google earth to obj using glintercept _ brian-horning.com

Google Earth to OBJ Using GLIntercept | Brian-Horning.com

http://brian-horning.com/google-earth-to-obj-using-glintercept/[17-04-2014 04:37:16]

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Google Earth to OBJ Using GLInterceptJuly 8th, 2013 Posted in Modeling . Unreal Development Kit Write comment

In a recent post, I touched on a workflow to export models from Google Earth into UDK. However,what if you wanted to repeat this process for an entire city? Manually exporting every building one ata time would be extremely tedious and a complete waste of time since the models in Google Earth arelow-res and would have to be re-created (again) at some point anyways, one at a time, for the finalUDK product. No thank you. In such a scenario what we really need is an entire 3D city exported fromGoogle Earth to serve as a TEMPLATE. And then later we can then replace each and every buildingwith a high-res model for our final UDK product. Sound good? Then let's get started.

For starters, I came across an article that details this exact scenario. However, being nearly 4 yearsold (as of 2013) the article is quite dated, has dead links, and is otherwise missing some very criticalpointers. What follows is an updated overview of the same process from that article, with additionalnotes and steps to follow.

Prerequisites:GoogleEarth: v5.0 [download] [mirror].GLIntercept: v0.5 [download] [vendor].

OGLE: v0.3 beta [download] [ mirror] [vendor offline].3D modeling software to import OBJ files, such as: Maya, 3DStudioMax, Rhino, Blender, etc.

Setup Instructions:1. Install Google Earth. The installer will install GE into Program Files (x86) by default (on modern

Windows 7/8 systems). To mitigate known issues running programs from the x86 directory, afterthe install I then copied the Google Earth folder to the root of my C drive. Henceforth, I ran GoogleEarth from the C:\ root folder only.

Copy Folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google EarthTo: C:\Google Earth

2. Install GLIntercept. Likewise, the installer will install this into Program Files (x86) by default (onmodern Windows 7/8 systems). Again, to mitigate known issues running programs from the x86directory, after the install I then copied the GLIntercept folder to my Program Files folder.

Copy Folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\GLIntercept0_5To: C:\Program Files\GLIntercept0_5

3. Extract OGLE plugin into the GLIntercept0_5\Plugins folder and rename the OGLE folder from"ogle-0.3b" to "OGLE". Your OGLE plugin files should reside in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\GLIntercept0_5\Plugins\OGLE

4. Copy "OpenGL32.dll" from "C:\Program Files\GLIntercept0_5" into "C:\Google Earth".

5. Make a copy of the "opengl32.dll" located in your "C:\Windows\SysWOW64" folder and rename itto "opengl32.orig.dll".

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6. Cut "opengl32.orig.dll" from your "C:\Windows\SysWOW64" folder and Paste itinto "C:\Google Earth". You should now have both "OpenGL32.dll" and "opengl32.orig.dll"in your "C:\Google Earth" folder.

7. Download this zip and extract the "gliConfig.ini" file into "C:\Google Earth".

8. Open Google Earth (from "C:\Google Earth") and go to Tools > Options and set the GraphicsMode to OpenGL. All other settings are up to you. I left mine at default. Apply changes andclose Google Earth.

9. If you haven't done so already, install your 3D modeling software now. Most all 3D applicationscome with a trial that you can utilize for testing purposes.

Capture GoogleEarth Geometry:1. Open Google Earth (from "C:\Google Earth"), and navigate to whatever zip code/city you wish to

capture. Keep that folder open so you can see any new files created in it from the following steps.

2. Setup your camera angle/view so all the buildings you want are in view. However, before itfinishes rendering all the buildings, start your capture.

3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+F at the same time to capture. GoogleEarth may freeze up for a fewseconds, depending on how many buildings are being rendered, so be patient as it extracts thegeometry.

Note: you may need to Middle Mouse Button click inside Google Earth to ensure it is the activewindow. Most important though is to ensure Google Earth is still rendering buildings before youstart the capture, otherwise GLntercept may not work and you will have to close Google Earth andstart over, or try changing your Camera Angle to for Google Earth to render more geometry.

4. After the capture has started and Google Earth unfreezes, you will now see an "ogle.obj" file inyour Google Earth folder, "C:\Google Earth". Some additonal log files and folders will be createdas well, but they are not needed at this point. Depending on how many buildings you captured,you should expect the "ogle.obj" file to be 10-100MB or more.

Import OBJ Into 3D ApplicationI will be using Maya to explain the remaining steps, as it is my preferred 3D modeling application. Thesteps will be similar for other applications however.

Open Maya and go to File > Import. Navigate to "C:\Google Earth" and select your ogle.obj file andpress OK to import.After navigating your camera around a bit, you may be dismayed to only see what looks like theborder/menus of Google Earth, and no buildings!

Rest assured your building models are there. They are just EXTREMELY tiny!Zoom into the Origin of your scene and drag select around until you select what appears to benothing. You will know you have your buildings selected when your Heads Up Display jumps from 0to several hundred thousand Verts. To enable the Heads Up display, go to: Display > Heads UpDisplay > Poly Count. You will also see a tiny white blip indicating your selection.Select your Scale Tool, and drag the center yellow box (origin) to the right. You will see yourbuildings pop into existence!

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From here on out, its a simple matter of scaling, rotating, and modifying your model to yourspecifications, like so:

That should be it. You now have a workflow to export entire cities from Google Earth into yourModeling application of choice.

I neither support nor condone the use of copyrighted models/assets from Google Earth in personalprojects without the the express written consent from the original model authors. My own goal is toutilize an exported Google Earth model purely as reference, to be replaced by my own work.

Final NotesWith regards to mapping Google Earth textures to the buildings in our obj file: You should notice the"CaptureTextureCoords " option in the OGLE settings in the gliConfig.ini file that should get you thetexture coordinates but linking with the textures I believe has to be done manually. (I did not writeOGLE so I don't know for sure there is nothing in theory preventing it for working, I just thought itwas un-implemented).

The OGLE Plugin for GLIntercept will work on any 32bit application that uses OpenGL. And whileOpenGL is becoming less and less common these days, if you do a bit of digging around, you can stillfind games and applications that still do. For instance, anything written using the idTech3 engine usesOpenGL. By simply copying the gliConfig.ini, OpenGL32.dll, and opengl32.orig.dll files into my Returnto Castle Wolfenstein folder, I was able to capture character models with ease. Pretty cool, right?

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Google Earth to OBJ Using GLIntercept

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WARNING: You will only want to test this on a local game server. If you join a public game server withthese files in your game directory, you may be kicked/banned/etc for trying to run a game exploit ofsome kind. This happened to me in RTCW. You have been warned!

CreditsA big thanks to Damian Trebilco, the author of GLIntercept, who personally helped me to get thisworking in 2013. Seriously, without his help, this would not have been possible.And secondly, to Daniel Belcher, whose original article inspired me beyond words and got me startedalong this path to begin with. Thanks!

Related Posts:

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This is absolutely amazing !!! I'm jumping up and down in front of my screen. I've convertedNuremberg (GER) for my architecture project. Thank you so much!!!

The hardest point was to find those little houses , thought I did it wrong, but then theymagically appeared.

You are my personel hero tonight!

Thank you again for this awesome Instruction!!!

Glad I could help! :)

Hello Brian, First of all thanks for the tutorial. Second, i suppouse i got a problem whilecapturing the geometry, once i import my obj file it only has few meshes that looks far from whati wanted (im attaching a link of the image). Do you have any clue of what might be wrong?

Best, Gabriel

sorry for the bothers i didnt zoom in quite enough.

it works perfectly!

Carsten

October 31st, 2013

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Brian

November 12th, 2013

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Gabriel

November 12th, 2013

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Gabriel

November 12th, 2013

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thanks a lot Brian

Awesome! Did you happen to see my other post on this?

There is actually a much easier way to do this using 3D Ripper DX, and the bestpart is texture coordinates are preserved! Let alone a much easier setup

http://brian-horning.com/google-earth-to-3ds-using-3d-ripper-dx/

Hi, Brian! Although I followed the steps, it seems that the keys Ctrl+Shift+F don't work for me.Google Earth does not freeze up -not for a sec (although i think that my chosen site is quitebig) and there is no obj file for me. Do you have any idea why this is happening? Thanks a lot

Did you see the note listed for that step (#3)? There's a few caveats in getting thecapture to start (clicking on Google earth title bar right before capturing, and ensuringthat the buildings are still being rendered in GE before starting capture).

Beyond that, I would double check that you followed the setup steps again. It took memany iterations to work those out. But size shouldn't be a factor for the capture. If noobj file is being created, it is either setup related, or GE not being "recognized" by thecapture as mentioned above.

Ultimately, my other post on using 3D DirectX Ripper, instead, accomplishes the samething, but is infinitely easier to use.


Hi Brian,

Thank you for this extremly valuable and dummy-proof (!) tutorial. You really made my day withthat. (Needing Singapore 3D for an architecture project.)

Glad I could help! Good luck with your project!

Hi Brian thank you for being so helpful!Unfortunately I did not manage to capture the geometry neither with Ogle nor with 3d ripper.

I tried to follow the instructions carefully, also on different computers, but for the first method the

Brian

December 9th, 2013

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Konstantina

December 6th, 2013

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Brian

December 9th, 2013

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Thomas

January 21st, 2014

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Brian

January 21st, 2014

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riccardo

January 30th, 2014

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shortcut did not work and about 3d ripper it says I have some issues with direct x mode andreccomends to change the definition of the screen or to try in GL mode.

I have a mac book pro intel with windows 7 64 bit. Is it possible that running windows throughbootcamp is creating some issues with shortcuts for OGLE and that I need to have an earlierdirect X version like 8 or 9 ( I have 11) in order for 3d ripper to work?

thank you very much!

Hi Ricardo,

Sorry to hear about the difficulties. Overall, using the Ogle capture was much moredifficult to get working, so I would definitely focus on the 3D Ripper and fixing yourDirectX issue. There are DirectX fixer/updater utilities out there that you should try. Abootcamp Win7 on Mac in theory should work but if you are able to test on a WindowsPC, I would certainly try that. Once the DirectX issue is resolved, either way, it shoulddefinitely work. Wish I could offer more. Let me know if you get it working!

thank you so much!

It doesn't work for me, nothing is happening.

I followed the steps and double check it.

I am trying to capture the Paris Montparnasse area.

Can someone help me?

Thank you

Hi Marc, all I can offer is that the capture hotkeys are not bug free, pay special attentionto step 3 and its notes. Sometimes the capture keys just dont work and you have tokeep at it, selecting Google Earth with middle mouse button, then quickly trying thecapture, or holding the capture keys instead of quickly hitting them, etc, and any othercombination you can think of. The capture is buggy, but once you get it once, you willunderstand better. Beyond that triple check your setup.

If your OS is 32bit (and not 64 bit) you will want to copy the .dll files from theWindows/System32 folder instead of Windows/SysWOW64.

Lastly, I would look into using 3DRipperX instead of OGLE, as it is much easier to setupand use. See this post:


Brian

February 16th, 2014

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luk

February 7th, 2014

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Marc J

February 14th, 2014

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Brian

February 16th, 2014

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Andrew

February 19th, 2014

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So I got it to work, but some of the models from google are missing since they were created forplacement in later versions. Is it possible for this to work in the current version. I know theinstallation files are different as everything is located under "Client".

Thanks for the help!!

There was many moving parts in my initial efforts to get this working, one of which wasto revert back to the supported versions. I have a vague recollection that it did notwork, because required GE files are missing when you install in the client folder, asopposed to the old version where everything is in one folder. You might be able to get itto work though as I didnt spend much time with that. Good luck!

Hi

I am having no luck what so ever of getting this to work.

Would anybody be will to do 2 sites for me?

I would be willing to rerward the individual if they could.

Thank you.

phil

Hey Phil,

Sadly, I wouldnt be able to help any time soon. I dont even have this setup runningcurrently. Have you tried 3D Ripper DX? I wrote some other posts on it here. Its mucheasier to use!

Hey, Brian

Is this possible in mac to download whole city models from the google earth?

Cheers,

Abel

I have not tested it on a Mac. Given that GLintercept relies on .dll files, I would assumeit will not work. Your best bet will be to setup a windows virtual machine and try it fromthere.

Brian

February 19th, 2014

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philip

February 24th, 2014

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Brian

February 25th, 2014

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Abel

March 3rd, 2014

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Brian

March 5th, 2014

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This is phenomenal. I've spent months trying many different options, with OpenGL and DirectXand various injectors and had infuriatingly little success. I was about to give up but came acrossyour method and gave it a try AND IT WORKED! I'm ecstatic. Thank you thank you thankyou!!!

Hi i've followed your steps but instead of an obj file i keep getting jpegs and png files insteadplease advise how i can rectify this.

I cant really offer anything other than trying to follow the instructions, from start to finish,again. Running GLIntercept on modern windows systems presents dozens of points offailure, as it was not intended for anything beyond XP. Good Luck!

Hey Brian,

thanks for this amazing tool, it works just great for me, the only problem is since your link forgoogle earth is for version 5.0 but the current version is 7.0. which i would need.

sorry for asking but the area i would need is completely in 3d in version 5.0 only in 7.0 it is.

Is there a way for Version 7.0??

thanks in advance

That I know of, it is not possible, because the anything above version GE 5x has thevarious dll files in different directories other than the main executable. Because of this Icould never get it to work in later versions. I would recommend trying 3d Ripper X, Which I wrote about elsewhere n this blog, and comments above.

Hello Brian, thanks for the fast reply,

but doesn't the 3d Ripper X also works with Google Earth 5?

thanks

MrG

March 13th, 2014

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Nisha

March 14th, 2014

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Brian

March 18th, 2014

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March 18th, 2014

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Brian

March 18th, 2014

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DP

March 19th, 2014

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RTSM to CMS Sync Step by Step Google Earth to 3DS Using 3D Ripper DX

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Thanks Brian, works a treat!

Glad to hear it! :)

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Anna

March 27th, 2014

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