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Tag: steven ho

Trip View Bowls in New Google Earth

by Timothy Whitehead on Jul.10, 2017, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

“Trip View Bowls” are porcelain bowls painted on the inside with a 360 degree landscape of a real world location. They are essentially what you would get if you painted Street View image on the inside of a bowl. Back in 2011 GEB reader Steven Ho, whose work we often cover created a 3D model of a Trip View Bowl and placed it in Google Earth.

Steven has recently updated the concept to work with the new browser based Google Earth and created a tour featuring Trip View Bowls of various locations around Taiwan. Read more about it, and find the KML tour on his blog.

The tour does not appear to work in Google Earth Classic, and makes use of what appears to be an undocumented feature of KML gx:streetViewPanoId in order to show the panoramas from Street View in the new Google Earth. It’s great to see creators starting to experiment with the new Google Earth to see what new features can be exploited.

The post Trip View Bowls in New Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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4D Gondola in Google Earth

by Timothy Whitehead on Aug.24, 2016, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Steven Ho, whose work we often cover has recently updated a Google Earth animation he first created back in 2007 showing the Maokong Gondola of Taipei. We covered his original 2007 version in this post.

Below is a YouTube video of the tour, but we highly recommend also trying out the KML tour, which you can download from Steven’s blog.

It is excellent work and shows off some of the capabilities of Google Earth tours. It also highlights a few of the limitations. For example, it is not possible to stop and look around without pausing the animation, so you can only really see the animation from the angles provided in the tour.

A lot of work clearly went into getting it all right. There are 147 cable cars all moving correctly along their cables, which follow a long twisting route. He also notes that he does some tricks with the satellite imagery, switching between the default view and ‘historical imagery’. He does this because the default view shows a more uniform view from high altitudes, but actually has quite old imagery when you zoom in. Google has kept imagery from 2006 in the default layer because it is better quality than more recent imagery. However, the Maokong Gondola was opened in 2007, so for the closeup section of the tour, Steven switches to the more current imagery (from February 2016) found in ‘historical imagery’.

The post 4D Gondola in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Street View Tour Maker by Steven Ho

by Timothy Whitehead on Jul.19, 2016, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Steven Ho, whose excellent work we have covered many times in the past, has recently produced a tool for creating Street View tours. The tool and details on how to use it can be found on his blog here. The instructions for how to use it are a little hard to follow as English is not Steven’s first language, but he provides a number of examples so if you wish to use the tool, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out how to use it.

In addition to a number of samples produced with the tool provided in the above post, he has also used it to create a tour of Kumamoto Castle, Japan which was severely damaged in the Kumamoto Earthquakes in April, 2016. See part of that tour in the YouTube video below and read more about it on his blog.

The tours he has created can be played back in Google Earth, but due to a bug in Google Earth they do not always enter Street View automatically. If this happens he suggests pausing the tour and manually entering Street View by dropping the yellow man on the map before continuing.

The post Street View Tour Maker by Steven Ho appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Celebrate Chinese Spring Festival in Google Earth

by Timothy Whitehead on Feb.23, 2016, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Here at GEB we have traditionally celebrated the new year with a Google Earth fireworks animation created by Steven Ho. This past new year we decided to expand on the idea by allowing you to create fireworks at the coordinates of your choice. This, in turn, has inspired Steven Ho to create a new animation to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival, (also known as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year).

His animation shows Chinese couplets falling from the sky, with the camera slowly rotating around the location you select – all set to music. Chinese couplets are a popular form of Chinese poetry that consists of a pair of lines of verse that match up in a number of different ways. You can learn a bit more about them on the Wikipedia page. They are popular for decorating doorways and also often used during celebrations, such as the Chinese Spring Festival.

He has also created a similar animation for the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which shows lanterns flying up into the sky at night.

To see YouTube videos of both animations and create animations for the location of your choice, see the full post on Steven’s blog.

The post Celebrate Chinese Spring Festival in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Ascending Mt Xue Tour by Steven Ho

by Timothy Whitehead on Jan.07, 2016, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We have featured the work of Steven Ho a number of times in the past. He makes excellent Google Earth tours that really show off the capability of Google Earth’s Tour features. We have seen him do a variety of animations in Google Earth Tours, including the fireworks animation we show each New Year’s Eve, various marathons or running events, such as the tour of Scott Jurek running the Appalachian Trail and my personal favourite – Flying around with Blue Magpie Tea in Taiwan.

Today we are showing you his latest creation, which involves animating multiple paths at the same time, something he says he has not done before. Steven was inspired by this video created by the NCKU Mountaineering Association showing the routes of hikers that ascend a mountain in different groups and meet at the summit. The video shows an animation of the routes, made by overlaying an animation created separately and then overlaid on a static background image from Google Earth. Steven thought it would be much better to do it in Google Earth using its Tour feature. The result is these two Google Earth Tours:

An animation showing the groups’ routes to the summit of Mt. Xue

An animation outwards from the summit along the main ridges. This second animation is not the route used by the hikers but was to further demonstrate the simultaneous multi-route animation concept.

Read more about it on Steven’s blog

The post Ascending Mt Xue Tour by Steven Ho appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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A Google Earth tour of Scott Jurek running the Appalachian Trail

by Timothy Whitehead on Jun.15, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We have looked at Steven Ho’s work a number of times before. My personal favourite was his Flying around with Blue Magpie Tea in Taiwan.

Ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek is currently running the Appalachian Trail, a distance of 2,189 miles (3,522 km). According to his Facebook page he recently passed the 800 mile mark (1,287 km). But to really put those numbers into perspective play this Google Earth tour that Steven Ho has created showing the route. Read more about it and why he created it on Steven’s blog.


When the tours starts it seems to quick until you realise just how long the route really is.

The Google Earth tour feature is a very underutilized feature of Google Earth. We wish there were more people creating Google Earth tours.

Steven has also created a more detailed map of the journey using the Google Earth plugin. However, as he notes in his blog, it is getting increasingly difficult to view Google Earth plugin content. In Google Chrome you actually have to change a special setting to allow the plugin, and even then it puts a warning message at the top of the page saying “This site uses a plugin (Google Earth) that will soon be unsupported.”.

The post A Google Earth tour of Scott Jurek running the Appalachian Trail appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Google Earth plugin showcase: Trans Taiwan Ultra-Marathon

by Timothy Whitehead on Apr.01, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

This is the thirteenth in our series showcasing the Google Earth plugin. Today’s story demonstrates that although the Google Earth plugin has been deprecated it is still very much a working product and can be used for projects that do not need to be kept alive beyond its expiry date of December 12, 2015. The biggest downside is that most browsers nowadays require you to allow the plugin to run, which may put off your website visitors.

Today we are looking at a project from Steven Ho, whose excellent work we have looked at many times in the past. He has created a set of Google Earth tours for the 2015 Trans Taiwan Ultra-Marathon which can be viewed here using the Google Earth plugin.

In addition to a map of the route and tours of each leg of the race, when the race is in progress the live positions of some of the runners is displayed. This is achieved via an app on their cell phones. We have noticed that even during a leg of the race, not all racers are on the track, suggesting that some have either dropped out, or lent their cell phones to other people. He has also included the option to see ‘rabbits’ which are a set of markers used to indicate the minimum pace expected of the runners. Read more about it here.

The race has been running since the 28th of March and continues until this Saturday April 4th, 2015. Each leg starts at 6 am Taiwan time.

waiting to start
Runners waiting to start a leg of the race.


A leg of the race in progress.

For those wishing to view the tours directly in Google Earth rather than via the plugin, Steven has also provided a KMZ file to download.

Read more about it on his blog.

The post Google Earth plugin showcase: Trans Taiwan Ultra-Marathon appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Flying around with Blue Magpie Tea in Taiwan

by Timothy Whitehead on Sep.17, 2014, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Over the years we’ve seen some great files come from Steven Ho, such as his panorama from the top of Mount Everest, his tribute to Steve Jobs and his Trip View Bowl visualization. He’s back with another one, which follows the path of a blue magpie as it flies along the Xindieng River, to promote eco-friendly tea farms.

blue magpie tea in google earth

The unique part of this is the way he controls the camera during the flight. Steven says it was quite challenging to control the perspective like a movie scene. If you just keep the bird in the same position on the screen the results are inferior. So he has the camera move around the bird to get different perspectives, with the bird even going off camera for brief periods. Also, to get the bird to appear properly in Google Earth he enlarged it several hundred times, which has the added benefit of making it easier to control the perspective.

You can try it for yourself by loading this KML file, or read the full write-up on his blog.

Great work, Steven!

The post Flying around with Blue Magpie Tea in Taiwan appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Qihou Lighthouse 360 panoramo & Kaohsiung 3D City Tour

by Mickey Mellen on May.05, 2014, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Over the years we’ve seen some great work from Steven Ho, including items such as Taiwan from Above, a panorama from the top of Mount Everest, a tribute to Steve Jobs and many other items.

Steven recently visited the Qihou lighthouse and wanted to build a new model of it, but was faced with a dilemma. You’re unable to upload new models onto Google Earth, since they’re instead simply using the 3D Imagery to show new models. The option would be to disable all 3D buildings to allow him to show only his building, but having surrounding 3D is quite useful. Steven’s solution was to create his new building using additional 3D terrain to show the lighthouse (and make it more accurate), effectively hiding the old model and allowing him to leave the other models turned out. The result works very well!

qihou lighthouse

He also created a tour of nearby Kaohsiung using a massive image that he shot from on the lighthouse itself. You can grab this KMZ file to view the lighthouse, this KMZ file to view the city or head over to this blog entry to read more about the entire project.

Great work, Steven!

The post Qihou Lighthouse 360 panoramo & Kaohsiung 3D City Tour appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Taiwan from Above

by Mickey Mellen on Dec.11, 2013, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Steven Ho has done some great work with Google Earth over the years.  He’s shown us tours of mountaineering trips, a panorama from the top of Mount Everest, a tribute to Steve Jobs and much more.

A friend of his, Chi Po-Lin, has created a documentary titled “Taiwan from Above“.  Steven has taken the amazing aerial trips from the documentary and recreated them in Google Earth.  Specifically, Steven says:

I used two windows – one in, one out. The GPS route I got from Chi, which he made one day in 2008. This trip started from Puli, then flew to Central Mountains , Yushan Mountain, Sun Moon Lake and then back. It is a 240 km long, 1 hour 32 minute flight time trip.

beyondbeauty-03

You can read more about it it on Steven’s blog, or try it for yourself using the Google Earth Plugin on this page.  The plugin version has varying levels of success depending on your browser, so you can also download the KMZ files to load them directly in Google Earth:

Great work, Steven!

The post Taiwan from Above appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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