The present model covers about 10% of the area of Berlin and therefore constitutes only a small sample of the official three-dimensional city model of Berlin.

The model consists of some 44,000 buildings in the centre of Berlin shown in rudimentary detail (level of detail - LOD - 1). Of these, about 500 particularly significant buildings have been assigned photos of their respective façades.

A further 40 outstanding buildings or complexes are available as detailed architectural representations (LOD 3) on which, aside from their facades, for example their oriels and pillars have been rendered.

In addition to this, four selected buildings are available in the highest resolution. These buildings can be "entered" and "visited" virtually (LOD 4). They are the Reichstag Building (the seat of the German Parliament), the new Hauptbahnhof station complex, the Sony Center, and the Olympic Stadium.

In order to convey an impression of the cityscape of Berlin, some 800 facades across the city were photographed and the remaining building models textured - that is, assigned a facade - at random using these photos.

The roofs were textured on the basis of aerial photographs. As such, it may not be a perfect representation of the city of Berlin, but the resulting virtual image conveys an amazingly close and realistic impression of the city's streets and even entire quarters.

Although the Google Earth model is based on and derived from the official 3D city model, Google Earth cannot meet the demands for official precision, accurate placement and modeling to the same extent as the "original" model can.

In order to get an impression about the functioning and benefits of the official model, it can be used to play "planning games" on the Palace of the Republic and a blueprint for the Berlin City Palace and thus mimic the everyday design and planning work of the city's urban developers. What's more, the former path of the Berlin Wall can be traced through the city center, which was then simply no-man's land.

This model is neither a commercial model nor based on commercially available three-dimensional models. Rather it was developed by the State of Berlin through the Senate Department of Urban Development, the Senate Department for Economics, Technology, and Women's Affairs, and Berlin Partner GmbH.