Ovi Maps 3D Goes Live in 20 Countries – More to Come

Ovi Maps received a large update today that pushes the usual flat 2D mapping system in to the world of 3D. The new Ovi Maps 3D is available in 20 countries around the globe and provides realistic skylines of those cities. Nokia has also announced that more cities will be arriving in 3D over the coming months.

Ovi Maps 3D was created by using a system from a company called C3. C3 used camera equipment to capture images of cities from up to 100 different angles. By tracking the data and combining the images, a realistic 3D view of each of the 20 cities was created.

By using the various camera angles to build the 3D models a virtual city is created. To colour in each building correctly, C3 simply drapes the 3D models with the images captured which then makes up the textures of the buildings to give them a more realistic look. We also learn that the same principle is applied to trees, parks and other objects captured on camera.

As well as providing 20 cities to fly around, Nokia Ovi Maps 3D also has street level views in several cities as detailed below:

San Francisco, New York, Miami, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Toronto, London, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Milan, Venice, Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Vienna and more to come. The streets in downtown can be seen in London, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo and Copenhagen.

To get the 3D maps working, visit maps.ovi.com, click the 3D button at the top right of the screen, install the plugin and navigate to one of the cities mentioned in the quote above.

The video below gives a demonstration of what you can expect to see when viewing a 3D enhanced city:

Source: Nokia Conversations

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