[x3d-public] Showcase: 3D maps showing sea level change using X3D/X3DOM

[Magnus Zeisig]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for your positive feedback and for the tip about the GeoElevationGrid. I admit I hadn't gotten that far yet, but will definitely keep it in mind for future 3D mapping projects. For this particular project I probably would have decided to stick with the ElevationGrid even if I had known though, since I then more easily could match it to a set of "flat" videos of the same areas I had already produced and had much of the data conversion done already for that purpose.

If I understand it right, the GeoElevationGrid can be used both for full sphere and partial sphere (if (xDimension - 1) * xSpacing < 360 or (zDimension - 1) * zSpacing < 180) topography, but will always result in a correct but sometimes impractical spherical projection, also more triangular (or really concentric circle sector) than rectangular towards the poles? Adding a sea level with adjustment should just be a matter of adding a corresponding second GeoElevationGrid with all height values 0 and scaling it by changing an enclosing Transform scale field?

Best regards,

Magnus


> 20 feb. 2019 kl. 18:36 skrev Mike McCann <mccann at mbari.org>:
> 
> Hello Magnus,
> 
> This is a very intuitive and informative interactive presentation!
> 
> I agree that X3D/X3DOM is a smoother choice, especially when we have limited time and need to do a lot of data preparation.
> 
> I notice that you use a single ElevationGrid and can understand why, as it’s simpler to integrate the Sea level adjustment component of your application. 
> 
> Just a note regarding dealing with geospatial data: X3DOM also has the Geospatial component – if GeoElevationGrid were used then other data might be more easily added to the scene using latitude, longitude, elevation coordinates, rather than having to first convert to custom coordinates needed for each ElevationGrid. 
> 
> -Mike
> 
>> On Feb 20, 2019, at 3:25 AM, Magnus Zeisig <magnus.zeisig at tele2.se> wrote:
>> 
>> I just wanted to say thank you to the community and developers for providing a great, quick and simple tool to get 3D scenes done and published. It took me a week of spare time from completing the first "Hello, X3DOM!" tutorial to having a set of 370 coastal areas around the world in interactive 3D on the web, most of that time required to massage geodata from GEBCO and GeoNames into proper format: http://sealevelrise.se/en/earth_3d1/
>> 
>> At least initially looking more for a quick tool to get the job done than to really learn all the nuts and bolts of X3D and X3DOM, I've probably made a lot of beginners' mistakes, and I'm sure I'll revisit and improve the project as I learn more, but for now, it's up, working and looking good. Once more, thank you!
>> 
>> As a background, I'm not all new to 3D. I wrote my first 2-pass (light and shadow) 3D renderer back in 1981, in BASIC on a micro-computer with a 2.2 MHz 8 bit Z80-processor and 32 KB RAM, taking 2 weeks to render a 332 face mesh model (608 tris) in high resolution (2304x1152 px). In 1995-1996, I created my first 3D scenes on the web using VRML, and later worked with software like RayDream Studio, POV-Ray, Carrara and Poser. 2007-2008 I went into virtual worlds like Second Life and OpenSimulator, and contributed some code to OpenSimulator. Lately, I've created some 3D web content using WebGL and ThreeJS, and contributed some to the ThreeJS documentation.
>> 
>> I left VRML when the existing viewers went defunct on Macintosh in the late 1990's, leaving it without a properly functioning viewer for a while, and since I didn't hear much about VRML afterwards, I assumed it more or less dead. I'm happy to see I was wrong and that its offspring X3D is still alive and kicking. While e.g. ThreeJS has its charm for some projects, it's overkill for others, and at least for this project, X3D/X3DOM definitely was a smoother choice.
>> 
>> 
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