
Google Earth Enterprise Open Source - happy-go-lucky
http://www.opengee.org/
======
angry_octet
This is huge. A while back this product was offered in the enterprise market
for ~$100k per instance.

We have been using CesiumJS ([https://cesiumjs.org/](https://cesiumjs.org/)),
which is fantastic, partly because Google stopped developing Google Earth. But
it would be great to see new features added to a very mature product.

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andybak
From: [https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/wiki/Google-
Earth-...](https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/wiki/Google-Earth-
Enterprise-Client-\(EC\))

"The Google Earth Enterprise Client (EC) is required to connect to Earth
Server and view 3D globes. This client is not open-sourced; but will continue
to be maintained by the Google Earth Team."

That's a shame.

~~~
joelthelion
So what did they open source, exactly?

~~~
narrowingorbits
The server.

~~~
dreterrazas
Fusion Server - imports and 'fuses' imagery, vector and terrain source data in
to a single flyable 3D globe or 2D map.

GEE Server - Apache or Tornado-based server which hosts the private globes
built by Fusion.

GEE Portable - A disconnected globe that allows you to access your data in a
local-server configuration

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folli
Here's the link to the documentation (PDF) for more infos:
[https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/raw/master/earth_e...](https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/raw/master/earth_enterprise/docs/landing_page/manual/gee_docs.pdf)

~~~
falsedan
This doc is an improvement over most technical projects (it has an Audience
section, hurrah) & is certainly better than the waste of time visiting the
submitted link was, but… this PDF should be front-and-centre in the GitHub
repo and available as HTML in the wiki.

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yAnonymous
>a geospatial application which provides the ability to build and host custom
3D globes and 2D maps

Always great when the main page is full of advertising speak, but has no clear
description of what the software actually does. You'll find that on GitHub or
the developer page. WHY?

~~~
jpatokal
You know how Google Maps lets you zoom around a flat 2D map, and how Google
Earth lets you zoom around satellite imagery in 3D?

Google Earth Enterprise is the software that lets you build your maps, from
your own satellite imagery or vector data, and serve them in 2D or 3D.

(Disclaimer: I work at Google, and used to work on GEE.)

------
6nf
Is this BYO terrain data? It looks like Google Earth Engine with no dataset?

~~~
niftich
Yes. The github readme [1] has more info:

 _Earth Enterprise is the open source release of Google Earth Enterprise, a
geospatial application which provides the ability to build and host custom 3D
globes and 2D maps. Earth Enterprise does not provide a private version of
Google imagery that 's currently available in Google Maps or Earth._

 _The application suite consists of three core components:_

 _Fusion - imports and 'fuses' imagery, vector and terrain source data in to a
single flyable 3D globe or 2D map._

 _Server - Apache or Tornado-based server which hosts the private globes built
by Fusion._

 _Client - the Google Earth Enterprise Client (EC) and Google Maps Javascript
API V3 used to view 3D globes and 2D maps, respectively._

Similar text appears on their 'Getting Started' page [2].

[1]
[https://github.com/google/earthenterprise](https://github.com/google/earthenterprise)
[2] [http://www.opengee.org/development/getting-
started.html](http://www.opengee.org/development/getting-started.html)

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TheAceOfHearts
At first glance, I don't understand the use cases for this, or what
implications its being open sourced could have. Maybe someone could help
explain its uses?

Looking at the website, there's four use cases linked, but only one of the
options is available as text, and it still left me a bit unclear.

~~~
bamnet
GEE lets you take a lots of imagery and vector data and process it together so
that it can be displayed on Google Earth or anything that can render simple
imagery tiles like the Google Maps API. It can run locally / on prem which is
a big benefit if connectivity is a challenge for your business or end-users.
Previously, this was something Google sold but was deprecated a few years ago.
Now that it's open source people can keep using it :-)

Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on GEE.

~~~
saurik
So as an example, if I had a lot of aerial photography of an area taken with a
drone, would this be something I should research to stich together all of the
raw / separate photographs into a map?

~~~
dagw
No, but once you had stitched together your photos and made a (georeferenced)
map you could use this to combine those photos with terrain data and vector
data you have from other sources and present the combined data in a google
earth like viewer.

One advantage is that you can now host that viewer and the data on your own
server (with any access restrictions you may wish to add) and even make the
whole thing available for offline viewing.

------
antimora
Here is the github link in case you're searching for it:
[https://github.com/google/earthenterprise](https://github.com/google/earthenterprise)

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andybak
Can anyone from Open Street Maps comment on how this release impacts their
various projects? Does it fill in any missing functionality? I've lost track
of the range of OSM projects but I know there's been a lot of work on
improving the 3D dataset. Are there any sources for global satellite imagery
under a reasonable licence?

------
jpatokal
Previous HN discussion for the earlier announcement:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13528456](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13528456)

~~~
frik
I am the only one that finds the recent HN feature change that makes it
impossible to upvote older stories annoying?

(I prefer to have all my upvoted stories in one list)

~~~
Stratoscope
Instead of upvoting the story, you can favorite it. This will also upvote it
if it can still be upvoted.

You can also favorite a comment - you can't do it directly from the comment
thread, but click on the comment's date/time link and you can favorite it from
there.

You can find all your favorited stories and comments from your user page.

The one caveat is that unlike upvotes, favorites are public. There doesn't
seem to be a way to create private favorites other than keeping your own list
outside the site.

~~~
frik
I know that. That option is made very clear each time I click on upvote on an
old story via an full screen info message. But as mentioned above, I want just
one private list of upvoted stories. The changed interface is annoying and
less useful. Why not let someone upvote an older story? (maybe without
increasing the vote-count)

~~~
Stratoscope
I'm sorry, I don't know why those changes were made, I'm just a random user
trying to be helpful and provide a possible alternative. And I'm embarrassed
to say I forgot about that full screen message you mentioned.

You're right, the old system did have some advantages!

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lawless123
Should have called it GEEOS

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happy-go-lucky
The GitHub repo is at
[https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/](https://github.com/google/earthenterprise/)

