Cesium in 2018 - what do you want to see?

[Patrick Cozzi]

Hi all,

We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.

I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:

• Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047
• Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865
• Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808
• Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172
• Improved label quality, #5022
• Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069
• Cloud visualization, #5962
• Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851
• Entity z-ordering, #4108

Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:

• 3D Tiles.  What specifically?
• glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.
• VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?
• TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
  
• ES6 modules
• Integration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
  
• KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?
• Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?
• Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!

We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.

Thanks,

Patrick

-- 

twitter.com/pjcozzi

[Tony Zhang]

I would like to see the effect of the flow field in cesium, similar to the following effect: earth.nullschool.net

在 2018年1月2日星期二 UTC+8上午4:08:47，Patrick Cozzi写道：

[ha...@northstar-robotics.com]

Re: TypeScript definitions, I have an incomplete one that I use for projects - https://github.com/excelulous/cesium-type-definitions

I may be able to help flesh it out more.

[Rob Milton]

Hey, Patrick, Happy New Year!

We would love the ability to apply/replace textures on models during run time.

[demirc...@hotmail.com]

For 3DTiles , i would like to see changing color palette and color legend option for "Color by Height" , like the one in this link: https://cesiumjs.org/NewYork/

It would be amazing if you add that showcase to Sandcastle.

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Tony,

I see you previously asked about drawing flow fields here. It's probably best to try starting with the suggestions there, and keep discussion about how to accomplish that within that thread.

If you have a specific feature request related to how we could tackle a feature in cesium that would help you accomplish this goal, please let us know!

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Harry,

Thanks for the suggestion! We have definitely been looking at incorporating TypeScript definitions for a while, see this GitHub issue, as well as this one. In those issues, you'll see that others have also created some typings files, if you would like to contribute to those projects or collaborate in other ways. Moving entirely over to supporting type script would require some changes in Cesium, like with how we use getter/setters.

Thanks,

Gabby 

[Gabby Getz]

Hi,

We do have this Sandcastle example on styling by height with 3D Tiles styling. It would be possible to flesh this out more.

Thanks,

Gabby

[Harry Nicholls]

Thanks, Gabby. I'll look into those threads.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "cesium-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cesium-dev/25jPqr5ODg0/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cesium-dev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Harry Nicholls

Software Engineer & Project Manager

Northstar Robotics Inc

204.583.7259

ha...@northstar-robotics.com

[bamp...@gmail.com]

+1 for Typescript definitions and ES6 modules.

Code examples on how to use Cesium on different JavaScript frameworks would be awesome!

[fun...@gmail.com]

在 2018年1月2日星期二 UTC+8上午4:08:47，Patrick Cozzi写道：

> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>

> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

> All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!
>
>
> We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> -- 
>
>
> twitter.com/pjcozzi

Underground mode(Make the terrain transparent to see the entity which underground) and Create Hole(Polygon or circle) on Terrain

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks bampakoa!

For ES6 modules in particular, keep an eye on this GitHub issue.

For code examples using different frameworks, do you mean something similar to cesium-webpack-example which you reviewed? If you are interesting in creating your own or any tutorials, we could definitely review and feature them on the site!

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi funcgis,

We definitely want to make subsurface support more cohesive, but some of this is already possible with the current API. If you want to make the terrain translucent using globe materials, look at this thread, and keep an eye on this pull request for underwater rendering. You can also clip out terrain with multiple clipping planes.

Thanks,

Gabby

[meis...@gmail.com]

Definitly a +1 to "Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain".

It's frustrating how ground clamping is inconsistently implemented amongst all the basic geometry types, and this'll really help with things like ol-cesium, and projects using that.

[Frédéric Trastour]

Hi all,

- support for local/multiple terrains. I mean support for precise local DTM(s) over a more global one like the STK terrain.

 The idea is to be able to load a more precise terrain covering a specific area without having to provide a whole-earth terrain.

- Mechanism allowing to clamp 3DBM tiles to the ground. Currently coordinates in 3DBM/GLTB/GLTF files are absolute ECEF 3D coordinates.

It's very difficult to synchronize 3D models with the ground when a DTM is used.

Thanks again for this great software.

Fred.

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Fred,

support for local/multiple terrains. I mean support for precise local DTM(s) over a more global one like the STK terrain

This will fall under "Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com". We plan on allowing user to be able to upload terrain data sets for use in Cesium.

Mechanism allowing to clamp 3DBM tiles to the ground. Currently coordinates in 3DBM/GLTB/GLTF files are absolute ECEF 3D coordinates

Noted, thanks!

[bamp...@gmail.com]

Hello Gabby,

Thanks for your response. When I refer to frameworks, I mean Angular, React, Vue etc. If you think it fits in your context, I am interested in creating an example on Angular!

[Rob Milton]

We display hundreds of aircraft in Cesium.  In the Java version of our software we have the ability to update the texture on a model.  So we load aircraft models and then apply textures according to the airline for the given flight.  This keeps us from having to create a unique model with a baked on texture for every aircraft type / airline combination.  And we would LOVE to be able to do this using Cesium.

If there is a method of accomplishing this already I would be very grateful for an explanation or code example.  At one point last year there were some suggestions for how to do this, but none of them worked.

Is there any chance of this ability being added?

Thanks,

Rob

[Terry Brown]

On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 13:12:18 -0800 (PST)
Gabby Getz <gget...@gmail.com> wrote:

> This will fall under "*Commercial tools* for 3D *content* and 3D
> *tiling* from the Cesium team through cesium.com". We plan on

> allowing user to be able to upload terrain data sets for use in
> Cesium.

My wish list item is always bathymetry - not sure how that relates to
the above.

Is there a GitHub issue or similar tracking bathymetry support? I can
see how the clipping plane support could enable some workarounds in
some contexts, but not sure about integration with terrestrial data,
the join between dry land and in lake elevation data.

Thanks, Terry

[Mark Erikson]

Gabby, I'm not sure that's what's being asked for. 

As I understand it right now, Cesium supports a single TerrainProvider definition at a time.  That provider looks at the metadata returned for the specified terrain dataset from the server, and determines the min/max levels available.  Those levels are then applied to the entire globe, with the assumption that the max zoom level is available worldwide.  I know that the Cesium terrain file formats have a flag in each terrain tile that indicate whether there's supposed to be another zoom level available underneath the current tile, which also plays into this.

From what I've read, I think the STK Terrain server supports generating a single combined dataset based on multiple sources with varying resolutions, but I think the request here is for client-side support for multiple distinct terrain providers at once.

Here's an example of what I'm picturing:

- Two different terrain dataset URLs / providers are set up.  Let's say Dataset 1 has worldwide coverage with zoom levels 0-5.  Dataset 2 only covers a specific area, say, 2x2 degrees, at zoom levels 6-12.
- As the camera moves around most of the globe, the Cesium client requests terrain tiles from Dataset 1 for the lower zoom levels
- As the camera nears the area covered by Dataset 2, the Cesium client determines that it's reached the limit of the zoom levels provided by Dataset 1, and begins requesting tiles from Dataset 2 instead to handle the higher zoom levels.

[beg...@gmail.com]

typescript +1 !

[engic...@gmail.com]

On Monday, January 1, 2018 at 3:08:47 PM UTC-5, Patrick Cozzi wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>

> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)

> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

> All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!
>
>
> We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> -- 
>
>
> twitter.com/pjcozzi

Patrick,

-Redesign the Texture atlas so image updates reuse the same space in the texture atlas. This fix is very important for tactical applications.
- Better handling of the Gimbal lock. I checked in the World Wind Java map and there is no issue.

Thanks,

Alberto

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Rob, 

Thanks for the suggestion, it would indeed be useful! I found the previous thread, and we have an issue open on GitHub. I've noted switching textures at runtime in the following doc to track this disccusion, we'll account for it when prioritizing features:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ltxecb8VACqVz7-Ok4-0n0vInUtvDGVJpo_fmcJW124/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Terry,

We have an issue for bathymetry/subsurface in GitHub here, it's definitely a popularly requested feature! We probably refer to the concept as "subsurface" more than "bathymetry". We also have a pending PR open for underwater rendering.

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Mark,

Cesium itself does only support one terrain provider at a time. The tools we have in mind are described here, and are aimed at uploading and processing the terrain data up front rather than combining terrain providers at runtime. Implementing that in Cesium itself would be a large task, but it would certainly be useful. I've noted your suggestion, but I don't believe we'll see it in the immediate future at least. However as you know, we'll always welcome contributions!

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Alberto,

Thanks for the suggestions! 

Redesign the Texture atlas so image updates reuse the same space in the texture atlas. This fix is very important for tactical applications. 

Could you elaborate on what the end goal or use case is? That would help when implementing this feature. For example, is it for animated/changing billboards?

Better handling of the Gimbal lock. I checked in the World Wind Java map and there is no issue. 

Could you point to how they handle Gimbal lock? I believe it is simply a consequence of using 3 degrees of freedom to describe a rotation, and the alternative would to be to use Quaternions.

Thanks,

Gabby

[and...@propelleraero.com.au]

On Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 7:08:47 AM UTC+11, Patrick Cozzi wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>
> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com
> All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!
>
>
> We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> -- 
>
>
> twitter.com/pjcozzi

I would like to see the KML clampToGround flag override everything else so that even features with no altitudeMode, tessellate or extrude values set can be forced to clamp to ground.

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks Andrew! Noted.

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks to all for your ideas and responses! If you have anymore feedback, we'd like to hear it. Even a +1 for a desired feature is useful!

On Monday, January 1, 2018 at 3:08:47 PM UTC-5, Patrick Cozzi wrote:

Hi all,

We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.

I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:

• Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047
• Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865
• Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808

• Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172
• Improved label quality, #5022
• Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069
• Cloud visualization, #5962
• Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851

• Entity z-ordering, #4108

Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:

• 3D Tiles.  What specifically?
• glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.

• VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?
• TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
  
• ES6 modules

• Integration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
  
• KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?
• Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?
• Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!

[jbo023]

Hi, 

we would really like to see the following points:

- subsurface visualization

- polyline on terrain

- VR(WebVR Support for HTC Vive/Occulus Rift)

- better shadow rendering quality 

- better performance especially for ie11 is always good ( we unfortunately have many customers where the ie11 is the preferred and fixed browser choice )

Thanks, Jannes

[wangwi...@gmail.com]

Beside 3d tile tool, i am also interested in how to create my own dtm data and add it on cesium. tks, Cesium team.

Patrick Cozzi於 2018年1月2日星期二 UTC+8上午4時08分47秒寫道：

> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>

> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)

> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks Jannes! 

Could you describe your use case for shadows? It would help us figure out a plan for how to improve the shadow rendering.

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Willy,

Thanks for letting us know about your interest in terrain. The commercial tools we have planned for cesium.com would cover uploading your own terrain data as well. In the meantime, STK Terrain Server is an available tool.

[benku...@gmail.com]

Hi,

We would greatly benefit from:
- subsurface views
- support for textured ground primitives
- polyline on terrain
- 3D VectorTiles

Best,
Ben

[willy]

Hi , Gabby.

Thank you for your information and news

I will try STK and look forward the in coming tool for Cesium 3d tile .

 

Willy Wang

Director/ Sr. GIS Planner

GIS Technology Center

Supergeo

5F., No. 71, Zhouzi St., Neihu District, Taipei City, Taiwan.
   Tel: +886-2-2659-1899 # 333
   Fax: +886-2-2659-0612
   Monday–Friday, 08:30 to 18:00  (GMT+8)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "cesium-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cesium-dev/25jPqr5ODg0/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cesium-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[stevenr...@gmail.com]

I would love to see issue #2310 implemented (Path visualizer optimization). The poor performance is such that when I have even a small number of paths drawn, my application speed suffers greatly.

-Steven

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks for the input Ben! Can you clarify what you mean by 3D VectorTiles? There are a few different definitions, for example what Mapbox calls Vector Tiles is different from what Cesium calls Vector Tiiles.

[Edward Triplett]

+1+1+1 for polylines and polygons draped on the stk surface.

My bigger goal is to be able to visualize timestamped Viewshed analyses in 3d. The only way I have been able to do this is to vectorize positive values of each analysis and merge them into a 2D layer in an arcGIS Pro scene. Unfortunately the vector data is still too large for displaying in any online globe I have ever tried... even after aggressively simplifying it. Cesium seems like the answer, but I am still lost when it comes to optimizing and draping the data onnthe terrain.

[benku...@gmail.com]

Hi Gabby, just saw you merged https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/pull/6097 which covers what we need, so I can check that off of my wish list!

[Engi Coding]

Gabby,

I have tactical applications that update billboards on the map continuously .

A more graceful handling of the error Gimbal would be sufficient. I need to take a look to the Worldwind web software to find out how they do it.

Thanks,

Alberto

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "cesium-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cesium-dev/25jPqr5ODg0/unsubscribe.

To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cesium-dev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Jacob]

I am most interested in enhancements and fixes for terrain support. So +1 on: 

• Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172

In addition, I'd like to see (in order of importance):

1. Fixes for tile loading issues. I see this often, where on first page load tiles do not render and I see through the Earth into the stars. I believe this is captured in #4894 and/or #6021. It looks like there may be a fix forthcoming?

2. Support of client-side terrain data (+1 on same request upthread). Just like we can add an image tile by using Cesium.SingleTileImageryProvider, I'd like a Cesium.SingleTileTerrainProvider that can be defined with heightmap-style terrain data at run-time. While it would be nice to be able to merge this with another global terrain provider, a first step would be to support SingleTileTerrainProvider as the single terrain provider (i.e. defines elevation as 0 everywhere outside of the data limits). If this is not in the plans, I'd appreciate any advice on how to pursue implementation of such a SingleTileTerrainProvider and any issues that are expected.

3. Enhanced depth testing against terrain. Being able to turn depthTestAgainstTerrain on adds nice realism into the scene, but it also introduces problems:

* Billboards can unexpectedly become partially or totally obscured. This issue was mentioned here but I don't see any linked issues.

* It is all or nothing for lines. I want to be able to turn it off for some lines that represent purely graphical links but keep it on for lines that represent physical links. The issue is discussed here, which I just bumped. That thread links to #2694, but that looks like something different. Should a new issue be created?

Thanks!

Jacob

[sean.k...@gmail.com]

VR support via WebVR would be great. I've had a coworker that tried to use the NICTA plugin with an Oculus and was having trouble.

The use case was just basic HMD support, I don't think he needed controllers or anything. I think NICTA just needs a few bug fixes to work since it looks like WebVR changed some of the calls a bit but it was going to take more time than I had

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Edward, your +1's have been taken into account! We do have Cesium Pro available which contains support for viewshed analysis.

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks for following up Alberto, we have an issue open for that in GitHub here if you want to track it. I'm still not quite sure what your proposed handling of Gimbal lock would do, if you have more information please let us know.

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Jacob, 

1. This branch in GitHub may address the issues you are having, try it out if you can.

2. While often requested, client-side terrain data changes will probably not be supported, at least in the near future. For performance sake, the goal is to do the heavy terrain processing offline, and only use Cesium for the visualization.

3. I think the billboard issue you are describing is this one. For polylines, we plan to work on #2172 shortly, does that cover what you need?

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Sean,

We are tracking fixing WebVR support in #4311, I'll note your +1. 

Thanks,

Gabby

[Mark Erikson]

Hmm.  I thought I posted a message like this earlier in the thread, but I don't see it - maybe I didn't hit send or something.

Gabby, I think what several of us are asking for is the ability to define/add multiple terrain providers rather than a single provider, and have Cesium be smart enough to request terrain tiles from each of the providers as necessary.  As far as I can see, this wouldn't involve "client-side terrain data changes" or "heavy terrain processing", just the ability to combine terrain tiles loaded from multiple sources

The "parentUrl" metadata property described in https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/pull/5864 looks awfully similar to the concept I'm picturing, where Cesium would switch which terrain tileset it's downloading from based on specified limits.  I think what we're interested in is the ability to specify that programmatically, similar to imagery layers. 

Notional pseudocode:

const {terrainLayers} = scene;

const globalTerrainProvider = new Cesium.CesiumTerrainProvider({
    url : "/path/to/worldwide/medium-res/terrain"
});

const localizedTerrainProvider = new Cesium.CesiumTerrainProvider({
    url : "/path/to/localized/high-res/terrain"
});

terrainLayers.add(globalTerrainProvider);
terrainLayers.add(localizedTerrainProvider);

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Mark, 

I see the distinction you're making. Rather than "layering" two data sources on top of one another, you would rather have finer control over what tiles pull from each terrain provider. Thanks for the pseudocode and clarification, that may be a feature we consider.

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi all,

Keep the suggestions and +1's coming! We'd also like to know if you have VR and AR use cases, and why 3d maps in VR/AR may be important to you.

Thanks,

Gabby

On Monday, January 1, 2018 at 3:08:47 PM UTC-5, Patrick Cozzi wrote:

Hi all,

We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.

I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:

• Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047
• Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865
• Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808

• Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172

• Improved label quality, #5022
• Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069
• Cloud visualization, #5962
• Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851

• Entity z-ordering, #4108

Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:

• 3D Tiles.  What specifically?
• glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.

• VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?
• TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
  
• ES6 modules

• Integration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
  
• KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?
• Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?
• Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!

[mng...@gmail.com]

3D Tiles:

It would be nice to have a full chain of open source tools for 3D content and 3D tiling.

I've personally worked through from DAE-embeded KMZ all the way to 3DBM files. Currently what's missing is the batch id part for 3D Tiles so it's difficult to go further creating an interactive 3-D cityscape. A tool that generates basic 3D Tiles structure with logical batch id codes from glTF/glb files would be great if that sounds practical.

BTW, I havn't heard of the progress of 3D Tiles as a community standard in OGC for a while. Would be glad to hear about where it is so far.

Doc and code example improvements:

For API docs, a single page with function-categorized index followed by all the API references maybe? Something like what's provided by Leaflet.js would be great.

Go Cesium Team!

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks for the support! :)

We are working on new tools for 3D Tiles, specifically some that involve processing citiy buildings with KML and collada. Unfortunately, it's not open source. However, I'll note your suggestion for logical batch id's.

There has not been any significant progress with OGC standards. It's quite a process, and unfortunately, we do not currently have the time to dedicate ourselves.

We have some doc and code example improvements in mind, let us know if you would like to see anything specific!

For the API docs, the landing page is a full list: https://cesiumjs.org/Cesium/Build/Documentation/, but categorization would definitely help make that less overwhelming. 

Thanks!

Gabby

[Joe, Thunyathep Santhanavanich]

Hi Patrick and Gabby!!
Now, Im working on my Master Thesis project on the application for bike usage analysis by integration of IoTs data through SensorThingsAPI and 3D City Model (3DTiles)

And, I have already built a nice application thanks to Cesium and its very nice tutorial!! I love Cesium :) 

It would be great if the Cesium can do some following things :

• draw the CZML-Path (Time-series) with the option to "CLAMPTOGROUND" directly. (However, im using "sampleTerrainMostDetailed" to help me clamp it by request the height for each lat/long position and build CZML from it)
  
• Build a map pin with Maki+some alphabet.
  
• Styling the roof of 3DTile city model. (For example: roof - red and wall - white) (I am not sure if this one already existed or not) My raw city model format is in CityGML and convert it to 3DTile with FME. And Im able to style it freely with 3DCityDB and export as glTF and use 3DCityDBWebClient library to visual the glTF 3D City but it take much longer to render glTF citymodel than the Cesium3DTile.
  
• Is it possible to Clamp 3DTile the terrain? Right now, im using Height offset translation technique which provide good result but when zoom really close, some building still overlap by the terrain.  
  

Thanks!!

Joe T.S.

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Joe,

Thanks! :) Great to hear you're doing cool things with Cesium! 

draw the CZML-Path (Time-series) with the option to "CLAMPTOGROUND" directly

The underlying geometry is called a Polyline, and Polylines on terrain are in the works currently.

Build a map pin with Maki+some alphabet

You should be able to do that with billboard and label entities. Just grab the Maki SVG files and set the billboard images.

Styling the roof of 3DTile city model

While you can style the color of an entire building feature, unless each roof is also an individual feature, I don't think this is currently possible. However, the is a good use case for expanding on 3D Tiles Styling. (If the roof is an individual feature, this should be straightforward using the current styling).

Is it possible to Clamp 3DTile the terrain

Not currently, but this is part of our long term plan to have terrain on by default in Cesium (see #5942). 

If you have questions about any of these individual questions, feel free to open a new thread!

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

I just checked on the progress of the OGC community standard. We're in the final stages of 3D Tiles being accepted as a community standard. We anticipate this around summer, so keep an eye out!

Thanks,

Gabby

On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 4:30:25 AM UTC-5, mng...@gmail.com wrote:

[99lov...@gmail.com]

在 2018年1月2日星期二 UTC+8上午4:08:47，Patrick Cozzi写道：

> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>

> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)

> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com

> All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!
>
>
> We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> -- 
>
>
> twitter.com/pjcozzi

I'd like to see how to highlight or locate the model.Node.
I met with the trouble about it.When I get the node objects by the way of "getNode()",at the same time I want to locate or highlight it to show where it is in the whole models.However I couldn't found any properties like color or x,y,z(lon lat height) just matrix.Therefore I hope 2018 version can solve it to highlight gltf node.
e.g.
node = model.getNode(id);
function createModel(id, url, height, lon, lat) {
var scene = viewer.scene;
var modelMatrix = Cesium.Transforms.eastNorthUpToFixedFrame(Cesium.Cartesian3.fromDegrees(lon, lat, height));
var model = scene.primitives.add(Cesium.Model.fromGltf({
id: id,
name: id,
color: Cesium.Color.fromAlpha(Cesium.Color.WHITE, parseFloat(1)),//viewModel.color viewModel.alpha
url: url,
modelMatrix: modelMatrix,
allowPicking: true
}));
return model;
}

[Gabby Getz]

Hi 99lovingly,

This looks like a more specific question that deserves it's own thread. Perhaps you can start a new one with your question?

Thanks,

Gabby

[r.min...@gmail.com]

To the best of my knowledge there is no free tool to convert a dataset (say 20k .dae or .glTF models) to 3D tiles to be used with Cesium.

For me this would really be an incredible achievement.

Best,
Roberto

[Joe, Thunyathep S.]

Hi @Roberto

You can try 3DCityDB to view glTF models on Cesium!!

The attached image is my output for viewing glTF city model.

Regards,

Joe
เมื่อ วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 8 กุมภาพันธ์ ค.ศ. 2018 10 นาฬิกา 05 นาที 12 วินาที UTC+1, Roberto Minelli เขียนว่า:

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Roberto, Joe,

We are working on tools to do just that! (Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com). If you have data you want to convert now. Feel free to reach out to Tim as part of the 3D Tiles Pioneers program.

Thanks!

Gabby

[fnic...@gmail.com]

Hello,

We are benchmarking 3D GIS viewers and here are the missing features. I might be wrong, and also some features seems to be included in your commercial offer, (I contacted your colleague Tim about it):
- built-in measuring tools: length (including "real" length including with the terrain), surface area and volume (over and below a plane)
- visualizing underground features (such as pipes)
- Using a global terrain provider and a local terrain provider. For instance, using a MNT/MNE that you have on a specific area, as stated in other post in this threads
- viewshed / field of view analysis
- more tutorials on how to have textured 3D buildings displayed in Cesium
- Video recording of a scene animation (fly-to, stops, etc.)
- import/export in standard formats (3DS, Collada, KMZ, CityGML, etc.)

Still, Cesium is a great product :)
Thanks,
Fabien

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Fabien,

To address each of your bullets:

built-in measuring tools: length (including "real" length including with the terrain), surface area and volume (over and below a plane) 

This (and generally more "analytical" tools) is something we will offer as part of our commercial platform.  

visualizing underground features (such as pipes) 

We've been slowly making additions to CesiumJS that allow underground visualization, including making the globe materials transparent and clipping planes. There are some more modifications that we would like to tackle soon, like improving underground camera support. The issue is being tracked in GitHub that you can follow, #5665.

Using a global terrain provider and a local terrain provider. For instance, using a MNT/MNE that you have on a specific area, as stated in other post in this threads 

We discuss this in detail in this thread, see above comments.

viewshed / field of view analysis 

Again, this is an analytical tool we are looking to include in our commercial offerings.

 more tutorials on how to have textured 3D buildings displayed in Cesium 

Can you be more specific here? Do you mean tutorials on using 3D Tiles? Or for using textures in cesium in general?

 Video recording of a scene animation (fly-to, stops, etc.) 

You mean capturing video from Cesium directly? There are a some thread which discuss writing some extensions to do this, but we don't have any immediate plans to create a tool for that. We do have some better camera flight tools on our radar. 

import/export in standard formats (3DS, Collada, KMZ, CityGML, etc.) 

Importing other data formats, processing, and converting them to glTF and 3D Tiles for use in Cesium is part of the planned offerings for our commercial product.  

Thanks for the feedback! I think generally the response is that analytical and offline processing will be part of our commercial offerings, while the open source CesiumJS will cover the visualization aspects.

[Fabien Nicollet]

Thanks Gabby for this detailed answer. Looks like the Cesium commercial offer is what we'll need. I subscribed to the beta months ago and never got an answer. Also contacter Tim two days ago but no answer yet ...

Fabien

[bamp...@gmail.com]

Hi,

My suggestion is related with the website of Cesium and not with the library. It would be great if the sample code on the tutorials could be copied to the clipboard. I have seen in many websites with tutorials that they have a small button on the top right corner of the snippet and allows you to copy the code in your clipboard.

Thanks

[Gabby Getz]

Hey bampakoa,

Website suggestions are also welcome! Good idea, I'll note it.

Thanks!

Gabby

[lau...@viadrupsteen.nl]

+1 Postprocessing
+1 Multiple TerrainProviders
+1 Typescript definitions
+1 Entity Z ordering
+1 Improved rendering performance
+1 Decreased CPU usage
+1 ES6 modules
+1 Integration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame - would allow AAA effects and perhaps more convenient 3D model imports

- More realistic atmospheric scattering and fog a la https://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/05/28/atmospheric-scattering-in-the-blacksmith/

- A better gtTF with custom shader generation pipeline. Right now we have to paste our shaders (base64 encoded) into the glTF after it is converted. But doing so makes the models unpickable because Cesium does some string replacing code to add a picking mode to the shader, which is not compatible with our custom shader. Using czm_ automatic uniforms should be easy in this pipeline.

- It would help alot if the multiple frustum rendering process could be reduced to only one frustum. Having multiple frustums makes many standard rendering techniques impossible. We would like Cesium to get more AAA rendering quality. Implementing our own shaders seems like the fastest path, which would be eased tremendously by having only a single frustum. But another path to AAA rendering is also an option, like the mentioned three.js (or other) integration.

[kali...@gmail.com]

Hi!

Is it possible to enhance Cesium to drop shadows from big objects?
I see in this thread https://cesiumjs.org/forum/#!msg/cesium-dev/INkyXhFVcf4/iS6QyZckDwAJ that "eventually" it was going to be supported, but I don't know if you are already working on it.

It would be really appreciated! :-)

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks for the input Laurens! 

More realistic atmospheric scattering and fog a la https://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/05/28/atmospheric-scattering-in-the-blacksmith/

The atmospheric effect look super cool! While it's not on the roadmap right now, if we were able to collaborate or get additional funding we may be able to tackle that.

A better gtTF with custom shader generation pipeline. Right now we have to paste our shaders (base64 encoded) into the glTF after it is converted. But doing so makes the models unpickable because Cesium does some string replacing code to add a picking mode to the shader, which is not compatible with our custom shader. Using czm_ automatic uniforms should be easy in this pipeline.

 You're right that our shader pipeline is not necessarily ideal. I've opened issue #6329 to track.

It would help alot if the multiple frustum rendering process could be reduced to only one frustum. Having multiple frustums makes many standard rendering techniques impossible. We would like Cesium to get more AAA rendering quality. Implementing our own shaders seems like the fastest path, which would be eased tremendously by having only a single frustum. But another path to AAA rendering is also an option, like the mentioned three.js (or other) integration.

For rendering on a global scale, generally multiple frustums are necessary. We are making some improvements in #5851 that makes the primary frustum larger, if that is relevant to what you are trying to accomplish. We'd be interested in hearing your use case if you'd like to open a separate thread!

Thanks,

Gabby

[Gabby Getz]

Hi kalintro,

We haven't done any further work on this, but I've opened #6330 to track.

Thanks for bumping the suggestion!

Gabby

[Patrick Cozzi]

Hi all,

Qandeel asked about the ability to simulate weather like rain and clouds, but the message was flagged by Google's spam filter and I apparently did not unspamify it correctly.

We are currently working on particle system tutorials that should help for things like rain (branch).  Clouds are also on the roadmap but will be longer term, keep an eye on #5962.

Thanks,

Patrick

[shyoo]

For 3DTiles vector , I would like to see changing polyline width(pixel) at runtime using 3d tiles style syntax(Currently pixel width baked during vectorData pipeline.(TileFormats/VectorData))

For example(style):

{

    "polylineWidth" : "${LINE_NUMBER}",

}

Thanks, shyoo

[chksp...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 4:08:47 AM UTC+8, Patrick Cozzi wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> We would love input from everyone on what Cesium features, bug fixes, doc improvements, etc. are most important to you.  Please reply with any and all feedback.  Even a simple +1 for a particular feature is valuable.
>
>
> I'm pretty confidence we will see the following features in 2018 since someone is already working on them or has kindly committed to work on them:
>
> Subsurface/undersea visualization, #6047Decreased CPU usage, especially on mobile and when not animating, #1865Post processing framework for improved visual quality, silhouette highlighting, etc., #5808Polylines on terrain and textured polygons on terrain, #2172Improved label quality, #5022Improved point cloud visual quality, #6069Cloud visualization, #5962Improved rendering performance, e.g., #5851Entity z-ordering, #4108
> Other potentials for 2018 and beyond include:3D Tiles.  What specifically?glTF.  Draco mesh compression, keeping up with new extensions, etc.VR / AR / MR.  What specifically?TypeScript definitions.  Volunteers? :)
> ES6 modulesIntegration with three.js/BabylonJS/A-Frame.  What are your use cases?
> KML improvements and bug fixes.  What specifically?Doc and code example improvements.  What specifically?Commercial tools for 3D content and 3D tiling from the Cesium team through cesium.com
> All input is valuable and deeply appreciated so please chime in!
>
>
> We'll keep this thread going all year, but would love to see a critical mass of input in January.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> -- 
>
>
> twitter.com/pjcozzi

I would like to see the effect in cesium, similar to the following effect: http://gallery.echartsjs.com/editor.html?c=xS170NCrSZ

[Gabby Getz]

Shyoo, that is indeed on the roadmap for styling 3D Vector Data! See 3d-tiles Issue #25.

chkspeaker, Interesting effect! Maybe that's something that could be achieved with Polylines and a custom material.

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Hello,

Is there a possibility to see in Cesium the "measure" tools ?

For measuring size, area or even volume. It's could be very usefull with scalable model or even georeferenced model.

Greetings,

Yohann

[Gabby Getz]

Hi Yohann,

We are aiming to include analytical tools like the measurements you describe in our Cesium ion platform. 

Thanks!

Gabby

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Hi Gabby,

Thanks for the answer! I was looking the description of cesium ion when you answer me (I was too slow to erase the message). Does the basic analytical measurement (like distance and area)tools will be in the free Ion service? Or it will be in the Ion+ account?

Yohann

[Gabby Getz]

We're not sure yet, (we're still nailing down the details of our offerings), but it could potentially be offered as part of the base free ion account.

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Le mercredi 11 avril 2018 16:32:25 UTC+2, Gabby Getz a écrit :
> We're not sure yet, (we're still nailing down the details of our offerings), but it could potentially be offered as part of the base free ion account.
>

Could be interesting to juste have the base like distance and area measurement. I'm a surveyor, si too show the model or make measurement on my model, it could be great).


Orthers proposition: it's possible to make simulation of waterflood? Or even simulation of car on road? (I haven't check the information about this..)

Greetings,
Yohann

[Gabby Getz]

Thanks for the use case, it's good to know!

What do you mean by waterflood? Can you explain or provide an example?

It's indeed possible to simulate a car on a road, see some of the work we've done with Autonomous Cars.

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Hi,

What i mean by waterflood (or flood) is something like this link (look at 7min 45sec) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkBS0H8MyM8 .
It's a simulation done in arcgis. The idea would be to do this on cesium (now that the terrain is available). If we take in account the size of the tileset and the terrain, can make a simulation of water on a site?

For the autonomous car, what i was thinking was just to put car inside the model to simulate road activity on a tileset.

Greetings,
Yohann

[Gabby Getz]

Ok, I see. You should be able to do something similar in Cesium using a plane and depth testing against the terrain. I'd suggest opening a new thread if you want to discuss how to accomplish that effect in more detail.

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Godd suggestion. I'm opening a new one called "Flood simulation in Cesium".

Do i need to erase the previous message?

Yohann

[Gabby Getz]

Nope! I've posted a response in that new thread, thanks!

[yoh...@gmail.com]

Hello Gabby,

I saw that Cesium Ion was released! Congratulation!
I'm looking for the measurement tools (as we discuss before) on the new version of cesium but i can't found it.

Can you help me please? Have i miss it? Thanks.
Yohann