ArcGIS Explorer and Terrain
June 21, 2006 13 Comments
A couple people emailed and IM’d me about the terrain in AGX. I haven’t really look too far into terrain yet, but it is very similar to how Google Earth looks and works. Take this view from Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay looking back toward the City of San Francisco. Take a look at how the place name labels for South San Francisco and Daly City are partially hidden by the Twin Peaks and Mount Davidson. (click image for larger view)
On top of all this Beta 2 of ArcGIS Server 9.2 has been working its way out of Redlands so soon we’ll really be able to start working with some really slick stuff with ArcGIS Explorer and ArcGIS Server (task framework, 3D Globe Services).
Update – Someone asked to see the same view in Google Earth 4 for comparison. I don’t have it installed at work, but a friend was kind enough to get a similar view with the terrain quality turned up all the way. Take a look and compare.
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OMG, that looks wonderful. Is that out of the box or did you Photoshop it?
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Out of the box, though I did use Photoshop to resample the image down to make it less bandwidth intensive.
Cool, ICubed again. Ease up on the green, Yusuf.
Wow. Night and day difference. Can’t wait to play with it when it comes out of beta.
Wow, I’m sure the image is more recent for GE, but the ESRI one looks so much better.
Any way to pump the Virtual Earth imagery into AGX?
James,
The view of SF from Angel Island is a great comparison, based on a sample size of 1. If you check Google imagery meta data you’ll see you picked the one spot in the SF area that wasnt updated with newer imagery.
Is the imagery a feature of ArcExplorer, or a service of I Cubed? Are we comparing Google Earth software to ArcExplorer software, or are comparing imagery provided free (or $400/year) with Google Earth to Imagery provided with free or at nominal fee with ArcGIS Explorer?
Sample Size of One:
” The view of SF from Angel Island is a great comparison, based on a sample size of 1. If you check Google imagery meta data you’ll see you picked the one spot in the SF area that wasn’t updated with newer imagery.”
Actually I picked the area for ArcGIS Explorer and then someone wanted to see the same area in Google Earth. Around the world GE will beat AGX head to head most of the time.
“Is the imagery a feature of ArcExplorer, or a service of I Cubed?”
A feature of AGX. We have been told that ESRI will provide 1meter imagery covering the whole United States. As for the rest of the world, that is still up in the air.
“Are we comparing Google Earth software to ArcExplorer software, or are comparing imagery provided free (or $400/year) with Google Earth to Imagery provided with free or at nominal fee with ArcGIS Explorer?”
I can’t install Google Earth at my place of work due to the EULA so this Google Earth image is from a reader using the free version of Google Earth. The data inside ArcGIS Explorer is also free.
The only reason the GE image appears is people wanted to see the same scene in GE. I’m not trying to compare apples to apples here or apples to oranges. When AGX goes public beta, that will be the time to set down and see where both stand. AGX will be free with no “Pro” versions like Google Earth. I think the theory is you’d buy such services directly from imagery companies and not ESRI.
Thanks for the reply James. Can you clarify your point of data in ArcGIS Explorer. Are you suggesting that not only is ArcGIS Explorer free, but access to the I3 one meter US mosaic is also free to all users? Or are we seeing a fee for use data set displayed on ArcGIS Explorer?
I don’t think that has been totally settled, but the last I heard was the 1m was going to be free to all users. I’m sure when it goes Public Beta, we’ll know more about what will be included and what won’t.
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Hi,
I’m still wonder if there is any way to pump the Virtual Earth imagery into AGX?
Thanks,
Miri