godzi-webgl, paper.js, Liquid Galaxy WebGL Demo
godzi-webgl
godzi-webgl (License: LGPL v3) by Glenn from Pelican Mapping is an SDK for building WebGL maps. The ReadyMap Web SDK supports 2D and 3D maps — the 2D maps look like the familiar maps we’ve seen on the web before, while the 3D maps are rendered on a globe that can be rotated and populated with geographical data.
There’s a list of ReadyMap SDK demos that includes many examples of the possibilities the current implementation offers.
The company’s website at pelicanmapping.com has more details behind the SDK and associated services:
Pelican Mapping is the creator and maintainer of the osgEarth and ReadyMap SDK open source projects. These are powerful, “on-demand” 3D terrain engines capable of providing an interactive, 3D globe populated with a variety of local or web-based data sources.
paper.js
paper.js (GitHub: paperjs / paper.js, License) by Juerg Lehni and Jonathan Puckey is a “vector graphics scripting framework” that uses Canvas. It’s designed to be mostly compatible with Scriptographer, which is a scripting environment for Adobe Illustrator.
It comes packed with features:
- Simple scene graph
- Paths and segments
- Mouse and keyboard handling
- Bitmap colour processing
- Selection outlines
- Vector geometry abstraction
- Mathematical operations
One thing I like about the API is the ability to use arrays or simple objects:
var rect = new Rectangle({ x: 10, y: 20, width: 100, height: 200 });
console.log(rect); // { x: 10, y: 20, width: 100, height: 200 }
// Define the size as an array containing [width, height]:
rect.size = [200, 300];
console.log(rect); // { x: 10, y: 20, width: 200, height: 300 }
There’s a good set of paper.js tutorials which cover everything from paths and geometry to animations and rasters.
WebGL Tron Tank on Liquid Galaxy WebGL Demo
SceneJS Tron Tank is a WebGL demo from SceneJS, except it’s running on 5 tiled screens:
This is a hack to see if WebSocket/WebGL is viable for achieving view synchronisation on immersive multi-machine visualisation rigs. The test rig is a 5 screen curved tile-wall at the University of Western Sydney based on Google’s Liquid Galaxy.
