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Ability to get google maps instead of imagery?

Bungo

Bungo

Messages
115
Country
australia
Is it possible to gather the google maps tiles instead of the Google satellite imagery with something like FSET?

Google Maps have more buiding outlines than any GIS data that I can find through official sources, so if I can filter out all the FOD from the imagery and digitise it It might add to the data I have.

cheers

Braedon
 
Hello:

In SBuilderX, one of the tile server pick-list choices is "Google Street Maps" which includes both street and building outlines at zoom levels up to 18 (approximately LOD-17).

These can be exported as GeoTIFF files for processing by ScenProc to create vector scenery content and Autogen buildings etc.

However, there is also an extensive set of vector data files available in ESRI SHP file format from OpenStreetMap (aka "OSM") which can be downloaded from ex: GeoFabrik.de and other web sites in either very large or smaller package sizes, which includes both street and building outlines at zoom levels up to 17 (approximately LOD-16).

Generally speaking, IMHO, the Google map vector content is more precisely drawn with less aliasing of shapes than the OSM map images, but would be subject to the vagaries of ScenProc's detection engine and raster to vector conversion process (which apparently is challenging to implement in any such GIS / CAD and graphics software), and may require some final editing in certain problematic object detection / conversion scenarios.


Hope this might help with exploring your options. :)

GaryGB
 
Unfortunately, Openstreetmap does not have the coverage that the Google data has. It has some of Hobart, but very little of the greater metropolitan area north and south of the city, and almost nothing rural. Does scenproc do buildings from raster yet? I thought that was on the to-do list?

cheers

Braedon
 
I have SHP files of buildings above a certain size (roughly an industrial workshop size), with point data for other structures which has a description/clasificaton of the type of building, but no shape or direction detail. Combining any raster conversion with that data would be ideal, but is something I'm going to have to do manually for the moment if I can get scenproc to convert the raster building outlines to vector shapes. I have global mapper, but am not sure if it can do the conversion?

cheers

Braedon
 
Once I have the imagery, I could do this in Global Mapper 16:

http://dominoc925.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/convert-raster-to-vector-polygons-with.html

followed by this with the point data I have...

http://dominoc925.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/copy-point-database-attributes-to.html

And then exclude anything that doesn't have an atribute from the point data from the various local government areas...

Will have to see once I grab some data from Google Maps. Need to work out sbuilderx first as I've never used it.

cheers

Braedon
 
You should be able to detect the buildings in scenProc with the current build, especially from maps.

I'm working on improving the feature detection though.
 
If the maps plugin in for SbuilderX could avoid downloading all the POI's and business names it would be better... :) They make the feature detection more difficult for starters. I don't know if Google burn them into the maps or not now, but if you could get the tiles without the POI and Businesses overlay it would be better.

Thanks again guys...

cheers

Braedon
 
There is indeed an "apparent" difference in the amount of building footprints available in Google Maps versus OSM which varies by location ...as seen in online map viewers.

However, one must zoom in and allow the map to update, in order to be certain as to the actual quantity of available building footprints.

Note as well that the density of such footprints displayed appears to be linked to zoom level in the map view window on-screen on a variable basis by local map 2D object 'area', rather than on a global basis for the zoom level of an overall map view of a 'region' as currently seen in the map window.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/H...3c94dd0de1530!8m2!3d-42.8821377!4d147.3271949


http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=Hobart, AU#map=18/-42.87681/147.33094


http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?useExisting=1&layers=5fd623e6673d4a8986a768b57807d744


BTW: See my reply to this sub-topic inquiry regarding options for selection / display of layers ...in your other thread here: ;)

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...not-download-the-poi-business-overlay.439956/


GaryGB
 
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if you zoom right in to Sandy Bay and compare that to 2km north, the OSM data has no buildings, just street numbers.


I have point data where the classificaton is good, but orientation, shape, size, etc is less than complete or useful. Thus combining the point data attributes with the digitised polys from the google data may be a solution, if I can get a clean google maps download. Then I can let scenproc loose on it.

I'm making about 2 dozen custom buildings for the city centre and the Tasman Bridge, but the rest will be autogen.

cheers

Braedon
 
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Bungo said:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...e-maps-instead-of-imagery.439947/#post-770698

if you zoom right in to Sandy Bay and compare that to 2km north, the OSM data has no buildings, just street numbers.
Click to expand...

Indeed, OSM is a crowd-sourced "work-in-progress", with variable quality, and many parts of the world have little or none of the quality (or details) that are found in other parts of the world. :pushpin:

Bungo said:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...e-maps-instead-of-imagery.439947/#post-770698

I have point data where the classificaton is good, but orientation, shape, size, etc is less than complete or useful. Thus combining the point data attributes with the digitised polys from the google data may be a solution, if I can get a clean google maps download. Then I can let scenproc loose on it.

I'm making about 2 dozen custom buildings for the city centre and the Tasman Bridge, but the rest will be autogen.

cheers

Braedon
Click to expand...
GaryGB said:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...-the-poi-business-overlay.439956/#post-770721

If you have downloaded and/or externally-derived SHP and Point data for building footprint shape and/or position, as well as file output from ScenProc building detection off of submitted map and aerial imagery, you may be further able to develop your autogen buildings with even less manual labor. ;)

The alignment / orientation issue for placement of buildings derived from footprints may have already been addressed by Arno in recent versions of ScenProc: :wizard:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/back-to-autogen-detection-for-buildings.437268/

https://www.scenerydesign.org/page/8/

GaryGB
Click to expand...

GaryGB said:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...-the-poi-business-overlay.439956/#post-770682

[EDITED]

Regardless of the online web map tile server source or the GIS application (whether Global Mapper or QGIS) used for access and download, if one can get better Geo-rectified raster images (ex: exported GeoTIFFs) in the proper projection for submission to ScenProc, one may experience better results with less manual labor being required.

[END_EDIT]
Click to expand...

Respectfully, I believe it would have been best for your (2) concurrent threads on this topic to be consolidated into (1) thread in the "Terrain General" forum.

Specific suggestions / requests for enhancement of the "GooglerServer.DLL" as a 3rd party add-on by Richard Ludowise (aka "rhumbaflappy") that 'works' inside SBuilderX, IMHO, might best be maintained as a separate thread in the SBuilderX forum. :idea:

Considering the more recent pattern of less frequent forum posting activity by Dick (aka "rhumbaflappy"), I would be concerned that his available free time and/or interest may be limited, even though he has historically been so generous by having previously made- and by currently still making- a contribution of numerous extremely valuable GIS and scenery-related DLL modules, utilities, and tutorials for the FS community. :teacher:


In the event that Dick may not find it feasible to change the feature set of his "GoogleServer.DLL" for use in SBuilderX, we may be compelled to learn how to make use of a mix of "external" GIS applications for our more specialized GIS processing tasks to download / convert / derive source data, especially since SBuilderX was originally designed with an internal GIS feature set intended only for specific tasks ...primarily by use of "pre-formatted" source data. :coffee:


And I'd suggest that right now, it may be best to minimize administrative burden on FSDeveloper's maintenance team with a request to consolidate these (2) threads seeing how we are presently experiencing recurrent forum functionality issues without advance notice. :alert:


We could continue with cross-referenced links between the (2) threads, but it can also quickly become rather burdensome for both participants and "non-contributory forum lurkers" to follow these (2) parallel threads. ;)

GaryGB
 
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