About the new cities details update in EarthToMC v1.7

Recently I've been working on an important update of the details of the cities, trying to maximize the use of informations from OpenStreetMap: this update is also the first development of cities details since the very first release of EarthToMC

Since in OpenStreetMap, in certain cities, complex buildings are composed of multiple parts, I've developed a new method for the rendering of the buildings which outperforms the current simple rasterization method based on applying the maximum building height for every part of a specific building

This allows for massive improvements of buildings shapes and heights, as you can see from those examples:

Colosseum - Rome, Italy

Castel Sant'Angelo - Rome, Italy

Milan Cathedral - Milan, Italy

The update also adds new elements in the maps, such as:

• Walls, barriers, city walls, fences, gates

• Paved surfaces

• Street lamps

• Pedestrian crossings

• Piers and breakwaters

• Traffic lights

• Meadows and gardens

Single trees located where they are in real life have been improved compared to last version

Burnham Harbor - Chicago, USA

The White House - Washington D.C., USA

Grant Park - Chicago, USA

Bridges in Rome, Italy

Train Station in Milan, Italy

There's still margin for optimization, on the next updates I'll focus on:

• Including building roofs shapes

• Using different materials for certain types of buildings

• Including bridges and tunnels

• Make it possible to have the buildings empty inside

• Adding all the missing buildings in OpenStreetMap using Microsoft Buildings Footprints (microsoft/GlobalMLBuildingFootprints: Worldwide building footprints derived from satellite imagery)

The update will be released in v1.7-alpha1 today for Map Lover Tier subscribers. It will be available for Top Tier subscribers in v1.7-beta at the end of the month