3rd Party Map Viewer - based on google map api...thoughts?
I've been thinking about the google map api and the concerns raised and the capabilities as well as the limitations of it. And also thinking back on other map viewers based of of mapping software.
The big limitation for the cc2 map viewer was that it was basically a cc2 renderer, which is what the cc3 viewer would have to be. so redraw times become an issue.
I was thinking of creating a program that would take hi-resolution renders of maps from ANY software and cut it up to create tiles like the google map api requires and display the maps using a similar interface as the google map api offers, but offline. The benefit here would be that its use would be more intuitive in the realm of getting your map into the system.
Further expansion on such a product would allow for google map api code and images to be generated based on templating for online display.
What do you all think of me pursuing such a project. I'm a programmer by trade so something like this is in my realm of capabilities. I'd like to discuss it with you the mapping community though.
I think that would be tre cool! I have a world map that I would love to put into this sort of program and be able to zoom in to the detailed areas which the example that was posted wasn't really able to do as it was a raster image.
What would be perfect is a sort of blurring as you zoom out and then sharpening as you move in. I think that would better emulate what the Google Earth interface does.
Well the trick to that sort of thing would be level of detail renderings.
For example...you render out say a 2560x2560 pixel image of a square map and cut it up into 256x256 pixel tiles. That would be your default zoom level
Then you render closeups of each area at intervals up to the maximum zoom level you wish to allow. That way the images don't have to be re-rendered each time you change zoom level...it just loads up the next level of detail depending on how close-in your zoom is.
Add onto this support for overlays, map notes, fog of war, multiple views (like the map/satellite/hybrid views of google maps) and you've got a pretty feature-rich piece of software methinks.
I concur. So when will you be done?
I just starte dyesterday, and it turns out the DirectX SDK changed so much I have to almost relearn it again...so...as soon as I get the DirectX stuff figured out I'll be back on track...I've figured out how to get it to display an image...now on to panning, zooming, and hell even scaling, I can't get the image to scale right.
In otherwords...it'll be done when its done...I can say no more than that
Help me think of a name for it tho...
CartoView is my current name.
Hey, if'n you can figger out all that DirectX stuf, then you MY hero LOL
*takes a bow*
Is that the voice of exasperation? If so, I see your pain big time...There's SOOO little documentation.
BUT...I did find FINALLY a good sample of dealing with sprites, and transforming Vector3's and whatnot...it even shows sprite animation...w00t w00t. So if all goes well I'll have a prototype in a few days.
I'm what ya might call programing rookie, a genuine greenhorn. I took a couple semesters of programming (Java and C++) in JC, but I've never really made anything useful.
Interestingly enough though, Microsoft was doing a big promo here a while back (might still be going on...) They were giving away express versions of all the programming suites in MS Developer. So I got all kinds of new programming tools. Yay!
I work for Lockheed Martin IT as a senior level web applications developer. I've gotten the opportunity to play with some DirectX in order to implement a visual (2D) pilot psychometric test engine for use with our online testing client. Good ole navy contracts...so I'm qualified, just don't have much in the way of source references for DirectX stuff...especially since they've deprecated DirectDraw and made all the 2d stuff part of the 3d world.
I've managed to get my form to load an image and display it on the screen...I am now embarking on the tiling process at normal default zoom level, and when I get that done, I'll implement pan and release a litmus test version to see how it performs on multiple PC's. then I'll work on zoom levels.
I was locked out there for a while. Rob did you get any of the emails I sent to the admin account?
Anyway, I finally got back in, and am picking up.
Those are some impressive credentials you got there Arcana!
I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this project develops. I'm strictly a VB guy and not even .NET. :cry: It has been a while. I guess I'll think on the name and see what I come up with.
WorldView? PlanetView? CartoDynView? Hmm... I think some more thinking is in order. LOL
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