3D OpenStreetMap | Hacker News Reader

3D OpenStreetMap

demo.f4map.com

250 pointsfaebi58 comments

A large majority of these elevations and building footprints donated to OpenStreetMap (over 900 Million) were contributed by Microsoft from Bing Maps. Microsoft now also incorporates OpenStreetMap data into Bing Maps.

https://github.com/microsoft/GlobalMLBuildingFootprints/

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Microsoft_Building_Footp...

Can someone give more context here? It's a cool 3D map, but this submission is at almost 100 points and I have no idea what it's about. Is this submission about...

- A private or open-source map visualization engine that's doing something new? (And if so, what?)

- A demonstration of all the 3D data already in OpenSourceMap? (Has it made a leap forwards or something? How complete is it?)

- Something else?

Is this something new and newsworthy or just somebody re-posting something that's been around for a decade? I'm just totally lost here.

I don't know about this project, but OSM data included information on levels for a while (and it was used, in addition to just being there: e.g., in JOSM you can switch between levels for editing; not sure if I saw 3D rendering of OSM data before, but that's possible). While this looks like a demo by a commercial company selling "Interactive Map Solutions": not major news about OSM itself, but may be amusing to poke.

Note, that OSM lists this one and more in their wiki; https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/3D

P.S. The F4 map app is proprietary ;)

Should we replace the link?

I would guess that it's "A demonstration of all the 3D data already in OpenSourceMap"

As heights and number of levels on the building has been a part of the dataset for a while now:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:building:levels

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:height

https://blog.mapbox.com/mapping-3d-building-features-in-open...

It's obviously not complete. I took 2 locations that I know well (different countries) and the first has relatively realistic looking 3-d building shapes. The other has nothing.

And that it's using a 3rd party engine. Since the OSM data is "open", there's nothing wrong with making use of it.

Product overview: https://www.f4map.com/

This is great but one thing worth noting is it doesn't have 3d topography, which is pretty critical if you are looking at the world in 3d in many areas

I noticed this too. I suspect maybe it's because it wants to use only data within OSM?

it does have 3d topogrsphy but you have to enable it in graphic options

Very well done. Looks so nice with elevations, trees, shadows and even infrastructure details.

Hooked the lat/lon fields up to my encyclopedia project. Example: https://conze.pt/explore/Bern?l=en&t=link&i=Q70&u=https%3A%2...

And animation. Somebody is having fun.

https://demo.f4map.com/#lat=47.3695681&lon=8.5092646&zoom=20

Height is wrong for my home. Seems to be absolutely random. Some buildings are literally intersect. It's fun visualization, but I hope that nobody would use it to get any data.

I noticed the height of quite a few buildings in Ft Worth, Texas is also wrong. A number of buildings are way off. I made an OpenStreetMap account to leave a note but decided that was not the way to go about reporting that type of issue since this appears to be a separate product built on top of their work so I didn't leave anything.

Anyway, nice job. I also could not find a way to see things using a satellite overlay. Maybe I didn't click enough buttons.

Side note - The symbol used by OSM for trees causes the area around my place to show palm trees. I thought that was funny. I live on a rock outcrop and I think you would need to hire a tree sitter to keep a palm tree alive near my house. I understand the symbols are generalized. That was funny though.

> I noticed the height of quite a few buildings in Ft Worth, Texas is also wrong.

They render buildings that are missing `height` or `building:levels` data in OSM with 3 levels by default. So you could add this data to OSM to make it render.

I will have to explore the process for updating those features now that I have an account. I read the how-to section and it looks like a process where a new user would submit a potential change and other experienced users would dissect the change to determine whether anything would be broken before applying it.

Thanks for the clue about which attribute to search for.

All changes to OpenStreetMap are applied immediately, even for new users. You can ask for a review [1], but this is an optional flag in your changes

Errors are corrected after the fact, if there are any.

A low-key way of the OSM data is https://streetcomplete.app/, or http://every-door.app/ if you’re on iOS.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me, my username on ODM is the same as here.

[1]: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:review_requested

iOS for me. I will definitely grab that app and see what I can contribute. Thanks! If I have any questions you'll hear from me.

I've just browsed for a minute, and aesthetically, I think the trees/grass/water try to be realistic and they're too high-frequency for them to be pleasing IMO.

Flat colored trees and grass, and simpler water shading would make everything more cohesive. It's like some things are minimalist / low poly looking (buildings, roads) and others try to be realistic (and kind of failing) and they don't fit.

I'm wondering where it is getting the data for the high-resolution buildings?

For example, Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in London has a detailed model, and so too does nearby Westminster Abbey, and several famous structures nearby.

https://demo.f4map.com/#lat=51.5006147&lon=-0.1253329&zoom=1...

It looks like there is a JSON[1] mapping OSM (id's?) to textures[2] and a .bis file which I believe is a 3D model format.

This is super impressive. I've been working on shademap.app for the past few years and they've implemented it's main functionality as an afterthought.

[1] https://models.f4map.com/cacheForever/24b0c4ec554a244c253e6a...

[2] https://models.f4map.com/cacheForever/e9e7a1217400e3fae1e56e...

Here’s Notre Dame [1]. For some reason I also see a Venus de Milo standing in front of it.

[1]: https://demo.f4map.com/#lat=48.8526614&lon=2.3504599&zoom=18...

> For some reason I also see a Venus de Milo standing in front of it.

It looks like that's the Galerie des Rois¹, I assume it's using the default statue rendering due to lack of data or something.

¹: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/6419399963

Construction cranes are hilarious.

and also figuring it's spire, that is no more.

It looks quite impressive; guessing the server is getting more traffic than it's designed for (and it doesn't seem to cache tiles, at least not partially loaded ones, maybe?).

Is it normally significantly slower in Firefox than Edge/Chrome or is that just my b0rked up daily browser?

All I'm getting is a message: "Oops! Unauthorized F4map API usage. If you are this website administrator, please contact the support at support@f4map.com."

It's just building elevation though, no terrain elevation at all (though the data is there).

Also, elevation for many buildings just seems to be a guess.

It's not very intuitive,if you go to the graphic options you can enable the ground elevation

Tried ground elevation, seems to be broken.

All buildings started floating hundreds of meters above the still flat terrain.

Works fine for me in mobile Firefox Android.

It looks like my link has been edited by a mod. I purposefully placed the view in an area of Zürich with nice colorful roofs:

https://demo.f4map.com/#lat=47.3558590&lon=8.5115912&zoom=17

Also one needs to press the 3D Button on the top right, and maybe enable elevation in the graphic options menu hidden behind the burger menu.

Ah looking at your link it actually does use roof data! Nice work!

I'd zoomed in on a place where I'd provided building heights and was pleased to see that it did use that. Not all "3D" OSM renderers do even that.

These renderers dearly need better topography though. The resolution is insufficient unfortunately.

The html contains a canonical link which HN uses.

    link rel="canonical" href="//demo.f4map.com"

The compass button slightly confuses me. I thought the arrow in anticlockwise direction was intended to turn the map anticlockwise, but it actually works like a GPS navigator, i.e., it works as if I turn my car to the left and the direction ahead is always the upward direction on the map.

I wasn't able to get the 3d effect...

Ground elevation was by default turned off for me, but via the burger menu and then "Graphic options" I could turn it on.

Yeah, they definitely need better UX

Neither was I, thought it was a location based thing, like maybe it only works in the USA, so tried SF. Nothing.

Maybe the UX needs work to make it obvious how to get 3D?

I just zoomed and the 3d effects was activated. What browser are you using ?

I tried Chromium and Firefox.. it usually looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/9m2wExo.png ... maybe they are overloaded

Now:

Oops! Unauthorized F4map API usage. If you are this website administrator, please contact the support at support@f4map.com.

Did not expect to find a missing skyscape in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. https://demo.f4map.com/#lat=1.2842228&lon=103.8603026&zoom=1...

Scroll a bit down and you can see animated construction cranes moving goods from place to place!

Very cool, and surprisingly accurate.

It would be really nice if this was linked with contour data to produce realistic shaped hills.

Interestingly, this does not trigger the automatic graphics switching on my laptop, which I take to mean that this is not using webgl but rather is doing the rendering in software. Is there any information on the technology used for this?

It's cute, but at least in Amsterdam it seems to have no idea how tall most buildings actually are, and uses random heights. On streets where all the buildings are the same height, the map makes it look like a lively bar chart.

I'm very impressed. There are places along the US border that show the buildings and lanes for crossing into the US distinctly with labeling.

Can this be embedded in a mobile app?

All the info is coming from OpenStreetMap.

The surface elevations are somehow scaled-down, making mountains seem like rolling hills, and hills like almost-level ground...

But otherwise, it's neat :-)

I think that's real life.

Guess we hugged it?

"Oops! Unauthorized F4map API usage. If you are this website administrator, please contact the support at [email]."

Firefox 106, macOS

I live in a hilly place, and it's a very strange effect to see the buildings in 3D but rendered on flat terrain!

This just takes the floor plan data and assumes every building is the same height and shape?

Only if there is no additional information. Most buildings have polygon on ground level and height/number of levels. It's possible to make more complex shapes

Not quite. Some buildings are different heights and some even have multiple levels. Obviously nowhere near what Google Maps does now. More like what they were doing 10 years ago. Still cool though.

Love the cranes that appear for Construction Areas

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