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November 12, 2008
Ancient Rome in 3D for Google Earth
[UPDATE 11 PM: As mentioned in the post below, the layer for Rome is found under "Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D". However, this just loads the placemarks describing the key buildings. First, uncheck the "3D Buildings" layer. In order to see the Ancient Rome 3D models: 1) you have to click on one of the placemarks where you will see three links. 2) Click on the first link - which is the terrain for ancient rome (that hides the modern Rome and raises it above the new city. 3) Then load the second link which loads the 250 most detailed models. CAUTION: these models have a lot of complexity and you may need a newer machine with a fast graphics card to get these to load and update well. I'm sure Google will be working to simplify these models to make them load faster in future updates. If you load the third link with 5000 buildings - don't expect it to load all 5000 buildings at once. These buildings will only show when zoomed in close and only the nearby buildings will appear.]
For the first time, Google has published a 3D model of an ancient city as a layer viewable in Google Earth. For decades archaeologists, students, scholars, and architects have studied the history and remains of Rome and worked to understand the city's history. The new layer, found under Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D, depicts Rome in the year 320 AD - at the peak of its development with over a million inhabitants. At this time it was the largest metropolis in the world. The 3D models are actually based on a physical model of the city called the “Plastico di Roma Antica” - created by archaeologists and model-makers from 1933 to 1974 and housed in a special gallery in the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome. 3D digital models were created based on scans of the physical model. Google joined forces with the Rome Reborn Project and Past Perfect Productions to create the Ancient Rome 3D layer. Google helped convert the models into a format suitable for viewing in Google Earth. According to an interview with Bruce Poulderman of Google, there are about 200 buildings which are classified as "Class I" models which scholars and historians know a lot about and have been rendered as faithfully as possible.
The layer contains more than 6700 3D building models. You can learn more about some of the buildings by clicking on more than 250 placemarks on many of the key sites and the placemark descriptions link to more advanced information including a topographical encyclopedia, ancient literary sources and bibliographical information about each building. The layer's placemarks are available in: English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Dutch.
See Google's video introducing the layer:
An extra feature in the 3D city is that 11 buildings have viewable interiors - these include: Basilica of Maxentius, Colosseum, Forum of Julius Caesar, Ludus Magnus, Temple of Venus and Rome, Temple of Vesta, Regia, Basilica Iulia, Basilica Aemelia, Curia Iulia, Tabularium.
In order to avoid conflicts with the different modern day terrain and 3D models, Google chose to "float" the Ancient Rome 3D layer above the modern day city by a few dozen meters. You can speed up your performance a bit by turning off the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth while using the Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D.
To help stimulate educational applications related to the Rome layer, Google has also announced "The Ancient Rome Curriculum Contest". The competition is open to all K-12 educators (US Only) that will challenge teachers to produce lesson plans for their classrooms using the Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth. Lessons for all subjects - from Art History to Engineering to Philosophy - are encouraged, and projects can be submitted in any format (KML, doc, ppt, skp), though KML and Google Doc submissions are encouraged. The deadline for submission is February 9, 2009. Six teachers will win prize packages including a laptop, classroom projector, digital camera, 3D mouse, $500 gift card, and a plaque. Read the web site for more details.
[UPDATE: See also Google's LatLong post, and Stefan has an informative write-up at OgleEarth.]
Posted by FrankTaylor at November 12, 2008 6:00 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Dapascha at November 12, 2008 7:10 AM
Oh man, this is so cool.
Next time in Rome I'm going to to take a lot of 3D pictures/videos of the ruins, and then combine them with 3D GE images/video of the same views.
Rome Now & Then.
Watch for it on a YouTube near you!
Posted by: Ick of the East at November 12, 2008 5:50 PM
It can now be seen on Google Earth
Posted by: hotelgreg11 at November 12, 2008 6:27 PM
Amazing looks really good.
Are they going to do any other cities like Dubh Linn(Dublin Ireland) Londinium(London, England), Corcáigh(Cork Ireland)?
Posted by: Mark Reidy at November 13, 2008 3:48 AM
I just downloaded the new googleearth with ancient rome program and I can't open the gallery section of the layer. Can anyone help please?
Posted by: Katherine Sayre at November 14, 2008 8:18 AM
This would be incredibly cool, yeah, if only I could find it in the Gallery layer. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that there. Any ideas why, anybody? Is it possible that my country of residence (Poland) has something to do with that? Or what? Man, it's so frustrating, reading about it and not being able to dig it myself...
Posted by: hornby at November 15, 2008 9:41 AM
I would prefer the GE priority to be the completion of reasonably high resolution, up to date coverage for the European Union area = particularly for Ireland and Scotland - for the 21st century before starting with the 4th century.
Posted by: chris at November 15, 2008 10:20 AM
Hi, I own an apple macbook and have updated google earth but i do not have "Ancient Rome" anywhere under Gallery.
Posted by: tellef ogrim at November 16, 2008 5:39 AM
Unfortunately,i do not have yet "Ancient Rome" anywhere under Gallery and today is 2008 11 18 .
Posted by: Nicolae Nachi at November 18, 2008 3:20 AM
When I open Google Earth and go to Gallery, I see a check box for Rome, but there are no drop down options such as buildings and so on. What do I do?
Posted by: Ed at November 19, 2008 8:43 PM
I'm still unsure about how to view Rome in 3D. I'm not sure what you mean by placemarks and the only thing I was able to view were a bunch of photos of the different sites. Can you please be more specific in explaining the directions?
Posted by: Amanda at November 24, 2008 6:26 AM
I don't see the "Ancient Rome" layer under "Gallery", either. Please provide updates to view this layer.
Posted by: Anthony Zamarro at November 25, 2008 1:33 PM
I have the same problem as Ed. When I open Google Earth and go to Gallery, I see a check box for Ancient Rome 3D, but there are no drop down options such as buildings and so on. What do I do?
Posted by: Mario at November 25, 2008 8:16 PM
I have heard of this terrific new resource, but like many of the other comments i cannot find a link in the gallery to Ancient Rome 3D. Any suggestions
Posted by: Pam at November 27, 2008 9:00 PM
THE DOWNLOADING OF TERRAIN AND FIRST 250 BUILDINGS DOES NOT WORK FOR ME.
THE DIRECTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS TO USE ANCIENT ROME 3D ARE POOR!
Posted by: KEITH at November 29, 2008 8:20 PM
Frankly, the lack of instructions about how to access this model is just boneheaded and a tremendous waste of time for many people. Will someone at Google please get it together?
Posted by: Colin Galloway at December 3, 2008 4:16 AM
I downloaded Google 4.3 but there is no Ancient Rome............please advise.
Posted by: rocco at December 8, 2008 10:10 PM
I am also having a problem accessing the ancient Rome 3-D. I click on Terrain and then 250 buildings however I still can't see any of the 3-D buildings. Unlike other google products, I am finding this one extremely frustrating. I am glad I did not try this in front of teachers who are already nervous about technology. Any other suggetions?
Posted by: Ana at December 17, 2008 4:05 PM
Just downloaded 4.3.7284.3916 (beta). No Gallery. No Rome. ????? Xp SP3
Posted by: Alan at December 24, 2008 1:12 AM
I was moving around Rome looking at the buildings thinking: "Hmm....this is average". Then I found some discussions boards talking about it, turns out all I was viewing was the normal 3D models others had made, which were ok but not very impressive. I thought that was Rome Reborn. Now I realise I still haven't even downloaded it yet.
So, how do I load the model in Rome Reborn? All I get is a bunch of yellow 'flags'.
I am stunned that there are no instructions, what a huge waste of money and time. I wonder how many just saw the general 3D buildings and thought, this is crap like I did and then left. I would guess there would be many as it is very unclear that you have to first turn of the normal 3D buildings.
Crazy!
Posted by: Jerry at December 26, 2008 8:44 PM
I too was looking much forward to see the "stunning" 3D model, but as the rest of you I searched clueless and without result for the layer. I'm from Denmark and because of that my GE is danish. I thought it might be some kind of localized restriction so I got to another computer with an english Vista, downloaded and installed GE in english - and look at behold - there was the layer... I'm very disappointed if there's any restrictions on this ting - Rome is in Europe - I'm in Europe - so what's the deal here? Google - stand up and give us a statement to why this isn't working for most of us!
O. McKensy
Posted by: McKensy at December 30, 2008 8:00 AM
I updated google earth but "ancient rome" does not appear on the gallery.
I tryed 3 pcs.
Posted by: CPereira at January 1, 2009 7:32 PM
(sigh) yes the directions to access this content are poor. It takes some hunting and pecking to figure out how to get it to work. But it does work! Here's how:
Navigate to Rome in Google Earth. Zoom in close enough that you can see the city. Uncheck 3D Buildings in Gallery.
1) Click on the "Ancient Rome 3D" checkbox in "Gallery"
2) When the yellow icons appear, click on one of them. A Red Window appears with text and graphics describing the location. Scroll down to the bottom of the window, and you will see 3 underlined "URL-type" lines.
3) Click first on Ancient Terrain. It will begin downloading into your Temporary Places and will begin appearing on the map.
4) When done, click on Ancient Roman Landmarks. Be patient at this point; it will begin downloading Ancient Rome 3D Buildings (250 key monuments) into your temporary places. You will, over a period of many minutes, start seeing the 3D buildings appearing on the terrain.
5) When this is done, click on Ancient Roman Buildings. This will download a root.kmz to your Temporary Places. These buildings will not appear all at once; they will begin appearing in "neighborhoods" as you zoom in and look.
It's all worth waiting for. It could have been a lot clearer, but stop whining and go dig into it.
Posted by: nj at May 6, 2009 9:43 PM
The problem is that in many installations of GE there's NO "ancient rome" option available at all under gallery, for what ever reasons only Google know.
BUT - I just today found out that if I change the language of my GE installation (im in Denmark so my GE installs in danish) to English (UK), suddenly I get the "ancient rome" option under gallery.
McKensy
Posted by: McKensy at May 27, 2009 9:52 AM
This is totally ridiculous i also had to switch from danish to english language in order to acces "ancient rome" another google crapup.
Posted by: uffe at July 8, 2009 2:14 PM
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That's just incredibly awesome. Can't wait to start exploring! I was a big fan of ancient Rome/Greece when I was young, I can only imagine how interested kids today are going to be inspired by this. Fantastic work.