14 DAY TRIAL // The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are very close now and sports fans are probably eagerly awaiting the start of the competitions. In the mean time though, Google has made it possible for them to familiarize themselves with the venues for all the events by making detailed 3D models available in Google Earth and online through the Google Earth plug-in. It released most of the models last month, but Google says it has updated them with higher-resolution photos and also added the final missing venue, the Bobsled Course.
"The countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics has begun, and the Google Boulder office has been busy modeling the Olympic venues in Vancouver, BC using Google SketchUp," Bruce Polderman, product manager at Google, wrote. "Last month, we introduced photo-realistic 3D models for eight of the nine venues hosting the games. Today, we released updates to many of the models using higher-resolution imagery, and, the last venue for the Olympics: the Bobsled Course!," he added.
In total, 54 buildings have been modeled using Google's 3D modeling software Sketch Up, for the nine venues housing the Vancouver Olympic events by Google itself and the project took a bit more preparation that the regular models which end up on Google Earth.
The team got a hold of a lot of high-quality photos of the locations either by having photographers on the ground to cover any angle but also by employing aerial imagery to ensure nothing is left out. But it's not just the textures that are top notch, the models themselves are as detailed as you're going to get in Google Earth, with things like trees and spectator bleachers throw in to make a complete picture.
All the work can be admired in Google Earth by enabling the 3D layer and 'visiting' the locations, but the models can also be viewed in the collection set up in the Google 3D Warehouse. Finally, the venues can also be viewed in 3D on the official site of the Vancouver Olympics.
Google Earth for Windows is available for download here. Google Earth for Mac is available for download here. Google Earth for Linux is available for download here.