Nokia Maps 3D (WebGL)

This is a really impressive demo. Most virtual globes (e.g. Google Earth) separate the terrain, surface image and building data. Normally, these are sent to the client separately and merged in the graphics card: the surface image is texture mapped onto the terrain, and then the building data is drawn separately on top. Special routines are used to draw trees (e.g. billboards).<p>What Nokia have done here is to merge everything - terrain, surface image, buildings and trees - into the same model. They're still using the classic chunked level of detail approach, just with more complex models, which the graphics card handles with ease.<p>This requires more work on the server side to prepare the data, but once it is done it is <i>really</i> fast for the client. The main disadvantage is that the data ends up being very static - you can't move objects around, for example.<p>P.S. I'm currently working on open source WebGL globes like OpenWebGlobe (www.openwebglobe.org) and WebGLEarth (www.webglearth.org). If you're interested in this sort of thing, I recommend reading www.virtualglobebook.com .

The mapping team at Nokia is by far the best software development team in the organization (maybe with the exception of Trolltech/qt), and it's surviving the MSFT integration. It's (largely) the legacy of the successful acquisition of Gate5 in Berlin -- and somehow the team there was able to resist full assimilation into the Borg. I was talking to a Nokian today who commented that in Nokia, "Berlin is the new Helsinki".

Smooth as butter! Too bad there is no way to search or get permalinks to specific location-view combinations, but hey, it's a demo :)

It looks like only the cities that are labeled have 3D data (buildings etc), but those that do look phenomenal. Even the trees look pretty good!

It didn't even increase the speed of my computers fans from lowest point. And normally, a YouTube-video can be enough to do that. That's impressive.<p>Nokia scores a point with me here, if they keep delivering things like this I may even consider buying one of their phones one day.

Includes anaglyph 3d mode too if you put "nw.setRedBlueStereo(true, 10.0, 10.0)" in your js console.

Can anyone fill us in on how they're collecting such accurate 3D detail for all these buildings? I mean are they flying airplanes with 360 degree cameras over the major cities at low altitude, for instance?

Fantastic. Is there a way to create a link to a given viewpoint location/direction/zoomlevel? That would make it possible to share views of the world, always nice.<p>When zoomed into an area for which there is 3D building coverage, it feels almost game-like. And I say that from a vantage point of some relevance. :)

Wow, I am impressed with how responsive that is. I'm on an Air and I generally don't have good experiences with this sort of thing.

Who thinks it's better than Google maps?

very cool. the satellite imagery seems both more detailed and more recent than Google's.

Can anyone tell how old the maps are that they are using? I looked around but I couldn't find anything.<p>I tried zooming over my workplace in Darwin, AU and the building we work in isn't even there.. (its roughly 5years or so old)<p>I imagine there is probably a mash up of old/new map data in there depending on the population of a given place..

Wow. Very impressive. I'm in Boston and was able to pull an almost disturbingly detailed 3d view of my balcony.

Amazing how well the software renders thousands of objects. On close inspection, I find the post-apocalyptic aesthetic of the rendering geometry very appealing. <a href="http://i.imgur.com/dNYer.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/dNYer.jpg</a>

Here's the APIs for the older version: <a href="http://api.maps.nokia.com/" rel="nofollow">http://api.maps.nokia.com/</a>. Hopefully they'll be doing some documentation on using the new WebGL based API!

Nokia (Ovi) Maps was always the best built in GPS solution for smartphones.

It's really nice! I hope that Nokia releases this eventually.

On Safari: This requires latest Chrome or Firefox.<p>On latest Chrome: There was a WebGL compatibility problem. Please check system settings.<p>Yay standards?

I've been wanting an API key to nokia's 3D maps for a while. There are a lot of gaming possibilities there.

Isn't the WebGL stuff done by Navteq, that's who the copyright says.

Does anyone else have all text on globe upside-down?

Is there a writeup anywhere on how this is done?

downtown Chicago is lots of fun

yeah, that's pretty cool.

I wonder how do they get the building facade textures/polys... It seems they have not only vertical satelite shots but also inclined ones.

Not bug free: <a href="http://fredbrach.posterous.com/pas-de-sujet" rel="nofollow">http://fredbrach.posterous.com/pas-de-sujet</a> This is the limit between the 3D data and the flat ones.

No scale? Not a map.