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Poly9 FreeEarth: 3D Web Globe (no plugins + API)

posted by Satri on Friday May 11, @03:24PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the another-virtual-globe-joins-the-club dept.
Virtual Globe Web Mapping
An anonymous voxel writes "Poly9 FreeEarth a 3D web globe that does not require any download, was introduced a few days ago. It comes with a preliminary JavaScript API that will be expanded over time and promises to be a lightweight competitor to the existing 3D globes out there." From their current features: "# Current features * Cross-browser * Cross-platform * 200k download * Pushpins * Mouse control * Limited zoom * Limited tilt * JavaScript API * Embeddable videos"

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3D Mapping With Poly9 Free Earth and Garmin Communicator 1 comment [+]
Poly9 Free Earth is a cross-browser, cross-platform 3-D globe using Adobe Flash. I gave the site a quick run-through, and it looks like they're off to a good start in providing an alternative to the Google offerings. If you're used to the Google controls, you'll be familiar with the controls provided by Poly9. One really cool feature is ability to view in full-screen. The imagery is a little dated for my area, but it's better quality than I get with Google.

Of particular interest to me was the integration with the Garmin Communicator plugin, allowing you to import waypoints, routes and tracks from your Garmin device. I loaded up a weekend excursion to a nearby park and gave it a whirl. My tracks, routes and waypoints loaded up without a hitch. I had only one route, and found that I was unable to select for display in the map. Waypoints and Tracks gave me no trouble because I had several of each.

In all, not a bad start for Poly9. The addition of Communicator Plugin support is a great way to begin to differentiate themselves from Google.
Multiple Parallel Virtual Globes are a Good Thing? [+]
Vector One offers an interesting entry on the benefits of having multiple parallel virtual globes. From the entry: "Are We Destined to Have Parallel Digital Earth’s? The alternative to parallel digital worlds is one digital world - no thanks. I don’t want Google, Microsoft, WorldWind, TITAN or any other single world becoming the dominate, stand alone, source for digital spatial content. In fact, I think each of these do their best work and will reach their highest potential through competition and interaction. [...] The primary difference between digital worlds and all other mediums for communication will simply be that they are digital and characterized by what one can do with digital data." From my point of view, interoperability is the key component for the users. Update: 09/28 15:29 GMT by S : Spatial Sustain's Matt Ball also shares his thoughts on the subject: "There’s currently ample opportunity for niche players in this space, but the gap between the leaders and others is rapidly expanding to the point that it will be a chasm where vast amounts of investment will be required to catch up."
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  • No plugins? Ha.

    (Score:2, Informative)
    by Ben (62) on Saturday May 12, @04:29AM (#1428)
    ( http://vterrain.org/ )
    "a 3D web globe that does not require any download"

    I visited the page, and was confronted by:
    "Adobe Flash Player Update. This content requires Adobe Flash Player 9. Would you like to install it now?"

    Ahem.

    'Does not require any download' seems a bit shaky. If they've made a Flash-based 3D viewer, why not just say so?

    • Re:No plugins? Ha.

      (Score:3, Interesting)
      by Daniel (1125) on Monday May 14, @07:33AM (#1429)
      ( http://www.remotesensingtools.com/ )
      I agree that it could have been noted better - but then again - why haven't you updated your plugin? Flash updates are of course free too everyone. Such an attitude typically reminds me of the days when people would still be using AOL 2.0 browsers and ranting and raving that nothing seemed to be working - yet - all they had to do was click that magic 'Update' button and all would be right with the world. The Flash app is interesting, considering that Flash didn't previously support 3D visualization. That was typically the realm of Director (which requires an additional plugin, aside from Flash). Seeing this, however, is a good sign moving forward with Flash technologies and the possibilities it can have in the geospatial realm of visualization and web services. It would have been more impressive perhaps to see a higher resolution dataset being draped. But I gather this is an initial roll-out of the innovation, which looks to hold some interesting promise. Flash is also widely supported across platforms, so it holds promise in that regard as well. Good luck to them!
      [ Parent ]

  • no download?

    (Score:2, Interesting)
    by fotoguzzi (964) on Monday May 14, @02:13PM (#1431)
    ". . . does not require any download . . . From their current features: " . . . * 200k download . . ."

    Maybe they could call it 200k of something else?