11 ms·

Blender GIS

240 points by ryannevius 7y ago

froindt 7y ago
This looks great! I've been looking at tools to do viewshed analysis. Already being familiar with Blender, this is just the type of project I was looking for. I'm interested in some what's visible through the horizon. I wonder, does the 3d model import take into account the curvature of the earth, or is a projection onto the plane they start with?
- yodon 7y ago
  The raw data is in lat/long and elevation. You use a tool like QGIS to project the raw data into xyz data [0]. QGIS and the projection model determine the coordinates of the data that get rendered. Blender just renders the xyz data. [0] See for example the FAQ for the blender project https://github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/wiki/FAQ https://github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/wiki/FAQ
jcagalawan 7y ago
I wanna shout out David Garcia[1] for doing great stuff with Blender in the GIS space. This seems like a really cool project and I hope it makes that sort of work easier. [1] https://mapmakerdavid.com https://mapmakerdavid.com
Waterluvian 7y ago
As early as 10th grade I remember asking my GIS teacher, "why is ArcGIS so sluggish and aliased but in my 3d animation class the viewports are antialiased and smooth like butter?" (I didn't use these words but they're what I meant to say) I've been a bit obsessed with interdisciplinary mashups ever since. Robotics, for example, badly badly needs to stop writing their own tools and use a ton more of what already exists in GIS. And the disciplines of geography need to do the same with the amazing vector and raster tools out there as well. It's really awesome seeing Blender used as a GIS view.
- goblin89 7y ago
  An interdisciplinary mashup I’m curious about is using videogame engines (e.g. Unreal) for quality real-time 3D rendering responding to e.g. audio signal (music) or motion, and creating cool art installations / live performances based on that.
  - krilly 7y ago
    I recently saw this mock up of a DE done in Unity[0]. Maybe not the best use case but interesting nonetheless. I've long dreamt of putting together an intuitive CAD tool equivalent to SketchUp in Unity.i think it's probably doable. [0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/ey5eta/i_made_an_operating_system_ui_within_unity/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/ey5eta/i_made_an_o...
  - minxomat 7y ago
    On a smaller scale, this is def. a thing that's coming. Take the OP-Z for example, which has a dedicated Unity engine track (in addition to sample, synth, MIDI, FX, performance and even DMX). Realtime ray tracing (see e.g. NVIDIA iRay) is being patched into many realtime 3D systems at the moment, and I suspect will become more popular for projection mapping art installations this year.
  - microcolonel 7y ago
    Eevee is quite interesting. The performance isn't quite there yet when compared with Unreal, but it is built directly into Blender.
  - drewwwwww 7y ago
    check out the work of keijiro takahashi: https://www.keijiro.tokyo/ https://www.keijiro.tokyo/
  - sorenjan 7y ago
    Notch is used for art installations and live performances (Rammstein, Billie Eilish, etc) as stage shows rendered in real time. It started as a tool to make graphics demos, so pretty close to a video game engine. https://www.notch.one/ https://www.notch.one/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEoAJw_0Zc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEoAJw_0Zc
derefr 7y ago
Seeing the height-map retrieval makes me wonder: are there any (non-AR) games that have a game world that's not just based on the real world, but rather an import of real-world GIS data?
- petee 7y ago
  VBS3 by Bohemia Simulations can import and I believe even live load continual terrain due to mixing real-world data with approximations of trees and whatnot from satellite images...but it's not for the public, military only. The civilian branch of the company is BI who make Arma 3; that supports real-world terrain imports via mods
- splatcollision 7y ago
  Came here looking for gaming applications of this. Blender is in my game dev workflow already for terrain generation!
- CrazyStat 7y ago
  Flight sims, typically.
  - Intermernet 7y ago
    Especially the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator.
- sorenjan 7y ago
  Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will have the entire planet available using data from Bing maps. https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20885197/microsoft-flight-simulator-bing-maps-hands-on-demo https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20885197/microsoft-flight-...
- markedathome 7y ago
  Ubisoft/Massive Entertainment's "Tom Clancy's The Division" (New York - Brooklyn and Manhattan), and "Tom Clancy's The Division 2" Washington DC both have extensive GIS imported locations, cleaned up with LIDAR and post-processing for trees/vehicles. I know there is a video about Division 2's use of GIS as I remember seeing it, but can't find it at the moment. I think it might be a game developers conf video. https://wtop.com/entertainment/2019/03/washington-wasteland-how-one-of-the-years-biggest-video-games-recreated-and-destroyed-dc/ https://wtop.com/entertainment/2019/03/washington-wasteland-...
hanoz 7y ago
Looks good. I made this site I sent to Show HN last week[1] which lets you see a 1km square at 1m resolution at any point in the UK's public lidar data, using three.js. Someone did ask about an export feature. What format would the export have to be to be imported into this? [1] https://houseprices.io/lab/3d-lidar https://houseprices.io/lab/3d-lidar
- zimpenfish 7y ago
  Nice tool - certainly a lot easier than fiddling with QGIS. (Bizarrely, my parents' house is missing from the 2D LIDAR but appears in the 3D rendering. How's that work?)
  - hanoz 7y ago
    Thanks. The 3D view is generated from using the latest raw data but the 2D map tiles are all pre-rendered en masse, so this spot must have been added to the data since the tiles were lasted generated, which admittedly has been a while - it's a long job.
- hanoz 7y ago
  Okay, I've added an export function now so you can download in .asc format, which can then be imported to Blender GIS.
pen2l 7y ago
Tangentially related question: I really dig the buildings that have been converted to 3dview on google maps. No other really comes close. I'm 3dprinting a mini-city for someone, and want to get that data. Is there a good way for me to get that data somehow?
- philshem 7y ago
  You can try https://osmbuildings.org/documentation/viewer/ https://osmbuildings.org/documentation/viewer/ Or perhaps directly from the city
- yodon 7y ago
  See for example https://blog.exppad.com/article/importing-actual-3d-models-from-google-maps https://blog.exppad.com/article/importing-actual-3d-models-f...
xet7 7y ago
I did find from YouTube this Blender GIS howto video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtKnmRXVlo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtKnmRXVlo
vmchale 7y ago
Wonderful project! I'll have to get more into the Python ecosystem for GIS.
roel_v 7y ago
Similarly, I've been hoping for a few people to pick up 'BlenderCAD' to add accurate sizing/positioning and dimensions to Blender. For this sort of thing, Sketchup is still (a lot) better.
aikah 7y ago
Nice. In retrospect, Blender choosing Python for its UI script in and API was really a smart bet, especially given its adoption in the scientific community. This kind of "mash up" is really great.

240 points by ryannevius 7y ago

This looks great! I've been looking at tools to do viewshed analysis. Already being familiar with Blender, this is just the type of project I was looking for. I'm interested in some what's visible through the horizon. I wonder, does the 3d model import take into account the curvature of the earth, or is a projection onto the plane they start with?

yodon 7y ago
The raw data is in lat/long and elevation. You use a tool like QGIS to project the raw data into xyz data [0]. QGIS and the projection model determine the coordinates of the data that get rendered. Blender just renders the xyz data. [0] See for example the FAQ for the blender project https://github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/wiki/FAQ https://github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/wiki/FAQ

jcagalawan 7y ago

I wanna shout out David Garcia[1] for doing great stuff with Blender in the GIS space. This seems like a really cool project and I hope it makes that sort of work easier. [1] https://mapmakerdavid.com https://mapmakerdavid.com

Waterluvian 7y ago

As early as 10th grade I remember asking my GIS teacher, "why is ArcGIS so sluggish and aliased but in my 3d animation class the viewports are antialiased and smooth like butter?" (I didn't use these words but they're what I meant to say) I've been a bit obsessed with interdisciplinary mashups ever since. Robotics, for example, badly badly needs to stop writing their own tools and use a ton more of what already exists in GIS. And the disciplines of geography need to do the same with the amazing vector and raster tools out there as well. It's really awesome seeing Blender used as a GIS view.

goblin89 7y ago
An interdisciplinary mashup I’m curious about is using videogame engines (e.g. Unreal) for quality real-time 3D rendering responding to e.g. audio signal (music) or motion, and creating cool art installations / live performances based on that.
- krilly 7y ago
  I recently saw this mock up of a DE done in Unity[0]. Maybe not the best use case but interesting nonetheless. I've long dreamt of putting together an intuitive CAD tool equivalent to SketchUp in Unity.i think it's probably doable. [0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/ey5eta/i_made_an_operating_system_ui_within_unity/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/ey5eta/i_made_an_o...
- minxomat 7y ago
  On a smaller scale, this is def. a thing that's coming. Take the OP-Z for example, which has a dedicated Unity engine track (in addition to sample, synth, MIDI, FX, performance and even DMX). Realtime ray tracing (see e.g. NVIDIA iRay) is being patched into many realtime 3D systems at the moment, and I suspect will become more popular for projection mapping art installations this year.
- microcolonel 7y ago
  Eevee is quite interesting. The performance isn't quite there yet when compared with Unreal, but it is built directly into Blender.
- drewwwwww 7y ago
  check out the work of keijiro takahashi: https://www.keijiro.tokyo/ https://www.keijiro.tokyo/
- sorenjan 7y ago
  Notch is used for art installations and live performances (Rammstein, Billie Eilish, etc) as stage shows rendered in real time. It started as a tool to make graphics demos, so pretty close to a video game engine. https://www.notch.one/ https://www.notch.one/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEoAJw_0Zc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEoAJw_0Zc

derefr 7y ago

Seeing the height-map retrieval makes me wonder: are there any (non-AR) games that have a game world that's not just based on the real world, but rather an import of real-world GIS data?

petee 7y ago
VBS3 by Bohemia Simulations can import and I believe even live load continual terrain due to mixing real-world data with approximations of trees and whatnot from satellite images...but it's not for the public, military only. The civilian branch of the company is BI who make Arma 3; that supports real-world terrain imports via mods
splatcollision 7y ago
Came here looking for gaming applications of this. Blender is in my game dev workflow already for terrain generation!
CrazyStat 7y ago
Flight sims, typically.
- Intermernet 7y ago
  Especially the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator.
sorenjan 7y ago
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will have the entire planet available using data from Bing maps. https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20885197/microsoft-flight-simulator-bing-maps-hands-on-demo https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20885197/microsoft-flight-...
markedathome 7y ago
Ubisoft/Massive Entertainment's "Tom Clancy's The Division" (New York - Brooklyn and Manhattan), and "Tom Clancy's The Division 2" Washington DC both have extensive GIS imported locations, cleaned up with LIDAR and post-processing for trees/vehicles. I know there is a video about Division 2's use of GIS as I remember seeing it, but can't find it at the moment. I think it might be a game developers conf video. https://wtop.com/entertainment/2019/03/washington-wasteland-how-one-of-the-years-biggest-video-games-recreated-and-destroyed-dc/ https://wtop.com/entertainment/2019/03/washington-wasteland-...

hanoz 7y ago

Looks good. I made this site I sent to Show HN last week[1] which lets you see a 1km square at 1m resolution at any point in the UK's public lidar data, using three.js. Someone did ask about an export feature. What format would the export have to be to be imported into this? [1] https://houseprices.io/lab/3d-lidar https://houseprices.io/lab/3d-lidar

zimpenfish 7y ago
Nice tool - certainly a lot easier than fiddling with QGIS. (Bizarrely, my parents' house is missing from the 2D LIDAR but appears in the 3D rendering. How's that work?)
- hanoz 7y ago
  Thanks. The 3D view is generated from using the latest raw data but the 2D map tiles are all pre-rendered en masse, so this spot must have been added to the data since the tiles were lasted generated, which admittedly has been a while - it's a long job.
hanoz 7y ago
Okay, I've added an export function now so you can download in .asc format, which can then be imported to Blender GIS.

pen2l 7y ago

Tangentially related question: I really dig the buildings that have been converted to 3dview on google maps. No other really comes close. I'm 3dprinting a mini-city for someone, and want to get that data. Is there a good way for me to get that data somehow?

philshem 7y ago
You can try https://osmbuildings.org/documentation/viewer/ https://osmbuildings.org/documentation/viewer/ Or perhaps directly from the city
yodon 7y ago
See for example https://blog.exppad.com/article/importing-actual-3d-models-from-google-maps https://blog.exppad.com/article/importing-actual-3d-models-f...

xet7 7y ago

I did find from YouTube this Blender GIS howto video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtKnmRXVlo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtKnmRXVlo

vmchale 7y ago

Wonderful project! I'll have to get more into the Python ecosystem for GIS.

roel_v 7y ago

Similarly, I've been hoping for a few people to pick up 'BlenderCAD' to add accurate sizing/positioning and dimensions to Blender. For this sort of thing, Sketchup is still (a lot) better.

aikah 7y ago

Nice. In retrospect, Blender choosing Python for its UI script in and API was really a smart bet, especially given its adoption in the scientific community. This kind of "mash up" is really great.