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Hong Kong in 3D in Google Earth

December 1, 2006

Hong Kong in 3D in Google EarthThe guys from ComputaMaps have created another excellent rendering of city buildings in 3D. This time the city of Hong Kong has been rendered with 29 detailed textured buildings and over 5000 building components in total. Download Hong Kong in 3D here (3.4 MBytes). Double click on one of the detailed building placemarks to fly in closer. ComputaMaps has colored buildings with lower heights darker than taller ones which helps give a better sense of realism. According to Steven at ComputaMaps, they believe hand-built buildings put together by artists look better than auto-generated photo-textured maps like what has been done in the Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D (VE3D) buildings. One issue Steven sees is that when future versions of these virtual globes model sunlight, the shadows cast by an artist rendered building will look much better. The VE3D buildings will have shadows stamped onto the photo textures – so they are stuck. Anyway, this collection for Hong Kong is definitely worth viewing. Great work guys!
By the way, ComputaMaps also published Vancouver in 3D, and Cape Town in 3D.
Related:

  • Growing Buildings of London
  • High Quality 3D Buildings for Google Earth
  • 3D Buildings All Over Japan

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. me says

    December 1, 2006 at 5:12 pm

    It’s just amazing!!!

  2. Takeshi says

    December 2, 2006 at 3:40 am

    This is a Emperor Nintoku’s ancient burial mound.
    It is the largest burial in the world.
    Please see!
    http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=34.558103,135.48945&z=15

  3. steve lombardi says

    December 2, 2006 at 4:11 pm

    Stephen is correct when he says “hand-built buildings put together by artists look better than auto-generated photo-textured maps”. But incorrect to assume that Virtual Earth doesn’t support hand modeled buildings! The Virtual Earth is built of both algorithmically generated and textured buildings as well as those created completely by hand. The advantage of supporting both is that it is possible to add entire new cities very quickly with ‘good’ quality (not just 20 buildings), while augmenting the city with hand modeled buildings.

  4. Todd says

    July 30, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    I am trying to load the ComputaMap layer for Hong Kong and Google Earth crashes every single time. Anyone have any guesses about why or what to do? I really want to see this layer! Thanks!

  5. erik says

    August 20, 2007 at 3:53 pm

    I also get consistent crash when trying to view the file. Visiting ComputaMap’s own website did not clear anything up either.

  6. Aron Lau says

    December 1, 2007 at 8:19 am

    The 3D model are great! but there is some mistake. The Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom, was a building of inverted pyramid-like construction, but not just a rectangle
    you can see the photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hong_Kong_Coliseum.JPG
    Waiting for more product!



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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