Google Earh Streetview

L

lewisner

Well-known member
I don't know whether this old news but the new Google Earth Streetview has been started as of yesterday. It's AMAZING. They have been round every road in the UK and photographed it every few yards. So, when you go into GE there are a load of little cameras on the road; if you click on one it displays a thumbnail pic of the view there and if you select Full Screen it blows it up. Then you can pan through 360 degrees horizontally or 180 degrees vertically just as if you were standing there!! You can also zoom in and the images are very high resolution.
The line I am modelling is fairly remote and I was planning to get my walking boots on but now I don't need to as I can see everything from my chair.
I guess the downside is that it will turn us all into a nation of couch potatoes. :o
 
Also, I just viewed Boone NC USA and Adelaide in Australia and compared them with one of the spots on my route, the derelict rail bridge at Wharram station UK. The UK images are so sharp you can zoom in to about a foot from the brickwork and see the mortar. The Adelaide and especially the Boone images are comparatively poor quality - if I took a photo as bad as the Boone one I would be ashamed of it.
 
lewisner said:
if I took a photo as bad as the Boone one I would be ashamed of it.
Click to expand...
Seems reasonable to me that older Street View data might not be as detailed as the newer stuff is... dunno about Boone specifically, but here in Asheville 2 hr away, Street View came online in Dec 2008. So you may be comparing apples and oranges :)
 
Think the whole of the UK was only recent, Parts of the UK where on for a while. All of us at work spent most of the day on street view, even the owner of the company :D
 
Yes I love being able to zoom right down and see a picture of what the right of way and close surrounding area should look like when the street view is close to tracks.
 
Last edited:
Two99Point80 said:
Seems reasonable to me that older Street View data might not be as detailed as the newer stuff is... dunno about Boone specifically, but here in Asheville 2 hr away, Street View came online in Dec 2008. So you may be comparing apples and oranges :)
Click to expand...

What you mean Google couldn't afford a decent camera a year and a half ago?:p
 
worthless said:
That must be a message from the future. Large areas of the UK are not covered at present. The same goes for Multimap/Bing "Bird's Eye" view.
Click to expand...
Its 95% as from this week. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...le-Street-View-is-a-service-for-burglars.html

Be prepared to spend a lot of time Surveying. I've used it on my Italian route which I'm building here in the UK. Italy has had considerable StreetView coverage since last year. I've spent lots of time correcting misplaced objects and looking for items which I just didn't know existed prior to its arrival on GE.

A great bit of software though.

I guess its also possible now for creators to use the StreetView imagery to obtain textures for new assets. Does anyone know if there is any restriction on doing this?

Cheers
Casper:)
 
"I guess its also possible now for creators to use the StreetView imagery to obtain textures for new assets. Does anyone know if there is any restriction on doing this?"

I can't imagine how they could possibly claim copyright to the texture of (say) a field? The original Google ethos is that it is freely available for all, and they seem to be holding to it.:cool:
 
@lewisner

I was thinking more about textures in the GMax Material Editor sense which, as I understand it, is the broad term for imagery used on a 3d model. For example a building.

Since many people have looked at their own front doors on SV this week, and seen the level of detail, I did wonder if there might be some privacy issues here.

Cheers
Casper
 
Yes possibly. I can see why people might get the hump about somebody using their house in a model, but I think any case brought to court would be rejected for wasting time.
 
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