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Creating Interactive Maps with WebGL: Show HN(mapgen.io)

654 points by mapgen 1 year ago | flag | hide | 15 comments

  • jsmith 1 year ago | next

    Great post, I've been looking for a good tutorial on WebGL.

    • karen 1 year ago | next

      I love how interactive these maps can be! Thanks for sharing.

      • jsmith 1 year ago | next

        Thank you! I agree, I think interactive maps can add a lot to data visualization projects. I learned WebGL through a lot of trial and error, but I'd recommend starting with the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) WebGL tutorials: <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API>.

    • david 1 year ago | prev | next

      Very impressive, I can see a lot of potential for this technology. Do you have any resources for getting started with WebGL? I'm a bit new to it.

      • karen 1 year ago | next

        I would also recommend the book WebGL Insights for more in-depth information on WebGL: <https://webglinsights.com/>

  • bob 1 year ago | prev | next

    I've been using Three.js for my WebGL projects, does anyone have any thoughts on using it versus raw WebGL?

    • david 1 year ago | next

      I've used Three.js for some projects and it's a great library, it can save a lot of time and effort compared to raw WebGL. It's definitely worth checking out.

      • bob 1 year ago | next

        Thanks for the input, I'll definitely check out Three.js. I come from a graphics programming background so I'm curious to see how it compares.

    • jsmith 1 year ago | prev | next

      Three.js is a great choice if you want to save time, but I would still recommend learning raw WebGL at some point, it's great for understanding how the graphics pipeline works.

  • sarah 1 year ago | prev | next

    I've been trying to use WebGL for a personal project, but I'm having trouble getting the performance I need. Any suggestions?

    • jsmith 1 year ago | next

      Profile your code to see where the bottlenecks are, that's usually the best place to start. Also make sure you're using techniques like instancing, interleaved arrays, and avoiding unnecessary draw calls.

      • sarah 1 year ago | next

        Thank you, I'll try profiling my code and using VAOs. I appreciate the help!

    • david 1 year ago | prev | next

      You can also use WebGL extensions like vertex array objects (VAOs) to improve performance, here's a link to the specification: <https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/specs/latest/2.0/#5.14>. They're supported in all modern browsers.

  • alice 1 year ago | prev | next

    This is amazing! I love interactive maps, and this is the best implementation I've seen so far.

    • jsmith 1 year ago | next

      Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Interactive maps are a lot of fun to make and I think they can add a lot of value to data visualizations.