I am trying to fetch height and color images for sections of the Earth from ArcGIS or another online database. I want to basically make Google Earth in full 3D. It is important that the image data be available at different LODs so I can display the Earth from any altitude, all the way out to space. I am using C++ with LibCurl, so anything that uses a REST API is good.

I am having a lot of trouble finding the specific information that I need to get started. Does anyone have experience with this system, who can show me the way? Thank you.

The question being asked is sort of a loaded one. There was the transition from GIS data acquisition to representation which are 2 distinct question. If data acquisition is not the issue, then I'm going to assume you are referring to the representation of the acquired data. If you are interested in displaying terrain(height) data, there a lots of resources available on terrain rendering, including multi-resolution( different LOD) terrain rendering. Are you looking into developing your own solution or using something turn-key? A little more detail will allow others to add more input so as to better answer your question(s).

I have a hierarchical terrain system implemented that can handle planet-scale terrain. I just need to download height and color images for patches of the terrain.

Not enough resolution from NASA gives you more than 11 GB of height and texture data, if i were to do that again i'd rather involve google api for that.

In general, the services that serve “the entire earth” with DEM and color images, charge for the privilege.

The price has come down a lot in the last 20 years, and there are even free tiers (with somewhat limited usage) in places, but users of these services, like Google Earth, or Microsoft Flight Simulator, still have to implement some token system that means you can't just use the service they use exactly.

You can look for example at Earth Engine from Google: https://earthengine.google.com​ – note that this is more about “geo-mapped data” than the actual globe, but there are plenty of DEMs in there. Note the quota restrictions, also.

If you need more help than this, you have to be more specific:

• which particular data source / service are you trying to use?
• what particular API within that data source are you calling?
• which particular client library are you using?
• what errors / problems are you seeing? (specific error messages, etc)

• which particular data source / service are you trying to use?
• what particular API within that data source are you calling?
• which particular client library are you using?
• what errors / problems are you seeing? (specific error messages, etc)

1. I don't mind paying for access to the data, but I don't know what data set to even use. GIS conventions are much different from game development ones and it's like pulling teeth trying to get a straight answer out of anyone. Google Earth's REST API seems to be discontinued and I don't know any other databases to use, so I need to find one that will provide height and color maps.
2. I don't know.
3. I'm using Libcurl. It works fine with other REST APIs.
4. Not far along enough to encounter any errors.

Google moved their GIS data into Google Maps API. You could try this: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/overview

Similarly, Microsoft has their GIS data in Azure Maps API. You could try this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/how-to-request-elevation-data​

ArcGIS also has a pretty good API, although at scale it will be enterprise priced: https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/

I think all of them have free or very-low-cost trial tiers. Also, I think Amazon somehow collaborates or delegates to ArcGIS if you use their platform: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/serverless-gis-amazon-s3-open-data-arcgis/​ – might be worth reading, just to get another perspective on what ArgGIS provides.

Also: it seems GDNet has started adding bullshit UTF-8 tokens at the end of URLs, so some of the URLs I paste in, don't actually work as clickable. I wonder what's up with that? I think I made all the links clickable, but it might be worth checking the address for trailing junk if they don't work.