updated my GE to the latest possible version and have no isues with it at all (also on XP).

As for the skirts: yes, it's good if the edges merge a bit as there is less risk for gaps should a terrain update happen. Just model the skirt as small (extent and elevation) as ultimately necessary - and especially be careful to affect the surrounding buildings' footprint as little as possible.

I do not know how the GE terrain and the one imported can be so different however. But now with SU 8 (as you have it), you are actually not importing straight from GE but from Maps (they share the same database I believe)