Tuesday, June 24, 2014

3D is the 'new' map

This is not really new...we created 3D campus building models using Google's (now defunct) SketchUp and 3D Warehouse back in February 2009. But, the push is on now more than ever with more and more high-resolution commercial LiDAR, UAV, and satellite data becoming available (if you are able/willing to pay for it...).

Google Maps Mania has nice compilation: Mapzen Vector Tiles, OSM Buildings, and F4Map (here the shadows change as the sun angle changes over the course of the day).

For know I'm not impressed: this is cool and fun, but for now this remains the realm of specialized (i.e. expensive) consultants and inaccessible for normal people or normal students at normal institutions. Wake me up once this is a) affordable, b) accessible, and c) usable for quantitative geospatial analysis.

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