6 ms·

WebGL 3D Globe to visualize real-time site traffic

86 points by simontabor 14y ago

hudster 14y ago
well I'm hypnotised
- RaSoJo 14y ago
  Me too. My mind went into a tangent of space travel and hikers docking in from far off planets. Then I shook myself awake with the reality of it just being web traffic. deep sigh :(
majke 14y ago
Hey, where are the aliens? I want UFO: Enemy Unknown[1] clone in the browser! (not to be confused with XCOM: Enemy Unknown[2]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown
lloeki 14y ago
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.
- jianshen 14y ago
  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.
RyanMcGreal 14y ago
Not a lot of Team Fortress players on the African continent.
axx 14y ago
Great! :)
tudorizer 14y ago
These guys keep on coming with great looking stuff. Very cool.
ger_phpmagazin 14y ago
Practical application to be doubted due to bad cost/revenue relation.
jstalin 14y ago
How accurate is the seasonality of the earth's tilt?
- simontabor 14y ago
  It's way more accurate than necessary... like seriously crazy
  - daviding 14y ago
    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 :)
sp4ke 14y ago
Do you plan to open source the code used for this visualization ?
- davidwparker 14y ago
  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.
  - simontabor 14y ago
    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)
dutchbrit 14y ago
I created the same thing a while back, but using the following globe: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/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!!!
afaqurk 14y ago
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!
snogglethorpe 14y ago
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!"]

86 points by simontabor 14y ago

hudster 14y ago

well I'm hypnotised

RaSoJo 14y ago
Me too. My mind went into a tangent of space travel and hikers docking in from far off planets. Then I shook myself awake with the reality of it just being web traffic. deep sigh :(

majke 14y ago

Hey, where are the aliens? I want UFO: Enemy Unknown[1] clone in the browser! (not to be confused with XCOM: Enemy Unknown[2]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown

lloeki 14y ago

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.

jianshen 14y ago
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.

RyanMcGreal 14y ago

Not a lot of Team Fortress players on the African continent.

axx 14y ago

Great! :)

tudorizer 14y ago

These guys keep on coming with great looking stuff. Very cool.

ger_phpmagazin 14y ago

Practical application to be doubted due to bad cost/revenue relation.

jstalin 14y ago

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

simontabor 14y ago
It's way more accurate than necessary... like seriously crazy
- daviding 14y ago
  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 :)

sp4ke 14y ago

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

davidwparker 14y ago
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.
- simontabor 14y ago
  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)

dutchbrit 14y ago

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

afaqurk 14y ago

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!

snogglethorpe 14y ago

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!"]