2D maps like Google, Apple, MapBox GL, and OL3 are moving to actual vectors for rendering vector data, instead of baking vector data into a raster tile. This allows, for example, to make labels always face up even if south is up and to fade out labels so they never hit each other.
For now, this roadmap is a collection of resources on this topic.
- Google Maps + WebGL = MapsGL
- Vector tiles for fast custom maps (video)
- Videos from FOSS4G
- Mapbox Vector Tile Specification
- blog post
- tools: vector-tile-js and mapnik-vector-tile
- Client-side: pbf.js to decode tiles (protocol buffers).
- geojson-vt
- MMT-Vector-Tiles
pjcozzi
All 45 comments
Vector tiles for fast custom maps (video) , http://vimeo.com/10622814 Wrong video ? :)
pksorensen
on 7 Dec 2014
Fixed. Thanks.
pjcozzi
on 8 Dec 2014
pjcozzi
on 8 Dec 2014
More discussion: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/cesium-dev/QnOxsA0iwa0
pjcozzi
on 16 Feb 2015
Looks like ESRI is adopting Mapbox vector tiles: https://www.mapbox.com/blog/vector-tile-adoption/
mramato
on 17 Mar 2015
Info from FOSS4G NA 2015.
pjcozzi
on 19 Mar 2015
From Mapzen: Look Upon Our Squares of Math in Three Dimensions
pjcozzi
on 12 May 2015
- State of the Map 2015 - Vector Rendering Panel - video, transcript
pjcozzi
on 20 Jun 2015
pjcozzi
on 22 Jun 2015
pjcozzi
on 20 Jul 2015
Demo of vector tiles at Esri UC is last video on page
From: Patrick Cozzi [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 5:45 PM
To: AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium
Subject: Re: [cesium] Vector Tiles (#2132)
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/issues/2132#issuecomment-123053536.
GatorScott
on 22 Jul 2015
Is this still being considered by Cesium? It would be an impressive feature to tout.
bensleveritt
on 19 Oct 2016
Yes, but our current focus is on 3D Tiles.
pjcozzi
on 19 Oct 2016
Hello, I want to know when will it come out, I'm very looking forward to it~
bingqixuan
on 31 Jul 2017
Current work-in-progress for 3D Tiles vector tiles is in the vector-tiles branch. The final date is still TBA.
pjcozzi
on 31 Jul 2017
@pjcozzi Was this issue "fixed" with https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/pull/6097?
davidyaha
on 3 Jun 2018
@davidyaha that added support for the draft vector tile payload in 3D Tiles, but I would still leave this issue open for other potential vector tile specs.
pjcozzi
on 7 Jun 2018
OSM has global vector data, it would be cool to support that in Cesium and eventually serve it from ion:
OmarShehata
on 11 Oct 2018
Requested again here: https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/issues/7939
Also perhaps relevant, some thoughts on how TerriaJS loads these vector tiles? https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/issues/6182#issuecomment-362723885
OmarShehata
on 14 Jun 2019
Is there any related work or PR that we could follow up?
bampakoa
on 2 Jul 2019
How can I extend MapboxImageryProvider to load PBF files instead PNG ? I think I can do something to put it to work using this : https://landtechnologies.github.io/Mapbox-vector-tiles-basic-js-renderer/.
As I can see, this renderer can get a PBF from {x},{y},{z} and render it in any canvas (the Cesium canvas??).
https://landtechnologies.github.io/Mapbox-vector-tiles-basic-js-renderer/debug/basic/google
it is just an idea to start. I know almost nothing about how Providers work. I need to know how to test a new Provider without need to compile all Cesium code. Any way to add it as a plugin? Some code to show me how?
What do you say?
icemagno
on 29 Jan 2020
@icemagno you might find the GridImageryProvider useful as a reference here. It's the simplest imagery provider I know of (procedural creates a grid as the tiles): https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/blob/master/Source/Scene/GridImageryProvider.js
It should be straightforward to set up the CesiumJS source code so you can add your custom class, see the build guide here: https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/blob/master/Documentation/Contributors/BuildGuide/README.md#build-guide
OmarShehata
on 29 Jan 2020
Ok. I'll give a try.
BTW: I know you guys have a long expertise to write thousands of lines before build and test but I like to check every step I do in the code.
So... I dont like the "write-build-test" method because I'll spend hours in a lot of builds. Is there some "write-F5-test" way to do this? I mean... can I write my code and immediately check it just refreshing the browser without the need to rebuild every time?
icemagno
on 29 Jan 2020
BTW: I know you guys have a long expertise to write thousands of lines before build and test
I don't think that's a good idea no matter how much expertise anyone has :smile:
When running CesiumJS from the source as described in the linked guide above, you can make changes directly to the source and see the changes immediately by refreshing the page or re-running the Sandcastle example. This is how most CesiumJS development is done.
If you have any follow up questions on best practices here, let's take this conversation to the forum so as not to derail this GitHub issue.
OmarShehata
on 29 Jan 2020
How can I extend
MapboxImageryProviderto load PBF files instead PNG ? I think I can do something to put it to work using this : https://landtechnologies.github.io/Mapbox-vector-tiles-basic-js-renderer/.As I can see, this renderer can get a PBF from
{x},{y},{z}and render it in any canvas (the Cesium canvas??).https://landtechnologies.github.io/Mapbox-vector-tiles-basic-js-renderer/debug/basic/google
it is just an idea to start. I know almost nothing about how Providers work. I need to know how to test a new Provider without need to compile all Cesium code. Any way to add it as a plugin? Some code to show me how?
What do you say?
@icemagno What if we suse something like this library
https://github.com/Leaflet/Leaflet.VectorGrid
am2222
on 10 Mar 2020
@am2222 I'm using Cesium not Leaflet
icemagno
on 10 Mar 2020
@icemagno yeah I know, I am also looking for a way to make vector tiles work on cesium, but that plugin actually is doing the same thing as you said.it reads pbf files draws them on a canvas and leaflet plots that canvas. in our case we need draw pbf using cesium's canvas.
am2222
on 11 Mar 2020
Terriajs has a MapboxVectorTileImageryProvider which draws (polygons only at this point in time) to canvas - see https://github.com/TerriaJS/terriajs/blob/master/lib/Map/MapboxVectorTileImageryProvider.js
@steve9164 created this a few years ago, he can give you more info about it
nf-s
on 11 Mar 2020
@nf-s I think the provided sample helps me alot. I have not looked at it in details yet, Does it use any internal files fron terriajs library as well?
am2222
on 11 Mar 2020
It uses 2 small utility functions from the terria library which are essential, but everything else is imported from Cesium, @mapbox/vector-tile, pbf and urijs (except the i18next internationalisation stuff which can be stripped out)
nf-s
on 11 Mar 2020
@nf-s thanks I could make it work
am2222
on 15 Mar 2020
Either of you make any progress on this with working code? I was going to try to hack together an implementation soon as well.
davenquinn
on 18 Apr 2020
@davenquinn this code works well with polygons
https://github.com/TerriaJS/terriajs/blob/master/lib/Map/MapboxVectorTileImageryProvider.js
am2222
on 18 Apr 2020
Hi, I am currently working an an implementation of a StyledVector Map tile provider for Cesium. I am doing this work for a commercial project that I am working on and am willing to contribute the code to the community project. I am making steady progress and will be continuing to develop a solution until it provides at least around 85% of the StyledVector map features. Would the community be interested in receiving this code and if so should I submit through a pull request on a branch associated with this ticket?
robbo1975
on 29 May 2020
@robbo1975 I think it would be great thing having vectoretiles in cesium,
am2222
on 30 May 2020
@robbo1975: excited to see this contribution! It is sorely needed.
There are different strategies taken by different providers for styling vector layers (e.g. Mapbox, Carto, Deck.gl, and probably OpenLayers although I haven't looked deeply). Does your layer take a separate strategy? Or does it adopt one of the existing solutions (e.g. CartoCSS)?
Either way, would it make sense to first package the project outside of core Cesium as a separate module? This might allow it to evolve quickly and independently — if it proves to be a widely useful solution, it could easily be integrated into Cesium itself at that point. I recently packed up a terrain provider that might be a good example of how to structure an external Cesium plugin.
davenquinn
on 30 May 2020
@davenquinn I have adopted the mapbox standard in my approach because of a need to support ESRI Vector tile services. Your suggestion of developing as an external plugin module seems eminently sensible; however, JavaScript is not my first language so I'm still trying to find my feet with all of the language concepts and associated Frameworks and tools! I will take a look at your example module and see if I can replicate the core modular capability. Thanks for your feedback :)
robbo1975
on 30 May 2020
@robbo1975 the Mapbox standard is the most widely used, so having a renderer targeted at that would be wonderful, and extremely useful for our work as well. If you were able to create a project, I'd be happy to help with code review etc. (as someone who is mostly an outsider to Cesium, but a fairly proficient javascript developer).
davenquinn
on 30 May 2020
@davenquinn I have managed to get a bare-bones project started for a node module that can plug in to Cesium. It is still very much in the prototype stage, but you are welcome to provide feedback.
https://github.com/robbo1975/MapboxVectorTileImageryProvider
robbo1975
on 3 Jun 2020
Hey @robbo1975, thanks for working on this and for sharing your code! I just wanted to mention real quick that CesiumJS can't accept GPL-licensed code because of CesiumJS's much more permissive Apache 2.0 license. I suspect most CesiumJS applications would also be unable to use it. Not sure if the license was a conscious choice there, but thought I should mention it.
kring
on 4 Jun 2020
@kring Thanks for the observation; it was an oversight on my part. I have updated the license to the more permissive MIT license
robbo1975
on 4 Jun 2020
+1 for Mapbox vector tile support!
hmartiro
on 5 Aug 2020
has there been any further development on this? There are several vector basemaps provided by esri that I would love to use as imagery providers
TJPovey
on 24 Sep 2020
Hi,
Thanks for the interest. I do need to complete this project, but recently
I've been tied up with other work. I will need to complete within the next
6 months or so, but with will depend on getting time to focus on the
improvements that need to be made.
Happy to take assistance if anybody has the skills to help.
Robbo
On Thu, 24 Sep 2020, 11:01 TJPovey, notifications@github.com wrote:
has there been any further development on this? There are several vector
basemaps provided by esri that I would love to use as imagery providers—
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robbo1975
on 25 Sep 2020
Hi, here (https://github.com/kikitte/MVTImageryProvider) is another implementation of MapboxVectorTileImageryProvider using Mapbox-vector-tiles-basic-js-renderer. I hope it will help somebody who want to render mapbox vector tile in cesium.
kikitte
on 12 Oct 2020
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Most helpful comment
Hi, I am currently working an an implementation of a StyledVector Map tile provider for Cesium. I am doing this work for a commercial project that I am working on and am willing to contribute the code to the community project. I am making steady progress and will be continuing to develop a solution until it provides at least around 85% of the StyledVector map features. Would the community be interested in receiving this code and if so should I submit through a pull request on a branch associated with this ticket?
