Melown – 3D Map Developer Library | Hacker News Reader

Melown – 3D Map Developer Library

melown.com

46 pointssccxy20 comments

Incredible. This is the first 3D mapping implementation in JS that doesn't make my MBP switch to leaf-blower mode. It runs smooth and silent. Well done.

It would be nice to get a ballpark indication of the pricing if anyone from this company cares to share.

My guess is they are not trying to do quad tree tiling. The demos are very nice, but it might have trouble scaling to larger maps.

It does use quad tree (or similar) tiling. I guess they simply limit framerate to something reasonable instead of rendering as many frames as possible like others often do.

Hello, this is Ondrej from Melown.com.

Actually, Melown is all about scalability. There is no limit to the size of True3D data we can integrate, appart from the disk space available.

To get an idea of what I am talking about, please check out the simple demo at https://melown.com/intergeo2016

Yes, we're talking planetary scale. If somebody had the resources to model the entire planet in 10cm True3D, Melown can carry it, with no changes to the existing architecture.

And unlike Google, Melown can do polar caps too, the same quality as any other place on Earth. And with Melown, you can do Mars, Mercury, Titan, Europa, or any other celestial object, without the limitation of Web Mercator, WGS84 or other simplistic approaches.

I had same feeling.

I thought 3D in browser is in far future. But their current stage really surprised me.

Since the software is OSS, what is it that they're selling? Looking at the (impressive) demos, they surely did not create the raw data (3d models, textures), or did they?

I'm wondering because it'd make a nice addition to a commercial website I run, but the 3000 views/month is pretty much exactly what I would expect in a normal month, but it's not important enough to "contact sales" to accommodate peak months or growth.

Also, when using it, I activated the coordinates-finding mode (crosshair cursor) and couldn't get out of it again (Safari). And keyboard navigation didn't work.

Hello, this is Ladislav from Melown.com

Actually, all 3D models you can see were created by our photogrammetric software, mostly from aerial and drone imagery. However, we are able to incorporate data even from third-party sources - including 3D models, textures, DEMs, vector data, you name it.

Resulting maps can be easily easily embedded into your site or used in your web app so if you are interested, feel free to try it.

To get back from coordinates-finding mode, just click the 'eye' icon to the left from crosshair.

I can't click the eye. The crosshair remains a crosshair and is actually under the toolbar. If I click "on" (under) the eye, it marks whatever location happens to be there.

This is on Safari and the Jerusalem demo.

Oh, I see, I was able to reproduce it in chrome - it is definitely a bug. I'll get it fixed as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for pointing this out!

Excellent! What photogrammetry algorithms are you using? Can we talk about it in detail when I'll be visiting MFF UK? ;)

These demos are quite impressive.

3D in browser used to be real pain, but these guys have managed it really well.

I hope it takes off, and people could build some cool stuff around it. Definitely great open-source project to follow and watch for the future.

There is a small typo on the site. "Preview maps we have build" should be "Preview maps we have built"

I think the software itself is actually really well done, however I hate the fact that the pricing always HAS to be 'Contact sales'.

Why is it so hard to have transparent pricing? Just say what you offer and tell us how much you want to be paid, as easy as that. 'Contact sales' makes pricing REALLY intransparent and ultimately leads to lower sales.

It's a new service, so the pricing structure also needs to be developed. Business processes are hard to develop!

How much would you be willing to offer for this service?

Sorry for the late reply. Shure, it is hard to develop a good pricing model, but if your approach is serious you try to figure it out pre-launch, so that a potential customer does NOT have to think about how much he would like to pay for the service. He either accepts the offer or he doesn't, and a tiered model (dependant on your use) should offer a good deal for everyone. I personally would argue that twice the free tier would be worth 10 bucks a month, double that 15, and double that again 25. This way would reward bigger users with a volume discount, but still make the service accessible for more serious hobbyists.

Hi, this is Vaclav from Melown.com.

We understand it’s frustrating when you can’t see the pricing. We are not withholding any information - just simply hadn’t put it up on the site yet. All transparency aside, which we do hold near and dear to our business ideals, here is the pricing for Melown.com https://www.melown.com/pricing.html .

Lovely, what kind of photo resolution does it require?

It's... not working

Hi, this is Ladislav from Melown.com

The 3D presentation needs WebGL to run. Are you using a WebGL enabled browser like Chrome or Safari?

While it is incredible to see it almost run, on my iPhone it keeps crashing Safari until it stops reloading the page for 'causing a problem repeatedly'.

IOS 10.1.1 on an iPhone 6s.

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