#VIRTUAL EARTH 3D COM HOW TO#

The data would have to be hosted on a large server and transmitted to the client as needed. So it was immediately obvious that we would not be able to host all this data locally on the user's PC. This control allows application developers to create mapping or visualization apps that show real-world locations with a level of detail that gives the user the experience of actually 'being there.'įigure 1 (Click the image for a larger view)Īs you might expect, the data required to visualize the world at the resolution we wanted was many tens of terabytes in size. To create the Virtual Earth 3D control, the team developed techniques for automatically generating 3D textured models of structures in the real world based on aerial photography with resolutions better than 12 inches.

#VIRTUAL EARTH 3D COM HOW TO#

We will also be documenting and providing samples of how to write and use your own plug-in extensions to change the control model, add your own data to the scene, and more. For those not doing Web development, there will soon be SDK documentation available on how to embed the control directly in your own Windows® Forms or native application. Web developers who use the SDK to integrate mapping functions into their Web sites will now be able to show a 3D view with no additional work.

The beta release integrates seamlessly with the JScript® API available in the Virtual Earth SDK. One of the primary goals of the Virtual Earth 3D team's project was to enable developers to build their own applications. NET Framework security model gives users the capability of dynamically loading plug-ins to supply data, but restricting them to execution in a partial-trust environment. Rather than a standalone application, Virtual Earth™ 3D is implemented as a managed control, which allows seamless integration with Web sites or standalone applications. The Virtual Earth 3D control is a new tool released by Microsoft for visualizing the entire world in three dimensions.

Virtual earth 3d com