3DVIA®

A new release of the Live Maps service is now public and the centerpiece is a much improved “Version 2″ view of several top cities including Las Vegas.  The version 2 update features cities with many more modeled buildings, higher resolution textures, and rendered trees!  Other cities with a version 2 spruce up include Dallas, Denver and Phoenix.

It’s amazing – click on the image to zoom into the improved 3D Las Vegas.

Also featured in the update…an improved Virtual Earth – 3DVIA.  Some of the new enhancements include lighting for contributed models, creation of preview thumbnails when you save a model, and much faster publishing when using high resolution textures.  To try it out while in Live Maps, switch into 3D view, right click where you would like to add a building and choose ‘Add 3D model’.

Other key updates for Live Maps include:

• Export Your Collection to Your Navigation/GPS Device
• The Ability to Add Labels for Birds Eye Imagery
• 1-Click Directions (They call it Party Maps!)
• MapCruncher Integration!…MapCruncher is a tool for registering your raster maps to create map tiles for mashups. You can now add your MapCrunched layers to Collections
• “GeoWeb Exploration”…”one of the largest stores of local content on the web”
• Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS….very cool feature allowing to subscribe to local updates of a given geographic area!
• Tour Enhancements Including Hi-Def Movies
• Directions and Traffic Enhancements
• Improved Display of KML Files Including Google MyMaps Links

There is already some buzz for the update from around the blogosphere including:

• Live Maps hits us with a big release
• New Live Search Maps is Live
• Microsoft Introduces Tool for Avoiding Traffic Jams
• New Live Search Maps is Live
• The New Maps Is Live
• The New Release of Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D is now Live!

Congratulations to the Live Maps team!

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