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Virtual Earth 3D Beta Launched
Lord Satri writes "Microsoft has announced the launch of Virtual Earth 3D. There are numerous screenshots to be seen, as well as a Google Earth comparison from Spatially Adjusted. You can read the Google Earth Blog on why he thinks it's not a threat to Google. C|Net's coverage and the official press release provide lots of concrete details of the product. You can also read more from the development side or see the CBS report on Virtual Earth 3D. My main gripe: Windows and Internet Explorer 6/7 only. From the official press release: 'When people visit Live Search, type a query into the search box and click the "Maps" tab, they get their search results in a map context that offers the option to explore the area using two-dimensional views (aerial and bird's-eye) or three dimensional models with Virtual Earth 3D. This new technology compiles photographic images of cities and terrain to generate textured, photorealistic 3-D models with engineering level accuracy.'"
Who else here will not or can not access this since it is IE and Windows only?
Every once in a while, Microsoft does something right ... or at least releases something cool. When I plugged in my address (which is kind of in the middle of nowhere), up popped 3 different viewing angles of my house. Pretty detailed shots too, and in one you could even see me mowing the lawn in the backyard! I had lots of fun with this one.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
I tried to test this but it is for IE explorer only. So Google wins by default.
I run Google Earth under Linux. Will this new offering provide an alternative? (Let me guess - NO WAY!)
I want to try it, can someone post the direct link for the Linux client?
Or the torrent!
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
SELF. Nothing else matters. Period.
Why does Microsoft feel theatened by certain markets? I don't understand why they feel they have to compete with everything, even "markets" where there is little or no money to be made. How much money could Microsoft ever make from Virtual Earth? Why does Microsoft feel it has to compete in the games and music world when it is already making huge amounts of money selling software to 90 - 95% of the computer world?
After playing around with this this morning I can't quite get the hang of the grab and drag navigation. In photo mode (or bird's eye view I guess) it appears to limit the grab and drag range to the actual photo loaded into the frame, and the only way to move outside that is to load another photo by clicking in some kind of grid containing too-small-for-clarity thumbnails.
Maybe I'm wrong and didn't spend enough time with it, but that is a huge handicap, better photos or not. With Google Earth I can grab and drag to wherever. Half of what I want to find isn't tied to an address, it is much easier to find by following landmarks.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Canoma from the long-defunct Metacreations. You load up a picture, place some 3d primitives, and line the primitives up so that they match what's in the picture. It was pretty easy to do, and produced decent results- if you only viewed the sides of the object that were actually photographed. Kudos to the MS programmers for coming up with a quick, "cheap" way to add textures to buildings.
wants to rule the world
I see Virtual Earth as an application that excels in a select few areas, but in general has much less to offer.
For example, it has nifty texture mapped buildings for a number of places, but what about the majority? Conversely, Google Earth covers a large part of Earth in quite good detail, but Virtual Earth not even my capital city. Additionally, GE has a large community behind it now, and the layer features provides an extensibility that could be compared to the extensions in Firefox.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
The hello world link didn't even function properly when I tried running it, and that is on the supported platform: IE 6 running on Windows XP.
It also looks like it uses an Active X control which, needless to say -- this isn't a real web app at all. Google could have embedded Earth into an Active X control and made a 'web app' better than this with existing code, and supported more than the Microsoft version which only has 15 U.S. cities.
I am not even going to bother trying it on a real OS/browser after I leave work.
...another tool to help the terrorists!
tried it on an 32 bit XP system (SP2), under IE6, I downloaded and installed the App/ActiveX control and set local.live.com to be a Trusted Site... and still IT NO GO
I suspect unless I boot into WinXP I won't have this on OS X native either?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
"Engineering level accuracy?" What kind of vague marketing speak crap is that? To the millimeter? To the cm? To the meter? (If I hired an engineer to do a building, I'd probably want accuracy to the inch. Does it do that?)
Can someone please put this in terms of "Libraries of Congress" or "Volkswagens" so I have some sense of perspective??? Help!
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
After going through a huge number of windows it turns on that it cannot be installed in a spanish XP. So we'll have to wait (as usual) to try it. I hate this things... :(
...how often Google Maps/Earth updates their satellite photos. When I zoom in on my place, I can see the house next door that was demolished 3+ years ago. The sad part: I like that house better than mine.
* * * * *
What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
--Dave Barry
From the amount of groaning for a Linux version, whats stopping the development of a plugin-interface that is the same across browsers? Publish an RFC or get ECMA certification then get everyone to use it to the point that only Microsoft is not. Then make Microsoft use it. Replace ActiveX, Java, and Media Player proprietary interfaces with a standard plugin-interface that works for everything - leveling the playfield. Make the render engine a plugin too.
Rehashing some ideas that are floating around out there but still, why can't it be done?
Shh.
... well at least not yet.
Minneapolis has all of two buildings in 3d. The interface is a little bit clunky and for some reason they feel the need to put in floating ads for Nissan.
It only works with IE 6 or 7.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
It seems to be working fine in FX 1.5. So either: 1) I'm on the wrong site or 2) It's only partially working in FX 1.5.
http://local.live.com/ yes?
This sounds awfully familiar. Almost as if I've heard of it before...
Just get the original blueprints from the Magratheans.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
From the blog, The SDK is here: http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/sdk/
It is not very responsive or quick to load compared to same environment with Google maps.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
...another tool to help the terrorists!
Actually it's just the opposite - they'll spend a few years going through Active X installations and the configuration screens and it will keep them out of our hair.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
The history is that IBM gravely under estimated the PC revolution and handed it over to Microsoft, so Microsoft doesn't want to get shafted like they did to IBM.
I think this is the best one-sentence summary of the thought process that seems to underlie Microsoft's business, consciously or not, all the time.
They're like the king who came to power by poisoning his predecessor, forever worrying whether they'll fall the same way.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
so they're copying google 100% except that their version won't work on my mac.
oh my god, it hurts to think of all the wasted energy in reproducing something badly.
IE 6 hangs with the plug-in on exit. Can't really see the "3D" features compared to Google earth buildings.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
Just gave it a try. IE only, active X install (versus AJAX that google uses; wait, didn't MS start all the XMLHTTP stuff themselves?), which were annoying, but in the end, the quality of the satellite views for Nova Scotia (where I live) are an order of magnitude poorer than Google Earth.
So, IE Only, Poor Canada support. I'll pass for now.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Is it just me, or does anyone else thing Google Maps really sucks as an application?
I mean, the concept is really cool, but the interface really kills it as being in any way useful.
Also, the way it actually displays makes it too fickle to be useful. For example, one time I was trying to use it to create a map which would than be printed out. But I had to fight the map settings, and then the way it handles the sites and comments was too unpredictable. I got the map printed out in a way that was close to what I wanted, but it took far longer than I wanted it too, and IMO it looked like garbage.
I like to give them a chance but this will be used as a toy then discarded. local.live.com and it's horrible 2 condition search criteria makes it unusable.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Microsoft following Apple?
I'm really impressed by 6 year old blurry black and white photos where Google gives me fairly recent photos at about 3X the resolution in color. I live in the cuts, but it's not that bad. Arcata, CA
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
IBM didn't get shafted, and MS didn't poison the King to become King. IBM did make a grave business error of not recognizing the direction of the market and collapsed. MS correctly predicted the future, and did well. MS doesn't want to make the same mistake IBM did, so it competes everywhere.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
Just did a quick check of some of the 3-D cities. No wonder flights get delayed in ATL. Check out the HUGE dips and drops in the runways at ATL!!! Looks like we are going to need ATV-Airplanes in order to make it through the ATL!!!
Compare microsoft's map with that of google, centred on the Brandenburg gate, and you see that Microsoft are lagging slightly behind google in resolution. As I remember, the google launch had full resolution on Berlin from the start.
This message was scanned by European governments and contains no terrorism.
I like this one too.
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
For a long time I have tried to tell Microsoft that I don't want to be a norwegian when I have to visit some of their pages. I like my system in English - but! "Virtual Earth 3D (Beta) currently does not support your region or language. Thanks for your patience. Regarding patience.. I was able to touch 9Kb/s download rate while trying to install/download the component needed for 3D. Microsoft downloads just takes sooo much time. Net-Installing Debian from a US server is done with 1,5Mbyte per second, haha!
By the way, I think I found a hidden feature! If you zoom in too close this fantastic service delivers a very cool image of a grey page filled with "camera forbidden" signs.
Wow. I was looking around Los Angeles, wanting to see what Santa Monica looked like when I came across this ad blatantly hanging in the air. Incredible. That's reason alone to stick with Google Earth.
On Google Earth I cannot zoom very far into "BN1 5FG, uk" but on Virtual Earth I can see that damn blue tarp that is still stuck on the utility room roof of my folk's house.
While having that level of detail is nice, I'm more interested in using it for directions.
Oh well. Guess I can't use it. Way to yet again screw people into buying XP or vista. /golfclap
Guns are for wimps... Use a crossbow.. this way you can pin them to their chair when you go postal.
I'm using firefox 2.0 here, it works just fine.
Virtual 3D (Beta) currently does not support your region or language. Thanks for your patience
Our server has detected that you IP is also associated with someone on the US terrorist "No Fly" list, and as such you are prohibited from reviewing aerial photography. We have also detected an unauthorized browser. We have also detected that you are not wearing pants. All this, combined with the fact that you live in a country where they speak a foreign language, means that you are not worthy to view this site. The authorities have been notified. Thank you for your patience.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Installed the tool, and except for downtown Boston, I can not see where I was in the map, street names shows for a second the nothing, and see where you are from looking at a building is hard. So I do not see something too fancy (try NASA)
Half the comments on this subject are all talking about the other local.live.com features which aren't the focus of this topic. This announcement is specifically about the 3D plugin as the parent says. Mod parent up and mod all those others off topic for not even comprehending the summary.
Is it me or are there a lot of articles recently on MS playing catch-up to already existing technology of late (Zune/iPod, Google Maps, etc)?
Gasp!
Doesn't work. Needs active-x but AX is enabled for live.com. It must be using a site other than live.com for this, address bar URL framed out.
Try clicking on the 3D view. The 3D view requires IE 6/7.
Why does Google feel theatened by certain markets? I don't understand why they feel they have to compete with everything, even "markets" where there is little or no money to be made. How much money could Google ever make from Google Office? Why does Google feel it has to compete in the games and music world when it is already making huge amounts of money selling software to 90 - 95% of the computer world?
It's just like their search engine. Did we really need another Yahoo?
Why hasn't this been integrated into Microsoft's Flight Sim yet? You don't need to install 15GB worth of data, and the maps are always updated. Better graphics too I might add.
Life is not for the lazy.
but as usual microsoft is just piggy backing on someone else's invention as if to say "look ... me too!" like a child immitating a dance step
the 3D model would be revolutionary in mapping, especially via a web browser ... but if you actually use the "application" you'll quickly see that it is not infact 3D
sure you don't have only an overhead view but I can get angled still-shots of downtown buildings from most city websites. now i can access still shots on Microsoft? ... that's not innovation or even a feature that adds to the application's utility in my opinion. it's just an advertising ploy to make people who aren't paying attention think that Microsoft actually did something new for once
way to go Microsoft marketing department ... pat yourselves on the back for another cleverly colored pile of crap produced by your programming department
-asleep
I looked it up in the dictionary but there wasn't a definition of just how accurate that is. I was told to achieve engineering-level accuracy, you really need to eyeball it, because that kind of accuracy is only a stone's throw away from being damn fine precision.
I'm sorry to say, but Google Earth loses to this product in just about any possible way. They didn't even bother to cover entire Europe with Google Earth - some parts of Europe are very low quality. That's like letting a huge number of users down. Google couldn't do it, Microsoft did it and covered the entire globe. This Microsoft product is way higher quality than Google Earth. I wonder if Microsoft's search engine will be this much better than Google too once it is released.
Let's see, it installed two activeX controls; and changed my IE preferences to point to live.com. And locked it so that I can't change it back, tools->options is greyed out.
Surfing the map hung my browser 3 times. Best of all there is no uninstall for those controls. Forced me to finally install firefox 2.0.
Thanks MS!
Your fault: Core Dumped
As soon as I installed it and selected the initial setting to use "Best Quality", I got BSOD on my ThinkPad T41!!!
I guess that most people praising Virtual Earth (VE from here on) did not try it on spots outside the U.S.A. (Disclaimer: I run Firefox on Linux,so I did not test the new 3D VE services. ) I tried comparing the 2d services: open both maps.google.com and virtual earth , set them to hybrid, and zoom into "Paris, France" for example; click here (google) and (VE). Google lets you zoom all way down, you can see people walking on streets (that picture of Hotel de Ville is gorgeous!); with VE, building are smeared out at a 1mile=2inch scale, and then you cannot zoom further. The same is true for "rome, italy". Instead , in Tokio, you can zoom to smallest detail in VE: but still, Google zooms about 4x more than VE (you judge by (google) and (VE)).
I'm surprised to see how good this product is. It is amazing to see they could beat GE (Google Earth). This state of the art application will mean Microsoft will keep on ruling the browser market and will kill Firefox and other competitors because they cleverly make these kind of applications IE compatible only.
Remember what happened to AltaVista? AltaVista was the ruler of search engines, but Google was able to beat it very, very fast. Same can happen when Microsoft releases their own search engine. They already beated GE, I believe they can beat Google search engine too. And when that game is won by Microsoft, it will mean that it basically owns the Internet. Some users will lose (Linux, Mac users..) because most of the Internet software released by Microsoft will not work on their computers.
"But what really f'ed me off is that it changed my home page to windows live!!!!"
Well, the way you put it, it actually sounded kind of fun.
To me, KML is the single most insightful feature Google Earth has.
I can share the KMLs with my friends, script programs that produce KMLs on the fly, backup my placemarks, post KMLs on forums, I can even display KML on Google Maps.
Until this Virtual Earth thing supports KML (and no, an alternative binary closed typical M$ format will NOT do), it's useless beyond 5 minutes of eye candy happiness.
This "opt-out" strategy is not unique to Microsoft. Our holier than thou Google does the same thing with their toolbar. Adobe does it with their reader software and !GASP! until recently Apple tried the same thing by making it rather difficult to find their Quicktime standalone installer void of iTunes. So to bash Microsoft alone on this is unfair. It annoys me too but I am shocked that any person reading Slashdot just blindly accepts program defaults when installing software.
I'll bite:
/. crew, bash it on grounds of something, but being IE only isn't the anti-killer feature here.
Why are people complaining about IE only? A) What did you expect, and B) Google's offering is a standalone app you need to install, and wasn't available for Linux for a long time. What's with the double standard here, partial browser compatability wins over a standalone installed app in my book. Maybe I'm just suprised at the reactions b/c I'm a Linux user and can't use most Google apps on release already, but this isn't really that suprising.
Come on
Just the other day I overheard some surveyors talking about how great these new technologies could be. Imagine being able to have a mobile electronic 3-d map of the site being surveyed. I think Microsoft is looking forward to a point where all these services are integrated and is treating this as a building block to that goal...a proof of concept if you will. Imagine construction for huge new office park or commercial center. The architects, surveyors, city officials, contructions dudes, etc. could all be updated to changes on the fly using a Windows Live "off the shelf" solution.
This may not be practical at this time and I'm not smart enough to think of the intricicies but to say Microsoft is wasting their time by investing in something that doesn't have a market right now is the type of thinking that hinders true innovation.
IBM would probably disagree with that assessment.
I'd personally argue that IBM agreed to let M$ shaft them, but consentual shafting is still shafting.
Is it me or did MS remove the non-IE Web browser support in http://local.live.com/ ? It used to work in my Mozilla v1.7.13 when the site was new. Now, I don't get the cool aerial 3D maps anymore unless I use IE6. Or did I miss it?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
As far as I am concerned they are all pretty cool. I started with Nasa Worldwind which uses the 10 meter elevation map in some area's giving superb landscape relief. Google Earth has better aerial imagery for the area I live while Virtual Earth does some cool stuff with better 3D buildings but again. In the area I live (New Zealand) the data is shocking and next to useless. I am awaiting the day that Google earth will put in the better 10 meter elevation data and then Google Earth rocks. I agree with an earlier comment about needing a better integration of the 3D warehouse with Google Earth. Google earth is also pretty solid. I run it across 3 XWGA screens resulting in a massive glove smoothly spinning around. Oh about spinning. I really missed that feature in the Microsoft product. In Google Earth you can give the map a push and it keeps moving. Also I don't like the fact that you need to use CTRL and Left mouse button to swing your view around. I prefer that action by the mouse only. Top marks for Google Earth (Great data) Second Nasa Worldwind (Great elevation data but hard to find) Third ....
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Eight place Virtual Earth 3D. But as a new product not a bad first try. Bloody slow though.
I think an important piece of information that is missing in the summary is that the aforementioned Google Earth Blog is not official. As far as I know there's no word yet from Google about Virtual Earth.
Yes the textured 3D buildings are nice, though Google does have a lot of these in its 3D Warehouse, it just needs some integration.
However, where Microsoft is lacking is the rest.
All the text, road markers, etc.. are rasterized on the images and are not overlaid as vector graphics. Therefore if the detail level of the imagery isn't great, or you are looking at something partially in the distance (so the level of detail is reduced), you cannot read any of the text.
I think in this case, Google is leaps and bounds ahead of Microsoft.
Of course, all of the imagery is just Virtual Earth 2D rendered on a globe, so I'm sure Microsoft will improve the 3D part of this, since I'm sure using the 2D imagery was a very fast way to get some beta out the door that shows off the 3D buildings.
IBM did make a grave business error of not recognizing the direction of the market and collapsed. MS correctly predicted the future, and did well. MS doesn't want to make the same mistake IBM did, so it competes everywhere.
OK, there's one more way to say it. Who knows it?
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
Real geeks use Fry's.
Uber-geeks use HPC.
This may not sound like a shortcoming but it annoys me that when I type something into the maps search box and press enter the form doesn't submit, I have to click on the button manually. It's a really small thing but annoying nonetheless.
Internet Explorer - Security Warning The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software? Name: VirtualEarth3D.msi Publisher: Unknown Publisher [Run] [Don't Run] Boomer... They don't recognize their own applications...
So Microsoft have released yet another buggy, security hole ridden pile of garbage to put allow IE to put even more malware and key loggers on your computer than it already does.
And it has a HUGE 15 USA cities
Hmmm, whoopdy frigging do.
Shame I use Linux and Firefox and live elsewhere.
Oh well, wake me up when someone who gives a flying monkeys left nut about security.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.