The Week in Germany: Culture

July 13, 2007

Dresden is World’s Largest 3D City Model

German technology was used to create the 3D simulation

Dresden is now available as a high resolution 3D model on Google Earth with more than 154,000 buildings. Dresden 3D is around three times the size of the virtual version of Berlin and is now the largest 3D model of a city in the world.

Underlying the impressive 3D model is software called LandXplorer developed at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute for Software Systems Technology at the University of Potsdam. The final model was then completed with the local firms virtualcitysystems GmbH from Chemnitz and 3D Geo GmbH from Potsdam.

The whole of Dresden was mapped using laser scanners in cooperation with the University of Stuttgart. The amounts of data that have to be processed are, however, huge and despite the version that Internet users get to see being a “light version”, the simulation of the Dresden city center alone is over 40 megabits.

The popular tourist attractions and buildings in the city center are shown in the highest possible resolution and everything simulates the original.

If you want to look at Dresden in 3D, will need to download and install the latest version of Google Earth.

Links:

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