The Aerometrex team is excited to announce that we’ve supplied our San Francisco dataset for free to Cesium ion subscribers to celebrate the launch of Cesium for Unity plugin. The newly launched plugin is another major advancement in the gaming and entertainment space and further expands the uses for our 3D reality mesh.
In 2021 we made our Denver dataset available for free evaluation as part of the Cesium for Unreal plugin launch. The San Francisco dataset provides Cesium ion subscribers another city-size model to use in both Unreal Engine and Unity, bringing massive multiscale models to far more users.
Providing more data to Cesium ion subscribers continues our support for the converging geospatial and gaming industries. Game engines are becoming more sophisticated and accessible, with users from diverse sectors now able to harness their immense creative potential. As such, they’re disrupting the traditional uses of GIS data as it’s now possible to ingest massive pre-built datasets to work within.
"Cesium is proud to team up with Aerometrex, who provides some of the best and highest resolution datasets for a growing number of cities," said Shehzan Mohammed, Director of 3D Engineering and Ecosystems at Cesium. "Aerometrex's 3D Cities have helped numerous customers build accurate digital twins on the Cesium platform. With Aerometrex's Street Level captures and upcoming semantic metadata with 3D Tiles Next, the collaboration with Aerometrex will enable the creation of even more powerful solutions with 3D geospatial technology. We look forward to seeing what the community builds with Cesium for Unity and Aerometrex data."
Our 3D datasets bring visual and spatial accuracy at large scale, saving end users from having to generate their environments. Instead, they can ingest our pre-built data and add their own assets. This workflow is already changing how media and visualization companies work and we expect the much wider adoption from the AEC industries, government, and defense over the coming years.
Our multiscale San Francisco model supplied to Cesium ion users features three different resolution areas:
Aerometrex data comes in tiles, allowing users to load specific sections or the entire dataset at once if their hardware is capable of it.
We generate 3D models using advanced aerial acquisition and photogrammetry techniques that extract accurate geometric information from aerial photographs. We create a dense 3D point cloud and then transform it into a fully textured mesh object with precise ground control points bringing high spatial accuracy.
Unity’s rise in popularity is impressive, and the platform now boasts a diverse catalogue from casual to AAA, and even some genuinely world-changing titles. The mobile mega-hit Pokemon Go, cult classic Cuphead, VR rhythm game Beat Saber, and open-world RPG Genshin Impact are all built with Unity.
“The community that Cesium is creating is truly inspiring." said Jeremy Pollard, Head of 3D Sales for Aerometrex USA. "Their technology and open standards continue to unlock new possibilities involving the use of high-accuracy 3D geospatial data in real-time engines and other platforms, and the release of Cesium for Unity dramatically increases the number of people able to access this technology. What better way to celebrate this than by making San Francisco – the home of Unity – available free to Cesium ion subscribers? We’re proud to support Cesium in their efforts and excited to see what the community creates.”
