OpenStreetMap

OSM for Virtual Reality

Posted by escallic on 2 December 2018 in English.

I just discovered webglearth.com, which is similar to osmgo.org. Both 3D renderers are open source web applications that have been in development for many years. These renderers can help us understand data in new ways. Each differs by what is rendered and by navigation style.

In WebGL Earth, 3D terrain is visible on the globe after zooming in. A click and drag moves the camera along the ground. Along with two modifier keys, the Alt key rotates the camera from a fixed position to allow looking around, and the Ctrl/Shift key rotates the visible surface about a fixed distance to allow orbiting.

In OSM Go, every building, tree, fence, utility pole, hedge, etc. is rendered as 3D. Selecting an object will display info and tags for that feature. Moving along the ground is possible with arrow keys. Holding shift allows looking around. Additionally, PgUp/ PgDn moves the camera up/down.

Neither project overlaps with the other. WebGL Earth considers a holistic reality by animating the earth. It has the potential to provide APIs for showing interplanetary trajectories. Meanwhile, OSM Go renders every urban cartographic feature, including underground ones. Its interactivity feels like the precursor to a Sims-like garden and floor plan modeler.

Location: Thule, Avannaata, 3971, Greenland

Discussion

Comment from -karlos- on 2 December 2018 at 08:28

I am proud about my 3D renderer OSMgo.org is compared with a professional service. Webglearth.com did not zoom on a touch device but on my notebook. But I don’t see any 3D buildings, do i? Is it 2D and the compare is a bit odd? But yes, I would like to have that globe in OSMgo and zoom in until the ground in 3D.

The whole code of OSMgo is a big mess, a long time experiment. If you do have wishes or corrections, don’t hesitate to tell me. But at last, it has to be done anew from the scratch. Wait for it, something is coming …

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