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The "roller coaster" effects in the 3-d view are my favorite. They've got some smoothing algorithm going, or it wouldn't curve the way it does, but the elevatio
by rauljara 14y ago
The "roller coaster" effects in the 3-d view are my favorite. They've got some smoothing algorithm going, or it wouldn't curve the way it does, but the elevation data must not have a high enough resolution. Google has made this sort of thing look so easy for so long, but it's clearly very hard to get this stuff right.
So, I guess it's not that surprising that apple messed up something incredibly hard in their first attempt. I'm curious as to whether these issues are as widespread as they seem, or if they're more edge cases made to appear common by the internet. But the curiosity isn't enough to drive me to upgrade. I'm totally putting off that until I figure out a decent alternative app.
- Geee 14y agoI don't think Google has 3D view at all. Those 3D maps were created by a different company whom Apple recently acquired. You can probably find the same errors from here as well, http://maps.nokia.com/webgl/ http://maps.nokia.com/webgl/
- rictic 14y agohttp://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/ http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/
- Geee 14y agoYes, indeed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Douyfa7l8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Douyfa7l8 This is new development though and only on the Google Earth product for mobile, not in the maps app. Maps app for Android has those blocky untextured 3d buildings in select areas.
- KirinDave 14y agoThey actually have textures if you enable satellite imaging. They just also do the Mirror's Edge rendering of the city. It's interesting how Google does it. They both contract and scan data in, but they also let you use SketchUp to submit data as well.
- treeface 14y agoGoogle has had 3D buildings for years. That video is only the latest in a long series of improvements on this feature. The level of detail in that video far exceeds what others are doing, but it's still rolling out throughout this year.
- jonknee 14y agoGoogle certainly has 3D view. It's on my iPad with Google Earth. They also have the more useful non-textured 3D maps in Google Maps for Android which is a lot more smooth (way less data transfer and being vector it's scalable) and you can even use them offline. http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/3d/ http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/3d/
- roadnottaken 14y agoI also wonder how common these problems are. I live in San Diego and everything looks pretty-good to me. It renders my house in 3D and the turn-by-turn navigation worked great. There are obviously problems in some places, but so-far-so-good here.
- jblock 14y agohttp://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/post/31923428912/walking-directions-in-soho-new-york http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/post/31923428912/walkin... http://www.techinasia.com/apple-ios-6-maps-china-japan/ http://www.techinasia.com/apple-ios-6-maps-china-japan/ Pretty common.
- bitcartel 14y agoTourists and expats are going to have issues in some countries, take for example Thailand. http://imgur.com/7gkgx http://imgur.com/7gkgx Google Maps has street names in both Thai and English, whereas Apple Maps only has Thai.
- laacz 14y agoYou can turn off this feature in Settings -> Maps. Just turn on "Always English" nob. Edit: Just tested. This does not work for street names. Sorry.
- untog 14y agoI'm not surprised that results in California are great. This seems like a great example of why having the majority of your testers in one geographical location is not always a good thing.
- hcarvalhoalves 14y agoI live in São Paulo, Brazil. The maps work well here. I simulated a trip to another city like I did with Google Maps a few months ago and the navigation is just as good.
- joshuaeckroth 14y agoSee: Clement Valla, Postcards from Google Earth, http://clementvalla.com/category/work/postcards/ http://clementvalla.com/category/work/postcards/
- Maascamp 14y agoI don't think Apple gets a pass here. If they are forcing users onto their product it had better be competitive, no matter how hard it is. Microsoft got so such pass with WP7 and that was an entirely new OS/platform!
- Mythbusters 14y agotalking of pass, you should checkout the new nokia maps on the lumia. It's f awesome!!!
- zimpenfish 14y ago...but faked.
- Mythbusters 14y agosource?
- bobwise 14y agoBusted.
- bergie 14y agoIt seems every comment you've made here in the past few days has been about Nokia's new device. Astroturfing or just a fan?
- shawnc 14y agoDoes Apple have a Maps program on the Android devices? Are there other Maps programs available on the iOS devices? Saying Apple is 'forcing' users onto their product is a bit much.
- adildoatemybaby 14y agoYou're being obtuse, people have money invested in the Apple ecosystem, it's not easy to switch, and no other mapping app will have the iOS integration Maps does. Until a comparable app is available on the OS, yes Apple is forcing users onto their product.
- zerostar07 14y agoBut you can't give them a pass here, the premium value that Apple sells is the amazing experience out of the box. How many years has it been since they got something wrong just out of the box? [No apple-hater, but postponing upgrading iOS indefinitely]
- barista 14y agoOr getting a phone with better mapping GS III or Nokia 920
- rburhum 14y agoIt is either the classic problem of floating point precision or just data a data collection error. See my other answer.
- Geee 14y agoI'm pretty sure some (if not most) of these problems are just polygonization issues i.e. when converting the image based approximation point cloud to polygons at a low level of detail. Those weird zigzag lines are clearly sign of incorrect topology / low polygon density; polygon edges should follow the curvature of the road, not go against it.
- juiceandjuice 14y agoYou can get elevation data for North America from USGS: http://ned.usgs.gov/ http://ned.usgs.gov/
- xbryanx 14y agoThat level of detail in elevation data generally requires LIDAR and that definitely doesn't exist for all municipalities, and is pretty expensive where it does.
- bunnyhero 14y agoThe 3D view mess-ups are fun to look at but are the most understandable and least unique to Apple. It's not hard to find messed up 3D in Google as well.