# retroplasma/earth-reverse-engineering

Reversing Google's 3D satellite mode

Repository: https://github.com/retroplasma/earth-reverse-engineering
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/earth-reverse-engineering
Language: C
License Family: other
Topics: google-earth, reverse-engineering, google-maps, extract, gis, 3d-models, client, exporter
Archived: true
Last push: 2020-12-23T00:03:53+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2790, "days_push": 2080, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, archived, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2322, forks 228 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:37.175350+00:00)

## What it is
A reverse-engineering project documenting and implementing access to Google Earth's undocumented 3D satellite mode, including URL structures, octree geo-coordinate conversion, and Protobuf asset formats. It ships a C++/WebAssembly flycam client and a JavaScript model exporter for extracting 3D meshes and textures.

## Use cases
- extract 3D models of cities from Google Earth
- build a custom flycam viewer for Google's 3D satellite imagery
- decode Google Earth Rocktree protobuf meshes and textures
- convert geographic coordinates to octant paths in Google's octree
- export Google Maps 3D tiles for use in game engines
- research undocumented Google Earth API endpoints

## When to choose
- you need programmatic access to Google Earth's 3D satellite meshes and textures
- you want to study or extend reverse-engineering of Google's Rocktree format
- you need a lightweight client or exporter without photogrammetry tooling

## When to avoid
- you need a supported, officially documented Google Maps 3D API
- you require a maintained project with a license and active updates
- you need production-grade or legally cleared usage of Google's imagery data

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: reverse-engineering, parser, graphics, web-scraping, serialization
- domain: reverse-engineering, graphics
- platform: cpp, wasm, cross-platform
- tags: google-earth, google-maps, 3d-tiles, octree, protobuf, rocktree, mesh-extraction, photogrammetry, gis, maps, geospatial, 3d-models, javascript

## Member repositories
- retroplasma/earth-reverse-engineering (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.175350+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:38:38.225437+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/retroplasma/earth-reverse-engineering (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.175350+00:00, sha 0fe8ec432707)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.