Blender GIS

In this video I show you how to import a height map and buildings using the brilliant Blender GIS.
You can download Blender GIS here:
github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS
Thankyou to all the OpenStreetMap contributors!
If you'd like to know how to add a texture to the buildings, please see the tutorial here: • Blender GIS - Texturin...
In order to access the 30m SRTM data you need to register with Open Topography and get an API key:
opentopography.org/blog/intro...
Once you have your API key you can add it into the Blender GIS addon preferences and it will be used automatically when requesting SRTM data.

[@BH-dsk]

Tip: If you want an area at the highest resolution possible (zoom level 20), but the area you want is to big to fit in the screen....zoom out until your area fits in the screen, then hit L. This will lock the viewport and now you can zoom into 20 (you wont see it zooming in, but just do it), and you will see it start downloading all the map tiles at Zoom level 20, for your entire area! Then when finished, hit E like in this video.

[@mboyd6]

Cannot recommend this tip enough

[@BH-dsk]

@@mboyd6 Yes it's handy to know. There are probably some limitations with it, in terms of the size of the area. Limitations imposed by either Google or your machine specs. But I have found locking viewport at 17, then zooming to 20, works fine. If I go below 17, it sometimes works, sometimes crashes Blender. If I need an area that big I just do it in sections, and join it together later in Blender (Core i7 laptop, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD).

[@mboyd6]

@@BH-dsk Yea that's what I was thinking with doing it sectionally. I went as low as 22x zoom but I didn't see much if any difference in quality after 20x. I managed to cover quite a bit of land thanks to this technique so I won't have to stitch planes together as often. I'm trying to recreate my town and surrounding suburbs so I can put it into a game I play and I needed high quality reference images to go off of

[@BH-dsk]

@@mboyd6 I am doing the same. Currently waking around in UE5 with a M16 in my own virtual town :D

[@akash_4769]

thanks man always thought of it

[@MrNajeebnajjar]

I'm a C4D user and guess what, after this video i just convinced the whole team to convert to blender!

[@Asirus70]

ahahahaha nice fucking job

[@grimnott]

Likely a very welcome change! :D

[@silencethequiet]

What a great man!

[@emperorezekiel378]

You're doing the Lord's work right here, mate!

[@xforcen233]

I was just thinking if there's a similar tool for c4d XD

[@thesteaksaignant]

That makes flight simulator 2020 even more impressive. Being able to automate this kind of process and produce decent results worldwide is almost unbelievable

[@jimj2683]

AI is going to take this much further in the coming years.

[@pirobot668beta]

I did something like this 20+ years ago: USGS data massaged into a file format that POV-Ray could digest. Most of the time went into writing the macro to convert the files. Now I'm running Blender 2.90 and life is getting better all the time!

[@dansinn]

Nice

[@hossamsa4205]

@D.A. Botos (United States Geological Survey)

[@TheVeganMantisGuy]

Wow, I had no idea GIS and Blender were compatible. This is mind blowing! GIS is really unstable software, so being able to just import it into a free program like Blender is an absolute game changer!

[@pepperkake5052]

"SRTM unavailable above 60 degrees north" *Sad Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Russian and Canadian noises*

[@ayylmao.mp3]

noooo

[@Zeriel00]

*oof noises xD

[@TheBcoolGuy]

fuck

[@pepperkake5052]

@@Zeriel00 oof thanks

[@ketse89]

🙁 * sad noise from Finland *

[@mirage3rd]

Wow. Forty years ago, all that was very sensitive military technology used for terrain-matching guidance. Aside of a relatively small number of people, nobody knew what DTED (digital terrain elevation data) and DFAD (digital features analysis data) was. And now, we (including me) can use it at home. Thanks for the tip

[@alph4b3th]

You made my job easier, I was modeling buildings manually and it took a long time, I loved this tutorial. I'm from Brazil and I haven't found a Brazilian tutorial as good as yours. Thank you so much.

[@ionaralois5545]

Me too. I'm from Brazil and this tutorial is Very good. Congratulations for the criator.

[@Bylov6812]

Lmao, all the good stuff is in English.

[@hcgul06]

Is there a languge called Brazillian? I thought you guys spoke Portuguese..

[@kpatel54321]

Me too. This is nice tutorial. I have also seen interesting one at youtube.com/@SelfStudyTutorials under GIS playlist.

[@KilnFirelink]

This is great, thank you for making the video I never knew you could do something like this, I have been slowly building a map of my town in blender for like 3 months now

[@killspiritproject]

Why am i watching this? Im not even a 3D animator. But the video is good i think i learned something

[@MidnightSt]

Please give a followup after 5 months. How has that turned out for you? In my personal experience, starting to use blender was akin to a manually-powered rollercoaster: the initial learning curve was like having to push the whole train to the top of the main hill by yourself, but as soon as you get used to the control scheme and the basic shortcuts and the existence of (oh my god the best thing in the world) the spacebar menu/search, suddenly you're breezing through the work and all of the modelling becomes 10-30x faster and smoother than in any other modelling tool. What's yours experience, and the experience of your team?

[@killspiritproject]

@MidnightSt Ok, my answer is not what you expect. I got this video in my recomendations when I was searching for VJ Loops, I don't even have blender haha. Sorry dude, I might try it in the future

[@laurenpinschannels]

@@killspiritproject it's free! you can just download it and do the tutorial. you don't have to become a 3d animator, being in the habit of doing random tutorials will give you powers

[@tommeegunn9318]

@@MidnightSt going to have to try out the space bar, just waiting for the data to for the map to load :)

[@larrote6467]

I think its way more useful for urban and transport planners than to animators. I'll still keep using other software like civil3d and qgis, but damn with this I could rapidly create sketches that clients will love

[@RetroPlus]

Great, finally I can effortlessly make cities

[@kokorobertco]

I might recommend watching some Ian Hubert.

[@salvadorarreolarodriguez6165]

@@kokorobertco OMG!! TNX!!!

[@HagenvonEitzen]

@@kokorobertco and add some moths for realism

[@4TH4RV]

@@HagenvonEitzen also don't forget a banana

[@Ponlets]

i did this for seattle and the space needle is just a cylinder lol rest of the simple buildings look solid enough tho lol

[@jendabekCZ]

lol!

[@rigomortisfxstudios]

it would not work on LOL space needle or even san francisco transamerica ! thing that tall only small stuff

[@Ponlets]

@@rigomortisfxstudios its not height thats the problem its the complexity of the objects i can go to the Burj Khalifa and it works fine but is just a cylinder thats a "mile" high

[@eggheadusa9900]

Your profile picture is haunting

[@EvanG3D]

I go to read the comments and I see you here. Small world haha

[@weeliano]

This is a super add on! Great intro video about its capabilities!

[@jonathanleverdesigner]

This is a treasure finding this video. Big thanks for uploading this. This is exactly exactly exactly what i needed this past week. You have no idea how useful this is. Golden, big thanks.

[@SteveSiegelin]

I've been using blender for years and I didn't know about this one add-on being free! Thank you this is going to help a lot!

[@emmanuelgonzalezcaseira9141]

Dude, this add on is amazing :o, it can work wonders with just a lot of things besides video games. Well, you just gained a new sub.

[@ArchitectEnterprises]

Just the perfect plugin for indie developers to have city maps in their games!

[@coolcat-nq4mj]

Indian developers? It already exist it's msfs

[@IAmVarious]

@@coolcat-nq4mj What he means is that smaller companies or individuals who create games as hobbies and such now have a resource to add a map into their game based on a real life location rather than spending years minimum trying to recreate it themselves lol

[@cmonbruh637]

@@IAmVarious we know, he was joking

[@IAmVarious]

@@cmonbruh637 Ya never know man

[@keithmanfredi]

Beautiful. Around 4:08 it is like a slice of something organic or an organic circuit board of sorts. The way the roads cut through volume of the buildings is great.

[@MrDukkee]

Thanks a lot mannnn! This is one of the greatest tips. Short with great info! I just downloaded the Blender from this Video and the plug-in and follow your steps. It takes just like not even 3 min to process all this thing (in the small study area) Subscribed and I am looking forward to the more awesome video of yours!

[@SimonZellox]

This is absolutley insane

[@RobColbert]

First video of yours I've seen. I instantly felt like you needed more subs. I subscribed.

[@benwitte928]

Wow I’ve been trying to figure out shapefile imports to blender for so long, and have even tried and failed to figure out blender GIS (import was confusing). This is fantastic, thanks a million for the tutorial!!!

[@BrianOlsonPhotogent]

The number of tutorials I have seen on how to use Blender GIS, and you are the first, literally, the first I have ever found, that mentions using the "G" key to search for a location. In other tutorials, the search box just pops up with no mention of how the got it. THANK YOU!

[@prochitecture]

Try also blender-osm addon mentioned in the beginning of the video. It's free and much more powerfull in processing OpenStreetMap buildings. Get it at gumroad.com/l/blender-osm.

[@M4rt1nX]

I've been thinking about a project for a wile now and this video just pop up in my feed. What a marvelous coincidence. Or not?

[@tiredlocke]

Or did you just start thinking about such a project because Google began giving you subtle nudges by presenting bits of information here and there? Hmmm.

[@moontrooper2587]

tiredlocke Me and my friend talking about how to weaponize chlorine: Google: “Hey, there’s a sale for a 4-gallon drum of chlorine not even 5 kilometers from your current position!”

[@aguywithlaptopand3dprinter]

introducing, google mind reader

[@glynnvaughan6503]

I use Blender very regular and must say this is one of the most impressive parts I have seen from it. I only have 2 questions, What version of blender are you using? And what kind of specs on a Desktop/Laptop do you need to run it? Thanks for the video BTW :)

[@justusgronts3882]

I have tried to keep up with high tech for the last 7 decades, but never stop getting gob smacked at new tech. Thanks! I needed that!

[@SkySprice]

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. Thanks

[@kevinflorenzdaus]

I wonder how you could integrate routing in this ? or export that into executable / standalone application ? looking forward to more of your content - Subscribed !!

[@L3G4TUS]

You have to export an Model to your Software with the precalculated ND and than just adjust your routing

[@rdpvader]

This is absolutely amazing! Thanks for the tutorial!. I have one question though...is it possible to export this map and use it in ArcMap?

[@Pecomica]

very impressive. As a GM who run my own homebrew, this will allow me to make large cities and settlements easy. And to look like they make sense. Awesome find. Thank you.

[@pencilbender]

We need more gms like u

[@Louis_H_]

This is really cool, as an architecture student this will come in really handy for working on elevations and on random terrains, thank you so much!

[@akio_1400]

hiii,do you how can i import this to skp?

[@Ben_CY123]

Amazing add on!

[@roelfminnaar4048]

this is great i used to model everything from scratch but this is just a few clicks

[@thelemoneater]

I've been messing around with this for a bit, it doesn't really work for smaller towns, not being able to recognize quite a lot of houses, but thats to be expected with a satellite image of a middle of nowhere town. For big cities like new york or tokyo it works like magic, I could imagine 5 to 10 years from now running a single script, it scans and builds a map like this, but also compares the scale and silhouette of the buildings to a library of skyscrapers and streets and swaps out the blocks with high resolution buildings.

[@codyh2720]

Why have I only now found your channel?? Your content is amazing!!

[@saeedcg]

now see i can animate in peace now, you just need to do a tutorial about interiors in houses and im good to go to create my 2f animation without worring about making a 3d,love that thanks bro

[@Unknown_being69]

Darn this a game changer i now could make my own city gonna enjoy try many thing with this 😁 Edit to say :Thanks for let me know about this

[@mr.amazinggaming1153]

THANK YOU!!! I've been looking for something like this!!!

[@c.jchannel7926]

Damnnnnn.. This is what i looking for from a long time ago.. I'm glad this come out of nowhere on youtube.. Thank you sir..

[@LudovicoDev]

hmm so with this plug-in i can recreate my original town in GTA good good

[@bl4ck1911]

someone should make a quick tutorial: your city in gta fast ahah

[@qwertz1370]

@@bl4ck1911 ian hubert could probably fit that in a one minute tutorial

[@TheBenTonks]

Same thoughts here haha

[@shannonbrown7016]

Not going to happen ever lol. I think a rock on the ground knows more than you about 3d modeling.

[@daedalus6433]

@@shannonbrown7016 Not very cash money of you to randomly insult someone for no reason and with no benefit.

[@unuau9393]

when i am generating buildings, etc, error appears: Overpass query failed what do i do?

[@ytytiuiu2590]

That's super brilliant I never imagine doing such thing in blender, it was my dream to create such thing even before I start using blender .

[@AleLGB]

This is brilliant! Is that also possible to import textures as well?

[@007krut]

Это очень круто,всегда думал как они делают все эти города,думал они вручную делали здания.

[@terraflex]

большенство может так и делали, но 3Д не стоит на месте В)

[@mugsy8]

amazing. I sat here for 10 minutes to work out that I could only say... amazing. great job to addon creators.

[@DavidSykes3D]

Wow! Yes incredible! Thanks so much for sharing this.

[@masterneme]

So it's free but what's the license? Can I use any of this commercially?

[@bradleyboxer]

Looks like it's licensed under GPL 3.0 - github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/blob/master/LICENSE

[@1ns4n3ed]

@@bradleyboxer but it is still using google maps and not quite sure about the licensing for using google maps

[@ayylmao.mp3]

(not a lawyer) gpl3 applies to the use of the source code of the addon, not to the products created with the tool, those are yours to keep. However you'll need to look into the licences of the map datasets, before you can use those. I know at least the Google Street view images are limited in use. If anyone has looked into this further, please comment further.

[@dreamsof3dspace555]

*curious*

[@HagenvonEitzen]

@@1ns4n3ed If I didn't misunderstand it, in this demo video, the photographic base image was Satellite imagery (but (c) Google? it appears you could start off with a different choice) and not really "there" any more in the final scene; the elevation data is from NASA surveys and therefore PD, I suppose; and the buildings are based on openstreetmap and quite ... open

[@didur62]

I'm having trouble installing mine it never shows up like at 1:00 where I can click the box. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also thanks for making this video dude! It has opened a world of ideas for me lol.

[@samwincester3379]

Import it from Zip

[@didur62]

@@samwincester3379 Thanks Sam! I figured that out eventually. Thanks for still trying to help an old comment tho! Have a good one!

[@TheSentientCloud]

Been looking for something like this for years!

[@sim-racing-game-2b]

a big thank you for this tutorial which will help me a lot to start modding specials for the rally.

[@Nicker911911]

"Overpass query failed, ckeck logs for more infos. " this mistake appears after my attempts to get OSM data. For different locations and scales. Logs are clear btw. Could you help me with that?

[@adamkoubek7576]

Same issue, did you ever figure it out?

[@kaymous870]

@@adamkoubek7576 samer

[@gunertzwolowski4840]

when i want to mark 3d view: BlenderGIS I am getting an syntaxerror: invalid syntax

[@lucasnogueirajanuario6581]

i love you, i was trying to do this for a long time, thank you so much!!

[@PerpetualPot]

I can't tell you how cool this is!

[@Nicko16]

If you would like to add textures to your buildings, please see the tutorial here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmfcoaukjtmfZsk

[@benjaminmorgan1087]

when i install it nothing happens or it will just open the zip :/ any suggestions

[@sebastianmunoz8635]

Hi! Do you recommend some specifications from a notebook, like video or core? Can I do this shit gtx1050 4gb and i5-8000? I'm looking for come tips to buy a notebook Thanks

[@austrianadventures4226]

cash folder

[@obadaobaid]

Can i use it to create a game ? Or will be punished, if I use it in my game?

[@audacityfilmsproductions5334]

What about keeping the elevation of the basemap?

[@gower1973]

Hey I tried this addon but when I import the heightmap its really low res and looks stepped, any way to fix that?

[@Fafhrd42]

It's using SRTM data, which is 30m resolution. Each pixel of the height map is 30 square meters of real world space. It'd be cool if it could be set up to use the same sources as terrain.party, which pulls from a bunch of different things.

[@1thatman1]

yeah the data itself is lowres so you are kinda stuck with it. unless you get a couple of references and get your hands dirty sculpting terrain. Have Fun :D

[@tiggerbiggo]

Couldn't you just subsurf?

[@technotechmusic]

@@tiggerbiggo Subsurf would probably just make it smooth and rounded.

[@Fafhrd42]

After messing around with the plugin I figured out that the big reason the SRTM is stepped is because the plugin doesn't turn Interpolation on in the settings for the texture datablock. If you turn it on it smooths out the height transitions nicely. To further improve it you can edit the plane and do some loop cuts to get it to even squares, and then subdivide it a few times so there's more geometry for the subsurf modifier that gets added when you use the get SRTM function to work with. You're still ultimately limited by the low resolution of the height map, but it'll give you much better results.

[@rathemoor5712]

The ingenuity and skill of some people is mind blowing. Referring to the people who made this addon.

[@prochitecture]

By the way Blender-OSM addon mentioned in the beginning is free now and available at gumroad.com/l/blender-osm.

[@NicolasSouzaNCS_ofc]

man.... give my hand...YOU.,. ARE.... A LEGEND!!!!! RESPECT++

[@sleepless9994]

1:07 hiding your hentai folders I see you

[@over8124]

Some people don't like showing all of their folders to 800k people for some reason

[@Jonathan-tw4xm]

@@over8124 it's a joke 🤣🤣🤣(dont take it too seriously)

[@cloud1928]

If you slow down the video, you can see them

[@g-gnome505]

"No imaging library available. ImageIO module was not correctly installed." How could I fix this?? Edit: Getting a better internet connection seems to have fixed the issue for me

[@Epic_Duck]

talk to linus tech tip

[@phynx1756]

Google is your friend Edit: well not really but they can help.

[@wisdomcube7789]

Same here do you have solution now?

[@prochitecture]

You might want to try blender-osm addon. Its base version is free now and doesn't depend on external libraries. Get it here gumroad.com/l/blender-osm

[@RishikeshDubey99]

Does anyone still know the solution

[@j.m5888]

Great and simple tutorial, many thanks!

[@neppoj2871]

You're a legend!!! This is just what I needed!

[@benstofly]

dont work for me :'( i have nothing loading

[@onprint4868]

amazing!, I just miss the textures for the buildings 😑👍

[@AdrienTriangles]

reproject from your selection^^

[@MatthewDragon]

@@AdrienTriangles how?

[@MatthewDragon]

@@AdrienTriangles how?

[@salmoonlol3831]

yeah how

[@onprint4868]

@@AdrienTriangles there is no side view from the buildings, so proyection jus could be from top view.. am -I wrong?

[@dace.digital]

So helpful! This is a great add on!

[@PKPorthcurno]

All that from a single download (Blender GIS)? That IS incredible. Thanks for the video!

[@prochitecture]

By the way Blender-OSM addon mentioned in the beginning is free now and available at gumroad.com/l/blender-osm.

[@Delenfer]

I get "Overpass query failed, ckeck logs for more infos. " Dunno, what's wrong(( The system is quite powerfull, so it's not about computer. Any ideas anyone? ((

[@adamkoubek7576]

Same, every figure it out?

[@Delenfer]

Adam Koubek nope, not yet unfortunately ((

[@Delenfer]

@@adamkoubek7576 It works only through direct import of OSM-file, however. But you have to go to OSM site, select the area, export it to osm-file and then import it using this addon in Blender

[@adamkoubek7576]

@@Delenfer I was able to generate the height map but buildings, etc. gave me the error. I later tried it on my machine at home, and it works fine so might just come down to lack of power on my work computer

[@Delenfer]

Adam Koubek i tried it on i9 GTX1080ti 32gb memory - and it gave me error(( I doubt that computing power is relevant here( must be smth else

[@khantzawhtet6896]

Hmm is that mean I can simulate North Korea"s hidden nuclear base.

[@plo173]

This gives me lot of ideas. Thank you.

[@GilbertCarrizales]

Going to give this a try, it actually looks a lot easier than using the OSM add on.

[@MrXSharing_is_caring]

Thankx man this add-on helps alot specially for site plan

[@jeffg4686]

Wow, this is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[@mayankjoshi2076]

Thank you very much, helped a lot, keep making these tutorials

[@JasonPurkiss]

worked for me thanks, had to do one OSM selection at a time but after that all good thanks

[@HandlebarOrionX]

This is pretty friggin rad and will be great for indie devs

[@2ndanijyan]

何て事をしてくれやがりまして有難う！

[@oreocatcat]

Now with this i can create any world race track, thank you so much

[@karlnigan]

Wow extremely useful to design quick maps

[@sklefngfdml]

This is incredible. Thanks for the info.

[@prithvib8662]

Phenomenal work.

[@freddyfredrickson]

That's cool. Thanks for telling us about this.

[@maurianobaruso5859]

Are you Kidding Me!?!? Amazing

[@3dprintservicearnhem157]

Thanks Nicko16, realy nice addon. Thanks for the tip !

[@droneqld]

Absolutely Brilliant! Thanks!

[@hamrockvonschrnemark3119]

So this has been in my recommended for half a year now. I study Geoinformation. This Semester I have a course where this will come in EXTREMELY handy. So thanks youtube for being so annoying with your recommendations I gues... And you for your video :D

[@aednil]

that is quite mind-blowing!

[@lordkiller977]

Subscribed. Blender never stop surprising me. ( an Ex Maya user )

[@TimMoran1973]

I live in Las Vegas. I can’t wait to try this. 😀

[@alternateperspective5]

U ROCK MAN!!! CHEERS FOR THE VIDEO, U DESERVE A NOBLE PEACE PRIZE

[@hanakamil5593]

Wow this is awesome!

[@elvin.masmaliyev]

That is awesome .Thanks!!!

[@freeju2001]

Man! this one is amazing !

[@Blackmankingvideos]

This is wonderful.Thank you

[@dwon7781]

WOW! Thank you for the video.

[@ArtwithAmarBrisco]

Thank @Nicko16 for sharing this I used this plugin before in the past in 2.79, but I didn't get all of the same results.

[@yuryeuceda8590]

Absolutely amazin. Love it

[@norbertdrage]

Kudos to you, Nicko16! Wow, I think it's an especially awesome video. And as unusual a question as it might be, how do you think this particular workflow would work as a CPU benchmark? I've just watched a 3990x review video, very interested to see how a different CPU would handle the workload.

[@Vivek599sAdventures]

Exactly something that i was looking for ... OSM stuff...

[@notmdd]

i was literally right about to add buildings to the map i was making, thank god i found this before i did anything other than finish the roads

[@adolforosado]

Great video, I build sceneries for Xplane, this helped me tons.