streetview-dl 0.3.0

Download high-resolution Google Street View panoramas from the command line

streetview-dl

Download high-resolution Google Street View panoramas from the command line.

What it does

Converts Google Maps Street View URLs into full-resolution equirectangular panorama images. Downloads the raw tiles from Google's official Map Tiles API and stitches them together, preserving maximum quality and adding proper 360° metadata.

For example, the 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles:

Installation

# From PyPI (coming soon)
pip install streetview-dl

# From source (current)
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/streetview-dl
cd streetview-dl
pip install -e .

📚 Looking for more examples? See EXAMPLES.md for comprehensive usage examples with real commands and outputs.

Quick start

# Basic download
streetview-dl "https://www.google.com/maps/@33.99,-118.40,3a,75y,148h,98t/..."

# Specify output file
streetview-dl --output beach-pano.jpg "https://maps.url..."

# Lower quality for smaller files
streetview-dl --quality medium "https://maps.url..."

# Black and white filter
streetview-dl --filter bw "https://maps.url..."

Understanding Street View URLs

Google Maps Street View URLs contain parameters that determine the viewing perspective. Understanding these helps you use --fov and --clip options effectively.

Example URL breakdown:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1309317,-118.4732331,3a,75y,32.27h,103.53t/data=...
                              │          │            │  │   │      │
                              │          │            │  │   │      └─ Pitch/tilt angle
                              │          │            │  │   └─ Heading (yaw) in degrees  
                              │          │            │  └─ Field of view in degrees
                              │          │            └─ Street View mode token
                              │          └─ Longitude
                              └─ Latitude

Key parameters for image processing:

• 32.27h - Heading/Yaw (32.27°): Compass direction the camera faces

  • 0°/360° = North, 90° = East, 180° = South, 270° = West
  • Used by --clip left|right to determine forward/rear direction

• 75y - Field of View (75°): How much the camera "sees" horizontally

  • Smaller values = zoomed in, larger = zoomed out
  • Note: URL FOV is different from --fov - URL FOV is the original view, --fov crops the downloaded panorama

• 103.53t - Pitch/Tilt (103.53°): Up/down angle of camera

  • Lower values look up, higher values look down
  • Affects what you see when using --crop-bottom

How URL parameters relate to options:

# URL shows heading 32° - clip to forward-facing 180°
streetview-dl --clip right "https://maps.url.../32.27h/..."

# URL shows heading 32° - clip to rear-facing 180° (32° + 180° = 212°)  
streetview-dl --clip left "https://maps.url.../32.27h/..."

# Crop 120° around the URL's heading direction (32°)
streetview-dl --fov 120 "https://maps.url.../32.27h/..."

# Combine: 200° crop in the forward direction from URL heading
streetview-dl --fov 200 --clip right "https://maps.url.../32.27h/..."

Setup

Get a Google Maps API key

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select existing
3. Enable the "Map Tiles API"
4. Create credentials → API Key
5. Set up billing (required for Map Tiles API)

Configure authentication

Choose one method:

# Environment variable (recommended)
export GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

# CLI argument
streetview-dl --api-key "your_key" "https://maps.url..."

# Config file
streetview-dl --configure

Options

Quality and output

--quality high|medium|low    # Default: medium (8K resolution, good balance)
--output filename.jpg        # Custom output filename
--format jpg|png|webp        # Image format (default: jpg)
--jpeg-quality 85            # JPEG compression (1-100)
--max-width 8192             # Resize if larger

Image processing

--fov 180                    # Field of view in degrees (60-360, crops around viewing direction)
--filter bw|sepia|vintage    # Apply artistic filters
--brightness 1.2             # Adjust brightness
--contrast 1.1               # Adjust contrast
--saturation 0.8             # Adjust color saturation
--clip left|right|none       # Clip to 180° half relative to view yaw (overrides FOV if < 180°)
--crop-bottom 0.75           # Keep top fraction of height (e.g., 0.75)

Metadata and batch processing

--metadata                   # Save metadata as JSON
--metadata-only              # Extract metadata without downloading
--batch urls.txt             # Process multiple URLs
--output-dir ./panoramas/    # Output directory for batch

Advanced

--no-xmp                     # Skip 360° metadata embedding
--timeout 30                 # Request timeout seconds
--retries 3                  # HTTP retry attempts
--backoff 0.5                # Retry backoff factor
--concurrency 0              # Parallel tile workers (0=auto by CPU/quality)
--configure                  # Configure API key interactively
--verbose                    # Verbose output

Usage

You can run the CLI on a single URL or a batch file.

streetview-dl 'https://www.google.com/maps/place/...'

Options of interest

• --accent-color [cyan|yellow]: changes terminal accent color
• --timeout SECONDS: request timeout (default 30)
• --retries N: HTTP retry attempts for transient errors (default 3)
• --backoff SECONDS: exponential backoff factor between retries (default 0.5)

Examples

Basic usage

# Download full resolution panorama
streetview-dl "https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7589,-73.9851,3a,75y,200h,90t/data=..."

Quality options

# High quality for maximum detail (16K resolution, ~10MB)
streetview-dl --quality high "https://maps.url..."

# Default medium quality (8K resolution, ~4MB, good balance)
streetview-dl "https://maps.url..."

# Low quality for thumbnails (4K resolution, ~1MB)
streetview-dl --quality low "https://maps.url..."

Field of view examples

# Narrow 90° view for architectural details
streetview-dl --fov 90 "https://maps.url..."

# Standard 180° half-panorama
streetview-dl --fov 180 "https://maps.url..."

# Wide 270° view for context
streetview-dl --fov 270 "https://maps.url..."

# Combine with quality for detailed crops
streetview-dl --quality high --fov 120 "https://maps.url..."

Artistic filters

# Black and white
streetview-dl --filter bw "https://maps.url..."

# Vintage sepia tone
streetview-dl --filter sepia --brightness 1.1 --contrast 0.9 "https://maps.url..."

Framing and cropping

# Crop to specific field of view around the viewing direction
streetview-dl --fov 180 "https://maps.url..."

# Clip to forward-facing 180° half (ignores --fov if smaller than 180°)
streetview-dl --clip right "https://maps.url..."

# Clip to rear-facing 180° half
streetview-dl --clip left "https://maps.url..."

# Combine FOV cropping with directional clipping (FOV should be ≥ 180°)
streetview-dl --fov 220 --clip right "https://maps.url..."

# Remove the bottom 25% to avoid car blur
streetview-dl --crop-bottom 0.75 "https://maps.url..."

# Combine all framing options
streetview-dl --fov 200 --clip right --crop-bottom 0.75 "https://maps.url..."

Framing examples (Venice)

100°, 180°, 220°, 280°, and the full panorama captured from the same spot in Venice:

Command pattern used:

streetview-dl 'https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4360629,12.3305426,3a,60y,236.1h,86.64t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sjGaYvr31o-KsarHZtXbc5w!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D3.357981416541378%26panoid%3DjGaYvr31o-KsarHZtXbc5w%26yaw%3D236.10458342884988!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu' \
  --quality high --fov <100|180|220|280> --clip right --crop-bottom 0.75

💡 Want to see more examples? Check out EXAMPLES.md for comprehensive CLI usage examples, or run python generate_examples.py to create your own sample outputs using the Venice location above.

Batch processing

# Create urls.txt with one URL per line, then:
streetview-dl --batch batch_urls.txt --output-dir ./example_panoramas/

Metadata extraction

# Get location data, capture date, copyright info
streetview-dl --metadata-only "https://maps.url..."

# Save both image and metadata
streetview-dl --metadata "https://maps.url..."

Output

Downloads create equirectangular panorama images with:

• Full resolution (typically 16384×8192 pixels with the "high" flag)
• Proper XMP metadata for 360° photo viewers
• Geographic and temporal metadata when available
• Copyright and attribution information

Files are compatible with:

• Facebook 360° photos
• VR headsets and viewers
• Google Photos spherical view
• Any software supporting equirectangular panoramas

API limits and costs

Uses Google's official Map Tiles API:

• Requires billing enabled
• No charge for less than 100k requests per month
• Quality impacts number of requests: high = 512 tiles, medium = 128 tiles, low = 32 tiles
  • Defaults to medium
• Virtually free and cheaper than commercial alternatives
• Respects Google's terms of service

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Google Maps API key with Map Tiles API enabled

License

MIT License

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome!