One-year anniversary of retirement of 3D pipeline

[jago716]

A year ago today, 3D Warehouse stopped accepting any new buildings for Google Earth's 3d layer.

My activity in this forum (& the other) has petered out since then, and I haven't really made any new buildings or continued on works-in-progress, particularly since Tremble's heinous extreme makeover of the website.

I do check in to Google Earth now and then, and I'm happy to find my personal creations still standing (194 out of 242)

It was an interesting venture, using Sketchup and Building Maker, to produce something like this.

- jago716

[SnowTiger]

I hear you jago716.
I don't bother coming into the Forums or the 3DWH at all any more.
I have zero interest or reason to attend unless I'm really bored OR just want to see which of my models continue to survive, knowing that someday, Computer Automated Models will wipe them all out.

[Billy Sastard]

:'(

[Alejandro Gomez Romero]

Nostalgia Thread

El nov 10, 2014 11:49 AM, "Billy Sastard via 3D Modeling for Google Earth & Maps" <3dwh+noreply-APn2wQdc8n3AFMvqS_E...@googlegroups.com> escribió:

:'(

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[SnowTiger]

This forum is basically a waste of Server space IMO.

[Billy Sastard]

I see your point, it doesn't need to be active, but I think it is worth preserving as it can be a valuable resource for anyone searching the past posts, maybe.

[SnowTiger]

Well that's true.
It certainly is an excellent resource.
In fact, considering I am (or at least was for a very long time) the TOP poster in this forum, I should probably be a bit more sensitive to that idea. There used to be an icon at the top of the page where one could get the data on who has posted the most replies/answers etc.
Anyway, I see your point Billy. Good call.

[Buch]

Hello everyone...

Did any of you guys ever figured out why they stopped accepting our models?
I have a theory - but I'd like to hear your thoughts first....

All the best

~ Buch

[Alejandro Gomez Romero]

Because of Apple Maps, that's why. Apple was way behind of google and the only thing they could do to at least try to compete was city fly by drone scan autogenerated 3d models. Because of that Google killed this community in his atempt to do the same thing.

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[Buch]

I can certainly see that would be a huge setback for them Alejandro - and since I'm not familiar with Apple products, I "googled" a bit and could read this article here:  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/11/apple-maps-google-iphone-users

That is probably the main cause but I think there was another issue which couldn't be easily solved - hence my theory...   
Every time we should have a model approved, it had to be precise within few inches of GE's imagery on all axes. My experience is, that some of my models which of course were placed with the highest accuracy, now is dislocated up to 10 feet in any or all 3 dimensions - and why?
Because Google updated their imagery and levitation of the landscape... - and they cannot do it with the same accuracy every time.
That would mean a constant correction of all models from all users, and that would be impossible to maintain in the long run....  That was my theory - I think that's what they found out. 
And then they saw what Apple was doing, and the user submitted models on GE became history.

Den mandag den 17. november 2014 01.14.33 UTC+1 skrev Alejandro Gomez Romero:

Because of Apple Maps, that's why. Apple was way behind of google and the only thing they could do to at least try to compete was city fly by drone scan autogenerated 3d models. Because of that Google killed this community in his atempt to do the same thing.

[KEITH LURIE]

Geo modellers were adjusting the position of their models every  time the was a shift in the ‘earth’ and that cost google nothing. But now they have thousand of dislocated buildings messing up the experience.  There are many small towns that they may never get 3d imagery, and even terrain is very inaccurate in many places, especially at sudden changes in elevation – auto modelling is really bad at dealing with trees, also messing up the experience. But I think that they realised that people will still use google earth, despite these issues, so why waste money.

 

From: 3D Modeling for Google Earth & Maps on behalf of Buch [mailto:3d...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Buch via 3D Modeling for Google Earth & Maps
Sent: 17 November 2014 03:22 AM
To: 3d...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: One-year anniversary of retirement of 3D pipeline

 

I can certainly see that would be a huge setback for them Alejandro - and since I'm not familiar with Apple products, I "googled" a bit and could read this article here:  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/11/apple-maps-google-iphone-users

That is probably the main cause but I think another issue couldn't be easily solved - hence my theory...   

Every time we should have a model approved, it had to be precise within few inches of GE's imagery on all axes. My experience is, that some of my models which of course were placed with the highest accuracy, now is dislocated up to 10 feet in any or all 3 dimensions - and why?
Because Google updated their imagery and levitation of the landscape...

That would mean a constant correction of all models from all users, and that would be impossible to maintain in the long run....  That was my theory - I think that's what they found out. 
And then they saw what Apple was doing, and the user submitted models on GE became history.



Den mandag den 17. november 2014 01.14.33 UTC+1 skrev Alejandro Gomez Romero:

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[Google Craig]

As this topic has resurfaced, I will reply just as I had previously; It was getting far too expensive to maintain the user generated pipeline while also developing the future technology. The thing most people didn't understand is that nothing for the user generated pipeline was "free"...it always cost my team time, money, resources and opportunity cost to make any change to the user generated model pipeline, so none of it was free to us. We simply weren't able to continue to spend the time and resources to maintain both the user generated pipeline, and develop the newer technology (that is now in use in Google Maps and Google Earth mobile, where the user generated model's individual file sizes were far too large to render in a browser or on mobile devices at a large scale).

Thank you again for your contributions to what was an amazing period in Google Earth's experience. My team and I are honored to have been a part of that.

Cheers,

     - CraigD