TPE Web 4.5 Beta Now Available

TPE Web
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TPE Web 4.5 Beta 1

The first TPE Web 4.5 beta is now available. The headline feature is a major addition to the 3D First Person View: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles.

Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles
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New: Photorealistic 3D

MAX subscribers can now switch the ground in the First Person View between TPE’s existing modelled terrain/buildings and Google Photorealistic 3D. Use the settings button at the lower left of the /3d page main view, just above the the Google Maps logo in the screenshot above.

Photorealistic 3D uses the same underlying 3D imagery technology and elevation data as Google Earth, bringing real-world buildings, trees, vegetation and rock formations into your shot planning.

TPE’s calculated Sun and Moon positions are rendered directly into this environment, allowing you to explore alignments against a more detailed representation of the real skyline and surroundings.

A new detail setting lets you choose between Performance, Balanced and Highest quality. Be aware that the Highest setting can download several hundred MB of 3D data in detailed locations.

A few important things to bear in mind:

  • Photorealistic imagery represents the location when Google captured it, so seasons, vegetation, buildings and lighting may differ from current conditions. I hope to add support for modified lighting and shadows in the next beta release
  • TPE continues to use its own elevation data for Sun, Moon and shadow calculations elsewhere in the app.
  • Where Photorealistic 3D coverage is unavailable, TPE automatically falls back to its standard terrain.
  • Photorealistic 3D is currently available in First Person View only; the Orbit view is unchanged.

New: Flatten Foreground

Photogrammetry can sometimes represent water poorly, particularly in the foreground, creating artificial lumps or ridges that obstruct the view.

A new Flatten foreground control lets you flatten the nearby photogrammetric mesh to clear these artefacts. Near, Medium and Far settings control the extent of the flattened area.

Because this also flattens genuine foreground objects, it’s intended as a temporary planning aid and resets when the page is reloaded. Use it when you know for certain that you have a clear line of sight that is not reflected in the Google Photorealistic 3D data.

Fixes

  • Improved timeline robustness. Invalid dates or timezone information can no longer cause the altitude timeline chart, or the surrounding page, to fail while rendering.

This is the first public beta of Photorealistic 3D, so I’m particularly interested in feedback on coverage, positioning accuracy, visual quality, performance and data usage, as well as any locations where the automatic fallback to standard terrain doesn’t behave as expected.

Visit beta.photoephemeris.com

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@dsjohnstonwv and @s.zanarello – I’d especially love your feedback on this initial beta for your locations of interest.

Stefano – this is complementary to your requests about elevation data persistence, which I’m also working on in parallel.

Note that Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles DO use Google’s own elevation data, irrespective of what is shown in elevation badge in this beta.

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This is insane! I’m already using it for the 2028 TSE! Thanks!

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@stephen it’s really impressive.

Just 2 things, a bug and a suggestion.

  1. Bug: when I switch to Photorealistic tab, the windows move up, partially out of 3D vindows, so it’s no more possible to go in settings tab

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  1. Suggestion: writings appear located on photorealistic rendering of the building, so the building appear hidden by them. Maybe it would be useful to move wrings just near the building and not exactly on it

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Thanks Stefano – settings issue is address in the second beta, coming shortly. The visual search result text I will look at for the next update.

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TPE Web 4.5 Beta 2

A second TPE Web 4.5 beta build is now available, with further refinements to the new Photorealistic 3D mode.

Photorealistic 3D settings

The 3D settings panel has been simplified:

  • Photorealistic 3D controls are now shown only in First Person View, where the feature is available. In Orbit view, a short note explains this.
  • The data-usage warning is now shown only at Balanced and Highest detail. Testing shows that Performance is substantially lighter on data (around 35 MB in typical tests), so it’s a good option where bandwidth or data usage is a concern.
  • The information shown alongside the Ground selector has been simplified and clarified.

Google Elevation with Photorealistic 3D

Google Elevation can now be selected as the elevation source while using Photorealistic 3D (requires PRO or MAX as before) – please note @s.zanarello and @dsjohnstonwv, per our correspondence on this

Your elevation-source choice is preserved when moving between the map and 3D views, and TPE automatically falls back to its standard elevation data when Google Elevation isn’t applicable.

Improved positioning and loading

I’ve made several changes to how the First Person View is positioned within within Google’s 3D mesh:

  • A fix has been implemented for with Photorealistic 3D tiles were mis-positioned when loaded with a longer focal length selected (thanks for the report @whitacre.rick !)
  • Ground-level detection has been improved, particularly around trees and vegetation, reducing cases where the scene could be positioned incorrectly because the photogrammetry detected the tree canopy rather than the surrounding ground.
  • If it looks like you may be standing on a tree or a buildings, a brief warning is displayed – easiest way to check is to zoom out to a wide field of view and have the camera look down towards your “feet”
  • A new Rendering detail progress indicator appears while the Photorealistic 3D scene is completing its final refinement.

Faster switching between ground modes

Switching temporarily from Photorealistic 3D back to standard Terrain no longer tears down the Google 3D session completely. Switching back should therefore be quicker and more reliable.

I’ve also improved recovery after entering an area where Photorealistic 3D coverage isn’t available.

Other improvements

  • Map attribution now better reflects the data actually being displayed while Photorealistic 3D is active.
  • MAX badges have received a small styling update.
  • Various diagnostics and lifecycle improvements have been made behind the scenes.

As with Beta 1, feedback on positioning accuracy, coverage, loading behaviour, visual quality and performance is particularly useful.

Lighting and shadow improvements still to come.

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TPE 4.5 Web Beta 3

Another TPE Web 4.5 beta build is now available, with two further improvements to Photorealistic 3D.

Photorealistic 3D now responds to the time of day

Google’s 3D imagery is captured under whatever daylight conditions existed at the time of the original survey. Until now, that meant changing the time in TPE to sunset, twilight or night could leave the landscape looking like it was still illuminated by midday sun.

TPE now adjusts the appearance of the Photorealistic 3D imagery according to the Sun’s altitude at your selected date and time:

  • Golden-hour scenes take on a warmer appearance.
  • Twilight becomes cooler and darker.
  • Night scenes are darkened to sit more naturally beneath the night sky.

This is a tonal treatment of the original imagery, not a simulation of new lighting. Shadows captured in Google’s imagery remain where they were when photographed; We’re not attempting to reconstruct how the scene would actually be illuminated at your selected time.

Sun, Moon and other astronomical calculations are unaffected. No simulation of shadows is included in this release (future roadmap).

Improved loading in high detail areas

We’ve also addressed an issue where Photorealistic 3D could become stuck indefinitely on Rendering detail in particularly complex scenes at the Balanced or Highest quality settings.

TPE now detects when the available tile cache can’t accommodate the detail required by the current view and temporarily reduces the requested detail until the scene can load successfully. It automatically returns toward your selected quality level when conditions allow.

We’ve also increased the cache available at the higher quality settings to better accommodate real-world scenes.

Feedback on both the time-of-day treatment and loading/refinement behaviour in complex locations is particularly welcome

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That effect is very nice! Love it

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TPE Web 4.5 Beta 5

Improvements to Visual Search, coordinate entry, 3D terminology and session restore.

More flexible Visual Search display in 3D

In First Person View, the date and time label for the selected Visual Search result can sometimes obscure the very building, ridge or other feature you’re trying to line up against (per report from @s.zanarello)

The label is now clickable: click it to move it from below the search box to above it, and click again to move it back. Your preference is remembered by the browser.

More coordinate formats supported in Search

You can now paste coordinates into Search using:

  • Decimal degrees
  • Degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS)
  • Degrees and decimal minutes

For example, coordinates copied directly from Google Earth such as 37°04'46.97" N 8°40'04.91"W can now be pasted straight into TPE.

The parser also handles a variety of common formatting conventions, including hemisphere letters before or after the coordinates and comma decimal separators.

Simpler Ground mode terminology

The 3D Ground selector now reads Terrain | Photorealistic, dropping the redundant “3D” from Photorealistic.

We’ve also added an About terrain rendering note to clarify the distinction between the two modes:

  • Terrain is TPE’s own rendering of elevation data with your selected map style, with sunlight, moonlight and shadows simulated for your chosen date and time.
  • Photorealistic uses Google’s captured imagery of the real-world environment, with TPE’s astronomical planning information rendered against it.

Fixes

  • Deselected bodies now stay deselected after a reload. In some circumstances, turning off Meteors or another selected body immediately before reloading the app could cause the previous selection to be restored. Session restore now correctly remembers the latest selection state.

As always, feedback on the beta is welcome.

Stephen

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TPE Web 4.5 Beta 6

The sixth TPE Web 4.5 beta build is now deploying, with a couple of smaller 3D usability improvements.

3D settings organization

  • Buildings settings now sit alongside the other ground and terrain controls. The Buildings quality control has moved up from the bottom of the settings panel to sit directly below Terrain quality, keeping related settings together and making the panel easier to navigate.

Fixes

  • Meteor shower radiant markers now maintain a consistent size in First Person View. Previously, using a long focal length magnified the radiant marker along with the scene, and beyond around 100mm it could become extremely large and obscure the view. The marker now maintains a constant on-screen size as you change focal length or zoom.

The Orbit view is unchanged.

As always, feedback on the beta is very welcome.

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4.5 is now released. There’s a What’s New popup in the app with full release details. Thanks for the feedback during the beta!

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That’s a hell of an update!! Love the Photorealistic ground. Awesome!!

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