three-geo is a three.js based geographic visualization library. Using three-geo, we can easily build satellite-textured 3D terrain models in near real-time by simply specifying GPS coordinates anywhere on the globe. The geometry of the terrain is based on the RGB-encoded DEM (Digital Elevation Model) provided by the Mapbox Maps API.

The terrain is represented by standard THREE.Mesh objects. This makes it easy for us to access underlying geometry/texture array and perform original GIS (Geographic Information System) experiments in JavaScript. (See Usage for how to programatically obtain those mesh objects).

Credits: this library has been made possible thanks to

• geo-related libraries such as mapbox, Turfjs, d3 in npm, and the Mapbox Maps API.
• peterqliu for informative 3D terrain-related articles and implementation.

1) examples/geo-viewer (live | source code)

This demo app includes features such as

• on-demand 3D terrain building (by a mouse click on the Leaflet map),
• real-time camera projection onto Leaflet (with oritentaion and HFoV indication),
• terrain interaction with a VR-like laser beam,
• measuring Euclidean distances between terrain points,
• auto camera orbiting around the custom z-axis.

Live:

• https://w3reality.github.io/three-geo/examples/geo-viewer/io/index.html?lat=46.5763&lng=7.9904

  

• https://w3reality.github.io/three-geo/examples/geo-viewer/io/index.html?lat=46.5763&lng=7.9904&mode=contours

  

• https://w3reality.github.io/three-geo/examples/geo-viewer/io/index.html?lat=36.2058&lng=-112.4413

  

2) examples/heightmaps (live | source code)

This demo illustrates the relationship between a reconstructed 3D terrain and its underlying satellite/DEM tiles.

3) examples/flat (live | source code)

How to get a flattened view of the terrain by post-editing the underlying geometry.

4) examples/projection (live | 🔵 source code)

How to register a new 3D object on top of the terrain based on its geographic location [latitude, longitude, elevation].

Installation

$ npm install three-geo

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Via script tags: use ThreeGeo after

<script src="three.min.js"></script>
<script src="dist/three-geo.min.js"></script>

Via the ES6 module system: use ThreeGeo after

import ThreeGeo from 'three-geo/src';

Here is an example of how to build a geographic terrain located at GPS coordinates (46.5763, 7.9904) in a 5 km radius circle. The terrain's satellite zoom resolution is set to 12. (The highest zoom value supported is 17.)

For standalone tests, use examples/simple-viewer (source code).

const tgeo = new ThreeGeo({
    tokenMapbox: '********',                  // <---- set your Mapbox API token here
});

// params: [lat, lng], terrain's radius (km), satellite zoom resolution, callbacks
// Beware the value of radius; for zoom 12, radius > 5.0 (km) could trigger huge number of tile API calls!!
tgeo.getTerrain([46.5763, 7.9904], 5.0, 12, {
    onRgbDem: meshes => {                     // your implementation when the terrain's geometry is obtained
        meshes.forEach(mesh => scene.add(mesh));
        render();                             // now render scene after dem meshes are added
    },
    onSatelliteMat: mesh => {                 // your implementation when terrain's satellite texture is obtained
        render();                             // now render scene after dem material (satellite texture) is applied
    },
});

• jet-wasp - Three-geo as A-Frame component (source code)
• locus-pocus - A webapp to visualise your area using three-geo
• Your App - PR us!

ThreeGeo

• constructor(opts={})

  Create a ThreeGeo instance with parameters.

  • opts.tokenMapbox="" string Mapbox API token. This must be provided.
  • opts.unitsSide=1.0 number The side length of the square that fits the terrain in WebGL space.

• getTerrain(latlng, radius, zoom, callbacks={})

  • latlng Array<number> GPS coordinates of the form: [latitude, longitude].
  • radius number The radius of the circle that fits the terrain.
  • zoom number (integer) Satellite zoom resolution of the tiles in the terrain. Select from {11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17}, where 17 is the highest value supported. For a fixed radius, higher zoom resolution results in more tileset API calls.

  • callbacks.onRgbDem function (meshes) {} Implement this to request the geometry of the terrain. Called when the entire terrain's geometry is obtained.

    • meshes Array<THREE.Mesh> All the meshes belonging to the terrain.

  • callbacks.onSatelliteMat function (mesh) {} Implement this to request the satellite textures of the terrain. Called when the satellite texture of each mesh belonging to the terrain is obtained.

    • mesh THREE.Mesh One of the meshes that's part of the terrain.

  • callbacks.onVectorDem function (objs) {} Implement this to request the contour map of the terrain. Called when the contour map of the terrain is obtained.

    • objs Array<THREE.Object3D> Extruded meshes (THREE.Mesh objects with .name attribute prefixed by dem-vec-shade-<ele>-) and lines (THREE.Line objects with .name attribute prefixed by dem-vec-line-<ele>-), where <ele> is the height of each contour in meters.

$ npm install  # set up build tools
$ npm run build  # generate module files in lib/