blackshark.ai Supports Cesium’s 3D Tiles Standard

Unveiled at I/ITSEC 23, blackshark.ai is officially supporting Cesium’s 3D Tiles OGC Community Standard. This expands the integration of their detailed 3D global reconstructions, known from Microsoft Flight Simulator, into a broader spectrum of applications via a globally recognized data standard for geo-referenced training, simulation and visualization use cases.

The new export of blackshark.ai’s SYNTH3D as 3D Tiles standard allows for a combination of lightweight, realistic yet simulation-ready data integration, either streamed from servers or self-hosted to all supported runtime engines. The entities believe this marks a significant enhancement, offering users the ease of integrating high-quality 3D models into various platforms and industries.

During I/ITSEC, visitors can experience two ways to integrate the announced 3D Tiles support showcased on a 3D model of the Orlando region.

By combining the blackshark.ai Globe Plugin for Unreal Engine, and providing the according contextual SYNTH3D data with the Cesium for Unreal Engine plugin, streaming can be done in the Google Maps Platform with Photorealistic 3D Tiles. High-precision geo-referencing and the ability to flexibly define exclusion zones in both plugins allow a watertight combination of both datasets.

The second showcase provides the same area of Orlando as SYNTH3D data, exported to 3D Tiles, hosted on the Cesium ion and visualized with Cesium runtime engines including CesiumJS and Cesium for Unreal Engine. This allows integrators to use Cesium ion functionalities, pipelines, and experiences – with the newly available SYNTH3D data. Cesium is facilitating the showcase of SYNTH3D in 3D Tiles on its Cesium ion platform, providing a clear demonstration of how it works in tandem with the blackshark.ai Globe Plugin and Cesium for Unreal.

With a  Series A funding round featured on TechCrunch, blackshark.ai continues to refine its solutions that adeptly transform 2D satellite and aerial imagery into photorealistic 3D environments. These digital creations serve a broad spectrum of uses, from training and simulation to complex visualizations.

SYNTH3D is a core part of blackshark.ai's offerings and is born from the Maxar Vivid 50cm satellite data set to produce a realistic, vectorized, and semantic 3D model of the Earth's terrain. This model combines a global elevation model, fine 50cm ground texture, regional-specific and geo-typical buildings and vegetation. SYNTH3D's utility is already proven, with numerous clients having integrated it within their training, simulation, or 3D globe visualization workflows, leveraging blackshark.ai's software frameworks. The introduction of 3D Tiles support only expands its versatility, allowing SYNTH3D to be hosted, streamed, and integrated across all 3D Tiles-compatible solutions, including Cesium.