How do you guys get measures when creating the 3D models.

[DreamSkywards]

Hi,

Indeed, I have been wondering for some time now and wanted to ask the devs. of my favorite rendition of LSGG.

How do you guys measure the height of buildings and such when making the 3D models of your sceneries?

Do you get any help from the airports you are modelling, use Google Earth, both, or something entirely different?

It's easy enough to get the lenghts of buildings and such but, what about the height?

I mentioned LSGG in my opening line as I began modelling the basic shapes (not for a flight simulator but to create renders with them) but it could also be any other airport.

Very easy to model and texture vehicles but when it comes to buildings, I quickly run out of reference.

[virtuali]

Usually by comparison with other elements of known height, like humans, windows, doors, and even length of shadows.

[DreamSkywards]

Usually by comparison with other elements of known height, like humans, windows, doors, and even length of shadows.

Even for your biggest airports? Surprising, and awe inspiring at the amount of work.
Must be also quite hard to make out all the details in what could be major clusterf**** in satellite images.

Thank you for the reply.

This is what I've done until now.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50089896708_842c6ef226_k.jpg

[virtuali]

We always start with the ground, first textures, then markings, etc.

Most scenery projects ends up badly, because they start with the most exciting stuff, like terminals or control towers, then you switch to the "boring" stuff ( ground markings ), realize you made a mistake ( those *must* be utterly precise ), realize you'll likely have to fix all your already made 3d, get frustrated, and abandon the project. Seen so many times for freeware stuff which started with publishing a screenshot of a terminal or a control tower and a "coming soon" comment.

That's why we always start with the boring stuff first ( ground layout ) and then we start the 3d, based on the more precise markings after all satellite images has been cleaned, perspective corrected, fixed, rectified, etc, etc,

[DreamSkywards]

We always start with the ground, first textures, then markings, etc.

Most scenery projects ends up badly, because they start with the most exciting stuff, like terminals or control towers, then you switch to the "boring" stuff ( ground markings ), realize you made a mistake ( those *must* be utterly precise ), realize you'll likely have to fix all your already made 3d, get frustrated, and abandon the project. Seen so many times for freeware stuff which started with publishing a screenshot of a terminal or a control tower and a "coming soon" comment.

That's why we always start with the boring stuff first ( ground layout ) and then we start the 3d, based on the more precise markings after all satellite images has been cleaned, perspective corrected, fixed, rectified, etc, etc,

I see.
I did indeed jump straight into the most exciting stuff as the buildings will be the most visible stuff in my renders, second only to the aircraft.
You can get away to a certain extent with the ground textures/markings, as it will all blend into a gray colour the further it goes anyway.
But buildings and surroundings will still need some detail, even if it's texture only.
I'm also aware I might run into some unexpected troubles so I'm modelling in the least destructive way possible, and keeping backups in folders in the 3D program I'm using (Blender).

For the sat. images, do you only use Google, or also other services?
In my screenshot above you can see stacks of screenshots from the Swiss federal office of topography that I use as guides.