[HN Gopher] Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine
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       Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Unreal Engine
        
       Author : stijnbakker
       Score  : 514 points
       Date   : 2023-05-19 11:50 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nilsbakker.nl)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nilsbakker.nl)
        
       | J_cst wrote:
       | That's an amazing project *** Bravo!
        
       | majikandy wrote:
       | This is amazing! I was mesmerised and watched the whole video
       | hoping it wouldn't end.
       | 
       | How do we try it for real?
        
       | joeldo wrote:
       | I'd imagine there would be a fair amount of hallucination with
       | ChatGPT generating the Lat/Long pairs (especially for smaller
       | cities/towns)?
        
       | abdellah123 wrote:
       | crazy!! Video here
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cziz3qYT4Q&ab_channel=NilsB...
       | 
       | source available somewhere?
        
       | sambeau wrote:
       | As someone who worked at Realtime Worlds on the MyWorld project,
       | this is very poignant.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realtime_Worlds
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MyWorld
        
         | dark-star wrote:
         | Interesting!
         | 
         | Do you have some more details you could share, like screenshots
         | or trailers/videos? Sadly the video link to the trailer on
         | YouTube is not working anymore.
        
       | mring33621 wrote:
       | All I can say is WOW WOW WOW
       | 
       | Very nice!
       | 
       | Throw in some Carmen Sandiego stuff and i'd buy this for my kids
        
       | cheeaun wrote:
       | Looks insanely cool! I also made a simple web-based demo with
       | Deck.GL + shadow lighting + post-processing effects here:
       | https://cheeaun.github.io/photorealistic-3d-deckgl/
       | 
       | There's a limit of 250K "3D Tiles renderer requests per day" so
       | it'll stop serving tiles if exceeded.
        
         | 55555 wrote:
         | Thanks for the info. This is per API key? How many renderer
         | requests does a user use per minute? I'm just trying to figure
         | out if this is something that can be used in an app at scale.
        
           | cheeaun wrote:
           | Limit applies per project if I'm not mistaken. More info here
           | https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile/usage_.
           | ..
           | 
           | I'm not really sure if there's a limit per user. It's still
           | beta and I can't or don't dare to increase the quota for now.
        
           | snickmy wrote:
           | "message": "Quota exceeded for quota metric '3D Tiles root
           | requests' and limit '3D Tiles root requests per day' of
           | service 'tile.googleapis.com' for consumer
           | 'project_number:174664172126'.",
        
             | cheeaun wrote:
             | Wow that's really fast
        
               | cheeaun wrote:
               | Okay, turns out it's the "3D Tiles root requests per day"
               | that's exceeded. Max 300.
        
         | cheeaun wrote:
         | For those wondering how it looks like, I have a thread here
         | with lots of screenshots
         | https://twitter.com/cheeaun/status/1657727482492235777
        
       | therealmarv wrote:
       | I just keeping thinking about Terravision and "The Billion Dollar
       | Code" from Netflix while watching the video.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | s9w wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | canbus wrote:
       | Has been HN'd I think!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | cubefox wrote:
         | First "Resource Limit Is Reached", now "Insufficient
         | Storage"...
        
           | samstave wrote:
           | "file not found" for me, just now.
        
       | yosito wrote:
       | It would be really cool if there was more shared than a blog post
       | with a video. What about either a tutorial, source code, or a
       | link or download to use this ourselves?
        
         | Paul-Craft wrote:
         | The post itself has a pretty decent, high-level walkthrough.
        
       | r34 wrote:
       | It could be a great introduction to the metaverse. Imagine adding
       | the interior spaces by making the doors and windows openable.
       | Then allow for more and more interactions. A lot could be done by
       | algorithms (image recognition, etc.), but I think a lot of users
       | would be interested in "building this new world". Adding
       | procedurally generated spaces through portals would be a great
       | next step. We are not far away from being able to "create a
       | castle described by X in Y mixing painting style of Z and
       | sculpture style of Z". Maybe transforming between these styles
       | and others in time.
        
       | speedgoose wrote:
       | By the way, Google Earth VR (2016) provides a similar experience
       | but in virtual reality. Seing 3D graphics with depth improves a
       | lot the experience.
       | 
       | You also have some nice features such as the possibility to grab
       | the sky to rotate the sunlight.
       | 
       | This demo looks nice though. The post processing has nice
       | colours, though the fake chromatic aberrations may be a bit high.
        
         | Adrig wrote:
         | To this day this is the best experience I had in VR by far. I
         | spent hours roaming the earth, it's truly amazing. It's sad
         | that Google is massively underutilizing this asset.
        
           | modeless wrote:
           | What should Google be doing with it?
        
             | eob wrote:
             | As a complete non-gamer, the ability to walk around the
             | earth with a VR headset would justify buying one to me.
             | 
             | There are so many cities I've always wanted to walk down
             | the streets of!
        
               | modeless wrote:
               | As the parent comments mentioned, Google Earth VR already
               | exists and it's awesome (disclaimer: I had a hand in
               | creating it). It's as close as you can get to "walking
               | down the streets" with current data. All the available 3D
               | and Street View data is there.
        
             | TheRealPomax wrote:
             | Team up with microsoft and asobo.
        
               | hackernewds wrote:
               | but what about capitalism?
        
               | modeless wrote:
               | They seem to be doing fine on their own. I prefer to have
               | some competition.
        
       | silverfrost wrote:
       | 404 for me
        
       | stijnbakker wrote:
       | Just some context - this is not me, but former colleague of mine
       | :-) (even though we share the same surname)
        
         | badrequest wrote:
         | I really appreciate this disclaimer. :)
        
       | stijnbakker wrote:
       | Awesome project by Nils Bakker. Linking 3D tiles to Unreal Engine
       | and ChatGPT.
        
         | agoose77 wrote:
         | Hehe, by you, you mean? ;)
         | 
         | This is a really fun way to combine something that is being
         | discussed to death with something that is visually beautiful.
         | I'm fairly disinterested in most ChatGPT usages at the moment,
         | but this is a really good way to show its utility. Particularly
         | because it doesn't place _too_ much emphasis on the factual
         | accuracy of the responses ;)
        
           | dark-star wrote:
           | What, you don't think FC Barcelona is the best football club
           | in Europe? ;-)
        
         | itsmartapuntocm wrote:
         | Looks like it got the ol' HN hug
        
           | jonplackett wrote:
           | I'm sure if we all just stay on the site and hammer refresh
           | it will load eventually...
        
       | benstrumental wrote:
       | Very cool! Here's a tutorial from Sebastian Lague on implementing
       | something similar in Unity, which may have served as inspiration
       | for this project:
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/sLqXFF8mlEU
        
         | andybak wrote:
         | I think the inspiration was the release of a new Google API
         | last week along with support for it via Cesium's Unity and
         | Unreal plugins.
        
           | nkozyra wrote:
           | Yeah. Sebastian Lague's game videos are great because of the
           | way he walks through his steps & methodology, but wrt his
           | geographic implementations it's not how you would approach
           | this problem for this level of granularity.
        
       | tantalor wrote:
       | It's not so impressive when you find out it's just a Unreal
       | engine plugin.
       | 
       | This is a mashup.
        
       | waltbosz wrote:
       | For years I've been dreaming of a driving/pedestrian sandbox game
       | that used Google Maps data to let me drive recklessly around my
       | home town with accurate models of the buildings and roads.
       | 
       | This demo reminds me of that dream.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | Me too. The problem seems to be mainly that the models are
         | still awfully approximate and the textures are horribly blurry.
         | They're fantastic for a bird's-eye view or flight simulators,
         | but not what you want for driving.
         | 
         | I'm hoping that at some point in the next 10 years,
         | Google/Microsoft come up with a high-res version produced
         | mainly by Street View-type data or similar drone-supplied data.
         | I suspect that basic photogrammetry is the easy part -- that
         | the challenging part is dealing with changing sun position,
         | hourly/daily/monthly weather/seasons, and all of the
         | pedestrians and moving/parked vehicles.
        
           | rzzzt wrote:
           | LiDAR-mounted drones are available, although a ground-level
           | thingy can also generate neat point clouds in its vicinity:
           | https://enterprise-insights.dji.com/blog/lidar-equipped-uavs
        
           | tomaaron wrote:
           | photogrammetry is old. Check out NERF.
           | https://youtu.be/DJ2hcC1orc4
        
           | darkwraithcov wrote:
           | AI upscaling with diffusion models will probably solve that
           | problem.
        
             | waltbosz wrote:
             | That's what I was thinking. The satellite photos are
             | detailed enough to see lane lines, and combine that with
             | the street level photos will get you the road
             | configuration.
             | 
             | But I think whatever data GPS software uses is already
             | detailed enough to know lane config, it tells you exactly
             | what lane to be in when making turns.
        
       | bhouston wrote:
       | Incredible! The video music is also amazing. (But the slight
       | chromatic aberration was distracting.)
        
         | davidy123 wrote:
         | I cannot stand the music, or music in any video of this type. I
         | don't need or want its loaded suggestions. I would love to be
         | able to hear even simulated wind whistling, and sounds from the
         | scenes below.
        
           | crazygringo wrote:
           | You're free to mute the video, that's what mute is for.
           | 
           | As for sounds from the scenes below, that's a lot of work.
           | Where do you think people should source that from?
        
       | bluehat974 wrote:
       | It's just killed Flight Simulator
        
         | lostgame wrote:
         | Well, except for; y'know...all the 'Flight Simulation' parts,
         | uh, sure...?
        
       | helloplanets wrote:
       | I remember toying with Google Earth a year or so back, thinking
       | it'd be amazing if the actual Google Maps API would give access
       | to that level of granularity. Was sort of baffled as to why they
       | wouldn't. Definitely gonna give this a shot.
       | 
       | P.S. For those who haven't visited Google Earth (instead of
       | Google Maps) in a long time, it's alive and well, and still
       | pretty fun to go on a mini excursion with:
       | https://earth.google.com/web/
        
       | Obertr wrote:
       | feels like magic. Those small steps like take me to the biggest
       | city and it magically goes to Barcelona is something from the
       | future.
        
       | helsinkiandrew wrote:
       | https://archive.is/oxZKS
        
       | abraxas wrote:
       | Lovely simple Unreal project. It's amazing how much can be
       | accomplished with Blueprints when all the necessary functionality
       | is at your disposal (although it can be hellish when it's not). I
       | have such a love/hate relationship with UE. Sometimes it will
       | blow me away with how some stuff just works with a few blueprints
       | and other times (especially around physics) it just wants to do
       | stuff its way or the highway.
        
       | folli wrote:
       | I also tried my hand on integrating the Google Earth Tiles with
       | Cesium.js for GPS Track visualization:
       | https://cubetrek.com/static/highresmode.html
       | 
       | It basically allows you to replay your hikes, running or biking
       | adventures in 3D.
       | 
       | I wonder how much Google's gonna charge once it's out of
       | experimental mode.
        
       | jamesfisher wrote:
       | Could be a fun variation on Geoguessr
        
       | stefantalpalaru wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | blinding-streak wrote:
       | YouTube video from the project:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cziz3qYT4Q
        
         | artificial wrote:
         | Thanks for the video! Really neat technology, seems like a
         | great way to explore. Something about the FOV makes me ill.
        
         | samstave wrote:
         | This is _amazing_ - it will be cool when these models in unity
         | can be turned into real buildings where one can design the
         | interiors as well, and maybe use this in Hitman to play real
         | cities.
        
         | JohnBerea wrote:
         | What is the music in that video? My Find Sound app is failing.
        
           | jdironman wrote:
           | Love is Empty - Cindy Wang is what Shazaam on android is
           | telling me.
        
         | SamBam wrote:
         | It's super cool.
         | 
         | Does the 3D tile mao extend down to the street level? I would
         | have loved to see flying along the streets between the
         | buildings.
        
           | seabass-labrax wrote:
           | Might it be the extreme chromatic aberration? I once read an
           | article saying how to achieve 'photorealism' in computer
           | graphics, one should add chromatic aberration, as that's what
           | camera lenses naturally produce. I think some people take it
           | too far though!
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | pookha wrote:
       | You can do this stuff with drones and open source tools. I used a
       | cheap 100 dollar intel drone to take photos of my house and
       | processed the pictures using (alice vision?) software that built
       | the 3D mesh. My idea was to package something together for a home
       | remodeling system that would let people measure and look at their
       | houses with a 3D model but it just so happens that I live in the
       | no-drone radius within Washington DC. Cesium also has a pretty
       | nice 3D tiling photogrammetry service.
        
         | _puk wrote:
         | How long would it take the drone to reach Utrecht?!
         | 
         | I think the beauty of this is the fact that it's now easy to do
         | this for anywhere that has coverage from Google tiles.
         | 
         | I'd love to see a side by side of achieving this with Unreal Vs
         | open source tools though, would give a good indication of the
         | gap between them (if any).
         | 
         | On a side note.. regulation came in quite quick for the no-
         | drone areas in a lot of places, scuppered our farmer unmanned
         | livestock checking startup idea!
        
           | jeroenhd wrote:
           | There's no way the drone would reach without breaking the law
           | (or with you walking behind your drone the entire time).
           | 
           | Drone pictures are nice but most people aren't allowed to fly
           | them in many places and even if they are, many densely packed
           | cities have restrictions of their own.
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | These days you could probably get away with a handheld video
         | and NeRF software if you wanted to add a missing place to this
         | thing.
         | 
         | Very impressive work from OP! And cool suggestion from you.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | HanClinto wrote:
       | This is really superb! Fantastic execution and excellent
       | combination of tools.
       | 
       | Is there a way that we can play with this ourselves, or is it
       | just the demo video?
       | 
       | Either way, it's really great!
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | If you like this, you'll probably love the current version of
         | Microsoft Flight Simulator.
        
       | birdyrooster wrote:
       | Wow that was nauseating, Google really has terrible maps data.
       | Garbage in, garbage out I suppose.
        
       | 55555 wrote:
       | HOW DO I PLAY?? (serious)
        
         | 55555 wrote:
         | Does anyone know how big the files tend to be for a city? I'd
         | love to make this into a mobile game so everyone can explore
         | the world when bored.
        
           | OmarShehata wrote:
           | Unfortunately you're not allowed to ship these files with
           | your game. They have to stream directly from Google's servers
           | for each user (caching is allowed as long as you follow
           | standard caching rules).
           | 
           | A chunk of Manhatten I extracted is about 30mb glTF, but 7mb
           | with all compression options in gltf-Transform
           | (https://twitter.com/Omar4ur/status/1657361031763578881). But
           | this is not the highest resolution available.
           | 
           | See terms of use: https://developers.google.com/maps/document
           | ation/tile/polici...
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | Microsoft Flight Simulator. (serious)
        
           | rvnx wrote:
           | It's a bit the same story as GPT:
           | 
           | Early: Google does primitive tech (Google Earth)
           | 
           | Later: Microsoft does amazing implementation (Flight
           | Simulator / Bing)
           | 
           | Finally: Google tries to copy but fails (Google Maps)
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | opyate wrote:
       | For the OP:
       | 
       | Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead
       | 
       | Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue
       | to nilsbakker.nl. If you visit this site, attackers could try to
       | steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card
       | details.
       | 
       | And:
       | 
       | $ curl https://nilsbakker.nl/portfolio/3d-tiles/ curl: (60) SSL
       | certificate problem: self-signed certificate More details here:
       | https://curl.se/docs/sslcerts.html
       | 
       | curl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore
       | could not establish a secure connection to it. To learn more
       | about this situation and how to fix it, please visit the web page
       | mentioned above. (hf-course-3.9.13)
        
         | Cieric wrote:
         | My guess is that it's the proxy responding since the server is
         | going down. I got the same error and when I continued I saw
         | "Your domain name is parked.
         | 
         | Hey owner of nilsbakker.nl Your domain name is not linked to
         | your web hosting package, reseller package or virtual/dedicated
         | server. If you need support in connecting your products, you
         | can contact your provider."
        
         | mrbungie wrote:
         | No problems here, it displays as a "Let's encrypt" certificate.
        
           | argiope wrote:
           | These are the fields on the certificate that's being
           | presented to me:
           | 
           | emailAddress = root@dns-redirect001.axc.nl, CN = dns-
           | redirect001.axc.nl, OU = SomeOrganizationalUnit, O =
           | SomeOrganization, L = SomeCity, ST = SomeState, C = --
           | 
           | A self-signed certificate that expired on 6/11/19, 4:35:46 PM
           | GMT+2
           | 
           | It's probably been taken down.
        
             | jeroenhd wrote:
             | It works for me (again) but I remember that server domain
             | from my old Versio shared hosting account.
             | 
             | They used to be the typical "dirt cheap, low spec, PHP 5.4"
             | hoster of choice for students and people looking to save a
             | buck, but they've since raised their prices significantly
             | (and I don't think they've raised their quality of service
             | much).
             | 
             | Would not recommend. I wouldn't recommend shared hosting in
             | the first place, but if you do, it's worth looking around
             | for better hosts. There's a good chance you'll be better
             | off with Github pages for hosting websites that you expect
             | any visitors to see.
        
               | darkwraithcov wrote:
               | Github pages is excellent and should be the dev's go to
               | of choice IMO.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | I'm getting an error as well, although not a self-signed error.
         | I'm getting a mismatched domain error.
        
           | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
           | Probably just depends what order your TLS implementation is
           | deciding to complain about the issues: it's not only self-
           | signed but has no DNS SAN and the CN also mismatches.
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-19 23:00 UTC)