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Google Maps is no longer a flat map

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Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#91
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory XKCD https://www.xkcd.com/977/

Google decided to go with "A Globe".

At low zoom levels.

Given the behavior of the poles (they're not viewable; the south is also a black hole…), I suspect that there's a very smoothly done transition to web mercator for the higher zoom levels.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#93
While this is a great improvement, this is most needed on mobile devices.

This was especially a problem with Ingress and Pokemon Go games where you need the map to be correct where it isn't. Even more difficult is using those apps in places like the Arctic or Antarctic, there's no way to accurately place GPS coordinates, deal with game portals or have directions other than the compass.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#94
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And once you land on those country crossroads, you can continue exploring the area at the street level. It's really an incredible tool for sating wanderlust - just pop over to some place you've wanted to visit and wander the streets via streetview, all from the comfort of your seat! Speaking of which, GeoGuessr [1] is a great example of how to enjoy Google Maps. You start at some random streetview and try to figure o…

As far as I know google street view costs money from this month, and it's not exactly cheap, $14 for a thousand streetviews: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/ I wonder if this tool stays free, lots of site owners are complaining about paying much more with the new pricing.

It'll be an interesting thing. They definitely understand the gaming angle due to Pokemon Go causing them to specially create tools and customize their API for gaming: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/gaming/

But that seems to be Enterprise level only.

They seem to have already updated for the new level. They also have advertisements and are a profitable business.

My guess is that they "Contacted Sales" like the Gaming API asks you to do and have a very agreeable discounted rate.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#96
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like you are the reason we need to support IE6

I think it's worth replying to this to reinforce the point that the new mode has technical disadvantages compared to the old mode. Some of my projects involve a great deal of time spent looking at aerial imagery, sometimes for hours a day, and while Google Maps is not the panacea of aerial images it is one of the best single sources in terms of usability and quality of images. That said, prior to knowing this trick I…

It's not elevation data, it's reconstructed geometry.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still not an accurate map. 3D maps don't have projection issues, they can have near perfect representation of the world.

The eyes see a 2-dimensional picture. Computer displays produce a 2-dimensional picture. There is no such thing as a “3D map” on a standard computer display. Only an orthographic (or maybe perspective) projection which animates in response to user input. In general an orthographic projection is a poor choice. The thing going for it is that it is easy to understand by analogy to a physical globe, and human spatial und…

I'm amazed this has been downvoted so much... As the OP stated, "globe" view (a.k.a. orothographic or perspective, depending) is not fundamentally better than other projections. It has tradeoffs. You should always choose the projection that matches your use case.

A map is a visualization tool. The goal is not to reflect reality as accurately as possible. The goal is to communicate data and spatial relationships. Projections are part of that. There is not a "best" projection. Orthographic with some animations is a nice visual tool for some purposes and terrible for others.

How could pointing this out be controversial? A bar graph is not a perfect representation of a group of numbers, but it's a very useful visualization. A map is no different than any other visualization.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#98
post #36

By the way, for anyone who prefers Google Maps to load fast and show actual satellite/aerial imagery (rather than trying to render each tree as a weird crumpled blob) there's a flag you can set to get the old, fast 2D mode: https://maps.google.com/?force=canvas

Crumpled weird distorted trees and houses have to be one of the worst features of the newest google maps.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#99
post #36

By the way, for anyone who prefers Google Maps to load fast and show actual satellite/aerial imagery (rather than trying to render each tree as a weird crumpled blob) there's a flag you can set to get the old, fast 2D mode: https://maps.google.com/?force=canvas

This is actually slower in many cases. If you want to view 2D imagery and/or Mercator maps you can simply enable/disable Globe mode from the hamburger menu on the left.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#100
post #36

By the way, for anyone who prefers Google Maps to load fast and show actual satellite/aerial imagery (rather than trying to render each tree as a weird crumpled blob) there's a flag you can set to get the old, fast 2D mode: https://maps.google.com/?force=canvas

Thank you! I'm actually quite annoyed that Google took away the visible option to disabled the 3D aerial view. It's such a resource hog, and my work's internet is often quite slow, and 3D has far more data to retrieve.

The option is there. It's in the hamburger menu, labeled "Globe".
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