I am currently trying the Map Engine Beta, I have put through a map that I had already done before having access to the Map Engine and it done a much better job. I am just wondering if anyone knows of or if it is possible to add ground taken images with Geotagging to slightly enhance the textures on any buildings or tall structures when generating the 3D Model. I have seen there are some apps for doing so on the iphone but just wondered if this would be enough or if anyone could recommend a camera that would be good. Manily thinking of this for smaller maps but could be used on large construction sites for progress models.
On a related note … I would love to be able to upload a set of georeferenced images to create those wonderful annotation markers with image attached.
That functionality would be most useful for some quick crop-scouting by the UAV pilot while still in the field. That imagery would not need to be included in the batch of images for the ortho stitching, but as separate individual up-close plant shots.
In addition to smartphone-geotagged pics, I would also capture those with the DJI GO app
@Kingston - We’ve actually seen some negative effects from taking ground-based images, as it ends up ghosting trees/cars/bushes onto the sides of the buildings because of the low perspective. I would encourage the use of oblique images. Please see our guide here: support.dronedeploy.com/docs/capturing-oblique-imagery
@Maakusi - great idea. I’ll put that into the annotations product roadmap to add the annotation to where the image is.
Thanks for the answer. I had a go at doing the Oblique images but don’t think I have mastered it just yet as when I uploaded all the images through the Map Engine Beta is just created a very distorted map. Think too much sky was shown in the images at 45 degree angel, I shall have another go the weekend and see what I can get. On a side note, I notice when you upload data from the Map Engine Beta it seems to make a bigger map than the previous way did, this is great and I can crop these to make them a more uniform shape, once cropped though the 3D model is still in the original shape, is there a way to then apply that crop on the Orthomosaics to the other maps for that flight, or an option as to which maps you wish the crop to apply to.
@Kingston - we’re very easily able to crop the 2D data as it’s being served from our servers, and we can do some pretty phenominal just in time processing. the 3D stuff is more challenging, but we’re working to enable something exactly like that.
If you’re looking at editing the 3D models before we get a chance to implement it, there are a few opensource tools (like Blender) which you can use to do this editing locally.
Hey @Jono, Thanks for coming back to me, the cropping tools you have are great and I can import this into a 3D Package for cleanup as well as any cropping that may be needed, was just wondering if it was something that you guys may consider adding as an online feature in the future. So far the Map Engine works great, I shall hopefully be back out the weekend to try some more Maps and see how it gets on.
Will be giving this 3D Model with Oblique images another try as I am determined to get a good result from that.
Awesome - the docs I sent are a good reference point - the important thing is to capture the NADIR imagery as well as the obliques. Pure obliques are really tough to stitch from - but provide great data to fill in the blanks.
