6 ms·

National parks of New Zealand in 3D

155 points by pheelicks 6y ago

lotophage 6y ago
Really nice. Much more responsive and snappy than I expected on my old phone (Samsung galaxy s8).
manzu 6y ago
Nice! Seems similar to Fatmap.com, I’ve been a user for years.
huhtenberg 6y ago
It looks a bit weird for me - https://i.imgur.com/rC3wXOw.png https://i.imgur.com/rC3wXOw.png I take that's not normal, is it?
- andyjohnson0 6y ago
  I'm seeing the same. Firefox 82.0.3 on Win10.
- kroltan 6y ago
  Similar on Egmont too https://i.imgur.com/sGQuU36.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/sGQuU36.jpeg Firefox 85 on Windows
- pheelicks 6y ago
  There is an issue with the elevation shaders on Windows, being tracked here: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/issues/2 https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/issues/2 For anyone who is having issues, I made a quick video here: https://twitter.com/pheeelicks/status/1334101837625090050 https://twitter.com/pheeelicks/status/1334101837625090050
- rspoerri 6y ago
  same problem for me (brave V1.17.73) on windows 10
- boogies 6y ago
  Fascinating, that’s arguably worse than the lag and the browser chrome turning white while the tab is open for me on Palemoon 28.16 — an independent hard fork of ancient Firefox with the old extension APIs and incompatible with all sorts of modern bloat websites. Eg. the Spotify link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278187 leads to a blank black page for me, and Imgur recently was showing me blank grey unless I opted out of its beta (https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=25025#p197224 https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=25025#p19722...) — on GNU/Linux.
- keithnz 6y ago
  same for me on Edge 88.0.705.9 possibly a good idea to highlight there is an issue on windows on the web page, my instant reaction was "whoa, that's horrible, why are people liking this?"
deanclatworthy 6y ago
This is amazing. I wish this resource was available when I have been doing hikes in the Austrian mountains. Does anyone know if there's anything similar for Europe?
- pheelicks 6y ago
  The Procedural GL (https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/) library on which this is built works worldwide. I made this (National Parks) app in an afternoon, and it could easily be modified for any set of locations in the world, just update the https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/parks.geojson https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/park... file See also Bergwelten.com, for Austria in particular. They have hikes with a 3D view.
  - xrayarx 6y ago
    Oh wow the 3D map of Bergwelten.com is actually made with your library! So cool!
- morio123 6y ago
  Google Maps in satellite mode? IMO Google Maps looks better and of course includes way more meta data. I assume this project is more about showing off the underlying open source project.
mnw21cam 6y ago
The controls seem a little wonky. Sometimes dragging moves the map around, and other times it swivels it. There's no North arrow. You can't zoom out far enough, and it gets all misty when you try. Other than that, beautiful.
- pheelicks 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the controls, they are configured to keep the user to a certain area so that why you're seeing the swivel I think. As for the remaining 3 issues, these are all just design choices for this experiment, and can be configured in the library that powers this: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/
xrayarx 6y ago
Please could you explain a little how you did this for people not familiar with such things as 3D and maps? What would someone have to do, to create this for another part of the world? What is NASADEM and LINZ?
- pheelicks 6y ago
  Gladly: - Procedural GL (https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js) is a JavaScript library for rendering 3D terrains. It is built on top of THREE.js but you don't need to know anything about 3D to use it - a high-level API is provided. The software is open source, but of course you need to supply it with source data, for it to be useful. In particular you need elevation data to give you the shape of the terrain, and aerial imagery to give the color on the terrain. - NASADEM is an elevation dataset published by NASA and integrated into this library via the https://www.nasadem.xyz/ https://www.nasadem.xyz/ service. You don't need to understand how this works, all you need is an API key. A free tier is available. - LINZ is a (incredible and free) basemap provided by the New Zealand government: https://basemaps.linz.govt.nz/ https://basemaps.linz.govt.nz/. Integrating with Procedural GL was just a matter of configuing the URL for the tiles and adding an API key. Note it is New Zealand only, by default Procedural GL uses www.maptiler.com/ (again a free tier is available) As for what one would need to do make this for another part of the world: 1) Fork https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d 2) Update the locations of interest in https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/parks.geojson https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/park... 3) Optionally change the imagery datasource (Maptiler, Mapbox etc) [don't forget attribution] 4) Profit
  - mkl 6y ago
    To clarify slightly, LINZ is Land Information New Zealand, a government agency. They provide an enormous amount of map data on NZ under a creative commons license: vector data, address info, aerial photography (including multiple versions over time), satellite data, etc.
edge17 6y ago
Where is the height and texture data from?
DenisM 6y ago
Imagine mountain bike trails overlaid on top of this. Or even a live track.
- tony_cannistra 6y ago
  https://fatmap.com/ https://fatmap.com/
- pedalpete 6y ago
  https://ayvri.com https://ayvri.com - I'm a bit biased as I'm the founder.
- dzhiurgis 6y ago
  No bikes on national parks mate
Benmcdonald__ 6y ago
Impressive graphics. This would go well with webVR
KMnO4 6y ago
Beautiful. I hiked a few of the mountains in 2014 and miss New Zealand every day. The only thing this site misses is the sheer scale. There’s something about sitting at the base of a mountain and feeling so incredibly small that can’t be replicated virtually.
- BLKNSLVR 6y ago
  The journey from the North Island to the South Island is a journey into a different scale of landscape. It feels as if you shrink to 10% of your previous size.
tobestobestobes 6y ago
Wonderful work. There is a similar project called Terra that someone at Mapbox did, but the raster tiles for that aren't working anymore (prob due to API change) so it's nice to see an alternative -- a whole library no less.
pitt1980 6y ago
Google maps used to have a feature where if you scroll back from street view you would get a 3D rendering before they gave you the 2D satellite view if you scrolled further back. Not sure why that went away, but it was pretty cool, and I enjoyed exploring a number of places with the feature before it went away.
- space_ghost 6y ago
  It's still there. Just tested it with google.com/maps in Chrome 86 on Linux. Steps to reproduce: 1. Enter Street View 2. Scroll out a few clicks Expected and observed behavior: the viewport switches to 3D-mode, with the view centered on the location and direction being observed in Street View.
  - pitt1980 6y ago
    Hmm, maybe its my browser, I'm still in Windows 11
metalrain 6y ago
Not sure how it's supposed to look like, but in Mozilla it looks like there are staggering levels of change. Looks like it's some sort of cell that is much higher than it should be. https://imgur.com/JmoWTAa https://imgur.com/JmoWTAa
berkut 6y ago
Looks cool, but IMO controls aren't that intuitive (at least allow keyboard rotate I think, and mousewheel zoom), and even in 2D view, it still applies depth fog/haze, so if you zoom out a bit, everything just whites out, and you can't really see much...
mdrzn 6y ago
Nothing loads for me. White page on the right.
codeulike 6y ago
The Department of Conservation (DOC) that look after the National Parks in NZ are brilliant. I drove all over NZ in a campervan about twelve years ago - as many do - literally every second vehicle you see is a campervan - and everything is really well signposted. You pull off the road into a layby, and there will be a wooden sign saying "Waterfall - 30 min walk" and then you follow a well kept path for 30 min and then you find a waterfall. Simple! And there are unstaffed DOC campsites in very beautiful places with very basic facilities (tap, compost loo). You just stay the night and then drop an envolope of cash into a box. And the huts in the middle of nowhere that take days to hike to, somehow they keep them maintained too.
- badconvincer 6y ago
  This is exactly the experience I’ve had at American national parks. Signs don’t state the time but distance and the envelope drop off is used extensively. This is coming from someone that did a road trip through all 48 continental states over a 3 month period and we camped all the time and only stayed in hotels/motels once a week.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  >> literally every second vehicle you see is a campervan Sounds like a driving hell. Clarkson would be beside himself.
  - codeulike 6y ago
    Its every second vehicle, but most of the time the vehicles are few and far between. NZ is actually a lovely driving experience, around every bend there's another beautiful vista. Edit: take a look: https://www.google.com/search?q=driving+around+new+zealand&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=driving+around+new+zealand&t...
  - dzhiurgis 6y ago
    It's a slight annoyance, but far from hell. As long as it's not someone super old on a very large van then they go maybe 10k's less than speed limit. Note most people driving in NZ at around speed limit. Going faster feels unsafe. Roads are pretty twisty and mountainous. Driving 2hrs in NZ is not same as 2hrs on highway with cruise control on.
Krisjohn 6y ago
See also https://cavesrd.itch.io/newzealand https://cavesrd.itch.io/newzealand
amelius 6y ago
It seems impossible to view the horizon with this viewer, which is kind of frustrating.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

155 points by pheelicks 6y ago

lotophage 6y ago

Really nice. Much more responsive and snappy than I expected on my old phone (Samsung galaxy s8).

manzu 6y ago

Nice! Seems similar to Fatmap.com, I’ve been a user for years.

huhtenberg 6y ago

It looks a bit weird for me - https://i.imgur.com/rC3wXOw.png https://i.imgur.com/rC3wXOw.png I take that's not normal, is it?

andyjohnson0 6y ago
I'm seeing the same. Firefox 82.0.3 on Win10.
kroltan 6y ago
Similar on Egmont too https://i.imgur.com/sGQuU36.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/sGQuU36.jpeg Firefox 85 on Windows
pheelicks 6y ago
There is an issue with the elevation shaders on Windows, being tracked here: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/issues/2 https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/issues/2 For anyone who is having issues, I made a quick video here: https://twitter.com/pheeelicks/status/1334101837625090050 https://twitter.com/pheeelicks/status/1334101837625090050
rspoerri 6y ago
same problem for me (brave V1.17.73) on windows 10
boogies 6y ago
Fascinating, that’s arguably worse than the lag and the browser chrome turning white while the tab is open for me on Palemoon 28.16 — an independent hard fork of ancient Firefox with the old extension APIs and incompatible with all sorts of modern bloat websites. Eg. the Spotify link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278187 leads to a blank black page for me, and Imgur recently was showing me blank grey unless I opted out of its beta (https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=25025#p197224 https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=25025#p19722...) — on GNU/Linux.
keithnz 6y ago
same for me on Edge 88.0.705.9 possibly a good idea to highlight there is an issue on windows on the web page, my instant reaction was "whoa, that's horrible, why are people liking this?"

deanclatworthy 6y ago

This is amazing. I wish this resource was available when I have been doing hikes in the Austrian mountains. Does anyone know if there's anything similar for Europe?

pheelicks 6y ago
The Procedural GL (https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/) library on which this is built works worldwide. I made this (National Parks) app in an afternoon, and it could easily be modified for any set of locations in the world, just update the https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/parks.geojson https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/park... file See also Bergwelten.com, for Austria in particular. They have hikes with a 3D view.
- xrayarx 6y ago
  Oh wow the 3D map of Bergwelten.com is actually made with your library! So cool!
morio123 6y ago
Google Maps in satellite mode? IMO Google Maps looks better and of course includes way more meta data. I assume this project is more about showing off the underlying open source project.

mnw21cam 6y ago

The controls seem a little wonky. Sometimes dragging moves the map around, and other times it swivels it. There's no North arrow. You can't zoom out far enough, and it gets all misty when you try. Other than that, beautiful.

pheelicks 6y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the controls, they are configured to keep the user to a certain area so that why you're seeing the swivel I think. As for the remaining 3 issues, these are all just design choices for this experiment, and can be configured in the library that powers this: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/

xrayarx 6y ago

Please could you explain a little how you did this for people not familiar with such things as 3D and maps? What would someone have to do, to create this for another part of the world? What is NASADEM and LINZ?

pheelicks 6y ago
Gladly: - Procedural GL (https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js) is a JavaScript library for rendering 3D terrains. It is built on top of THREE.js but you don't need to know anything about 3D to use it - a high-level API is provided. The software is open source, but of course you need to supply it with source data, for it to be useful. In particular you need elevation data to give you the shape of the terrain, and aerial imagery to give the color on the terrain. - NASADEM is an elevation dataset published by NASA and integrated into this library via the https://www.nasadem.xyz/ https://www.nasadem.xyz/ service. You don't need to understand how this works, all you need is an API key. A free tier is available. - LINZ is a (incredible and free) basemap provided by the New Zealand government: https://basemaps.linz.govt.nz/ https://basemaps.linz.govt.nz/. Integrating with Procedural GL was just a matter of configuing the URL for the tiles and adding an API key. Note it is New Zealand only, by default Procedural GL uses www.maptiler.com/ (again a free tier is available) As for what one would need to do make this for another part of the world: 1) Fork https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d 2) Update the locations of interest in https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/parks.geojson https://github.com/felixpalmer/new-zealand-3d/blob/main/park... 3) Optionally change the imagery datasource (Maptiler, Mapbox etc) [don't forget attribution] 4) Profit
- mkl 6y ago
  To clarify slightly, LINZ is Land Information New Zealand, a government agency. They provide an enormous amount of map data on NZ under a creative commons license: vector data, address info, aerial photography (including multiple versions over time), satellite data, etc.

edge17 6y ago

Where is the height and texture data from?

DenisM 6y ago

Imagine mountain bike trails overlaid on top of this. Or even a live track.

tony_cannistra 6y ago
https://fatmap.com/ https://fatmap.com/
pedalpete 6y ago
https://ayvri.com https://ayvri.com - I'm a bit biased as I'm the founder.
dzhiurgis 6y ago
No bikes on national parks mate

Benmcdonald__ 6y ago

Impressive graphics. This would go well with webVR

KMnO4 6y ago

Beautiful. I hiked a few of the mountains in 2014 and miss New Zealand every day. The only thing this site misses is the sheer scale. There’s something about sitting at the base of a mountain and feeling so incredibly small that can’t be replicated virtually.

BLKNSLVR 6y ago
The journey from the North Island to the South Island is a journey into a different scale of landscape. It feels as if you shrink to 10% of your previous size.

tobestobestobes 6y ago

Wonderful work. There is a similar project called Terra that someone at Mapbox did, but the raster tiles for that aren't working anymore (prob due to API change) so it's nice to see an alternative -- a whole library no less.

pitt1980 6y ago

Google maps used to have a feature where if you scroll back from street view you would get a 3D rendering before they gave you the 2D satellite view if you scrolled further back. Not sure why that went away, but it was pretty cool, and I enjoyed exploring a number of places with the feature before it went away.

space_ghost 6y ago
It's still there. Just tested it with google.com/maps in Chrome 86 on Linux. Steps to reproduce: 1. Enter Street View 2. Scroll out a few clicks Expected and observed behavior: the viewport switches to 3D-mode, with the view centered on the location and direction being observed in Street View.
- pitt1980 6y ago
  Hmm, maybe its my browser, I'm still in Windows 11

metalrain 6y ago

Not sure how it's supposed to look like, but in Mozilla it looks like there are staggering levels of change. Looks like it's some sort of cell that is much higher than it should be. https://imgur.com/JmoWTAa https://imgur.com/JmoWTAa

berkut 6y ago

Looks cool, but IMO controls aren't that intuitive (at least allow keyboard rotate I think, and mousewheel zoom), and even in 2D view, it still applies depth fog/haze, so if you zoom out a bit, everything just whites out, and you can't really see much...

mdrzn 6y ago

Nothing loads for me. White page on the right.

codeulike 6y ago

The Department of Conservation (DOC) that look after the National Parks in NZ are brilliant. I drove all over NZ in a campervan about twelve years ago - as many do - literally every second vehicle you see is a campervan - and everything is really well signposted. You pull off the road into a layby, and there will be a wooden sign saying "Waterfall - 30 min walk" and then you follow a well kept path for 30 min and then you find a waterfall. Simple! And there are unstaffed DOC campsites in very beautiful places with very basic facilities (tap, compost loo). You just stay the night and then drop an envolope of cash into a box. And the huts in the middle of nowhere that take days to hike to, somehow they keep them maintained too.

badconvincer 6y ago
This is exactly the experience I’ve had at American national parks. Signs don’t state the time but distance and the envelope drop off is used extensively. This is coming from someone that did a road trip through all 48 continental states over a 3 month period and we camped all the time and only stayed in hotels/motels once a week.
sandworm101 6y ago
>> literally every second vehicle you see is a campervan Sounds like a driving hell. Clarkson would be beside himself.
- codeulike 6y ago
  Its every second vehicle, but most of the time the vehicles are few and far between. NZ is actually a lovely driving experience, around every bend there's another beautiful vista. Edit: take a look: https://www.google.com/search?q=driving+around+new+zealand&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=driving+around+new+zealand&t...
- dzhiurgis 6y ago
  It's a slight annoyance, but far from hell. As long as it's not someone super old on a very large van then they go maybe 10k's less than speed limit. Note most people driving in NZ at around speed limit. Going faster feels unsafe. Roads are pretty twisty and mountainous. Driving 2hrs in NZ is not same as 2hrs on highway with cruise control on.

Krisjohn 6y ago

See also https://cavesrd.itch.io/newzealand https://cavesrd.itch.io/newzealand

amelius 6y ago

It seems impossible to view the horizon with this viewer, which is kind of frustrating.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]