Message posted by Uncle Aina on August 28, 2011 at 17:25:46 PST:
I'm really surprised this hasn't been done before - but if it has, I could not find it mentioned here nor on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaAenOMWTV8 Basically I took models of all the buildings at Groom Lake and rendered a movie using Google Earth. All the 3D models were made by an engineer named "timmy" and I found them online. He spent a lot of time on this and the size and details of the buildings looks like it's pretty spot on from the little bit of data one can compare it to. Whoever you are "timmy" - big thanks! You'd think someone would have done this - but I saw Joerg mention that he's considered it but hadn't had time...and if HE hadn't done it, and I saw no evidence that "timmy" did it either, it seems like no has has done it. So I spent some time today and did it myself. Here's a link to his models.. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=56d82b971b45f97a5d87583d6f1d1c87 It's a blast to have the whole Area 51 site to fly around in 3D! It's cool to imagine walking between buildings and you can see the relationships between the different areas such as the new hangers at the South end vs the large dish antennas at the north end. You can see how obvious the "berm" is at the South hanger. You get a better feel for how it might be to roll out a secret UAV from a cluster of hangers, or to sit at Sam's Place and have a beer! This movie is pretty crappy, and for that I apologize. I used the trial version of Google Earth Pro, so there's the TRIAL VERSION plastered across the screen. The movie "flight" is very slow because my computer is pretty maxed out both rendering and recording the scene in HD. When you are not recording, you can "fly" much more quickly like you are THERE! Doing this took about 4 hours of my time today, so I'd like to come back to it again when I'm less rushed and add some voice over and make a version with the places labeled. I'd like to make a version where you "drive" all the way in from Groom Lake Road like you're on the bus. Or one where you're landing a black project on a moonlit night.. I'm not good enough with Google Earth to share the models or the whole scene, but I'm happy to share if someone can tell me how. Until then, you can DIY from the link to the models posted above.
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