3D Viewer Options
Some of the features described in this section are only available to users of the Google Earth EC product. Learn more.
Google Earth provides a number of 3D viewer settings that you can modify, as well as features that you can activate for special 3D display. These include:
To show or hide the 3D viewer toolbar, click Tools > Toolbar.
About Altitude
All altitude and elevation measurements displayed in Google Earth are relative to Mean Sea Level (MSL).
Displaying a Lat/Lon Grid
Google Earth provides a special layer accessible from the View menu that displays a grid of latitude and longitude lines over the imagery in the 3D viewer. To turn on the grid, complete one of the following:
- Select View > Lat/Lon Grid.
- Type Ctrl + L (
+ L on Mac)
The grid appears over the Earth imagery as white lines, with each latitude/longitude degree line labelled in an axis across the centre of the 3D viewer. You can position a geographical feature in the 3D viewer and determine its basic geo-spatial coordinates using this grid.
As you zoom in, the level of detail of the degree lines increases. For example, from an eye elevation of about 100 miles, Las Vegas, Nevada, appears north of the 36th parallel, and just west of the 115th meridian.
As you zoom to an eye altitude of just above 2,000 feet, you can see that the marker for Las Vegas, Nevada, sits at W115 08'11" and N36 10'29".
The grid lines continue increasing in granularity even after you have zoomed past the base resolution of the Earth imagery.
Switching to Full Screen Mode
Note - Currently, this feature is not supported for Mac versions of Google Earth.
You can use the Google Earth application in either window or full screen mode. To enter full screen mode, or to return to window mode from full screen mode:
- Select View - Full Screen from the menu
- Press the F11 key
Switch to full screen mode for the most dramatic display of earth imagery, such as when touring places, or making presentations.
Setting the View Size
Use the View Size options under the View menu to select a number of pre-set aspect ratios designed for best playback modes or printing modes. The selected option resizes the 3D Viewer for the best display for your intended purpose. For example, if you have set your computer's display to an overhead projector, you can choose the best aspect ratio supported for that projector. For best video-quality output, choose the appropriate TV view setting.
For playback, you can choose Computer or TV. For print, you can choose from 4 aspect ratios for different paper sizes (see Printing Images for more information). Settings for each mode include.
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View Mode |
Modes |
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Computer Playback |
320 X 240 |
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640 X 480 |
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800 x 600 |
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TV Playback |
NTSC (720 x 486) |
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PAL (720 x 576) |
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Print Output View Settings |
8.5" x 11" Landscape |
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11" x 17" Landscape |
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4" x 6" Landscape |
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5" x 7" Landscape |
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Note: Once you choose an aspect ratio, you can always manually resize the 3D viewer.
Using the Overview Map
The Overview Map window feature displays an additional view of the Earth with a position indicator that corresponds to the current view within the 3D viewer. In the following example, Google Earth is positioned over the city of Paris, France. The Overview window has a cross-hair marker to indicate the position of the view in relation to the entire earth.
To show or hide the Overview Map window, complete one of the following:
- Click View > Overview Map
- Click CTRL ( on Mac) + M
Overview Map Features
You can use the Overview Map window to:
- Determine position of the current view relative to the entire Earth
For example, if you open a KMZ file from the Google Earth Community, the 3D viewer might fly quickly to a detailed view on the Earth that you are unfamiliar with. You can open the Overview Map window to see the position of the current view relative to the entire Earth. As you adjust the position of the 3D viewer, the indicator in the Overview map continually adjusts to reflect the current position in the 3D viewer.
- Control the motion in the 3D viewer itself
While the Overview Map window responds to position adjustments in the 3D viewer, you can also interact directly with the Overview Map window itself. Double-click any area within the window and both the overview display and the 3D viewer adjusts position to the point in the Overview Map window that you click. For example, if the current view is located in the United States, you can double-click the African continent and both the Overview Map indicator and the 3D viewer will move to the new position.
Adjusting the Overview Map Size and Zoom Ratio
To adjust the Overview map preferences, select Tools > Options > 3D View (Mac: Google Earth > Preferences > 3D View). Adjust the slider control in the Overview Map options to scale the Overview map from small to large.
Using the settings in the Options > 3D View tab, you can also adjust the ratio of territory displayed in the Overview Map window relative to that in the 3D viewer. This ratio has three basic elements:
- 1:Infinity (default setting) - Here, the entire map of the Earth is displayed in the Overview Map window regardless of the amount of territory displayed in the 3D viewer. This is shown above in the Paris example. 1:1 - The view in the Overview Map window corresponds exactly to that in the 3D viewer. As shown below, the Overview Map window now draws the bounds of the current view using a red bounding box. A small amount of the territory outside the current 3D viewer is displayed in the Overview window.
- 1:1:n - Here, n corresponds to any number that you set, multiplied by the current view. This creates a relative "zoom" factor, so that you can choose to zoom out from the current view by 10, 50 or any other factor. The example below shows the same close-up view of a building in Paris with the zoom factor adjusted up to 260.
Viewing Preferences
You can set a number of preferences to affect 3D viewer imagery, as well as how icons, labels and other elements are displayed. To access these settings, complete the following:
- Windows/Linux: Click Tools > Options > 3D View.
- Mac: Click Google Earth > Preferences > 3D View.
Keep in mind that some enhancements affect Google Earth's performance; that is, the more enhancements you make, the more your computer's resources are required. Settings include:
- Texture colours - Modify this feature to set the number of bits used to represent colours in the 3D viewer. True Color (32-bit) produces a more realistic view.
- Anisotropic filtering (smooth horizon) - Anisotropic filtering is a method used to filter pixels in texture mapping in order to produce a smoother looking image. Enabling this feature produces a much smoother image around the horizon when viewing the Earth from a tilted angle. It also requires more graphics card memory, so use this option only if your graphics card has at least 32 MB of memory. By default, this option is set to Off.
- Labels/icon size - Use this feature to change the default size for labels and icons in the 3D viewer. A setting of Small is optimal for detailed urban areas where crowding of labels and icons often occurs, but if you typically look at both large and urban areas, choose Medium so that placemarks viewed from higher elevations appear in the 3D viewer. See also Tuning Display of POIs.
- Graphics mode - Most graphic-intensive computer applications (including Google Earth) rely on one of two possible 3D rendering capabilities on your Windows computer: Either OpenGL or Direct X. On Linux and the Mac, Google Earth only supports OpenGL. Because OpenGL is the rendering software for most graphics cards, Google Earth uses that mode by default. However, your system might require DirectX (Windows), or your system might run best in safe mode. When you start Google Earth, you can select the rendering of 3D imagery that is best suited to your system hardware. If you are using Windows, Google Earth tries to determine which setting is most suitable for you graphics card and automatically suggests that you switch.
(Windows only) There are two ways to choose either OpenGL or DirectX as your 3D graphics rendering software:
- Start Menu Selection - Select Set DirectX as the Default Renderer from Programs - Google Earth under the Start menu of your computer or choose Set OpenGL... After selecting the graphics mode, a dialogue box alerts you to the selection, and you can start Google Earth to run in the chosen graphics mode.
- Graphics Mode Selection - Select OpenGL or DirectX from the Graphics Mode section of the Google Earth Options dialogue box.
Select the " Safe Mode " feature when you notice problems with the Google Earth 3D viewer. This option turns off such advanced rendering features as mipmap texture rendering and filled polygons, thereby reducing the amount of work for your graphics cards. If the problem is resolved after turning on this feature, it's likely that the problem is due to your graphics card or graphics card driver. For more information, see How do I upgrade my graphics card driver?
- Show Lat/Long - As you move the mouse pointer in the 3D viewer, latitude and longitude coordinates are displayed in the lower left corner of the 3D viewer.
By default, the display of these coordinates is in degrees, minutes, seconds (DD.MM.SS) or degrees, decimal minutes (DD MM.MMM). This is an example of DD.MM.SS:
You can choose the Degrees option to display geo-coordinates in decimal degrees (e.g., 37.421927° -122.085110°).
In addition, you can display these coordinates using Universal Transverse Mercator (e.g. 580954.57 m E 4142073.74 m N)
- Show Elevation - Set the elevation measurement units as they appear in Google Earth. As you move the mouse pointer in the 3D viewer, the elevation of the terrain beneath the pointer is displayed in the lower left corner of the 3D viewer. By default, the display of elevation is in feet and miles if sufficiently high.
You can choose to display elevation in metres and kilometres.
- Fonts - Adjust the font size and appearance of text as it appears in the 3D viewer. In most cases, use the primary font setting, as the secondary font setting is only used in rare circumstances when there is a problem with your primary font. Use the secondary if your label data contains characters that are not available in the default Arial font.
- Terrain quality - Use this slider to set the terrain quality to lower (less detailed) quality with better performance or to higher (more detailed) quality with slower performance. To adjust the appearance of hills when you have terrain turned on in the 3D viewer, you can set the Elevation Exaggeration value from 0.n to 3.0, including decimal values. The default setting for this value is 1. Typically, settings higher than 1.5 create an overly exaggerated appearance for most terrain. See also Tilting and Viewing Hilly Terrain.
- Overview Map - See Adjusting the Overview Map Size and Zoom Ratio.
See also Showing or Hiding Items in the 3D Viewer.
Memory and Disk Cache Preferences
By increasing your memory and disk cache size, you can improve performance (see considerations below). To do this, follow the steps below:
- Click Tools > Options (Google Earth > Preferences on the Mac). Click the Cache tab.
- Enter a value in the Memory Cache Size field (see considerations below). You do not need to know the actual limits of your computer's memory because Google Earth automatically limits the size according to the physical memory available on your PC.
- Enter a value of less than 2000 in the Disk Cache Size field (see considerations below).
Increasing the size of the memory or disk cache can improve performance but can adversely impact the performance of other applications. Available memory is dependent on the specifics of your computer. Increasing memory cache significantly improves performance for printing and making videos with Google Earth Pro and Google Earth EC. Disk cache is limited to 2 GB. Google Earth uses this cache when you are viewing imagery offline. This enables you to view the Earth without an Internet connection.
You can recover some disk space by deleting the disk cache. To do this:
- Click File > Server Logout.
- Select Tools > Options (Google Earth > Preferences on the Mac). Click the Cache tab.
- Click Delete Cache Files.
