Cesium ion Self-Hosted Updates: S3 Integration, Google and Bing Data Available Through Streaming, and More
We’ve been thrilled with the response to Cesium ion Self-Hosted since its initial release in December – a big thank you to everyone who provided feedback so far. We hope our updates have made Cesium ion Self-Hosted an even more valuable and easy-to-adopt hub for 3D geospatial workflows that leverage the flexibility and power of 3D Tiles. Here are some of the highlights since v1.0.
We’re especially excited to announce that our v1.3 release enables Cesium ion Self-Hosted users to include Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Bing imagery in their workflows and applications. Those of you familiar with this data from our SaaS platform already understand how impactful it can be. For example, users can include Google 3D cities in their Cesium Stories – no-code geospatial presentations. Or, they can combine Bing Maps Aerial imagery with Cesium World Terrain and their own data to create the foundation for a high-resolution, precise 3D digital twin.
Accessing Google and Bing data is easy – just configure a secure connection between a Cesium ion SaaS account and a Cesium ion Self-Hosted account. Any Self-Hosted environment that can connect to the Web can also stream Google and Bing data with SaaS.
Cesium ion SaaS quotas apply to the use of Bing and Google data with Self-Hosted. Contact your account manager if you need a monthly quota increase.
The hybrid “Web + Closed Network” approach to making Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Bing imagery available in Cesium ion Self-Hosted
Customers license Cesium ion Self-Hosted and Cesium 3D Global Content to jumpstart their 3D geospatial projects, and they regularly ask us for access to Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and high-resolution imagery like Bing’s to get them to the finish line more quickly and with high visual quality. We’re thrilled to now be able to say “yes” to many of these requests.
Cesium ion Self-Hosted with Bing and Google data assets added from Cesium ion SaaS
Existing customers can get started with hybrid data today by upgrading to Cesium ion Self-Hosted v1.3. Not yet a Self-Hosted customer? Contact us to learn more.
Geocoding is a capability that allows user-entered locations to be converted to coordinates, typically so the user can be navigated to that place. Cesium ion SaaS provides geocoding in several user interfaces.
When Self-Hosted is connected to a SaaS account:
- Geocoding is available in the Self-Hosted user interfaces for Clips, Stories, and the Location Editor for My Assets.
- Geocoding is available through the Cesium ion Self-Hosted API so you can include geocoding features in your own solutions.
Your Cesium ion SaaS quota applies to the use of geocoding with Self-Hosted. Contact your account manager if you need a monthly quota increase.
Self-Hosted v1.2 added clipping, announced previously for use in SaaS. Clips allow users to download 3D geospatial data as 3D Tiles or glTF to add real-world context to streaming or disconnected applications. For example, users can bring their architectural visions to life in offline presentations or keep security personnel safe with disconnected geospatial intelligence while they navigate dangerous situations.
As of v1.2, Self-Hosted users can import source data from Amazon S3 and export tiled asset data to S3, making it easier to integrate tiling into broader workflows and automated processes. See our documentation for more details.
Self-Hosted v1.3 also includes bash scripts for running the tiling pipeline via command line as an alternative to running it in Docker. While Docker is still required, this will be easier and more convenient for users unfamiliar with Docker. See our documentation for more details.
We made multiple tiler updates since December, including:
- Significant performance improvements for the reality tiler
- Point cloud tiling now supports and preserves all point record format field data (metadata). See our blog post for more details.
- Performance and other improvements for the buildings tiler for KML and CITYGML
In addition to streaming Google and Bing data to Self-Hosted, since December, Cesium announced the following new data offerings that can be licensed for use with or without Self-Hosted:
- Cesium World Bathymetry and a corresponding version of Cesium OSM Buildings
- Japan 3D Buildings
- Vexcel 3D Cities
Cesium World Bathymetry
Cesium Japan 3D Buildings - Sapporo City in Cesium for Unreal
Vexcel 3D Cities data of NYC in Cesium for Unreal.
For information on other Cesium ion Self-Hosted enhancements and fixes, see the full Cesium ion Self-Hosted change log.
We’re proud of how valuable our customers tell us Cesium ion Self-Hosted is to their organizations, and we want to continue advancing. Contact us through your account team or on our community forum to let us know about other ways we can improve Cesium ion Self-Hosted.