geographic visualization - online application with transition from 2D to 3D

General Discussion Other

boeraliz

geographic visualization - online application with transition from 2D to 3D

in General Discussion • Other • 2 years ago

Dear all,

I have recently started my master thesis and my aim is to create a geographic visualization that will allow the user to slide between the level of abstraction and maybe dimensions. I imagine to have different visualizations/ maps: 2D sketch from a city, 2D city model with polygons (ESRI shapefile), photorealistic 2D (with ortophoto or satellite image), the polygons should eventually pop-out as a 3D shape to form buildings, abstract and then more real (photorealistic). The visualizations should have a smooth transition between them which will be probably very hard to implement so an alternative is using buttons, instead of a slider to select the appropriate visualization.

Can I try to implement this with Processing? I was reading all sorts of tutorials, opinions regarding this topic, but could not find this out. I need more people's opinion, especially who already used Processing if it is doable, maybe parts of it or should I search for another alternative?

Thank you very much for your input!

Alice

Replies(3)

amnon.owed

Re: geographic visualization - online application with transition from 2D to 3D

2 years ago

Can I try to implement this with Processing?

If you have never used Processing, this doesn't really sound like a good 'beginner' project. You don't mention your skill level nor your deadline. Two things that seem to me equally if not more important.

Some amazing work has been done by students from the MAS-CAAD (Computer Aided Architectural Design) program at ETH in Zurich. For example the work of Min-Chieh Chen on Processing City - Sandy City. This will give you an idea of what could be done (note that some parts of the video are not realtime, but rendered).

Even with all the promising developments with regard to Processing.js, the biggest challenge of your project in my opinion is that you want it to be an online application.

boeraliz

Re: Re: geographic visualization - online application with transition from 2D to 3D

2 years ago

Thank you for your feedback!

I have to be ready in April with the thesis, so writing is included. I did some Java and HTML/Javascript/CSS courses which would probably help to understand the language.

I was thinking either Flash or HTML 5 could be an alternative...

amnon.owed

Re: geographic visualization - online application with transition from 2D to 3D

2 years ago

If you are familiar with object-oriented programming, it will help a lot in a bigger project like this. I think it's smart to consider all alternatives at this stage. Processing is free. So to be able to make an even better judgement, you could download it, try it, run some technical tests and see if it feels right for your project. Good luck!