Forums

Full Version: Driving the whole world - with Google maps / earth data!
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Is it not possible to get data online from google earth to simulate real world tracks in real time?

You could read satellite-data around the driver online in real-time and "translate" it to your rendering-engines with standard objects.

The Street-data is good enough to render the roads exactly, the satellite-data is good enough to render your different standard-objects like forest, several trees, acres, grassland, cities, houses with image recognition of Googles satellite data. The elevation data of the whole landscape is also included in Googles map data.

The landscape far away from the driver you could render like in the flight simulator of google earth (original satellite data).

Isn't that a good idea to cooperate with Google and their APIs?

That would be a great game, to play with REAL roads, over the whole world!
You mean like: http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/eart...llery.html
A javascript version of vdrift? Not sure if it's possible.

There is also a COM API: http://earth.google.com/comapi/
But that means Windows only.

It would be great if Google Earth was open source.
Of course not a javascript-version of vdrift, only a task who loads the data via javascript-API online and render the track?
The problem is that the API offers no way to access the meshes/textures. You can sample height, place/move a camera/3d object.

Additionally, the maps and eath data is licensed:
"Use in Software including GIS software, flight simulators etc: You may not scrape or otherwise export Content from Google Maps or Earth for use within another application. For offline imagery or mapping with your own datasets, please learn about our Google Earth Enterprise product."
See: http://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines.html

Google is a business after all.
what about that open source competitor to google earth? i've never tried it, but it's probably low on features.

i think it's just called "Earth Viewer"
I found this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_World_Wind
But you would have to do 3d buildings and street data by yourself.
so, what tachy said could theoretically be possible to implement?

(i don't expect the vdrift devs to do this, i imagine that the work would be immense)
Theoretically, like port VDrift simulation code to Java and use Worldwind Java SDK to do the rendering. :lol:
hmmm.... to get cheeky: it's not forbidden to play browser Wink

Three "wget"s on google maps: roadmap, satellite, and terrain mode ;-) Interprete the images in background and convert it into raw data for the rendering machine:

terrain:
http://mt1.google.com/vt/v=w2p.116&hl=de...15&s=Galil

roadmap:
http://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=m@116&hl=d...&z=15&s=Ga

satellite:
http://khm1.google.com/kh/v=54&x=17083&s...15&s=Galil


...decrease/increase x and y....Smile

If one map-segment is once converted into raw track data, we could store it local to render it for future time.
Free data for streets themselves is already available: http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Terrain elevation is also free from http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ (which is pretty much what Google uses anyways...)

The only thing missing would be satellite/aerial photography and building models.
Here is a viewer for the .HGT-Files in 3D:

http://www.dgadv.com/dgtv/
Openstreetmap is great!

We don't need any satellite data, because the OSM includes data of land use, buildings and many other elements vdrift could render.

Example (Nürburgring):

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=50.332...s=B000FTFT
Wow, they even have the turn names.