The latest enhancement, dubbed as Google MapsGL, employs Google’s Web Graphics Library (the “GL” part) to bring 3D-like graphics to the browser. Through the power of WebGL, those of you using Firefox beta, Chrome 14+, Safari, and starting today Opera 12 Alpha, can all see the buildings, the lovely, lovely buildings.
You may identify these buildings if you are an Android user, as they have been operational for more than a few weeks now–in fact, it was viewable all the way back at Mobile World Congress 2011 in the Google pod. Now we have got it everywhere!
To view the new Google Maps you will also need either Windows 7, Vista, OS X 10.6+, or a current Linux distribution together with a compatible video card. If that is the case, go to Google Maps homepage and you should see a prompt.
With WebGL, Google Maps gets the 3D buildings–also visible on Android’s Maps app–and more. Apparently, WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, which now allows Google Maps to show views in 3D rather than top down as in the past.
Google explains: “We have rebuilt Google Maps from the ground up. Our enhanced Maps provide improved performance, richer 3D graphics, smoother transitions between imagery, 45° view rotation, easier access to Street View and more.”
As Evan Parker, a software engineer at Google describes in the video below, MapsGL also delivers vector maps that are available on Android to the desktop and offers cutting-edged satellite views that can now be smoothly rotated. Another new feature is the ability to take “Pegman”–Google’s name for its drag-and-drop Street View locator icon–and place him within an area and then seamlessly transition to Street View.
Another interestingly aesthetic features comprises of a swoop transition from an ordinary bird’s-eye view to Street View; shadows appropriate to the local time of day; the ability to rotate a map so something besides north is at the top; and a gradual transition from a straight-down satellite view to the more detailed 45-degree aerial photography views Google offers in some areas.
Maybe that is a bit far-fetched, but then again, maybe not. “You are now one step closer to participating and interacting with a 3D mirror of the real world within your browser with Google MapsGL,” said Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps and Earth, in a blog post today.
In any event, I see this as, if not a watershed moment for WebGL, at least a compelling reason why you might want to have it in your browser.
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