Excellent. 3D models, such as this one of the Aqueduct of Fréjus are appearing in 3D Warehouse with links to Wikipedia, and this means that Wikipedia will soon be linking entries to objects, when relevant. A great idea.
What to do, however, when you want to comment on the object itself? For example, the above-mentioned model disappears underground when terrain is turned on, so it requires a fix. But reporting a “bad item” is a rather heavyhanded response, and it’s not easy to get in touch with the author.
Thank’s for your post, I try to draw accurate 3d models.
The terrain bug for the aqueduct is corrected.
regards
Ha. I guess one way to get in touch is to blog it:-)
I wanted to comment on this topic because I feel it to be one of the biggest drawbacks to used submitted 3D models for GE. When selecting a mode for GE engine to display a model, the clamp to ground option will distort the shape of the model to the shape of the ground. This means that a very useful way of assigning a profile to 3D models cannot be sued without changing the physical look of the desired piece. This is a bit of a hurdle for the 3D Warehouse as without explicit instructions for those submitting data, there can be widespread discrepencies in the way models appear due to vertical exageration and mode for geo-referencing with the ground. Using the relative to ground option would seem to provide an easy solution however with Sketchup as the primary design tool for GE, one would have to design all models on a flat plane to prevent floating models.
Definetely a small but surmountable hurdle on the way to a more user friendly google meta-verse. I would like to suggest that Google and Sketchup create protocols for making models in the 3D Warehouse not just compatible but universally applicable to all options for ground display preventing “bad data” from occuring.