UPDATE - July 2024 - I can confirm this is working with: Blender 4.1.1 RenderDoc 1.31 MapsModelImporter 0.7.0 Elie Michel has instructions on Github: github.com/eliemichel/MapsModelsImporter
I tried everything, but it's still give me error. I am sure there is something wrong during the capuring process. I tried to import a samples file, and it works perfectly fine. Is the a way you can help me with it?
In newer Versions (>1.13) you have to enable File-> "Inject into Process" by going to Tools-> Seeings-> General "Enable process Injection" (at the bottom)
For those who can't get Chrome to pop the PID window, you have to close Chrome and end all the chrome tasks in your task manager, THEN run the shortcut. Also, DO NOT open Chrome, close the PID window and THEN inject, do it like he does, inject with the PID window open and the press OK
@@pushthedesign I don't doubt that they have a copyright on the data, but I'm allowed (legally, if not in accordance with TOS) to screenshot whatever copyrighted material I want on the web and do stuff on my computer with it as I please. If I publish/distribute it in a non-fair-use manner, then I'm violating the law (possibly). It may violate Google/Chrome's TOS to intercept the Chrome-downloaded 3D model in this way, but that action alone isn't illegal. (Again, AFAIK.)
@@pushthedesign yes I read that even using photogrammetry, I have for personal use used stuff like 3Dzephr and Meshroom and Google Earth and Streetview images to create pointclouds of local buildings, but the TOS is pretty clear, I have done it mostly just as a guide for scale and dimensions if I want to try and model something and texture with my own photographs, note to others, any photogrammetry depends entirely on the terms of the images used ie photographer's permission, you could use it to capture in game scenery too via screenshots and just as illegal, intercepting openGL data like RenderDoc does adds another layer of illegality to that even as would violate the use of the software you are capturing from on top of using images.
It is. There used to be a program that would copy Google Earth maps to your local harddrive, not even the 3D stuff, just the street maps and satellite images. And Google shut it down, said it was because the data on Google Earth is not actually theirs, that they source it from various outside sources which they rent it from. So it's kind of understandable that they don't want to lose trust with their sources, even though I think it's ridiculous that someone can copyright and sell an image of my house.
I think it might be. It's basically ripping content from proprietary sources. Even if you don't use it commercially it still might be illegal. Think of ripping music that is copyrighted. You might not have any commercial intention of selling that music and only enjoying it for personal use...but you've still stolen the content.
@@marcd7332 maybe for strategy games, like 3d animation of battle, that happends in some way regardless of your commands. Like europa universalis, crusader Kings, europa universalis. If these maps doesn't take much memory, you could do real 3d animations for large amount of points of map.
this is like the 4th tutorial I watch, and youre the first person who actually undestand that explaining something doesnt mean leaving important steps out and let me figure it out. really couldve saved me some rage
if you are getting "invalid rdc capture" error while importing the .rdc to blender I believe it's a problem of not matching versions of blender and renderdoc I had this problem at first but after changing render doc version it worked fine. I am using blender 2.82 and renderdoc 1.6 the Maps models importer I am using is 0.3.5 (didn't have to change it)
@@asem452 I'm not sure, but i think that before you inject readerdoc, you need to wait like 30 seconds for google to open a non responding window. Then you inject and click ok. And then to import in blender, you have to have a completely empty scene, and most of the time itvwill import without errors
I'm gonna import my home town into Unity have a little virtual walk in there, since I really miss it :') And then I'll blow it up. Thanks for the tutorial!
Have you noticed the resolution you get from this process is very low res/low poly? A family member assigned my a design job for her backyard, so I used this thinking, voila, easy peasy, barely an inconvenience, and nah ah, it's so low poly, I can use it, but for measurement only. If only we had access to the real data like the corps and military does. Dare to dream to use data for non-hostile purposes. Can't have that.
@@KKovacsUSN, I tried the google earth data rip, and the resolution is really bad, at least for my backyard previz for my families redesign...maybe REALLY big wouldn't be noticeable. If only we could get the stuff the military uses, now I can make art with that!
@@jeffspinner6579 The closer you zoom in, the higher the quality it will be. It extracts the data that Chrome uses too. The data logicaly gets lower res to save performance when zoomed out further.
@@davidmitterrutzner6392 I can't, when I use him, he open and it close, I tried with 1.81 but when we put the extracted map on blender 1.81 nothing happen
That tutorial was top class it's been years since I used any of this, but I still understood everything instantly. Thanks for making it short and to the point.
Heyy Nicko, i have been following your tutorial to the letter, but after putting the PID, connection established, I go to chrome and press ok on the dialogue box, but nothing happens, chrome doesn't open in debug mode. Might you have an idea or fix for that?
Hey Jean, check your directory folder because Nicko's chrome is in Program Files (x86), mine was in C:\Program Files so my text i tweaked a bit and looks something like this: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "SET RENDERDOC_HOOK_EGL=0 && START "" ^"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe^" --disable-gpu-sandbox --gpu-startup-dialog" this worked for me.
Fantastic! Finally got it to work. Initially I couldn't get the PID number window to pop up. After reading the trouble shooting guide by Élie, I realized I have other instances of Google chrome on. After turning them off in Task manager, I got it to work. This is a great tool to extract geo data!
An awesome Tutorial: Blender 3.1.2, MapsModelImporter v0.5.0 rc1 and RenderDoc v1.20 worked perfectly for me. Don't forget to make Tools-> Settings-> General "Enable process Injection" and if you have trouble with import to blender. Retry 3D creating in RenderDoc.
All fine up till at 2:18 press OK.Opens a google window but no de-bug stuff at top of google.Can't go any further.I"ve tried it 10 times.Same thing happens.HELP!!
Hi. After injecting the procces correctly, when i close the small chrome pop up with the number, the tab in RenderDoc which shows the injection process closes as well. Why does this happen?
Just an FYI, I had an issue whereby I couldn't capture using RenderDoc - it was because I had hardware acceleration turned OFF in Chrome, hope this helps!
This is the first tutorial I have understood mostly because it's also THE ONLY TUTORIAL IVE FOUND IN ENGLISH!! Thanks for this though Edit: also if you have trouble at the shortcut part, go to program files and find the Google folder copy and paste that into programfiles x86
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
Man, the 15th time was the charm. I used google *maps,* stirred the alchemy cauldron and it worked. I was running out of vicious names to name my files for each attempt after the 6th one. I was gonna say, yo' wtf! I both want to thank you and give you a finger (not like a buggery finger, or something I'd do to a partner, so don't worry), so take which ever part you want. I definitely got my money's worth and more...
My renderdoc seems not to want to successfully inject itself into chrome no matter what. I have chrome opening with the pip window and have renderdoc picking up the process, and i have to input a new number and hit ok about 3 or 4 separate times before it loads into chrome, but once chrome opens there is no renderdoc console info in the top left nor is there the option to capture in renderdoc (it is greyed out). I tried downgrading my chrome version and that's not changing anything, and the earlier renderdoc version (tried 1.9) seems to not want to open at all. Anyone else having an issue like this?
If you have error when import file into blender, downgrade renderdoc to 1.9 in my case this error happen when I import file into blender be with 1.10 version of renderdoc
This is very promising...but like many others, I have trouble making it work. RenderDoc 1.9 is installed, and I am able to inject it in the google GPU process using the PID from the dialog. (I do get the "Connection status : Established" message in RenderDoc) So far so good. But once this is done, Chrome opens a new page where it only says "Page unresponsive". If I click ok on the PID dialog, Chrome just open a new dialog, with a new PID, and the connection between RenderDoc and Chrome is lost... Anyone has any idea ?
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
Thank you for making this incredibly helpful tutorial. I have 2 questions: 1. What is the best way of doing large scale areas while still having good quality models and textures? 2. Is there any way to accurately geo-reference the capture to specific co-ordinates?
@@andreybushev3020 osm is autogenerated, google earth is actual satellite data, but osm consumes way less polygons than earth, but you would need to get a workaround for textures
I'm not getting the 2-window "GPU" pop up... I have Chrome closed and I'm still seeing Chrome.exe files when I refresh... and I'm not getting the pop-up to put into render doc...
Just want to throw this out there. If Blender is saying your RDC file is invalid make sure you're using RenderDoc 1.10 and not 1.11. It's written in the requirements for Maps Models Importer v0.3.5 - RC but if you're like me and just installed the most recent version of everything, that could be your issue.
When I start up chrome through the new desktop shortcut I made and modified, it opens the dialog box with the "PID" number, but it also just opens a normal chrome window. So not the temporary blank application shown in the video. After injecting the window with the given PID number on render doc, it never shows the 3D map on the program. And my chrome doesn't have the debug text on the top. Why doesn't my chrome open up in the correct mode?
copied from another comment: "If your chrome browser does not show your PID number, hit ctrl+shift+esc to open task manager. Then click on chrome and end task. Now try and open the shortcut."
@@zyweii Check you got the right path to your chrome folder in the properties of the desktop short cut you pasted! My chrome was located in Program Files(x86) instead of the Program Files that was in the path I pasted. Got it to work eventually
@Niusa Ha, then i think we don't got the same problem. My problem is that Chrome doesn't seem to start in a debug mode, and therefore is working with RenderDoc. I got the PID right and input it in the RenderDoc app, but i can't ''record'' the map. I wonder what i did wrong 😅
@@zyweii yeah, that's exactly what happened to me, i tried out that suggestion from another comment and suddenly it worked. Before I'd get the PID, click OK, and chrome would start like normal without being in dev mode. Afterwards, everything stayed the same except chrome opened in dev mode instead of regular
Hi Nicko16, I was able to capture and save a map after following your video tutorial. But when I opened the saved .rdc file in Blender 2.8.3 there was an error message that I was using Google Earth instead of Maps etc. Si I tried to open Google Map after the command shortcut to follow the message and navigate to a map location. However, when I open RenderDoc, the Chrome PID Tab to display the "Capture Frames Immediately" is no longer shown in the Interface. Instead a "Launch Application Program" Tab appears where an Executable Path, Working Directory, Command-Line Arguments with an empty fill-in box is presented. How do you input data on those blanks so I can capture what is shown in the Map? Better yet, how do you get the Capture Frames to show in RenderDoc?
I've been trying to make this plug in work for a while now, and I simply couldn't get a capture. Because of the layout of keys and who knows what else. my laptop simply wouldn't capture when I tried to time the Capture Screen buttons and wiggle the screenview at the same time. Your suggestion, which was new to me, of selecting the Immediate Capture option in RenderDoc absolutely sorted that out, got me a viable capture, and now the MMI plugin has imported it to Blender apparently without a hitch. Thanks so much!
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
@@star_king4855 I think for me Google Chrome was doing some weird thing where some of it was in Program Files but some of it was in Program Files (x86). I copied all the files over from one to the other and that did fix something at the beginning of my process...
When I click ok from the "Gpu starting with pid: xxxx" window, the chrome [PID xxxx] tab disappear from render doc. So I can't the API to be active. What should I do?
I can't get passed the process injection because Render Doc keeps disconnecting the pid every time I click ok to the pop up window. Has anyone found a work around this?
Hi Nicko 16, I getting this message after inserting amendments to Properties target - Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe. Make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again. Any Ideas ?
Okay, after a few attempts it did work for me. Blender 3.6 and RenderDoc v1.16 with Version 0.62 of the plugin here. Things I noticed: - The Chrome injection didn't work every time. Once it was working, I just kept that browser open while I tried different things. - Don't click okay on the PID dialogue until after you have started the injection. - I loaded my chrome profile, using a guest profile didn't have 3D maps active, I couldn't be bothered finding out why not? - I used a time delay of 5 seconds for the capture, then wiggled the maps around for at least that long. - First attempts I think sort of worked, just didn't capture any 3D data. (not many Draws and Colour Passes in the event browser) In blender, this was the non-result some people have mentioned. - Second last attempt captured a little 3D data, not much and low quality. - Last attempt I turned that map around and around all different angles for a good number of seconds. Finally that got a good (well as good as it gets) 3D model.
So I did this once before and it went off without a hitch. but now went I click the "OK" on the Google Chrome GPU window, a new window with a different number pops up, Chrome doesn't launch (either in debug mode or normally), and RenderDoc closes the newly created tab for the that particular Chrome session.... Anyone have an idea of what might be wrong here? Using RenderDoc 1.28. EDIT: figured it out. Apparently RenderDoc 1.13 is the version you're supposed to use. Switched to that and it worked
It worked! Thank you. I had some issues with google chrome not showing the PID. Make sure chrome isn't running in the task manager (ctrl+alt+delete). I then had an issue with invalid RPC. Make sure this is on Blender 2.90 and is using RenderDoc 1.10 (Not the latest version!)
Really really cool. Gotta make sure everything is compatible. I had to use x64 version of RenderDoc because Chrome is apparently x64 now. I used Blender 2.93.8. Maps Model Importer was v0.4.0. RenderDoc was version 1.18. A note on RenderDoc... I had to edit the settings/prefs to allow for process injection. You have to enable it and restart the program to use that option under the file menu. Got it to work though! Amazing solution!
I didn't get it to work, google won't launch in debugging mode and that makes the injection process stop every time I press "ok" on the popup window with the id number
@@DimeF1 Yeah I'm having the exact same issue. Checked the github and it seems that the creator of Render Doc is a massive autist because he keeps closing any Q&As asking about this issue. Something to do with it being used for illegal activities...
I get the following error when injecting, any help would be great: "Error kicking capture Error injecting into process XXXX for capture. Process is incompatible. Check the diagnostic log in the help menu for more details"
Hi! I have the same error as you. In addition , I noticed that I don't have the black overlay on the top of the chrome window. Did you find a solution? Thank you very much!
*HELP!* at 1:50 when I double click the shortcut it says "Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'. make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again."
tried this but when i tried to launch the modified Chrome shortcut (followed all the steps correctly), it literally does nothing. what could be wrong? tried it with the latest chrome.
Hey Mark, Reign and Matt. I had the same problem as you did. I tried the following which worked for me: 1-After installation and creation of the chrome shortcut reboot the pc. 2-Make sure the first time you open any internet browser is using the modified shortcut. Only then the additional window with the PID number opens for me. To do so I used my phone to follow the tutorial. So I didn't have any other chrome process opened. Let me know if this is of any help.
Also check the install location of Chrome when you copy and paste the code. If you have installed this into a different location, the code in the description looks in the wrong place.
Sadly it doesn't work anymore. I've tried all fixes but as soon as I press "ok" the entire process restarts of me finding the code and injecting it. If this isn't the care, help is appriciated.
Brother, I wanna only say... I love you... srsly... I have been working for one of my projects for about 3 month in which I want a 3d model of google earth real data but unfortunately... there is no such tutorial on youtube which work perfectly.... either there was some texturing problem or some modeling problem... But now because of you, I have finally got the best process complete my project otherwise I had given up...... Thanks a lot, buddy thank you very very very much..... ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Do you wanna try portland bill lighthouse next and share it, I tried using this hard for me to follow I want only the light house but it also captures the surrounding area and have no idea how to just cut out the lighthouse to place in micrsoft 2020, maybe you c0uld do a video how you did it
@Clutchy Gaming sorry I'm really not good with English and video tutorial. But you can start from this video and after you can use this tutorial ruclips.net/video/uhUyIZyLeew/видео.html But is near impossible to have just a building, or object. I'm sorry
Hi! I am trying to follow the method, but I just found trouble after writing the text line in the shortcut of chrome. When I click on it, it only opens a normal window and not a second one with text. A frind of mine has tried to by his own and same resulto. Do you know what are we making wrong? Regards, and thank you
@@leonespinosa843 Es que tienes que tener cerrado Chrome. Yo lo tenía abierto porque estaba viendo este tutorial así que tuve que abrir el video desde otro navegador para que no afectara el Chrome
So close....When I attempt import into blender I get an error: RuntimeError: Error: Cannot read 'E:\Blender Files\blender tutorials\Google Maps capture\gas2-qenaka7\gas2-00000-texture.png': No such file or directory location: :-1 I have a gas2-qenaka7 directory but the only files in it are .bin. Is there a setting in renderdoc that I'm missing to download the texture?
@@MarvelousMediaEngine Thanks. I'll try it again - however the one I tried seemed to be more zoomed in than the example shown in the video: drive.google.com/file/d/1ODFY1tTcpqCyW5x0zA2keS-hOcF6E7S8/view?usp=sharing - update I tried it again zoomed in as far as google maps would go - same issue.
Chrome problem . (using 64bit version) When i confirm the pid i got a new one , confirm 2' and got a 3' and then a 4' finaly chrome start but .... 3d view is not available :-(
This is amazing. Big next question, Is it possible to pull higher resolution textures? It seems like getting closer is an option, but is there a way to grab a large area and maximize resolution ?
Confirmed working with Blender 2.93 + RenderDoc 1.13 x64 + Google Chrome x64, so long as you adjust the directory of the Chrome shortcut. You may have to zoom into the area you want to capture first, so that the hi-res meshes & textures load.
I tried Blender 2.93.6 + RD 1.13 + Chrome (x64). Everything is fine until importing in blender: I get version compatibility error though all versions should fit. Upd. RD 1.16 helped with Chrome
Every time after I inject and press OK on the message with the inject number, I get this error message: "NOTE: Injection must happen immediately after the process starts, before any graphics API has been initialized". Someone please help. I'm following the exact steps shown in the video. What am I doing wrong? It was working the first few times I tried it, however all the "Tools" buttons under "Launch Application" were grayed out Update: Fully close any Chrome that is opened before opening your edited shortcut of Chrome. This fixes the issue
that same message is even in the video. and is just there to mention that you need to inject first, before you click okay on the small window with the number
@@angeloplus4 Yeah the problem was that you have to fully close Chrome for this to work. Apparently I had Chrome opened in the background. After I closed it I followed all the steps and everything worked like a charm
Works like a charm. - I’ve tried to clean up the mesh, remesh it and bake the textures back on it. No success. Those blocks are really messy. Someone got an idea how to convert the data to something useful?
![Google Maps to Blender - 2023 WORKFLOW [NO BS GUIDE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hrDW0Gh0tx4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Google Maps to Blender - 2023 WORKFLOW [NO BS GUIDE]](/img/tr.png)
UPDATE - July 2024 - I can confirm this is working with:
Blender 4.1.1
RenderDoc 1.31
MapsModelImporter 0.7.0
Elie Michel has instructions on Github: github.com/eliemichel/MapsModelsImporter
I tried everything, but it's still give me error. I am sure there is something wrong during the capuring process. I tried to import a samples file, and it works perfectly fine. Is the a way you can help me with it?
why do you pin this if you know your info is wrong, it does not work and contradicts the github instructions. You made me waste time.
It does still work with:
Blender 4.2
RenderDoc 1.34
Maps Models Importer v0.7.0
What about blender 4.2
@@Michael-rk8cl works will
In newer Versions (>1.13) you have to enable File-> "Inject into Process" by going to Tools-> Seeings-> General "Enable process Injection" (at the bottom)
Are you using Maps Models Importer 0.4.0 with RenderDoc 1.14?
@@knight2255 exactly
Thank you!
A lot of thanks
Thanks a lot man! You help me and many other out.
For those who can't get Chrome to pop the PID window, you have to close Chrome and end all the chrome tasks in your task manager, THEN run the shortcut.
Also, DO NOT open Chrome, close the PID window and THEN inject, do it like he does, inject with the PID window open and the press OK
Thanks
love you bro. saved me
This is so incredible it feels illegal.
@@pushthedesign AFAIK, violating TOS is not illegal (in the US). Using that data to in turn infringe on copyright would be against the law.
@@pushthedesign I don't doubt that they have a copyright on the data, but I'm allowed (legally, if not in accordance with TOS) to screenshot whatever copyrighted material I want on the web and do stuff on my computer with it as I please. If I publish/distribute it in a non-fair-use manner, then I'm violating the law (possibly). It may violate Google/Chrome's TOS to intercept the Chrome-downloaded 3D model in this way, but that action alone isn't illegal. (Again, AFAIK.)
@@pushthedesign yes I read that even using photogrammetry, I have for personal use used stuff like 3Dzephr and Meshroom and Google Earth and Streetview images to create pointclouds of local buildings, but the TOS is pretty clear, I have done it mostly just as a guide for scale and dimensions if I want to try and model something and texture with my own photographs,
note to others,
any photogrammetry depends entirely on the terms of the images used ie photographer's permission, you could use it to capture in game scenery too via screenshots and just as illegal, intercepting openGL data like RenderDoc does adds another layer of illegality to that even as would violate the use of the software you are capturing from on top of using images.
It is. There used to be a program that would copy Google Earth maps to your local harddrive, not even the 3D stuff, just the street maps and satellite images. And Google shut it down, said it was because the data on Google Earth is not actually theirs, that they source it from various outside sources which they rent it from. So it's kind of understandable that they don't want to lose trust with their sources, even though I think it's ridiculous that someone can copyright and sell an image of my house.
I think it might be. It's basically ripping content from proprietary sources. Even if you don't use it commercially it still might be illegal. Think of ripping music that is copyrighted. You might not have any commercial intention of selling that music and only enjoying it for personal use...but you've still stolen the content.
Imagine how much easier it will be to recreate real-life locations in games like BeamNG. Thanks for making this tutorial!
This works more like a background than something you could drive on, textures are very low resolution and the meshes are awful, unfortunately.
GTA 6 Developers should do this 😂
@@2225_club lol yess
@@marcd7332 maybe for strategy games, like 3d animation of battle, that happends in some way regardless of your commands. Like europa universalis, crusader Kings, europa universalis. If these maps doesn't take much memory, you could do real 3d animations for large amount of points of map.
Overgrowth
Tip: If you're using 2 or more monitors Chrome and RenderDoc need to be in the same monitor.
thanks!
I'm a architecture student doing 3D Archviz with blender. Man this is extremely helpful. God bless you man really
Can you help me with a project please. I have an image of a piece of land that I need to transform. I can send you the image
I haven't tried it yet, but I just wanted to add that this tutorial is perfect. Straight to the point, high quality and good explanation. Thanks!
this is like the 4th tutorial I watch, and youre the first person who actually undestand that explaining something doesnt mean leaving important steps out and let me figure it out. really couldve saved me some rage
Someone has to make grand theft auto google maps
I already have :)
yes
Well first would have to be able to make it work on blender...
@@MyRagingMonkey what game did you use to import the map?
@@MyRagingMonkey where?
you have one of the best tutorial flows and voices out there - cheers mate
This is a game changer.... thanks so much..... infinite amount of racetracks coming up....
if you are getting "invalid rdc capture" error while importing the .rdc to blender
I believe it's a problem of not matching versions of blender and renderdoc
I had this problem at first but after changing render doc version it worked fine.
I am using blender 2.82 and renderdoc 1.6
the Maps models importer I am using is 0.3.5 (didn't have to change it)
Holy shit thank you so much it worked!!!
Update: It only worked once and then back to the error...
@@DanceOfJesus you are welcome!
actually, I've used it only four times and all the trials went well, but I am not using it any more at the meantime.
@@asem452 I'm not sure, but i think that before you inject readerdoc, you need to wait like 30 seconds for google to open a non responding window. Then you inject and click ok.
And then to import in blender, you have to have a completely empty scene, and most of the time itvwill import without errors
I'm not getting an error on mine, just when I import my .rdc, nothing happens. Like nothing at all happens.
I'm gonna import my home town into Unity have a little virtual walk in there, since I really miss it :') And then I'll blow it up. Thanks for the tutorial!
lmao....i was thinking exactly the same....#quarantine_sad_life
@@rajivpokharel88 yyeah, man... at least it gives more time to learn stuff like that!
How did you do that?
@@sdach3sach167 just import the model into unity and then add a 1st person character controller.
I mean, cant u just use google maps
Quick and to the point. The way tutorials should be! Thanks a bunch!
I'm about to drop a meteor on my home city Haha :D, nice tutorial, a fine addition to my collection
Is the meteor the size of a virus?
Have you noticed the resolution you get from this process is very low res/low poly? A family member assigned my a design job for her backyard, so I used this thinking, voila, easy peasy, barely an inconvenience, and nah ah, it's so low poly, I can use it, but for measurement only.
If only we had access to the real data like the corps and military does. Dare to dream to use data for non-hostile purposes. Can't have that.
Get the google earth data for crater lake and mix them together, lol.
@@KKovacsUSN, I tried the google earth data rip, and the resolution is really bad, at least for my backyard previz for my families redesign...maybe REALLY big wouldn't be noticeable.
If only we could get the stuff the military uses, now I can make art with that!
@@jeffspinner6579 The closer you zoom in, the higher the quality it will be. It extracts the data that Chrome uses too. The data logicaly gets lower res to save performance when zoomed out further.
I watch this video three times a year. Works every time
it worked!! MapsModeImporter 0.5 + RenderDoc 1.19 + Blender 3.4. Thanks a lot!
Is the topology/textures better by using those, compared to older versions of any such software?
How if RD doesnt allow for inject? Thanks in advance
すごすぎます！！！
さっそく試してみます！！！
Thank you! Been fighting with this a while now. Your simple example/explanation of changing the executable has saved me. Brilliant
It didnt work with RenderDoc v1.12. but it did with v1.9
Can confirm as well. Using Blender 2.9.2 and the MapsImporter v0.3.7
@@Nicko16 hello I've problem, I have RenderDoc v1.9 and maps models importer v0.3.7 and blender say me there is problem with versions
Yes. Confirmed as well. Thanks so much Bennilava and David!
@@davidmitterrutzner6392 I can't, when I use him, he open and it close, I tried with 1.81 but when we put the extracted map on blender 1.81 nothing happen
Thank you so much
This is awesome. Thanks so much.
For anyone following in 2022, I didn't want to use Chrome for this, but successfully used Vivaldi.
That tutorial was top class it's been years since I used any of this, but I still understood everything instantly.
Thanks for making it short and to the point.
i think it doesnt work anymore :(
I´m trying but it just reloades and you have to constantly inject.
Great short tutorial I ever seen, thanks a ton.🎉
Now this is how tutorials should be made. Thank you sir!
This is absolutely revolutionary
Heyy Nicko, i have been following your tutorial to the letter, but after putting the PID, connection established, I go to chrome and press ok on the dialogue box, but nothing happens, chrome doesn't open in debug mode. Might you have an idea or fix for that?
Hey Jean, check your directory folder because Nicko's chrome is in Program Files (x86), mine was in C:\Program Files so my text i tweaked a bit and looks something like this:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "SET RENDERDOC_HOOK_EGL=0 && START "" ^"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe^" --disable-gpu-sandbox --gpu-startup-dialog"
this worked for me.
Fantastic! Finally got it to work. Initially I couldn't get the PID number window to pop up. After reading the trouble shooting guide by Élie, I realized I have other instances of Google chrome on. After turning them off in Task manager, I got it to work. This is a great tool to extract geo data!
This is a great tutorial and a new method for making terrain I haven't seen before, thank you!
An awesome Tutorial: Blender 3.1.2, MapsModelImporter v0.5.0 rc1 and RenderDoc v1.20 worked perfectly for me. Don't forget to make Tools-> Settings-> General "Enable process Injection" and if you have trouble with import to blender. Retry 3D creating in RenderDoc.
All fine up till at 2:18 press OK.Opens a google window but no de-bug stuff at top of google.Can't go any further.I"ve tried it 10 times.Same thing happens.HELP!!
same
Google version 0.96 added a debugging thing that makes it so you cant take models this way. too many people using this for illegal things.
very useful i had no idea it was this easy
Hi.
After injecting the procces correctly, when i close the small chrome pop up with the number, the tab in RenderDoc which shows the injection process closes as well.
Why does this happen?
Came here for the scale issue, left with Inject into Process answer as well. Thanks!
Just an FYI, I had an issue whereby I couldn't capture using RenderDoc - it was because I had hardware acceleration turned OFF in Chrome, hope this helps!
This is the first tutorial I have understood mostly because it's also THE ONLY TUTORIAL IVE FOUND IN ENGLISH!! Thanks for this though
Edit: also if you have trouble at the shortcut part, go to program files and find the Google folder copy and paste that into programfiles x86
And Boom, the magic happened. direct to the point thank you sir
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
@@star_king4855 your chrome was installed in a different file
It'S very incredible what Blender can do today.
Man, the 15th time was the charm. I used google *maps,* stirred the alchemy cauldron and it worked. I was running out of vicious names to name my files for each attempt after the 6th one. I was gonna say, yo' wtf! I both want to thank you and give you a finger (not like a buggery finger, or something I'd do to a partner, so don't worry), so take which ever part you want. I definitely got my money's worth and more...
Google Chrome pid number does not appear, I wonder why? Thank you.
Thanks for this dude, got it working in about an hour :) Very pleased with the results!
My renderdoc seems not to want to successfully inject itself into chrome no matter what. I have chrome opening with the pip window and have renderdoc picking up the process, and i have to input a new number and hit ok about 3 or 4 separate times before it loads into chrome, but once chrome opens there is no renderdoc console info in the top left nor is there the option to capture in renderdoc (it is greyed out). I tried downgrading my chrome version and that's not changing anything, and the earlier renderdoc version (tried 1.9) seems to not want to open at all. Anyone else having an issue like this?
same
Quick n straight to the point. Thank you for that.
If you have error when import file into blender, downgrade renderdoc to 1.9 in my case this error happen when I import file into blender be with 1.10 version of renderdoc
Thank you!! I have been looking for a solution for over an hour and it works.
Thank you !
Thank you so much!
Thanks man. YOu are my hero
I am having the import issue with 1.9
Thank you for this video, only one I've watched that actually worked.
Exactly what I need to learn during this quarantine period.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Now I can drive around my city (Unity)
This is very promising...but like many others, I have trouble making it work. RenderDoc 1.9 is installed, and I am able to inject it in the google GPU process using the PID from the dialog. (I do get the "Connection status : Established" message in RenderDoc) So far so good. But once this is done, Chrome opens a new page where it only says "Page unresponsive". If I click ok on the PID dialog, Chrome just open a new dialog, with a new PID, and the connection between RenderDoc and Chrome is lost... Anyone has any idea ?
Looks incredibly useful, lets hope Google doesn't figure out a way to stop you from doing this any time soon.
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
Make sure your chrome is in Program Files and not in Program Files x86
Thank you for making this incredibly helpful tutorial. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best way of doing large scale areas while still having good quality models and textures?
2. Is there any way to accurately geo-reference the capture to specific co-ordinates?
@Abbe Ilias Engers do you have a link ?? where can I find this ?
Same question, will be so good !
blender-osm
@@thodorisefstathiou6894 osm is worse than google tho
@@andreybushev3020 osm is autogenerated, google earth is actual satellite data, but osm consumes way less polygons than earth, but you would need to get a workaround for textures
Done, done, and done! This is VERY cool! Salute to Élie Michel
Getting this error. Also when I try to open the application after pasting into properties, the the Chrome GPU wont show up.
please help
me too..
@@artee232 Same here, cannot find file location...
Closing chrome fixed that for me
I'm not getting the 2-window "GPU" pop up... I have Chrome closed and I'm still seeing Chrome.exe files when I refresh... and I'm not getting the pop-up to put into render doc...
i have the same issue, what should i do?
Just want to throw this out there. If Blender is saying your RDC file is invalid make sure you're using RenderDoc 1.10 and not 1.11.
It's written in the requirements for Maps Models Importer v0.3.5 - RC but if you're like me and just installed the most recent version of everything, that could be your issue.
When I start up chrome through the new desktop shortcut I made and modified, it opens the dialog box with the "PID" number, but it also just opens a normal chrome window. So not the temporary blank application shown in the video.
After injecting the window with the given PID number on render doc, it never shows the 3D map on the program. And my chrome doesn't have the debug text on the top.
Why doesn't my chrome open up in the correct mode?
copied from another comment: "If your chrome browser does not show your PID number, hit ctrl+shift+esc to open task manager. Then click on chrome and end task. Now try and open the shortcut."
I'm having the same issue D: i think its the new version of chrome that makes it impossible, as it ask for a user before launching...
@@zyweii Check you got the right path to your chrome folder in the properties of the desktop short cut you pasted! My chrome was located in Program Files(x86) instead of the Program Files that was in the path I pasted. Got it to work eventually
@Niusa Ha, then i think we don't got the same problem. My problem is that Chrome doesn't seem to start in a debug mode, and therefore is working with RenderDoc. I got the PID right and input it in the RenderDoc app, but i can't ''record'' the map. I wonder what i did wrong 😅
@@zyweii yeah, that's exactly what happened to me, i tried out that suggestion from another comment and suddenly it worked. Before I'd get the PID, click OK, and chrome would start like normal without being in dev mode. Afterwards, everything stayed the same except chrome opened in dev mode instead of regular
Nice Tutorial! I like your style and speed to explain all that.
the next thing Elie Michel must do is extract flight simulator 2020 data
OSM buildings exists
@@artiew8718 but there are other handcrafted buildings that don't exist
hello good video, what graphics card do you use?
Hi Nicko16, I was able to capture and save a map after following your video tutorial. But when I opened the saved .rdc file in Blender 2.8.3 there was an error message that I was using Google Earth instead of Maps etc. Si I tried to open Google Map after the command shortcut to follow the message and navigate to a map location. However, when I open RenderDoc, the Chrome PID Tab to display the "Capture Frames Immediately" is no longer shown in the Interface. Instead a "Launch Application Program" Tab appears where an Executable Path, Working Directory, Command-Line Arguments with an empty fill-in box is presented. How do you input data on those blanks so I can capture what is shown in the Map? Better yet, how do you get the Capture Frames to show in RenderDoc?
I've been trying to make this plug in work for a while now, and I simply couldn't get a capture. Because of the layout of keys and who knows what else. my laptop simply wouldn't capture when I tried to time the Capture Screen buttons and wiggle the screenview at the same time. Your suggestion, which was new to me, of selecting the Immediate Capture option in RenderDoc absolutely sorted that out, got me a viable capture, and now the MMI plugin has imported it to Blender apparently without a hitch. Thanks so much!
Can you please help me? every time I open the google chrome it says "Windows cannot find "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application". Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again", what am I supposed to do?
@@star_king4855 I think for me Google Chrome was doing some weird thing where some of it was in Program Files but some of it was in Program Files (x86). I copied all the files over from one to the other and that did fix something at the beginning of my process...
Хороший аддон! Использовал в 3d презентации...
Process still working as of Oct 2023 using
Blender v3.6.5
RenderDoc v1.25
MapsModelImporter v0.6.2
Can you still confirm this? Because when I try to import to blender it imports one little strange surface and nothing more.
I did everything, the connection is enstablished, but in the end, the capture frame cannot be done, its gray, and no API is active
When I click ok from the "Gpu starting with pid: xxxx" window, the chrome [PID xxxx] tab disappear from render doc. So I can't the API to be active. What should I do?
He made an city, I'm still in donut
I also started with a donut bruh
@@usamazaheer9194 nope.... not me.... these googlemap is my first trial using blender...mando u got these wrong....
I too working on Donut
"Capture Frame(s) Immediately" button is greyed out even though my connection is established. Any idea what to do? No thumbnail captured, just blank.
I can't get passed the process injection because Render Doc keeps disconnecting the pid every time I click ok to the pop up window. Has anyone found a work around this?
Eh got the sol?
Google version 0.96 added a debugging thing that makes it so you cant take models this way. too many people using this for illegal things.
Hi Nicko 16, I getting this message after inserting amendments to Properties target - Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe. Make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again.
Any Ideas ?
Try deleting " (x86)"
type in a different chrome.exe location you can find it by right clicking on the google chrome shortcut that got created on your desktop
Whenever I press ok, the "chrome [PID12345]" tab goes away on RenderDoc and chrome does not say "in debugger mode". Help!
Same problem, can anyone help?
same
Okay, after a few attempts it did work for me. Blender 3.6 and RenderDoc v1.16 with Version 0.62 of the plugin here.
Things I noticed:
- The Chrome injection didn't work every time. Once it was working, I just kept that browser open while I tried different things.
- Don't click okay on the PID dialogue until after you have started the injection.
- I loaded my chrome profile, using a guest profile didn't have 3D maps active, I couldn't be bothered finding out why not?
- I used a time delay of 5 seconds for the capture, then wiggled the maps around for at least that long.
- First attempts I think sort of worked, just didn't capture any 3D data. (not many Draws and Colour Passes in the event browser) In blender, this was the non-result some people have mentioned.
- Second last attempt captured a little 3D data, not much and low quality.
- Last attempt I turned that map around and around all different angles for a good number of seconds. Finally that got a good (well as good as it gets) 3D model.
So I did this once before and it went off without a hitch. but now went I click the "OK" on the Google Chrome GPU window, a new window with a different number pops up, Chrome doesn't launch (either in debug mode or normally), and RenderDoc closes the newly created tab for the that particular Chrome session.... Anyone have an idea of what might be wrong here? Using RenderDoc 1.28. EDIT: figured it out. Apparently RenderDoc 1.13 is the version you're supposed to use. Switched to that and it worked
Thank you.
It worked! Thank you.
I had some issues with google chrome not showing the PID. Make sure chrome isn't running in the task manager (ctrl+alt+delete). I then had an issue with invalid RPC. Make sure this is on Blender 2.90 and is using RenderDoc 1.10 (Not the latest version!)
This channel is underrated
I can confirm as of April 25, 2021, this still works, RIGHT ON!
Great video. Thanks for sharing. Is there any way of increasing the distance and resolution of the capture?
Really really cool. Gotta make sure everything is compatible. I had to use x64 version of RenderDoc because Chrome is apparently x64 now. I used Blender 2.93.8. Maps Model Importer was v0.4.0. RenderDoc was version 1.18. A note on RenderDoc... I had to edit the settings/prefs to allow for process injection. You have to enable it and restart the program to use that option under the file menu.
Got it to work though! Amazing solution!
I didn't get it to work, google won't launch in debugging mode and that makes the injection process stop every time I press "ok" on the popup window with the id number
@@DimeF1 Yeah I'm having the exact same issue. Checked the github and it seems that the creator of Render Doc is a massive autist because he keeps closing any Q&As asking about this issue. Something to do with it being used for illegal activities...
I get the following error when injecting, any help would be great: "Error kicking capture Error injecting into process XXXX for capture. Process is incompatible. Check the diagnostic log in the help menu for more details"
I also got the same error
Hi! I have the same error as you. In addition , I noticed that I don't have the black overlay on the top of the chrome window. Did you find a solution? Thank you very much!
This is so cool, works fine. Thanks for that!!
Do I need to have google earth or something downloaded too? I don’t know how you got 3D images from google maps
*HELP!*
at 1:50 when I double click the shortcut it says "Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'. make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again."
Your shortcut directs to “Program files x86” while your Chrome is in “Program Files”
tried this but when i tried to launch the modified Chrome shortcut (followed all the steps correctly), it literally does nothing. what could be wrong? tried it with the latest chrome.
same thing for me
Same for me too
Hey Mark, Reign and Matt.
I had the same problem as you did. I tried the following which worked for me:
1-After installation and creation of the chrome shortcut reboot the pc.
2-Make sure the first time you open any internet browser is using the modified shortcut. Only then the additional window with the PID number opens for me.
To do so I used my phone to follow the tutorial. So I didn't have any other chrome process opened.
Let me know if this is of any help.
Also check the install location of Chrome when you copy and paste the code. If you have installed this into a different location, the code in the description looks in the wrong place.
3min and 50sec of usefull tips ! Thanks =)
Sadly it doesn't work anymore. I've tried all fixes but as soon as I press "ok" the entire process restarts of me finding the code and injecting it. If this isn't the care, help is appriciated.
Getting the same issue
Brother, I wanna only say... I love you... srsly... I have been working for one of my projects for about 3 month in which I want a 3d model of google earth real data but unfortunately... there is no such tutorial on youtube which work perfectly.... either there was some texturing problem or some modeling problem... But now because of you, I have finally got the best process complete my project otherwise I had given up...... Thanks a lot, buddy thank you very very very much..... ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
wow, amazing! with your help i recreated a small town in flight simulator 2020!
Do you wanna try portland bill lighthouse next and share it, I tried using this hard for me to follow I want only the light house but it also captures the surrounding area and have no idea how to just cut out the lighthouse to place in micrsoft 2020, maybe you c0uld do a video how you did it
@Clutchy Gaming sorry I'm really not good with English and video tutorial. But you can start from this video and after you can use this tutorial ruclips.net/video/uhUyIZyLeew/видео.html But is near impossible to have just a building, or object. I'm sorry
Can you help me do something like that?
It's great how fast this tutorial moves, but I feel there's so many places things can go bad during the whole process, lol.
My GPU number did not show why?
@@Mlomat-bi5jp same i will post a fix if i find one
M3lomat 238 Make sure that you close Google Chrome before launching it in debug mode. Otherwise, the GPU number will not show
Your browser shouldn’t be running beforehand, your target location should be correct and the steps need to be in the right order
Hi! I am trying to follow the method, but I just found trouble after writing the text line in the shortcut of chrome. When I click on it, it only opens a normal window and not a second one with text. A frind of mine has tried to by his own and same resulto. Do you know what are we making wrong? Regards, and thank you
me pasa lo mismo, después de modificar el acceso directo me hable una pestaña normal
@@leonespinosa843 Es que tienes que tener cerrado Chrome. Yo lo tenía abierto porque estaba viendo este tutorial así que tuve que abrir el video desde otro navegador para que no afectara el Chrome
Check your target location,
Thx for the really detailed explanation
Is’t a difference to do this in google maps or google earth?
yes, it's only work with google maps as far as I know
Amazing tutorial. Holy grail for us 3D buffs.
So close....When I attempt import into blender I get an error:
RuntimeError: Error: Cannot read 'E:\Blender Files\blender tutorials\Google Maps capture\gas2-qenaka7\gas2-00000-texture.png': No such file or directory
location: :-1
I have a gas2-qenaka7 directory but the only files in it are .bin. Is there a setting in renderdoc that I'm missing to download the texture?
same error to me
Same
same here
Zoom in on the google maps. You may be too far out.
@@MarvelousMediaEngine Thanks. I'll try it again - however the one I tried seemed to be more zoomed in than the example shown in the video: drive.google.com/file/d/1ODFY1tTcpqCyW5x0zA2keS-hOcF6E7S8/view?usp=sharing - update I tried it again zoomed in as far as google maps would go - same issue.
Great Contribution Man! Thanks! 👌🏻🎬🔥
Awesomeness :) I'm sure most of us would be quiet happy if this video took 7 minutes .. what's the rush :) Thanks for sharing this :)
Watch it in 0.5x haha
Chrome problem . (using 64bit version) When i confirm the pid i got a new one , confirm 2' and got a 3' and then a 4' finaly chrome start but .... 3d view is not available :-(
This is amazing.
Big next question,
Is it possible to pull higher resolution textures? It seems like getting closer is an option, but is there a way to grab a large area and maximize resolution ?
same problem
Just do the same exact process but instead of maps use google earth in chrome browser. Not perfect textures but things improve for sure.
@@filippofranchini4338 Thank you so much :D
Wait like 7 years when google scans the earth with 12K cameras
Confirmed working with Blender 2.93 + RenderDoc 1.13 x64 + Google Chrome x64, so long as you adjust the directory of the Chrome shortcut. You may have to zoom into the area you want to capture first, so that the hi-res meshes & textures load.
I tried Blender 2.93.6 + RD 1.13 + Chrome (x64). Everything is fine until importing in blender: I get version compatibility error though all versions should fit.
Upd. RD 1.16 helped with Chrome
Holy crap imagine how fast you could create open world games with this method!
Every time after I inject and press OK on the message with the inject number, I get this error message: "NOTE: Injection must happen immediately after the process starts, before any graphics API has been initialized". Someone please help. I'm following the exact steps shown in the video. What am I doing wrong? It was working the first few times I tried it, however all the "Tools" buttons under "Launch Application" were grayed out
Update: Fully close any Chrome that is opened before opening your edited shortcut of Chrome. This fixes the issue
that same message is even in the video. and is just there to mention that you need to inject first, before you click okay on the small window with the number
@@angeloplus4 Yeah the problem was that you have to fully close Chrome for this to work. Apparently I had Chrome opened in the background. After I closed it I followed all the steps and everything worked like a charm
OMG! what a? Will definitely try it out! Thanks!
I get this message, invalid rdc make sure you are using google maps and not google earth
im getting that to if you've fixed it please tell me how
I have the same problem, could anyone say something about this, please?
I too have this exact same issue
Works like a charm. - I’ve tried to clean up the mesh, remesh it and bake the textures back on it. No success. Those blocks are really messy. Someone got an idea how to convert the data to something useful?
Stay tuned, I'm working on something to this effect.
@@Nicko16 staying here to keep updated
@@Nicko16 i've never used blender, but this is so cool that I will subscribe
@@Nicko16 Nice, The mesh chunks sure are messy to work with as is.