Babylon.js for OpenLayers/Leaflet and Augmented Reality

[Thomas Schmiedl]

Hello,

I'm not a developer, but maybe someone could help me realize:

1. I will display older town-maps (2D vector layer) in OpenLayers or Leaflet. My idea is to add a 3D-view with geolocated 3D-objects (buildings, trees etc.).
2. Display this geolocated 3D-objects on mobile devices in combination with the camera-view (augmented reality), also split-screen for Google Cardboard.

Thanks for help,
Thomas

[Wingnut]

Hi TS, welcome to the BabylonJS webGL framework... forum.  Good to have you visit, and sorry it is taking so long to get replies.  You are speaking-of some seriously-advanced tech, here, and I think you "blew our minds". 

Everything you speak-of... IS possible, and BabylonJS is certainly one of the pieces of tech that could help make it happen. BJS is QUITE ready for webVR (Occulus, cardboard, whatever) with full touch, swipe, pinch, gamepad, deviceOrientation powers, and we have a brand new Canvas2D system on-board... that is a dream come true for overlays.  It's based on the GPU, not CPU... so no HTML canvas involvement and no CPU bog getting in the way of your mainline JS fun.  And, it has an image (2D primitive) caching system that is quite programmable and mimics browser image caching (super fast gui ops).

I'm not an expert on which devices can do which things, but I CAN tell you that BJS is positioned perfectly... to handle as many as possible.  Brand new bleeding edge camera input system (controllers), brand new GPU-based overlay canvas ops, and the most blazing-fast and clean rendering engine on the planet.  It's all here... or nearby.  But again, keep in mind that your system will be pieces.  Somebody has to write some code.  Maybe a lot of code.  BabylonJS just renders 3D, and its fantastic 2D system is really an "extension" to a degree.  Even our custom camera inputs system... is here as a convenience.  With other frameworks, you would have to code those systems yourself.

I'm sure AR is on everyone's mind... but... how many AR-specific classes... should become BabylonJS extensions... only the future can say.  It might be fun to look at a tiled ground tutorial that a friend of BJS once wrote. 

Want to tell us more thoughts?  Please do.  The more accurately you describe the project objectives, the more folks will participate in our campfire conversation.    talk soon.