GIS telemetry Import?

[Pryme8]

Has anyone worked on importing GIS data?  I was writing up the concept for something for when I get some time here, and I was really interested in dynamically importing GIS telemetry and rendering it out...  Has anyone looked into this with BJS yet?

[Wingnut]

Hi P8.  Lots of people have done external GIS libs for JS... the web is full of them.  I haven't yet seen anyone use that GIS imported data for a BJS heightMap, displaceMap, or Canvas2d painting. 

BJS will render data from anywhere... once you use JS to massage it into a format that follows the BJS api.  BJS doesn't care where or how you get your data, it is a viewer... not a data massager or retriever.  Maybe an extension?  I think... using one of the many GIS third party libs to retrieve the GIS data into JS... would be easier. 

I'm sure you wouldn't want to overload the BJS heightMap and displaceMap with a bunch of .isGisData flags, right?  You'd want BJS heightMap and displaceMap to stay completely universal, right?  You bet.  So, two steps. 

#1.  Import and massage GIS data using GIS tools... until data is in BJS heightMap format.

#2.  Use BJS to view that data in heightMap form.

Do you agree with this "keep your separate activities separated" -way of thinking?  If so, then you might understand why you wouldn't find much GIS talk on this forum.  GIS into JS is not really a webGL activity, right?  *shrug*  Why rewrite the many JS-based GIS libs that already exist? 

Kostar's tiled ground demo retrieves map data and views it with BJS.  Sort of the same thing... sort of.    You can read about it here.

I hope you don't mind me continuing to remind you that BJS is a webGL viewer.  It is often the last "module" in a sequence of many modules.  Within the modules that happen BEFORE BJS, you could crack open the planet, scoop out its magma, gather a pile of temperature readings from it, divide them all by PI, and combine that data with gramma's bra size.   Then just before you hit the BJS module, prepare the data so it follows the BJS API for heightMap usage.  THEN... hand it off to BJS for the final step... without modifying BJS at all.

C'mon, agree with me!  I'll pay you.    Please avoid overloading BJS or trying to contour its heightMap/displaceMap to handle many data types.  That leads to bloat.  Use BJS for what it's meant-for, and use other things (your mainline JS code, add-on libs, etc) to prepare for the BJS interfacing.  BJS is the last item in the sequence... the viewer.   

Sorry I couldn't find any examples.  Others will surely comment.   Be well, bro.