WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic • Hacker News Board

It's built with Three.js, which is already Open Source. The actual code they use isn't super difficult to grasp- take a look at the source. Server-side, however, is a whole different ball game.

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#14

Post by simontabor » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 3:16 PM UTC

davidwparker wrote: post #13

sp4ke wrote: post #11

Do you plan to open source the code used for this visualization ?

It's built with Three.js, which is already Open Source. The actual code they use isn't super difficult to grasp- take a look at the source. Server-side, however, is a whole different ball game.

There's no server side code at all for this - we're planning on open sourcing our labs section as well soon (and doing more labs projects, of course)

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#15

Post by dutchbrit » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 3:32 PM UTC

I created the same thing a while back, but using the following globe: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/globe

I quite liked using the spikes to show traffic volume.

Very cool globe though, love how smooth it is compared to the one I mentioned above & the lens flare!!!

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#16

Post by daviding » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 7:00 PM UTC

simontabor wrote: post #12

jstalin wrote: post #10

How accurate is the seasonality of the earth's tilt?

It's way more accurate than necessary... like seriously crazy

From the source:

    function sunAngle(timeFromNow){
      // Don't try to understand this. It's taken from a NASA thing. I don't know how it works

:)

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#17

Post by jianshen » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 7:44 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #4

I've seen many 3d globes spinning around with day/night shadowing, but the mere inclusion of the sun (however simple, as it is here with a fake lens flare effect) makes it feel so much more real and less uncanny.

The sun totally took me by surprise. I work with folks on other continents and it would be amazing to see a timelapse visualization of check-ins on this thing in relation to the sun.

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#18

Post by afaqurk » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 8:44 PM UTC

Very cool. Just gave it a test-drive with my company's domain. It seems visually spectacular and data-rich. Most importantly, the trends feature is logically organized with quick renderings of charts/textual data as needed.

Great work. Might just talk management into signing up for out other domains too!

Re: WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

#19

Post by snogglethorpe » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:31 AM UTC

Argh, the usual webGL problem: "Your browser doesn't support webGL. Sadface :("

... despite webGL working fine in this browser (chrome) in the past...sometimes... >[Sometimes it's due to bogus browser detection, but usually that tends to be "chrome OK! everything else FAIL!"]