Replace Google Earth image

bearclaw · June 2009

I'm not sure if I'm remembering things wrong but does anyone know if there is a way to use a custom created world with google earth? With all the features that google earth has, i figured it might be possible to replace the map of the earth (and data) with a Fractal Terrains world and fill in the the data.

not sure if this is possible, but thought if so, someone here might know

Avotas · June 2009

Yes you can.

This works for all versions of Google Earth.

Find a place on the globe you want to add your map

Goto Add -> Image Overlay

Under Link select Browse and select your raster image (jpg, bmp, etc)

Once you do that you will get a green grid on the screen along with your image. If you click the diamond, you can rotate the grid around, if you click on the corners you can scale it, and if you click in the middle you can drag it around. Watch for your pointer to change from the crosshair to the hand when you're hovering over the correct spot!

This grid represents where your final image will be placed, setting the correct scale is tricky. What I do is use the rule tool to drawn a known length that corresponds with the map's scale bar then play with the image until that scale matches up with the ruler line in Google Earth.

Click ok

Your file is saved as a KZM, so it can be shared and emailed to your friends.

Enjoy,

Avotas

P.S. In technical terms, you are georeferencing an image. You're setting a location and a scale, so that allows all of Google's tools to be utilized such as the ruler, screenshot, etc etc etc

bearclaw · June 2009

Wow. that sounds like an amazingly tedious process to replace the world map... Was hoping there was a data file that could be replace. Oh well, guess I'll do it the hard way

Thanks!

Avotas · June 2009

Naw,

Here is an example I just grabbed off the internet. Took all of 5 mins. It's actually pretty easy, but if you like just link the file here and I will send you a KMZ for google earth.

bearclaw · June 2009

So I tried to create an overlay and the darn thing is to tiny it can't be seen! I'll keep playing though. Thanks, this definetly puts me in the right direction.

bearclaw · June 2009

haha! i did it!!! Thanks for the tips. My first try I had the wrong type of image setup. But got it the second time. Now I've got to play a bit more because my overlay is transparent even though I set the opacity to 100%. I must have some transparent colors on my original bmp.
Thanks again! Once I get a workable solution, I'll post the .kmz if anyone wants to have a look.

Avotas · June 2009

If your using a .tif or .tga (or another format that supports an alpha channel) you may want to remove that or swap to something like a JPG.

I look forward to seeing it!

bearclaw · June 2009

It was a .bmp. I'm going to try it with a jpg next.
edit: yep, that was it. jpg overlays the whole earth beautifully. now to see if I can get the bump map to import!!

Avotas · June 2009

I just checked ^^ BMP files do contain an alpha channel when they are set as 32-bit. Odds are that is your problem, sense alpha controls transparency. If you have a photoediting software package I would look at converting your 32-bit BMP to a 24-bit BMP (the extra bits is the alpha, your not going to lose quality) or removing or resetting the alpha channel to white.

bearclaw · June 2009

Here is my first fully successful remapping of Google Earth for my campaign world. I got it to work and now know quite a bit about the whole process. I've tried to attached the KMZ file in case anyone else wants to have a look, but this forum won't accept KMZ files.

So I've attached a screen cap instead.

To see it properly, you need to have ALL the Google Earth layers turned off. Otherwise you'll get political boundries and landmarks showing up. There isn't a lot of detail on this one as it was a test. I'm now working on a detailed version with labels, placemarks and political divisions. But that'll be a large file.

Monsen · June 2009

The attachment doesn't show up. Make sure the image is less than 1024 pixels wide, and less than 1MB in size. If you want to post a larger image than that, you should use an external image hosting service, like photobucket, flickr or similar, and put a thumbnail with a link to the larger image in the forum.

As for the KMZ file, we do accept .zip files, so if you just zip it up and upload it, it should work.

bearclaw · June 2009

Darn it! I keep doing that

Thanks.
Here's an image and a zip of the KMZ file. Thanks again for your help.

Avotas · June 2009

Hey thats pretty cool! Nice work.

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Replace Google Earth image

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