this is awesome

**liquid_smoke** · 01-20-2005, 11:43 AM

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/porta...lla-030642.php

why oh why cant someone in the US at least start working on real 3D gps maps.

**MoFo** · 01-20-2005, 11:57 AM

thats cool. looks llke a video game

**Skipjacks** · 01-20-2005, 11:59 AM

That really is awesome

How do they do a thing like that? Do the buildings on the map look like the real ones? Or are they generic buildings?

And how the hell do oyu program a thing like that? I'd think that would take up a mamoth amount of data storage to house all that information.

Anyway...it makes me glad I went with a carputer rather than a preassembled nav system. Now I have expasion options to upgrade to this kind of system when it becomes the industry standard.

**liquid_smoke** · 01-20-2005, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Skipjacks

That really is awesome

How do they do a thing like that? Do the buildings on the map look like the real ones? Or are they generic buildings?

And how the hell do oyu program a thing like that? I'd think that would take up a mamoth amount of data storage to house all that information.

Anyway...it makes me glad I went with a carputer rather than a preassembled nav system. Now I have expasion options to upgrade to this kind of system when it becomes the industry standard.

I got a feeling its gonna be a very long time before something like this comes to the US, and even when it does its gonna suck at first.

as far as data storage, i dont think it would take up huge amounts of data. Depends on the level of detail in the 3d models and textures etc. Probably can only load up one city at a time, but hey since its 3D they can use all the tricks people been using in 3D games for years.

Something like this can happen for US maps, and really wouldnt take a super long time to do if the right people were working on it, someone just needs to get off there *** and start doing it.

I dont know if those buildings in the pic are accurate structures in japan, never been there. But even if they are close its a huge step ahead of a 2D map.
Sony has something just like this, looks even cooler than this one, link around here somewhere.

**rando** · 01-20-2005, 12:12 PM

This was discussed a few months back. The real trick is getting your hands on that kind of data. At the moment, I'm not aware of anyone having such a repository for the US or even individual cities.

**Skipjacks** · 01-20-2005, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by rando

This was discussed a few months back. The real trick is getting your hands on that kind of data. At the moment, I'm not aware of anyone having such a repository for the US or even individual cities.

Yeah how'd you like to be the guy that programs a thing like that?

"Hey, Joe! Grab your digital camera and go take pictures of every building in America"

haha

**rando** · 01-20-2005, 12:24 PM

You can probably extract a good deal of information from the various building plans that are vaulted with local government agencies. You could always fake the exact color and facade of the builings -- something approximate would still be cool. The actual software itself isn't a huge deal as it's nothing substantially different than a typical 3D game rendering engine.

**jjh221** · 01-20-2005, 12:42 PM

think they started that in japan

**scott_fx** · 01-20-2005, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by jjh221

think they started that in japan

They could just extractapolate the data from topographical sat. images. the building models would most likely be generic anyways. textures would just be baked onto the building (like in video games). but it still is huge task.

We've done some stuff like that here, but for terrain not for buildings