LiveSide - News blog : Live Maps 3D

Virtual Earth, Live Maps update: Lots of new features, new SDKs, more

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:41:35 GMT

Virtual Earth 6.2, a big new update to Live Maps, and new access to a 3DVia content library where you can download, mash-up, and include 3D content on your 3D maps collections just went live. Lots to tell you about, and we’ll be going into more depth on Virtual Earth soon, but here’s some highlights. Thanks to Virtual Earth Evangelist Chris Pendleton for keeping us in the loop on this one.

We’ll hit the high points, but for more, check out Chris’s 3 blog posts:

New Feature Release of Live Search Maps!

New Version of Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and 3DVia

Announcing the Virtual Earth Web Service and Virtual Earth Map Control 6.2

and for a good point by point feature list of what’s new in Virtual Earth 6.2, Mark Brown posted too:

Announcing: Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0

Live Search Maps

Lots of new stuff in Live Search Maps, including:

Communities: Collections are indexed and available for search “seconds” after they are loaded. In addition, Collections data is used where no Business listings are available for business searches

Local search: Improvements include filters refine searches based on what you are searching for (hotels, for example)

Details page: Moved from a tabbed model to inline, allowing for much more content:

Multi-Point directions: Enables you to generate a single set of directions for reaching multiple destinations

Landmark hints: Hints will show up in driving directions in North America, telling you to “turn at the Taco Bell”

Weather: in 3D real time weather, based on 14 cloud types, updated every 3 hours, will be available

Virtual Earth 3D and 3DVia

Go to Live Search Maps and click on 3D, and you’ll be prompted to update to a new version. At the same time, you can update the 3DVia bits (from Chris’s blog):

As for Dassault, well, they've just opened up their 3D model inventory hosted in 3DVia.com's 3D online content library as a part of a program called "remix" which is effectively a 3D mashup creator with Virtual Earth. You now have access to thousands of models hosted on 3DVia.com that can be "remixed" in 3DVia and hosted on Live Search Maps for rendering in your Virtual Earth application. Whoa. Additionally, they've updated the UI and navigation to be more user friendly (thank you!) and released video tutorials illustrating among other things how to build a house in less than 5 minutes.

Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0

We’ll be going into more depth on Virtual Earth here on LiveSide soon, but both the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK and the Virtual Earth AJAX Control SDK on MSDN have been significantly updated. Check the posts from Chris and Mark for more, and check out their webcasts (from both Chris and Mark), coming up later in the week.

TrueSpace 7.6 announced – amazing models, uploaded to Live Maps Collections or Virtual Earth

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:12:50 GMT

Chris Pendleton has a long post today about TrueSpace 7.6, and on his blog and also on the TrueSpace website there are some truly amazing renderings. Check out some of the animations, along with the video on Chris’s blog.

Using Live Maps Collections, or VE Map Controls, images such as these can now be rendered in TrueSpace, and added to Live Maps or Virtual Earth. We wrote earlier this month about 3D and how it might play out for Microsoft. The release of TrueSpace 7.6 would seem to be one more step in the direction of an immersive 3D environment coming from Microsoft.

Live Search Maps with Steve Lombardi

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:06:14 GMT

In this installment of our discussion with Steve Lombardi from Live Search Maps, Steve talks a little about street labels in Bird’s Eye Imagery, and shows us around Tours in 3D, how to add them to your collections, and how to create a movie from a 3D Tour, recording it in High Definition.

Live Maps with Steve Lombardi Birds Eye Labels and 3D Tours - MSN Video

Live Maps with Steve Lombardi: Part 1 – Explore Collections and Mapcruncher

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:41:00 GMT

The newest release of Live Maps last week introduced some pretty cool new features, and we thought it would be fun to have Steve Lombardi, a Program Manager for Live Maps, take us on a little tour. In this first part, Steve explains two new additions, Explore Collections and MapCruncher.

Just a note on the video: I’ve been thinking about making a move from audio interviews to video, and found a little camera I really like, the Sanyo Xacti CG6. It is very small, almost as small as my phone, very easy to use, and didn’t cost much at all. For these interviews (my first ones) I just set up a little tripod and pointed it at the laptop screen, so it’s more like a screencast. Not much sophisticated videography here, yet. I also wanted to try using Windows Movie Maker (in anticipation of Windows Live Movie Maker, mentions of which are floating around on the interwebs, if you know where to look, and of course we do) and MSN Soapbox, so I built a simple title screen and added a couple of transitions, which was easy and straightforward. After a few fits and starts involving codecs (the Sanyo shoots in .mp4), and a lot of processing time, we have our first LiveSide video. Soapbox only allows 100mb files, and so I compressed this one down (a bit too much). The picture quality is quite good in the original, but I think you get the idea of what Steve is talking about, and we’ll get the processing down once I get the hang of it.

So it’s a bit rough around the edges, but I’m excited to be able to add video capabilities to our LiveSide interviews, and we’ll learn as we go.

Live Maps Part One of Three - MSN Video

Some links:

Steve’s MapCruncher collection

The Live Maps / Virtual Earth blog

Download MapCruncher

In part 2, we’ll take a look at some new 3D features, including how to make high definition movies with Live Maps 3D. I can’t tell you what Part 3 is yet, but I can tell you it’s very cool :)

New Live Search Maps is Live

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:47:34 GMT

Just checked on maps.live.com and noticed a bunch of new features, and checked with the Virtual Earth / Live Maps blog and sure enough the new release is now live.

Denver in 3D (you really have to try it out, much improved!)

Man there's a lot of stuff here. Just taking the high points from Steve Lombardi's blog post:

Lots of back end improvements (seems much snappier, right off the bat)
Safari and IE8 compatibility
Map Control update to version 6.1 (for developers
Export your Collection to your Nav/GPS device (nice!)
Improved "version 2" cities (Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix to start, lots more to come)
3D modeling with 3DVIA (much improved)
Labels for Bird's Eye imagery
1-Click Directions improvments
MapCruncher integration (this is very cool, add layers of information from within Live Maps)
"GeoWeb" tagging and collections enhancements
Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS
Tour Enhancements including Hi-Def Movies
Directions and Traffic Enhancements
Improved KML display including Google MyMaps links

So much stuff it's going to take a lot more than one post to tell you about. Check out Live Maps, and the Virtual Earth / Live Maps blog and let us know what you think in the comments.

Microsoft buys Caligari for Virtual Earth 3D expansion

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:27:38 GMT

Microsoft continues to invest in Virtual Earth, especially in the area of 3D, announcing yesterday it has acquired Caligari, makers of trueSpace, a 3D modeling program. Last December, Microsoft also acquired MultiMap, a London based mapping service, and in October announced a partnership with Dessault Systems to provide 3DVia for Virtual Earth 3D. Steve Lombardi has more on the Caligari announcement on the Virtual Earth / Live Maps blog, and Caligari CEO Roman Ormandy makes the announcement on the trueSpace Community Forums.

"10 Reasons to Love the New Live Search Maps" says Steve

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:37:00 GMT

Live Search Maps Program Manager Steve Lombardi posted yesterday on 10 cool new features of the new "Gemini" release - we've covered some of them here at LiveSide in varying degrees, but there are at least a couple of new ones worth noting.

From KML support, to a new category of "you're not going anywhere" (black) on the traffic map, to disappearing buildings and force feedback with the Xbox controller, the post points out a lot of new stuff under the hood with the new release. Check it out.

Virtual Earth 3D Tours: starting to get the hang of it

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:06:00 GMT

We got our first glimpse of Virtual Earth 3D Tours at Searchification, but it wasn't much more that a glimpse, and when it went public we were scrambling a bit to get it figured out and get a post up all at the same time. Well since then we've checked out a few collections that seemed to do more than the one we quickly put together, and when Laura Foy over at Channel 10 posted a video featuring Steve Lombardi things started to make a little more sense.

Click on the picture to watch Laura's report on VE 3D on Ch 10

So this time I went back and edited the little collection I threw together, touring some Microsoft landmarks, cleaned up the views a bit and captured the whole thing in a .wmv file, which I uploaded to MSN Soapbox.

Some notes on the whole process:

Definitely some quirks in the system. I kept getting duplicates of collection items, still not sure how, but they were easy enough to delete.
Would have been fun to start with a "world view" and zoom in to Redmond. That may be possible by capturing an initial pushpin, but it seems like it should be an option. Obviously a lot more playing around to do (and if you've been playing with Virtual Earth 3D, leave comments on what you've learned!).
I wasn't very successful capturing a Bird's Eye view at a distance I wanted in the collection. Bird's Eye captures reverted to a high-level view.
I was able to move across the Red West campus by placing more than one pushpin, but I could see an immediate desire to follow a set of driving directions, which doesn't seem to be supported as of yet.
The video recording process is a bit slow, but you are warned about it, and offered a chance to cancel.
Capturing the tour in video gives a much more complete rendering of the scenes, at least on my system. If you look carefully at the end during the "Red West spin" sequence, you'll be able to see the top of Mt. Rainier in the distance, as well as quite a bit more detail in general.
And for any Microsoft purists out there, my naming techniques on the buildings were quick and dirty. The titles show up on the video but not on the collection when viewed in Virtual Earth 3D (but in VE 3D you get the details with extra picture etc that you don't see in the movie)

Here's the link to the collection: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=629D3050E0813A28!562&encType=1

And here's the video I uploaded to Soapbox. Came in at 2 minutes and 34 seconds, at 13.5mb for the .wmv:

(note: I haven't had a lot of success accessing the video from Soapbox as I was posting this, here's hoping it shows up for you ;) )

Video: LiveSide Tour of Microsoft from Virtual Earth 3D

All in all it is an impressive set of tools. Next I need to learn more about 3DVia, and continue to build my secret entrance into Red West (which Sarah used as her screenshot over on on10, which I thought was kind of funny ;).

Microsoft and Dassault Systemes announce 3DVia - again

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:09:00 GMT

In a press release dated October 18, Microsoft and Dassault Systemes formally announced the launch of 3DVia:

REDMOND, Wash., and PARIS — Oct. 18, 2007 — Dassault Systèmes (DS), a world leader in 3-D and product life-cycle management (PLM) solutions, and Microsoft Corp. today launched Microsoft^® Virtual Earth™ -3DVIA (Technology Preview). This free online application, developed by Dassault Systèmes, allows consumers to imagine and create realistic 3-D models — such as of buildings and structures — then share them through Microsoft Virtual Earth and online communities.

The new, free, online application actually has been live since Tuesday the 16th, where it was also referred to in the press release announcing the final updates to the fall Live Search release, for Live Search Maps:

Innovative visualization and 3-D. Coverage of bird’s-eye and 3-D imagery has been increased to cover 80 percent of the U.S. population. In addition, nearly 200 complete cities are available in 3-D, and customers can now combine views of 3-D imagery with Live Search’s unique 45-degree bird’s-eye images, giving a complete and detailed geolocation experience. In addition, people who use Live Search Maps can create and share their own 3-D models of buildings through an alliance with Dassault Systemes.

Anyway, you can get to 3DVia (after first installing Virtual Earth 3D beta, by clicking on 3D on the Live Maps, and then Add a 3D Model from the Collections tab:

From there you install the app, and then you're on your own. I've been playing a bit with 3DVia, but although the interface is pretty easy to get around, it takes both patience and practice, neither of which I have time for right now. Ultimately the idea is to create 3D models by placing them in Virtual Earth 3D, saving them, and then sharing them as collections. Pretty neat, with a lot of potential.

Live Maps with Virtual Earth 3D - what fun!

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:26:00 GMT

Lots of goodness with the new 3D features of Live Maps - one thing to see it on a big screen at Searchification but a whole 'nother world to be able to play with it in real time.

Unlike some of the "rollouts" we've seen from Windows Live, this Live Search Maps upgrade appeared (from what we can tell) on time, feature complete, underpromising and overdelivering. Nice job!

One of the new features we were shown, an ability to create a tour (with Live Maps 3D moving from collection point to collection point) and then share it, while it does lack in the ability to really control the experience, is a very nice first attempt. For a somewhat dizzying experience, you can load up the LiveSide Stickers Around the World! collection:

http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=629D3050E0813A28%21229&e1ncType=

..and click on "Tour in 3D".

Since that tour is a bit long and winding, I created another quick collection, this time featuring some Microsoft points of interest.

http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=629D3050E0813A28!562&encType=1

After you're done playing with the Tour, the Bird's Eye incorporation into 3D is much cooler than can be shown in a still picture - this is very well done:

Even the "road view" 3D buildings have been rendered much better, a big improvement over the earlier version:

And while I did get 3DVia installed (it does take some hefty video specs), I haven't had time to play with it much, so we'll save that for another post:

(you can try it yourself by clicking on "Collections" in the upper right hand corner of Live Maps when you're in 3D, and then "Add a 3D Model" - it will take you through the installation experience. This is not a Microsoft product, and the interface is completely different than a usual Windows app, so it takes a bit of getting used to.)

Microsoft announces Live Call 411, Live Maps 3D improvements, more

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:20:00 GMT

In a press release issued today, Microsoft announced the "final updates to the fall release of its Live Search service" (most of which was at least mentioned at Searchification). The new stuff, condensed from the press release:

Maps and directions:

dynamic re-routing based on real time traffic info
one click directions (no starting point needed)
in line hints based on local landmarks
3D imagery combined with Bird's Eye imagery
Announcing 3DVia, in a licensing agreement with Dassault Systemes, a new set of tools to allow users to create and share 3D models of buildings built on top of Live Maps 3D

broad access to user-generated content from Live Search and from across the entire web, through searchable user-created collections and KML support.
Updates in version 6.0 of Virtual Earth include

multipoint trip routing
enhanced geocoding combining results for multiple geocoders
rooftop geocoding resulting in more precise geocoding results
map control support for Safari 2.0
and the release of MapCruncher Beta making it easier to publish maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control

Mobile

Live Search for Windows Mobile with Voice Input. The updated Live Search for Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 will be available for download for free on Tuesday and now includes voice input (beta), gas prices, and hours of operation for businesses. The service can also utilize global positioning system (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones to provide location-aware local search for customers.

Live Search 411: Jointly developed with Tellme, acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, a new toll-free number will be available for anyone using any kind of phone to access the power of Live Search. Simply dial 1-800-CALL-411 and say the city and state, then ask for the business or business category to hear a list of options. Say “Connect Me,” to instantly connect to the business, or if using a cell phone, ask for a text message, and a link to a map of the business will be sent to your phone.

Live Search for BlackBerry. Live Search for BlackBerry is in beta and will be available for download for free on Tuesday. It is a new offering designed for the unique hardware and interaction of BlackBerry OS 4.0.2 or later phones, and customers with GPS-enabled phones can use location awareness to enhance their searches

We'll have more on the new features as they come online.

Live Maps to incorporate Birds Eye view into 3D maps

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:08:00 GMT

We've mentioned the incorporation of Birds Eye view into Live Maps 3D before, but it's a little hard to describe without actually seeing it. Looks live someone posted a video to YouTube though, that shows off the new technology. Funny that YouTube user name just rings a bell somehow ;).

YouTube video on Live Maps 3D from Searchification

The area inside the boxes switch from being a 3D model representation of the view to an actual Birds Eye view photograph (more on why the boxes are necessary on the VE/Live Maps blog). The Virtual Earth/Live Maps blog has some more on what's coming up:

The bits are finally aligned and in the hands of our ops team for deployment this week. I'll have full coverage here as soon as the release is publicly accessible, so check back in a few days for that. (...)

In 3D, the same challenges remain, but are easier to address with client side managed code. the result is a user interface that borrows concepts from MSR's Photosysnth to allow you to navigate more fluidly and naturally than what is possible with a javascript based client. its totally sick.

This new set of features (and an ability to save "flyovers" as a collection isn't shown here, among other things), along with the new 3D capabilities of the Virtual Earth SDK, should set up a major advancement for Virtual Earth and Live Maps 3D.

Thanks to Quikboy for the tip! Saved us a few seconds of catching up on our RSS feeds :)