3d mapping apps and softwares for video games

[kmz]

Hi guys, I wanna map some environments arround me (stadium, old abandonned village, fields with hills and holes ect) for some ideas about video games purpose, I found some apps, drone deploy, altizure, pix4d but my question is: wil l be able to implement a free movement camera on the map at human height to simulate the player's movement?

I guess I'm gonna need a software like acute 3d, pix4dmapper, but do they support that function?

I hope you'll be able to help me out on this, thx in advance

 

[Dronason]

I think that you need to build first a 3D model of your map and then you will be free to move your camera in the 3D model as you want. That simple on paper.

The point is the quality of the map and if you can use it at all for your game. Typically you will be able to model the outside of the building but not the inside.
The advantage is that you will be able to have a lot of different map for the player easily.

From what I have seen, the quality of the model is highly function of the setting used to take the pictures.
Dronedeploy (DroneDeploy: Drone Maps Gallery.) has good sample of such map.

I have seen a real 3D model of what Pix4D can do with an Inspire and it was amazing.
So I tried one time Pix4D free version (Pix4D - Drone Mapping Software) to see the output, and output was average.
After seing on youtube:

I realize that what I get was about as in the video at 4:35. I had also a similar fly plan.
Then they explain how they improve the setting to get a much better model (6:20) by using orbit on key objects.
Much better model at 7:00.
I will have to check with Pix4D if I can make the flight that way.

 

[kmz]

thx a lot buddy I actually already watched this video and yes that's the key: shooting 2-3-4 sets with different altitude and orientation of the camera, it's even more detailled with a drawing in this video arround 3:16 mark

my question was more about after having done the 3d model, in the software. For instance is pix4d capable of recording a sequence if i'm moving arround the map? maybe i'm out of subject and after rendering the 3d model, it "just" needs to go inside a real video game developping software.
I'm not a developper but one of my friend is, so what I was thinking was sharing the work, i'm working on providing the 3d model, and he takes care about animations and developping the real engine

I hope you see what I'm talking about
EDIT: altizure seems to get close to what I want to but at the same time it's not, their flights animations are only from above as you can see in their video, it's more or less a script

but I want it like human eye height, on the ground view and free movement

 

[timmer]

How about using an Osmo?

 

[kmz]

I was thinking about that, but unfortunately i don't own one, but just talking about the idea, you would do a set of pictures on ground level and incorporate it into the aerial sets, am I right?

 

[timmer]

I'm not sure how that would work.

 

[kmz]

yeah not sure either, but i'm sure that can be useful though for safety reasons, i'm only focused on widely open ares, or a place without any population, so maybe doing a set with the drone at humain height?
or maybe just putting the drone at the middle of the spot and take a 360° panorama, and incorporate this set altogether will the aerial ones?

 

[Tenly]

I'm not sure how that would work.

Pix4D mapper and some of the other programs you mentioned will create the 3D model for you - but I'm not sure why you are looking to them to also provide the ability to move around and navigate the model. Some of them might provide those capabilities - but you might want to look for a completely different program solution for navigating/interacting with your model once you've created it.

For example - I believe SketchFab - the website that hosts the 3D models and maps created by many different products - has some capabilities of placing a human sized object on the map and producing a VR type output as the object is moved around the map.

Creating the model seems like the tricky bit. But placing a "virtual camera" in the model and moving it around seems like a function that many more programs would be capable of.

I also used the free trial of Pix4DMapper to see what it could do - and I was pretty impressed by the output especially considering the input files I provided to it. I flew over a 9-hole golf course and took about 500 photos at an altitude of 100m. Then I pumped them through the local version of Pix4DMapper on a pretty beefy iMac (quad-core Core-i7 4.0GHz processors with 48GB RAM and a 500GB SSD) and it took over 6 hours to process the files and create the outputs which included a 3D model of the entire course and a set of Google Maps tiles (~5,200 tiles at various zoom levels).

Here's a link to the model hosted on SketchFab. I didn't take any supplementary photos. I probably should have orbited the clubhouse a couple of times to improve the way it is rendered.

See for yourself to see if the output quality is sufficient for your purposes...

Here's the SketchFab link to the golf course:
Westerntrent2 Simplified 3d Mesh by vaudorne - 3D model

And here's one to another model I created of a local boat lift:
Kirkfield Liftlock by vaudorne - 3D model

Remember to make sure that HD is selected in the viewer.

 

[kmz]

AWESOME! thx a lot that's exactly what i'm talking about! as I previously mentionned, i'm not a developper, and kinda new in the 3d mapping and photogrammetry universe, but that immediately caught my attention and I have plenty of ideas in different field other than video games I'd like to try, but I will start with VG first.

Concerning sketchfab, is it possible to do like altizure and put some points for the camera to make flight animation, but, in my case in first person view? I want to have both possibilities, some games are free of movements, others are path scripted, it's even useful if you want to make an automated thing that looks smoother and more professional instead of recording your screen while you're scrolling and moving with mouse/keyboards controls

 

[Tenly]

AWESOME! thx a lot that's exactly what i'm talking about! as I previously mentionned, i'm not a developper, and kinda new in the 3d mapping and photogrammetry universe, but that immediately caught my attention and I have plenty of ideas in different field other than video games I'd like to try, but I will start with VG first.

Concerning sketchfab, is it possible to do like altizure and put some points for the camera to make flight animation, but, in my case in first person view? I want to have both possibilities, some games are free of movements, others are path scripted, it's even useful if you want to make an automated thing that looks smoother and more professional instead of recording your screen while you're scrolling and moving with mouse/keyboards controls

Actually I think it's possible to define points and generate a video sequence within Pix4DMapper but I haven't really used that feature so I'm not sure what it's exact capabilities and limitations are. I'm also not sure about SketchFab. It appears to have the support for interactively walking through a model - but I haven't seen any scripting capabilities. Pix4D has a couple different products that might be appropriate for your use cases: Pix4DMapper, Pix4DMappper Pro and Pix4D Mesh. I think they are all capable of generating 3D models - but the cheaper versions may be limited in the number of input images you can use. If you need the Google Map tiles as one of your outputs, you'll need the "Pro" version. There is a free 10-day trial which I used - but beyond the trial, it costs $350/month (which is far too steep for me!)

The Google Map output is kinda neat. I fly in an area with really poor Google imagery and needed something better as a backdrop in AutoPilot for creating waypoint missions. The Pix4dMapper output tiles worked amazingly well and AutoPilot built in a way to have them retrieved from a web server I put up in the Amazon cloud.

Check it out:
http://52.90.177.54/xyz/google/westerntrent2-cropped_mosaic.html

Once loaded, click on "Satellite View" and then note the buttons on the top right for 0%, 30%, 60%, etc. they control the opacity of my override images - so you can see the original (horrible) Google imagery and see how much better my phantom collected imagery is. You can also zoom right in like you can on a normal Google map. You may also notice that my override imagery doesn't exactly line up with the Google imagery in some places - and I think that's because my data is *more* accurate than the Google data. The waypoint missions I created using this backdrop flew flawlessly first try without requiring any tweaks!

 

[kmz]

I can't agree more on the cost, i'm gonna give a try to the normal edition to see if it suits my needs

Concerning google maps output i'm not into that for the moment, but i greatly appreciate that features too, i have a friend who doesn't have google maps well covering his city as well, and we are discussing with the mayor and he really likes the idea. but with the output map you provided, you can't switch to a 3d model or navigate freely right?

 

[kmz]

The point is the quality of the map and if you can use it at all for your game. Typically you will be able to model the outside of the building but not the inside.

that's another key point I'd like to discuss about, if i'm taking a lots of inside overlapping shots with the drone in my hand in the same pattern (ie different angles and heights at 360°) will I be able via those software to merge the "inside shots" and the "outsides ones" of a house for instance?

 

[Tenly]

I can't agree more on the cost, i'm gonna give a try to the normal edition to see if it suits my needs

Concerning google maps output i'm not into that for the moment, but i greatly appreciate that features too, i have a friend who doesn't have google maps well covering his city as well, and we are discussing with the mayor and he really likes the idea. but with the output map you provided, you can't switch to a 3d model or navigate freely right?

You can navigate freely on the 2d map, zoom in and out - just like you can with Google - but you're right - there's no way to switch to 3D map as far as I know - and obviously no "Street View" - but Google Maps has pretty extensive support of layers - so I think you may be able to make use of that to accomplish at least some of what you're trying to do. I'm far from a mapping expert and most of what I know, I've only learned recently.

 

[kmz]

yeah that's great to discover and learn new things. Having a 3d mapping software capable to get something between street view for static games, and free movement for dynamic ones, from the mapping i have done with my drone is really what i'm looking for but thanks for all the precisions Tenly

 

[PVFlyer]

Check out a few 3D model samples FPV Camera

 

[Tenly]

Check out a few 3D model samples FPV Camera

What is the differentiation between Pix4d, DroneDeploy and FPV Camera? What makes one better than the other at processing our images and creating the 3D models?

Is there any difference at all in the quality of the output or are they all using the same photogrammetry libraries under the covers?

It seems unlikely that so many different companies have just coincidentally come out with this software nearly simultaneously. The code and math that processes the images must be very complex. I would find it hard to believe that 3+ companies were all working on it in parallel and finished at roughly the same time.

But I don't know....so this is a genuine question. Are all of these companies equally capable of creating the 3D models or is there a difference in quality/resolution/processing speed between them? If they're all equally capable from a model generation standpoint - then I guess we would just evaluate and select one over the other based on price and other features.

Does anybody know who has the best algorithms for model creation?

 

[Dronason]

What is the differentiation between Pix4d, DroneDeploy and FPV Camera? What makes one better than the other at processing our images and creating the 3D models?

Is there any difference at all in the quality of the output or are they all using the same photogrammetry libraries under the covers?

It seems unlikely that so many different companies have just coincidentally come out with this software nearly simultaneously. The code and math that processes the images must be very complex. I would find it hard to believe that 3+ companies were all working on it in parallel and finished at roughly the same time.

But I don't know....so this is a genuine question. Are all of these companies equally capable of creating the 3D models or is there a difference in quality/resolution/processing speed between them? If they're all equally capable from a model generation standpoint - then I guess we would just evaluate and select one over the other based on price and other features.

Does anybody know who has the best algorithms for model creation?

Now idea who is the best, I have seen results by professional use with an Inspire of Pix4D and it was amazing, as the cost , that's not for private. There is a free version but I am trying now to see how the "free" result could be a real use or only just viewed on screen.
I think they seems to come out at same time due to availability of high resolution camera at reasonable price and the interest of public from "drones" in general. At least Pix4D were already working since some time with Parrot, Phantom 2 and Inspire. When I bought my Phantom 3 last year it was not supported. Pix4D is a startup at an university campus from 2011 in Switzerland, so they didn't come out just recently. For the others, I don't know.

 

[kmz]

What is the differentiation between Pix4d, DroneDeploy and FPV Camera? What makes one better than the other at processing our images and creating the 3D models?

without forgetting to mention Altizure, which seems really good as well, but yeah that's totally my question as well, I guess the best thing to do is to make a test with a lots of sets including oblical and side shot of a structure or a neighborhood for instance, and then comparing the output between what seems to be the main 4 i've heard the most

btw does anybody know if I can merge the inside shots (overlapping pictures taken by the drone in my hand at the same pattern) with the outsides ones?

 

[Tenly]

without forgetting to mention Altizure, which seems really good as well, but yeah that's totally my question as well, I guess the best thing to do is to make a test with a lots of sets including oblical and side shot of a structure or a neighborhood for instance, and then comparing the output between what seems to be the main 4 i've heard the most

btw does anybody know if I can merge the inside shots (overlapping pictures taken by the drone in my hand at the same pattern) with the outsides ones?

As far as merging the inside and outside shots into a single model is concerned - I don't know for sure - but I seriously doubt it.

I've never heard of Altizure, but I'll check them out. I'm hoping to re-shoot the golf course map this week - if I feel energetic, I'll try to run the same source images through all 4 services (if free trials are available) and post all 4 to SketchFab for easy comparison.

 

[Dronason]

As far as merging the inside and outside shots into a single model is concerned - I don't know for sure - but I seriously doubt it.

I've never heard of Altizure, but I'll check them out. I'm hoping to re-shoot the golf course map this week - if I feel energetic, I'll try to run the same source images through all 4 services (if free trials are available) and post all 4 to SketchFab for easy comparison.

Would be really an interesting comparison.