Next demo app version will contain simple editor which allows you to add (remove?) buildings, barriers, trees (and, probably, roads, areas) dynamically into scene (ability to save changes in file also will be possible but won’t be exposed through demo app).
Still have a lot of work: just added to demo app really simple GUI editor (but it can be easily extended to add/edit/delete objects with different tag values). Now I’m focused on multiplayer feature in framework which will allow to share changes immediately over network (Unity has built-in multiplayer support).
Yeah, and bug fixing (geometry, rendering, etc.)
The latest changes in demo project demonstrate various aspect of usage:
*SimpleMap2D *scene loads 2D map of large area with low detail terrain and allows you to skip the certain objects (e.g. buildings, trees) using MapCSS rules for different zoom levels. You can also pan/zoom map.
*SimpleMap3D *scene loads one tile with all details (full detail terrain, buildings, trees) and adjusted tiles with low level of details. You can walk and interact with environment: modify facade of building, make craters. Tiles will be loaded/unloaded automatically.
GpsTracking scene demonstrates how to work with Location Services (e.g. GPS). Nmea file is used as GPS signal source to simulate movement.
*GuiEditor *scene demonstrates several features: map editor (create new map object such as buildings, barriers, trees; adjust terrain height), current address resolution (detects where you are), dynamic switch between 2D/3D maps (2D map shows larger area). You may find video which shows this scene in action above.
Working on rewriting core logic using C++ to make it completely independent from Unity3D and increase performance. Also support of multiply zoom levels are planned (e.g. render Earth as globe on zoom level one and buildings/all details in 3D on highest level).
Just first raw results showing chosen direction - rendered globe at zoom level 1:
No texturing yet, color gradient logic is slightly broken, but I was able to use coastline data (from natural earth shapefiles) and mesh generation is quite fast.
Current plan is start from releasing this as FREE unity asset for desktop and mobile platforms (e.g. Android) when all major features are implemented and it is stable (cannot estimate so far the concrete date, but for sure I need several months). I’m already aware about making it easy to use and considering this as a MUST requirement.
Nice thing, that core part has no dependency on Unity at all as I’m writing it using C++11 without any Unity or platform specific API. You call something like loadTile with quadkey, desired mapcss style + callbacks which are called to return you back generated mesh or raw data (node/way/relation for given region if you want to process it from your code). Then is up to specific engine to build “game object” from this data.
Theoretically it can be reused in some other 3D gaming engine or visualization software.
Here, text and sphere for each place are created on unity3d side from geodata provided by the library. Of course, visual representation can be improved: text from opposite side of globe should not be visible, but this is just example.