14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that three more Japanese cities are now available in 3D in Google Earth and the Earth View in Maps. There are now seven cities in Japan where 3D buildings are available in the two Google products.
"Today, we’re happy to announce that three more Japanese cities are viewable in 3D in Google Earth: Yokohama, Sendai and Saitama," James Therrien, from the Google Geo Group, announced.
"You can now tour photo-realistic, 3D buildings in these cities without leaving your house—or climbing aboard a shinkansen," he said.
"We want to thank the many users who modeled and contributed 3D buildings for these Japanese cities," he added.
"With Google Building Maker, you can create and contribute a building in as little as 10 minutes. In Japan, Building Maker is available for the following cities: Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Saitama, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo and Yokohama," Therrien explained.
Google has been expanding its support for 3D buildings around the world. Many cities are now available in Building Maker, the simple web-based tool Google offers for users wanting to recreate their cities in three dimensions.
Until now, only four major cities in Japan were present in the Buildings layer in Google Earth, Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto. You can expect the other four cities available in Building Maker to be included in the layer soon, depending on how many people contribute 3D models.
Google relies on volunteers for most of the 3D models in the Buildings layer. In most places around the world, a few enthusiasts contribute most of the buildings.
Building Maker serves as a good tool for quickly building lower quality models, but for the more interesting buildings you can use Google's SketchUp modeling software which comes with some powerful tools and is catered especially for this type of models.
Other cities that have been recreated in 3D in Google Earth recently:
- Vienna Gets Showcased in 3D in Google Earth - Dortmund in 3D in Google Earth - Madrid Gets the 3D Treatment in Google Earth - Lisbon in 3D in Google Earth - Stockholm Goes 3D in Google Earth - Venice Now in 3D in Google Earth - Rotterdam Now in 3D in Google Earth - Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany in 3D in Google Earth - Seville, Spain Now in 3D in Google Earth
Google SketchUp is available for download here on Softpedia.