New Panoramas of Area 51 from all directions


Message posted by greatguess on December 29, 2020 at 7:40:48 PST:

These panoramas from Gabe would have been VERY useful to me between 2009 and 2012. I was an active participant in the GE attempt to model cities - my "city" was Area51.

During that period I was creating the Area51 3d buildings that you can still see in Google Earth. I created the "models" using vintage pictures and then current satellite images which allowed me to obtain fairly high accuracy "mechanical" models.

I had two main issues dealing with the GE team that was managing their 3d imaging project. My first hurdle was "ownership" - GE desired (not required) the person submitting a building model was the owner or representing the owner of the building. For Area 51 bulding "ownership" presented a special issue for the since they "didn't exist". I made it very clear to GE that I did not "own" the facility but they couldn't determine who did so they let my models pass that hurdle after a fight over each building - that was a real PITA.

My biggest issue with GE was the fact that I didn't have photos of the buildings to paste on the model to make them photo realistic - I explained to GE hundreds of times (multiple times for each building) that I could not get a photo of the building since it "didn't exist" even though they could see it on their satellite images. I decided after about 50 models (and 150 fights) that I would do what most bases do and develop a color standard for their facility and just follow that - GE then started harassing me because all my models had the same color scheme and architectural look. If I had access to these panoramas back then I could have made the models more photo realistic. The Google Cities in 3d program ended in the summer of 2012 and models that had been accepted at that point remain available to the public unless the submitter (me in this case) requests they be removed.

I predict that eventually the models I submitted will be removed. Perhaps now would be a good time to upgrade my models with the new data that Gabe has provided. We couldn't submit them for worldwide availability but we could make them available here at DLR. It's fun to "fly around" above Area51 or place yourself on the ramp next to the Janet that is unloading. Just a thought.

greatguess

Attached link: GE Map the World Project

In Reply to: Re: New Panoramas of Area 51 from all directions posted by Peter on December 28, 2020 at 18:38:36 PST:

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