4 ms·

A 3D live map of the London Underground

86 points by williamhpark 11y ago

learnstats2 11y ago
This is a nice illustration of WebGL but the Hacker News title ("A 3D live map of the London Underground") is overblown. Live? if you can choose the speed of the trains then it is not really representing a live scenario. 3D? There's some jiggling of the tunnels but Camden Town station appears to have 2 tunnels and doesn't feature any of its 3D cross-platform glory illustrated here: https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/camdentown.jpg https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/camdentow...
hpenedones 11y ago
It seems that the circle line is missing. I guess that all its stations are shared with other lines, so the network is not missing much, but still it would be nice for the sake of completeness... And agree with the previous comment, it would be awesome if the map was truly "live".
mxfh 11y ago
http://tracker.geops.ch/ http://tracker.geops.ch/ got submitted to HN a quite a few times but never got traction. It's only 2d and missing parts of the Transport for London infrastructure, but it's truly global otherwise. http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=2&s=1&x=-3057.5011&y=5968203.1664&l=transport http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=2&s=1&x=-3057.5011&y=5968203.1664...
- ifdefdebug 11y ago
  Perhaps it shouldn't spam the browser's back button with new entries every time you make a little move on the map. Especially if all those entries do nothing when you click them.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
jarvist 11y ago
Here is a genuinely live, but two dimensional map: http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ You can click on the trains to get ETAs.
- coob 11y ago
  The locations are estimates, but will be between the right stations.
nokicky 11y ago
It's not live, this is (almost) live: http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/
imbrizi 11y ago
This is just a visual experiment, it has no intention to be used as a service. It is live because it is pulling live data from the TfL prediction summary API, which returns approximate arrival times for the next 30 minutes. The default simulation speed is 5 and it can be adjusted to 1 for an experience as 'live' as http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ As for the Circle line, it is just commented out in the code because it wasn't really adding anything. The prediction summary doesn't return isolated data for the Circle (at least it didn't when I made this experiment) so I had to improvise by merging District, H&C and Metropolitan. It was an approximation of the approximation. It wasn't looking great, so I just left it out.
- williamhpark 11y ago
  Thanks for clearing that up!
- danmaz74 11y ago
  Cool. It would be even cooler if it also included a layer with a 3d map of the city :)
- mgkimsal 11y ago
  I don't have a 'wheel', I have a trackpad - can't figure out how to zoom. Any suggestions? (thanks - interesting visualization tool!)
  - gomeza08 11y ago
    Use whatever you use for scrolling, I'm on a mac trackpad and it worked for me.
    - mgkimsal 11y ago
      no dice here. :(
    - mentat 11y ago
      Two finger brushing worked for me. Down voting parent is pretty weak.
programmernews3 11y ago
Use WIFI in tunnels.
boobsbr 11y ago
amazing.
jsingleton 11y ago
The TfL APIs are really good. I made this LED line status strip with them: https://unop.uk/dev/train-disruption-indicator-with-a-blinky-tape-rgb-led-strip-and-raspberry-pi/ https://unop.uk/dev/train-disruption-indicator-with-a-blinky...
jsingleton 11y ago
Great work. This is a nice flat map in a more traditional style but with a few improvements over the normal one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat_temp_cc4.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tempodox 11y ago
What's the browser of the day for this one? My Safari window just stays black.
jjar 11y ago
Just for information, you can click the numbers at the bottom to view some other cool stuff. I also liked the track on #8, try and figure out what it is, took me a while...

86 points by williamhpark 11y ago

This is a nice illustration of WebGL but the Hacker News title ("A 3D live map of the London Underground") is overblown. Live? if you can choose the speed of the trains then it is not really representing a live scenario. 3D? There's some jiggling of the tunnels but Camden Town station appears to have 2 tunnels and doesn't feature any of its 3D cross-platform glory illustrated here: https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/camdentown.jpg https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/camdentow...

hpenedones 11y ago

It seems that the circle line is missing. I guess that all its stations are shared with other lines, so the network is not missing much, but still it would be nice for the sake of completeness... And agree with the previous comment, it would be awesome if the map was truly "live".

mxfh 11y ago

http://tracker.geops.ch/ http://tracker.geops.ch/ got submitted to HN a quite a few times but never got traction. It's only 2d and missing parts of the Transport for London infrastructure, but it's truly global otherwise. http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=2&s=1&x=-3057.5011&y=5968203.1664&l=transport http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=2&s=1&x=-3057.5011&y=5968203.1664...

ifdefdebug 11y ago
Perhaps it shouldn't spam the browser's back button with new entries every time you make a little move on the map. Especially if all those entries do nothing when you click them.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

jarvist 11y ago

Here is a genuinely live, but two dimensional map: http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ You can click on the trains to get ETAs.

coob 11y ago
The locations are estimates, but will be between the right stations.

nokicky 11y ago

It's not live, this is (almost) live: http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/

imbrizi 11y ago

This is just a visual experiment, it has no intention to be used as a service. It is live because it is pulling live data from the TfL prediction summary API, which returns approximate arrival times for the next 30 minutes. The default simulation speed is 5 and it can be adjusted to 1 for an experience as 'live' as http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/ As for the Circle line, it is just commented out in the code because it wasn't really adding anything. The prediction summary doesn't return isolated data for the Circle (at least it didn't when I made this experiment) so I had to improvise by merging District, H&C and Metropolitan. It was an approximation of the approximation. It wasn't looking great, so I just left it out.

williamhpark 11y ago
Thanks for clearing that up!
danmaz74 11y ago
Cool. It would be even cooler if it also included a layer with a 3d map of the city :)
mgkimsal 11y ago
I don't have a 'wheel', I have a trackpad - can't figure out how to zoom. Any suggestions? (thanks - interesting visualization tool!)
- gomeza08 11y ago
  Use whatever you use for scrolling, I'm on a mac trackpad and it worked for me.
  - mgkimsal 11y ago
    no dice here. :(
  - mentat 11y ago
    Two finger brushing worked for me. Down voting parent is pretty weak.

programmernews3 11y ago

Use WIFI in tunnels.

boobsbr 11y ago

amazing.

jsingleton 11y ago

The TfL APIs are really good. I made this LED line status strip with them: https://unop.uk/dev/train-disruption-indicator-with-a-blinky-tape-rgb-led-strip-and-raspberry-pi/ https://unop.uk/dev/train-disruption-indicator-with-a-blinky...

jsingleton 11y ago

Great work. This is a nice flat map in a more traditional style but with a few improvements over the normal one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat_temp_cc4.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

tempodox 11y ago

What's the browser of the day for this one? My Safari window just stays black.

jjar 11y ago

Just for information, you can click the numbers at the bottom to view some other cool stuff. I also liked the track on #8, try and figure out what it is, took me a while...