Geovisualization, 3D models and more!

Here you will be able to see some of my latest 3D stuff… A compilation of 3D models, flythroughs and graphic resuorces available… All you need regarding 3D scenarios (heights datasets, satellite imagery and 3D models) and Video Edition… Are you guys thinking about doing something like this?. Please contact me.

Alberto Concejal
BA Geography
MSc GIS and Remote Sensing
GIS Technician
albertoconcejal -at -gmail.com

More of my 3D video edited scenarios. Computamaps, director’s cut.

Please, dont forget to turn on your speakers. Even if i first used a different score and Youtube’s elfs told me not to use it (because of copyright authoring) I have chosen this music from their stuff and this is what I finally got…

Hope you like it.
Alberto
BA Geography
MSc GIS and Remote Sensing
GIS Technician and Multimedia Designer
albertoconcejal -at -gmail.com

Some of my Computamaps 3D scenarios

Barcelona (Spain), Winnipeg (Canada), Las Vegas (USA), Moscow (Russia), Durban (South Africa), Vancouver (Canada) and Tokyo (Japan)… these were some of my Terrain view’s 3D scenarios published by Computamaps, a South African company I worked in not so long ago. By the way it was one of my best professional experiences ever… I enjoyed joining them a lot and It was very difficult leaving them (mainly because of Cynthia’s fruit salads;-)… Miss you guys a lot!!!

Hope you liked them.
Alberto
BA Geography
MSc GIS and Remote Sensing
GIS Technician
albertoconcejal -at -gmail.com

One more 3D building. Avenida de la Vega 28108. Restaurante Asiático SHENG. Madrid, Spain.

I used to have lunch every thrusday there, at the ‘Restaurante Asiático SHENG’. I strongly recommend you ‘entremeses’ (In China you will find them as ‘dim-sum’) and Cantonese duck or Hong Kong duck (this was slightly spicy thou).  Very good food, very fast service and pretty cheap menu: 10,7 €… ideal for an IT worker!.

These views were rendered using ‘V-RAY’ for Sketch-up.

And now, Let’s go to Google Earth!

(I have modified my kml using a extruded placemark we talked about a few posts ago).
Now Let’s have our business in 3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Hope you like it.
Alberto
BA Geography
MSc GIS and Remote Sensing
GIS Technician
albertoconcejal -at -gmail.com

News: Lufthansa Realtime 3D Airtraffic

I have just read a very interesting item of news. WHITEVOID has just released a 3D visualization engine for monitoring more than 16.000  Lufthansa airplanes in realtime… amazing, isn’t it?.

You can navigate throughout the world in a 3D 14 meters screen (!) while you filter content and adjust size, speed and any other parameter…

In addition there’s a 3D audio system that helps you to be absolutely involved in the scenario… I’d love to handle one of those…

You can see a very interesting video here:

http://www.fubiz.net/2009/06/23/realtime-3d-airtraffic/

News: Amazing Helsinki 3D!

Navigating all over the world within Google Earth I have just discovered a brand new 3d layer in Helsinki, Finland.  Almost every building around makes this scenario very realistic… You just have to click on ‘3d buildings’  and it will show you this incredible layer… Does anybody know a WMS map to use it here?.

Hope you like them,

Alberto

Vicalvaro Buildings 3D. Madrid, Spain.

And Now I would like to add one more set of buildings around my house. This is a block of flats in Vicálvaro, Madrid, Spain. This is supposed to be ‘Valderribas’ area… hope you like them!

Creating and personalizing KML code (placemarks).

First of all, what is KML?. KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser, such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. You can create KML files to pinpoint locations, add image overlays, and expose rich data in new ways. KML is an international standard maintained by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC). You can choose wether authoring directly from Google Earth itself or you can try to understand the code and doing it by yourself… You can draw placemarks (using descriptive HTML to personalize them), ground overlays, paths, polygons… Let’s start with the placemark:

-> Simple placemark

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<kml xmlns=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2″>
  <Placemark>
    <name>Simple placemark</name>
    <description>Attached to the ground. Intelligently places itself
       at the height of the underlying terrain.</description>
    <Point>
      <coordinates>-122.0822035425683,37.42228990140251,0</coordinates>
    </Point>
  </Placemark>
</kml>

An XML header. This is line 1 in every KML file. No spaces or other characters can appear before this line.

A KML namespace declaration. This is line 2 in every KML 2.2 file.

A Placemark object that contains the following elements:

• A name that is used as the label for the Placemark
• A description that appears in the “balloon” attached to the Placemark
• A Point that specifies the position of the Placemark on the Earth’s surface (longitude, latitude, and optional altitude)

-> Floating placemark

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<kml xmlns=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2” xmlns:gx=”http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2” xmlns:kml=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2” xmlns:atom=”http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom“>
<Document>
 <name>Floating placemark.kml</name>
 <Style id=”downArrowIcon”>
  <IconStyle>
   <Icon>
    <href>http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal4/icon28.png</href>
   </Icon>
  </IconStyle>
 </Style>
 <Placemark>
  <name>Floating placemark</name>
  <description>Floats a defined distance above the ground.</description>
  <LookAt>
   <longitude>-122.0839597145766</longitude>
   <latitude>37.42222904525232</latitude>
   <altitude>0</altitude>
   <range>500.6566641072245</range>
   <tilt>40.5575073395506</tilt>
   <heading>-148.4122922628044</heading>
  </LookAt>
  <styleUrl>#downArrowIcon</styleUrl>
  <Point>
   <altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
   <coordinates>-122.084075,37.4220033612141,50</coordinates>
  </Point>
 </Placemark>
</Document>
</kml> 

-> Extruded placemark

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<kml xmlns=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2” xmlns:gx=”http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2” xmlns:kml=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2” xmlns:atom=”http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom“>
<Document>
 <name>Extruded placemark.kml</name>
 <Style id=”globeIcon”>
  <IconStyle>
   <Icon>
    <href>http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal3/icon19.png</href>
   </Icon>
  </IconStyle>
  <LineStyle>
   <width>2</width>
  </LineStyle>
 </Style>
 <Placemark>
  <name>Extruded placemark</name>
  <description>Tethered to the ground by a customizable
          &quot;tail&quot;</description>
  <LookAt>
   <longitude>-122.0845787421525</longitude>
   <latitude>37.42215078737763</latitude>
   <altitude>0</altitude>
   <range>365.2646606980322</range>
   <tilt>40.55750733918048</tilt>
   <heading>-148.4126684946234</heading>
  </LookAt>
  <styleUrl>#globeIcon</styleUrl>
  <Point>
   <extrude>1</extrude>
   <altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
   <coordinates>-122.0857667006183,37.42156927867553,50</coordinates>
  </Point>
 </Placemark>
</Document>
</kml>

If instead of regular <description>

<description>Attached to the ground. Intelligently places itself
       at the height of the underlying terrain.</description>

you use the CDATA element, you can write HTML and avoiding Google Earth from parsing the code incorrectly:

 <description>
        <![CDATA[
          <h1>CDATA Tags are useful!</h1>
          <p><font color="red">Text is <i>more readable</i> and
          <b>easier to write</b> when you can avoid using entity
          references.</font></p>
        ]]>
      </description>

 

News: Capaware, an opensource 3D geographical Multilayer Framework… First steps…

I discovered this project a few months ago and I’ve been following them very close. It’s always very interesting for freelancers and self taught professionals having an opensource 3D framework to start building your own scenaries not needing to pay a big amount of money for a license… I will do my best to upload here my own projects but let me post you this as a starter… Welcome Capaware!!.

http://www.capaware.org

Capaware! is a framework for developing 3D multilayer geographical worlds.So powerful as it allows execution of applications directly over it, offers a wide range of applications. To have a quick composition of the stage,nothing better than working directly in three dimensions.

Capaware! allows viewing of large tracts of land with the minimum amount of information necessary to show it. Those parties that are not visible are not processed, so that the processor loads the minimum memory needed at all times.

Capaware!, which is developed in C++, allows connection to external servers using OGC protocol to obtain data. We can also configure and manage the resource layers and elements that can be displayed on the ground. Capaware! integrates within GPL free software components for its implementation. Specifically these components are:

•  OpenScenegraph
•  WxWidgets
•  Curl
• Boost

Capaware es un software libre, orientado al desarrollo de aplicaciones geográficas multicapa con visualización tridimensional, desarrollado a medias entre la Universidad de Las Palmas y el Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias. Funciona tanto como SDK para desarrolladores, como también una aplicación individual para visualizar información geográfica, conectando a servidores que cumplan los estándares OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), y que permite insertar elementos 3D sobre el terreno, compartidos por múltiples usuarios.

Está dirigido tanto a profesionales que necesiten visualizar información geográfica de forma realista, como a desarrolladores que quieran implementar cualquier aplicación gráfica con especial énfasis en la navegación de terrenos (por poner un ejemplo, desde un SIG 3D hasta un videojuego).

Windmills (wind turbines). Geovisualization live!

I will do my best to build a 3d scenario incluiding a few wind generators located very close to Pancorbo Cliff, North of Spain, about 320 km from Madrid. As usual, I started getting a model from 3D warehouse and included inside my google sketch up session… after that it was just placing it in my GE scenario… That’s it!. Now a little bit of literature: 

The most modern generations of windmills are more properly called wind turbines, or wind generators, and are primarily used to generate electricity. Modern windmills are designed to convert the energy of the wind into electricity. The largest wind turbines can generate up to 6MW of power (for comparison a modern fossil fuel power plant generates between 500 and 1,300MW).

With increasing environmental concern, and approaching limits to fossil fuel consumption, wind power has regained interest as a renewable energy source. It is increasingly becoming more useful and sufficient in providing energy for many areas of the world.

One area where turbines have become feasible is in the Midwestern United States, due to great amounts of wind.

Source: Wikipedia

Hope you liked it.
Alberto
BA Geography
MSc GIS and Remote Sensing
GIS Technician
albertoconcejal -at -gmail.com