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felixpalmer / procedural-gl-js

Mobile-first 3D mapping engine with emphasis on user experience
https://www.procedural.eu/map
Mozilla Public License 2.0
1.28k stars 84 forks source link

zooming out to globe level? #12

Open nickredmark opened 3 years ago

nickredmark commented 3 years ago

Hey, this library is gorgeous! I was wondering whether it would be possible to zoom out to see the whole globe. What are the technical limitations there?

bardzh commented 3 years ago

This might have performance impacts. Unless some mesh simplifications are applied on zoom level. but i let the developer answer. i love this library so much already i'm checking it everyday! not a fan just passionate!

felixpalmer commented 3 years ago

Currently the library assumes for simplicity that the world is flat. Thus it would be possible to zoom out to see the whole world, but it would be a flat square not a globe.

My personal view is that while zooming from outer space onto a location makes for a neat demo then it isn't really of much practical use, as the wow factor of having a 3D map comes from actually seeing the shapes of the mountains etc.

To implement this I'd need to have an LOD system that would swap out the "flat-world" meshes for a globe at some view distance, but also apply some curvature to the "flat-world" to make transition seamless.

So, this is perhaps something I would consider implementing in the future, but right now it is not a priority.