In previous blog posts we primarily covered 2D data and functions. For the most part, CartoDB has largely been a 2D data visualization tool, with 3D maps for the web environment appearing sporadically. Now with the Mobile SDK, we often find ourselves building 3D maps for real use cases and sometimes just because we can!
The Nutiteq Mobile SDK, version 3.x, has several 3D features:
- Map Tilting for perspective or navigation view.
- Billboard orientation for certain objects, which means that markers, balloons, and texts face the viewer even when the map is tilted.
- 3D Polygon is just like using polygons on maps, but it has height (in meters), which can be set by code. Also general color of the polygon can be set, but not the outline.
- 3D Objects can be added to maps. This is useful for landmarks, adding a 3D car, or a pointer to a map as a 3D model. You can dynamically rotate or move these objects on the map.
- 3D City Layer Type for bigger 3D datasets used for visualizing an entire city. The data can be loaded from offline file or via online API.
To convert data from common standard formats like: KMZ, OpenCollada, DAE, we have built converters. These converters are provided as extra products, just email me your model files for a free sample of the first conversion!
We don’t provide 3D data as part of our standard map service, because 3D city data and 3D landmarks are very expensive to produce and we license them from other vendors. If you are interested in adding 3D capabilities, or if you have your own 3D city data, contact us!
P.S. These and many other Mobile SDK features will be shown in a webinar next June 29. RSVP now.
Happy 3D mobile mapping!