Google Earth Manchester - Renders, Photos and News Updates

Gavin · January 8th, 2007, 02:04 PM

http://www.lolagrove.com/GenerateLea...o.uk/c/landing

URBIS: On the map.INTERNET giant Google has updated its map of Manchester - but only slightly.

The US-based company's creation, Google Earth, uses satellite photographs to create pictorial maps, which users can zoom in on to find landmarks - and even their own home.

But as reported by the M.E.N. in November, the image of the city was severely out of date.

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Satellite images of London are up-to-the-minute, showing the new Wembley stadium and the futuristic `Gherkin' tower, but Manchester is shown before its recent £1bn transformation.

The Urbis Centre and the City of Manchester Stadium are still muddy building sites and the new Hilton hotel in Deansgate is yet to transform the city's skyline.

But now hovering over the Urbis Centre, the City of Manchester Stadium and other new landmarks, are `i' for information icons, which direct the user to pictures of the buildings.

'World city'

Coun Pat Karney said: "It's a start, but in the 21st century, they should really be able to do a proper job.

"Manchester is a world city and people around the world are entitled to see it as it is."

A Google spokeswoman said they had not bowed to pressure from the city to update the site.

"It's nothing more sinister than us looking at places around the world and constantly updating them," she said.

"We listen to feedback and do research ourselves."

The images on the site are nearly six years old, but the spokeswoman added: "We try to update the imagery so it is not more than 18 months old.

"The more pictures people give us, the quicker we can update - so as soon as we get enough new pictures of Manchester, we'll do an update."

spacepostman · January 8th, 2007, 06:16 PM

Yes that's a great idea google, as we've all got a plane with a camera attatched to the bottom! I'll start updating those outdated aerial shots of Manchester for them tonight *sighs*

***b4mmy*** · January 8th, 2007, 07:44 PM

...should be able to get some decent shots of Castlefield though, eh? Ian?

Dothog · January 10th, 2007, 07:45 PM

Go to Vernon Street in Harpurhey and you can actually see some houses being demolished.

MarkO · January 12th, 2008, 07:50 PM

Anyone know why there are so few 3D buildings in Manchester on Google Earth?

Can only see CIS and City Towers (plus a couple of low risers). Shame there's no Beetham/Arndale/Salford Quays etc - is it that hard to design these?

Anyone know of a downloadable program for making 3D's 4 GE? Or have there been loads made but they are in the pipeline for approval (much like many other things in Manch?)!

Manchester has been well trumped (To use a good "Comdot" word) by Brum - there's at least a dozen towers shown in 3D there!

Any thoughts?

future.architect · January 12th, 2008, 08:23 PM

i made a very accurate model of beetham on sketchup but couldnt work out how to upload it

Comdot · January 12th, 2008, 08:37 PM

there were some/ one of beetham. was pretty bad. don't think it exists now. if you go to the google earth homepage thing you can find instructions and software to make buildings. i think the software is called sketchup or something.

MarkO · January 14th, 2008, 02:20 PM

Cheers peeps - I'm not much of an illustrator, but strikes me Manchester is now lagging badly behind cities all over the UK on Google Earth. Damn shame really. If there are any "sketchup" experts out there; please help future.architect upload his/her Beetham Tower and please do add more Manch buildings - it's looking a bit embarrassing on there!

future.architect · January 14th, 2008, 05:07 PM

ok, ive dusted this off:

just waiting for the confirmation email to come back so i can upload it

EDIT
ok, seems to be in the 3d warehouse now, author is 6734

future.architect · January 14th, 2008, 06:07 PM

ok, i want to do a couple more now.

does anyone have any acurate drawings to scale or with dimensions of the civil justice centre?

Comdot · January 14th, 2008, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by future.architect

ok, i want to do a couple more now.

does anyone have any acurate drawings to scale or with dimensions of the civil justice centre?

i've never seen any and i did a bit of research into it on the net a while ago. i'm sure you could get something from the council, albeit not on the internet as i don't think they put plans or drawings on the net back then, just a basic listing. the developer or architect might be happy to send you some plans if you tell them what you're doing. i'm mean tons of people will see it on there.

it MIGHT just be new enough to have the docs online at the planning portal. use the map it has to find the site then click on it and the listing should come up, and hopefully the listing has documents in it. i'd love to see them!

Comdot · January 14th, 2008, 08:11 PM

if you do want to contact the companies involved then the main ones are listed here, i updated it about a month ago when i did my research http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=149

Comdot · January 14th, 2008, 08:14 PM

how cool is this? largest glass wall in europe. i can't wait til summer when the light is good to get better photos.

Comdot · January 14th, 2008, 10:34 PM

hehe look what i just came accross

MarkO · January 15th, 2008, 03:11 AM

Blimey thats amazing Comdot - where is it?

Well done 2 future.architect - nice render. Hasn't come up on my GE yet (do I need to re-install, or update?) but it looks great on that screenshot.

:-)

Comdot · January 15th, 2008, 10:36 AM

that's the new civil justice centre just off deansgate

all the info on it is here http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=149

definitely worth a stare at for a few mins if you are in manchester.

i don't know who did that render of that building on whitworth street west. if you hover over that street in google earth it should come up.

here's another pic of cjc

Comdot · January 16th, 2008, 05:50 PM

i just noticed, some has posted a really good model of beetham tower. go take a look! just hover over where it is and turn on 3d buildings. or find it on the google earth website and download it. they've even made the fin translucent, and texture mapped the whole thing with photos.

just noticed sacred trinity church as well, on chapel street.

Toadstone · January 28th, 2008, 11:15 AM

3D fans might like to take note of this technology below using video.

Many years ago I used to use and still do sometimes when I get time a program called Canoma. Essentially you pull a photographic image onto a drawing board and then align and glue various geometrical shapes from the image, buildings and the like. You then render the produced wire frame model with the image. Hey presto you have a 3D model. Some people must have spent hours creating the most complicated models. Canoma was bought out by Adobe I think it was and the stand alone technology was binned. But I think some of its features have been added to some of Adobe's current software.
A friend of mine produced a very good description of the process here.
http://www.gentles.info/KAP/3D/index.htm if you're interested.

Fast forward to today and here you will see the video version of it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vda2RAEuW_g

The program is called Video Trace and by all accounts it uses the same method of producing a model from video as Canoma did from stills. It is the product of a project by the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies. By all accounts they are hoping to produce public software in time but history tells me that it may well be gobbled up by one of the big boys, if not already.

The video makes it all look very easy, but one feature that I think is awesome, is the ease at which you are able to clone objects. The mind boggles at the potential of such software.

sprouty76 · January 28th, 2008, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comdot

hehe look what i just came accross

That's on Whitworth Street West, opposite Harry Hall Cycles & The Brickhouse - I also happen to live there. No idea why that building is one of only 4 in the entire city centre to be on Google Earth, and it's actually completely the wrong shape - the building is L shaped, not rectangular.

Mez · January 6th, 2009, 05:26 PM

Quote:

The exchange rates for the pound against the dollar have seen some major changes over the past few months with what was two pounds to the dollar now trading at about 1.40 dollars.

The result of this for the average person is to make that trip to New York so much more expensive but don't despair if you cannot afford it because you still can visit the Big Apple in a manner of speaking.

Google Earth's 3d buildings have now been updated with extraordinary detail with the island of Manhattan being the leading example of just where this is going. Although it hasn't been entirely finished yet, hundreds of amateur modelers are going through the process of adding every single individual building with high-resolution textures right down to advertising billboards on the side of buildings.

Other major American cities with areas such as Chicago and downtown San Francisco have also been done giving you a good chance to see just which street it was you left your heart on. One day, no doubt every single building in the world will be featured this way.

Combined with the atmospheric effects and sunlight the result is almost one of photorealism, although each building still needs to cast shadows and for those of us with the computer to run it, anti-aliasing to reduce the jagged edges of each 3d object would not go amiss.

Bare in mind to run it smoothly on a high resolution you'll need a pretty hefty computer and a decent graphics card. Even then it won't exactly recreate a shopping trip down Fifth Avenue but surely it's only a matter of time until Google links in the online store for each of the buildings shops so we can do it virtually without ever leaving the house.

I think it's about time us proud Mancunians started doing something for Manchester instead of just reading about it whilst hugging a photoshop'd picture of John Dalton and Tony Wilson.

This thread will take a long time to get going but I'm suprised we've not addressed this issue earlier.
Iv'e got Sketch Up and I intend to use it. Clearly, Manchester will not resemble Lower Manhatten but I think for the (at a guess) couple of hundred people a week who type 'Manchester' into Google Earth, being hit by a comprehensive mix of old and new structures would be a rewarding experience.

No-one else will do it (apart from the people who've already done a few for us- see below)

Finger's out time

Beetham- Friar's Towers- Urbis- CIS- Sunley
image hosted on flickr

Urbis- CIS
image hosted on flickr

Salford Quays
image hosted on flickr

Leeds Town Hall
image hosted on flickr

Liverpool
image hosted on flickr

London- (including the unbuilt)
image hosted on flickr

ahem- NY

January 8th, 2007, 02:04 PM	#1
Gavin SSC Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Manchester / Abu Dhabi Posts: 693 Likes (Received): 8	Google Earth Manchester - Renders, Photos and News Updates http://www.lolagrove.com/GenerateLea...o.uk/c/landing URBIS: On the map.INTERNET giant Google has updated its map of Manchester - but only slightly. The US-based company's creation, Google Earth, uses satellite photographs to create pictorial maps, which users can zoom in on to find landmarks - and even their own home. But as reported by the M.E.N. in November, the image of the city was severely out of date. Advertisement your story continues below Satellite images of London are up-to-the-minute, showing the new Wembley stadium and the futuristic `Gherkin' tower, but Manchester is shown before its recent £1bn transformation. The Urbis Centre and the City of Manchester Stadium are still muddy building sites and the new Hilton hotel in Deansgate is yet to transform the city's skyline. But now hovering over the Urbis Centre, the City of Manchester Stadium and other new landmarks, are `i' for information icons, which direct the user to pictures of the buildings. 'World city' Coun Pat Karney said: "It's a start, but in the 21st century, they should really be able to do a proper job. "Manchester is a world city and people around the world are entitled to see it as it is." A Google spokeswoman said they had not bowed to pressure from the city to update the site. "It's nothing more sinister than us looking at places around the world and constantly updating them," she said. "We listen to feedback and do research ourselves." The images on the site are nearly six years old, but the spokeswoman added: "We try to update the imagery so it is not more than 18 months old. "The more pictures people give us, the quicker we can update - so as soon as we get enough new pictures of Manchester, we'll do an update."

January 12th, 2008, 07:50 PM	#5
MarkO Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: London Posts: 843 Likes (Received): 34	3D renders on Google Earth Anyone know why there are so few 3D buildings in Manchester on Google Earth? Can only see CIS and City Towers (plus a couple of low risers). Shame there's no Beetham/Arndale/Salford Quays etc - is it that hard to design these? Anyone know of a downloadable program for making 3D's 4 GE? Or have there been loads made but they are in the pipeline for approval (much like many other things in Manch?)! Manchester has been well trumped (To use a good "Comdot" word) by Brum - there's at least a dozen towers shown in 3D there! Any thoughts?

January 12th, 2008, 08:23 PM	#6
future.architect Far East London Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 5,081 Likes (Received): 90	i made a very accurate model of beetham on sketchup but couldnt work out how to upload it __________________ ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ

January 14th, 2008, 05:07 PM	#9
future.architect Far East London Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 5,081 Likes (Received): 90	ok, ive dusted this off: just waiting for the confirmation email to come back so i can upload it EDIT ok, seems to be in the 3d warehouse now, author is 6734 __________________ ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ Last edited by future.architect; January 14th, 2008 at 05:57 PM.

January 14th, 2008, 06:07 PM	#10
future.architect Far East London Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 5,081 Likes (Received): 90	ok, i want to do a couple more now. does anyone have any acurate drawings to scale or with dimensions of the civil justice centre? __________________ ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ

January 8th, 2007, 06:16 PM	#2
spacepostman Fairy Godmother Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Manchester Posts: 540 Likes (Received): 0	Yes that's a great idea google, as we've all got a plane with a camera attatched to the bottom! I'll start updating those outdated aerial shots of Manchester for them tonight sighs

January 8th, 2007, 07:44 PM	#3
*b4mmy* E4T M3 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: M4CCLESFIELD Posts: 12,296 Likes (Received): 104	...should be able to get some decent shots of Castlefield though, eh? Ian?

January 10th, 2007, 07:45 PM	#4
Dothog On the bog Join Date: May 2006 Location: London Posts: 352 Likes (Received): 5	Go to Vernon Street in Harpurhey and you can actually see some houses being demolished.

January 12th, 2008, 08:37 PM	#7
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	there were some/ one of beetham. was pretty bad. don't think it exists now. if you go to the google earth homepage thing you can find instructions and software to make buildings. i think the software is called sketchup or something.

January 14th, 2008, 02:20 PM	#8
MarkO Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: London Posts: 843 Likes (Received): 34	Cheers peeps - I'm not much of an illustrator, but strikes me Manchester is now lagging badly behind cities all over the UK on Google Earth. Damn shame really. If there are any "sketchup" experts out there; please help future.architect upload his/her Beetham Tower and please do add more Manch buildings - it's looking a bit embarrassing on there!

January 14th, 2008, 08:11 PM	#12
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	if you do want to contact the companies involved then the main ones are listed here, i updated it about a month ago when i did my research http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=149

January 14th, 2008, 08:14 PM	#13
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	how cool is this? largest glass wall in europe. i can't wait til summer when the light is good to get better photos.

January 14th, 2008, 10:34 PM	#14
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	hehe look what i just came accross

January 15th, 2008, 03:11 AM	#15
MarkO Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: London Posts: 843 Likes (Received): 34	Glass Wall Blimey thats amazing Comdot - where is it? Well done 2 future.architect - nice render. Hasn't come up on my GE yet (do I need to re-install, or update?) but it looks great on that screenshot. :-)

January 15th, 2008, 10:36 AM	#16
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	that's the new civil justice centre just off deansgate all the info on it is here http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=149 definitely worth a stare at for a few mins if you are in manchester. i don't know who did that render of that building on whitworth street west. if you hover over that street in google earth it should come up. here's another pic of cjc

January 16th, 2008, 05:50 PM	#17
Comdot Taikun Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 10,199 Likes (Received): 0	i just noticed, some has posted a really good model of beetham tower. go take a look! just hover over where it is and turn on 3d buildings. or find it on the google earth website and download it. they've even made the fin translucent, and texture mapped the whole thing with photos. just noticed sacred trinity church as well, on chapel street.

January 28th, 2008, 11:15 AM	#18
Toadstone No Fixed Abode Join Date: May 2007 Location: Manchester Posts: 71 Likes (Received): 0	3D fans might like to take note of this technology below using video. Many years ago I used to use and still do sometimes when I get time a program called Canoma. Essentially you pull a photographic image onto a drawing board and then align and glue various geometrical shapes from the image, buildings and the like. You then render the produced wire frame model with the image. Hey presto you have a 3D model. Some people must have spent hours creating the most complicated models. Canoma was bought out by Adobe I think it was and the stand alone technology was binned. But I think some of its features have been added to some of Adobe's current software. A friend of mine produced a very good description of the process here. http://www.gentles.info/KAP/3D/index.htm if you're interested. Fast forward to today and here you will see the video version of it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vda2RAEuW_g The program is called Video Trace and by all accounts it uses the same method of producing a model from video as Canoma did from stills. It is the product of a project by the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies. By all accounts they are hoping to produce public software in time but history tells me that it may well be gobbled up by one of the big boys, if not already. The video makes it all look very easy, but one feature that I think is awesome, is the ease at which you are able to clone objects. The mind boggles at the potential of such software.

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