Mesh Resolution & Optimization Questions

[Piminski]

I have a question about mesh resolution. I have done a bunch of testing with various parameters. I understand that 2 is presently the best definition. I wonder if Google does not make public the highest resolution as the mesh does appear to have more detail in Google Earth than what we get in Houdini with Earthmesh (see attached image), is that the case?

On another note I wondered if it was not more optimal to perform some kind of culling before downloading meshes? It does download the entire planet albeit in low resolution which is aweome in some use cases but most of the time its not such a large area that is required. Using box clip and caching works but seems to be an opportunity to reduce the volume of processing.

As always I would like to express my appreciation to David for creating this super useful resource. I wish I had some pyhton skills so I could contribute more substatially.

[xjorma]

Sorry, @Piminski, I was very busy.
There is no guarantee that using the API will provide the same resolution as Google Maps. I thought it did, but I might be wrong.
Also, the "idea" of a max resolution of 2 is more based on experimentation than on a scientific study. The truth is when I coded the plugins I never saw something more detailed than that. But in theory some area could be more detailed.
If you have a specific area,, I can take a look.

[Piminski]

Thank you Daniel.

Upon reflection it really is not a big issue. It works well enough, it was just an observation.